Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) unveiled major updates to its iMac and iPad lines at a press event Thursday, giving the iMac an ultra-high resolution screen and refreshing the iPad Air and Mini lines with a number of cosmetic and technical enhancements.

The new iMac has a 5K display (5120 x 2880) — which has 67% more pixels than  4K — a 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5 and a Radeon 290X GPU. These are upgradeable to a 4.0 GHz Core i7 and a mobile Radeon 295X GPU. The all-in-one PC ships with a 1TB hybrid SSD and HDD drive, as well as OSX Yosemite.

The new iMac starts at $2,499.

An even thinner iPad Air

Apple’s iPad Air was already thin to begin with, but that hasn’t stopped Apple from making it even more thin. Apple has managed to slim the tablet down by 18% to 6.1mm.

The new iPad Air’s rear camera has been upgraded to 8 megapixels, and is capable of shooting 1080p video. The front camera has also been updated, and is capable of capturing video in HD.

As far as an SoC goes, Apple has put its new A8X chip inside the iPad Air 2 which it says is 12 times faster than the SoC in the original iPad.

The tablet’s display did not get an upgrade. It’s still a standard Retina display at a resolution of 2048 x 1536.

Touch ID fingerprint scanning has been added to the Home button, and Apple is also including 802.11ac MIMO Wi-Fi as well as global 4G LTE support.

The iPad Air 2 starts at $500, with 64GB and 128GB models coming in at $600 and $700. Adding 4G LTE support will add an additional $130 to the price tag.

A refreshed iPad Mini 3

The new version of the iPad mini didn’t get the same upgrades as the iPad Air. The only upgrade of note is the addition of Touch ID fingerprint scanning. It still has the same the same 7.9-inch Retina screen, A7 processor, and 5-megapixel camera. Pricing starts at $400 for the 16GB version.

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Want to start college with a new iPad, iPhone or Mac? Apple is trying to entice you with a $50 or $100 gift card. Free shipping sweetens the offer, as does special no-interest payment plans.

The iPad comes equipped with web browsing and apps that allow you to read books, write anything including book reports and create presentations to impress your professors.

If you don’t know what you can do with an iPhone by now … shame on you. Considering a student’s needs, however, you can retrieve those elusive reference materials as quick as you can say Jack Jumped Over the Candlestick. Late night cramming for tomorrow’s test? Hungry? Use your handy iPhone to call for pizza delivery.

Electronic Toolbox Pro is a quick reference app for iPhone or iPad.

Apple will give you 90 days payment free with no interest. Barclaycard is offering special financing for purchases made at an Apple store within 30 days of opening a new account. Remember though, plastic isn’t free. Every charge on that card must eventually be paid with real $$$. Interest, though, will be waived in increments related to the purchase price. The longest you can go without interest fees is 18 months (or about 7 semesters) on a $1999 purchase.

A new credit card account combined with an Apple store purchase avoids some interest fees.

The MacBook Pro will get you that interest free payment plan. Just remember, the optimum word here is “payment”. Yes, you must make monthly payments, but the total isn’t increased by interest charges until the 19th month with the Barclaycard. Remember the special only applies to the Apple purchases. That new football jacket or designer purse will come with immediate interest fees on the unpaid balance.

The Apple MacBook Pro with a 15.4 inch Retina display, 8GB memory and 256GB flash storage will set you back $1999. You can configure/upgrade the computer for additional costs. It has preinstalled software for storytelling, music production with Logic Pro X, and photo editing and sorting with Aperture.

A colorful iPad case will protect your investment.

Of course, Apple is happy to sell you accessories, such as the iPad Air Smart Case for $79.99. It comes in 6 colors including blue and brown and has a 3 out of 5 star rating.

The iPad Air itself will be easy to carry – only one pound. Sure beats all those organic chemistry books of yesteryear. The iPad mini with a 7.9 inch display is a feather weight at 0.73 pound and does everything its big brother does only in a more compact form. For 128GB on the standard iPad think $799 or $100 less for the mini.

To find special educational pricing on these devices, go here: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/campaigns/education_pricing You can read the details of all the financing offers here: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/campaigns/back_to_school.

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Verizon’s new XLTE service is merely a new branding scheme for the company to promote their new 2×20 MHz AWS band of data service. As of right now, most users are on Verizon’s 700 MHz frequency which is slowly getting overcrowded, so naturally Verizon would want to deploy a second frequency (which they have available). They are doing this by utilizing their 1700 MHz frequency AWS block  (similar to what T-Mobile has) in a 2×20 MHz implementation which ultimately results in speeds at or exceeding 80 Mbps. Right now, on Verizon’s 2×10 MHz block in their 700 MHz spectrum block most users are getting around half that, at 40 Mbps or less. Some users are getting more, but not much more.

