“It’s been way too long”
Apple has sent out invites for a special event on October 16, where the company will almost certainly unveil this year’s updates to the iPad Air and iPad Mini.
The event, which is being held on the Apple campus at a much smaller venue than the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch, will probably also feature some updates to Apple’s other product lines, such as the iMac and Apple TV. There’s an outside chance that we’ll see something new and crazy on October 16, like a TV set, but I think it’s unlikely, considering the Apple Watch’s recent debut.
New iPads
Top of the menu for Apple’s event is a new iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina display. There is a fairly persistent rumor that the next iPad Air — call it the iPad Air 2 if you like, or perhaps the iPad Air Plus — will feature a 12.9-inch screen. Just like with the iPhone 6, a number of sites have published leaked photos of what appears to be a thinner, lighter, and larger iPad Air.
It’s unclear what Apple will do with the iPad Mini with Retina display, but presumably it will get thinner and lighter. There’s no word on whether there’ll also be a 9.7-inch version of the iPad Air 2. With the iPhone 6 Plus at 5.5 inches, it’s possible to argue that the 7.9-inch iPad Mini doesn’t make a whole lot of sense — but we’ll have to wait and see what Apple unveils.
A new iMac with Retina display, updated Mac Mini and Apple TV?
Apple should also unveil some other product updates at the October 16 event. We can only really guess what those products might be — but a new 27-inch iMac with Retina display (5120×2800) is possible. The invitation’s tease of “it’s been way too long” could indicate that the event will mostly focus on products that haven’t been updated in a while – Apple TV, the Mac Mini, and the iPod Nano are all overdue an update. Or maybe Apple is just being sarcastic, considering it had a big event just a couple of weeks ago to launch the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
COOL FEATURES OF WINDOWS 10
After using Windows 10(Beta version) for almost a week, I’ve discovered some neat little changes and features that Microsoft hasn’t yet discussed — smart tweaks that, if you’re a mouse-and-keyboard user looking for a reason to upgrade from Windows 7, you will be very pleased with. Let’s dive straight in with my favorite secret/hidden features of Windows 10.
Explorer now has a “Home” tab
In the last few versions of Windows, opening My Computer or a new Explorer window would show you your computer’s various storage locations and shortcuts to default folders like Documents and 
My Pictures. In Windows 10, you now end up in a new view called Home, which shows Favorites, Frequent Folders, and Recent Files. Take a look at the screenshot below and you’ll see what I mean.
Windows 10, Explorer’s new Home tab
Favorites seem to be where Documents or My Pictures should appear. I don’t know the math behind the Frequent Folders, but it looks like it just tracks which folders I’ve opened the most times. Recent Files is like the Recent Places feature that premiered in Windows Vista, but just for files.
I assume that folders can be added to the Favorites section, but I haven’t yet worked out how to do it. (To be honest, the more advanced features of Explorer, like Libraries, are still pretty hard to penetrate.)
“This PC” is still available from the left-hand menu if you want to manage your various storage locations/default folders. I like the new Home tab a lot.
You can finally put the Recycle Bin on the taskbar
Rather than having to poke around Explorer or minimize everything and find the Recycle Bin icon on the Desktop, in Windows 10 you can now add the Recycle Bin to both the taskbar and the Start menu. Yes, that is the sound of many brains exploding as they catastrophically realize the enormity of this change.
Start menu is resizable
This one is a bit odd: You can make the Windows 10 Start menu as tall or as wide as you like. If you want to have a Start menu that takes up the entire left side of your screen, or a narrow strip across the taskbar, then that’s now possible.
Notifications and toasts in Windows 10
While Windows 10′s rumored Notification Tray isn’t yet in the Technical Preview, there are some new pretty toasts/notifications that pop up in the top right corner of the screen. These notifications appear to replace the speech bubbles that used to pop out of the system tray (the bottom right corner of the taskbar, unless you’re one of those heathens who has moved the taskbar to a non-standard location). You can see two example notifications in the images above, but there are similar toasts for successful uploads to Dropbox and similar activities.
It’s entirely possible that this is all the Desktop interface is going to get, in terms of notifications. The new Notification Tray might only be coming to the Metro interface. Let’s wait and expect more from 10…after all it’s time for Microsoft to deliver.