BLOG: APPLE NEW IPAD + OS X MAVERICKS

All right, so most of it's blah blah blah as usual, but the product is good and I'm impressed. It's been a bit hit and miss since the loss of Steve Jobs, perhaps understandably, but it seems Apple are slowly on the up again (barring iOS 7 that is, that's still a piece of shit that needs improving). The iPhones were all right, but the new iPads announced yesterday look mighty fine. Smaller, thinner and lighter but boasting more power and better screen resolution, the new iPad Air and iPad Mini are updates that are more than welcome. I'm tempted.

And there's more because Mavericks is out now and available for free, as the merging of iOS and OS X is inevitably imminent – which, while I'm absolutely terrified of, does appear to be good news for all concerned as Apple encourages its consumers to all be up to date for better efficiency and subsequently higher benefit. iWork and iLife are free upgrades too. Oh and not just the free thing, but Mavericks is actually a decent upgrade, with processing speeds up to 1.5x faster (which I still find really impressive for a piece of software) and some neat refining of interface throughout, especially having skipped Mountain Lion myself, I've finally managed to discard of the notoriously atrocious skeumorphism that couldn't be shredded on iCal and Address Book. That in itself is a cause for celebration alone.