So, Verizon’s XLTE as of yesterday has launched in a few dozen cities on a handful of devices and you don’t have to do anything other than live in the right city and have the right phone in order to get these faster AWS speeds. We would name the exact cities, but there are literally too many to name in order to not just give you a list of like 50 or 60 cities. The link above will let you know if your city is on Verizon’s XLTE list or not. However, even if you’re in an XLTE area, you will still need to have an XLTE enabled device and those aren’t necessarily that common since they have to be newer devices with the right modems inside. A full list of devices can be found on Verizon’s website.

In terms of smartphones, you have the following phones:

iPhone 5S, LG G2, Nokia Lumia Icon, Samsung Galaxy S5, Droid Mini by Motorola, HTC One M8, Apple iPhone 5C, DROID Maxx by Motorola, Moto X, LG Lucid 3, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Samsung ATIV SE, HTC One Max, Samsung Galaxy S4, Blackberry Z30 and the Blackberry Q10

if you have a Verizon LTE tablet you need to have the following tablets to have XLTE service:

LG G Pad 8.3 LTE, Apple iPad Air, Apple iPad Mini, Samsung Galaxy tab 2, Samsung Galaxy Note Pro, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

And if you have a Verizon hotspot or USB modem you need to have  the following devices:
Verizon Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi 5510L, Verizon Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MHS291L and the Verizon 4G LTE USB Modem UML295

While we haven’t had a chance to test these speeds quite yet, we’ll be sure to report back to you relatively soon with our Verizon HTC One M8 (which is capable of XLTE) and since we’re usually between San Diego and San Francisco, both markets are capable of supporting Verizon’s new XLTE service. Do keep in mind, however, that this is not LTE-Advanced, which is the next version of LTE service that is already running in places like Korea where they are able to get speeds in excess of 100 Mbps over commercially available devices. LTE-Advanced brings a whole host of features to smartphones, many of which are already inside of those phones, but the networks are simply not ready for quite yet. We know that Verizon is already working on their LTE-Advanced network and that this is likely a step forward in that direction in order to help them prepare for the jump.

The post Verizon Launches New 2×20 MHz AWS XLTE Service appeared first on VR World.

Verizon’s new XLTE service is merely a new branding scheme for the company to promote their new 2×20 MHz AWS band of data service. As of right now, most users are on Verizon’s 700 MHz frequency which is slowly getting overcrowded, so naturally Verizon would want to deploy a second frequency (which they have available). They are doing this by utilizing their 1700 MHz frequency AWS block  (similar to what T-Mobile has) in a 2×20 MHz implementation which ultimately results in speeds at or exceeding 80 Mbps. Right now, on Verizon’s 2×10 MHz block in their 700 MHz spectrum block most users are getting around half that, at 40 Mbps or less. Some users are getting more, but not much more.

So, Verizon’s XLTE as of yesterday has launched in a few dozen cities on a handful of devices and you don’t have to do anything other than live in the right city and have the right phone in order to get these faster AWS speeds. We would name the exact cities, but there are literally too many to name in order to not just give you a list of like 50 or 60 cities. The link above will let you know if your city is on Verizon’s XLTE list or not. However, even if you’re in an XLTE area, you will still need to have an XLTE enabled device and those aren’t necessarily that common since they have to be newer devices with the right modems inside. A full list of devices can be found on Verizon’s website.

In terms of smartphones, you have the following phones:

iPhone 5S, LG G2, Nokia Lumia Icon, Samsung Galaxy S5, Droid Mini by Motorola, HTC One M8, Apple iPhone 5C, DROID Maxx by Motorola, Moto X, LG Lucid 3, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Samsung ATIV SE, HTC One Max, Samsung Galaxy S4, Blackberry Z30 and the Blackberry Q10

if you have a Verizon LTE tablet you need to have the following tablets to have XLTE service:

LG G Pad 8.3 LTE, Apple iPad Air, Apple iPad Mini, Samsung Galaxy tab 2, Samsung Galaxy Note Pro, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

And if you have a Verizon hotspot or USB modem you need to have  the following devices:
Verizon Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi 5510L, Verizon Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MHS291L and the Verizon 4G LTE USB Modem UML295

While we haven’t had a chance to test these speeds quite yet, we’ll be sure to report back to you relatively soon with our Verizon HTC One M8 (which is capable of XLTE) and since we’re usually between San Diego and San Francisco, both markets are capable of supporting Verizon’s new XLTE service. Do keep in mind, however, that this is not LTE-Advanced, which is the next version of LTE service that is already running in places like Korea where they are able to get speeds in excess of 100 Mbps over commercially available devices. LTE-Advanced brings a whole host of features to smartphones, many of which are already inside of those phones, but the networks are simply not ready for quite yet. We know that Verizon is already working on their LTE-Advanced network and that this is likely a step forward in that direction in order to help them prepare for the jump.

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