This morning, Apple (AAPL 1.50%) hosted its iPad media event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The company unveiled a number of new gadgets, mostly in line with rumors.
Apple's new iPad Air. Source: Apple.
In addition to the headline-grabbing revamp to Apple's iPads and the overhaul of the its Retina display Macbook Pros, Apple also had news about Mavericks, iLife, and iWork -- all with the common thread of "free."
Apple launched its next-generation iWork and iLife apps for OS X and iOS, available for download today. They are now both free with the purchase of any new Mac or iOS device. Both suites were completely redesigned to take advantage of OS X Mavericks and iOS 7.
Notably, Apple made a few major changes to iWork, including a unified file format that allows for "perfect document fidelity across Mac, iOS, and iCloud," according to Apple's press release highlighting the productivity suite. Apple also took a tip from Google Docs and has enabled real-time collaboration in iWork documents for iCloud.
And in somewhat of a surprise, Apple's previously announced OS X Mavericks is available as a free download in the Mac App Store. Impressively, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, asserts that downloading the new software will improve both the performance and battery life of your Mac, thanks to Timer Coalescing and App Nap.
Apple also gave a December launch time frame for the previously announced redesigned Mac Pro.
If you'd like to watch the full-length Apple media event, it's available on Apple's website.
