The iPad Mini is Here!

…and yes, that’s really what they’ve decided to call it. Apple held it’s Special Event today in California to unveil not one, but two new additions to the iPad family, but more on that later. Let’s start off with the Macs, which were handsomely upgraded as well. First the MacBook Pro. The 15″ MacBook Pro was upgraded a few months back with a sleek form factor and beautiful Retina Display. The new 13″ model was given the same treatment. The new MBP boasts over 4 million pixels bringing the resolution to 2,560 x 1600. It’s under 3.6 lbs and is about 20% thinner than its predecessor.

Next they upgraded the Mac Mini, which was a tease for the iPad Mini announcement. The Mac Mini is twice as fast, and sports Thunderbolt and USB 3 I/Os.

The biggest upgrade in our opinion was the new iMac. Incredibly thin, the body actually tapers off to 5mm at the edges. Additionally, the display itself has been re-engineered to be crisp, and anti-reflective. There were graphics and processing upgrades as well. Our favorite new upgrade is the Fusion Drive. Apple now offers a hybrid Flash hard drive. up to 768 gb is flash storage where the operating system and apps will be stored, and the rest will be stored on up to 3 TB of hard disk space. The coolest part is that Mountain Lion can actually learn which programs and files you use most often, and put them in the flash sector to load faster.

Now on to the main event. A fourth generation iPad was announced that had 2x better processing power, better graphics, and LTE. It will have the lightning connector as well. The iPad Mini, to no surprise was unveiled sporting these specs:

• $329-$659, pre-order starts this Friday
• LTE (4G wireless) and 802.11n Wi-Fi
• 7.9-inch screen, 7.2mm thick, .68 lbs
• Dual-core A5 chip
• FaceTime HD cam
• .5 megapixel iSight camera on the back
• 10 hour battery life

The resolution will be 1024 x 768 just like the iPad 2, only on a smaller screen. Apple announced a lot today. Tell us if you’re excited about all the new products in the comments section.