October 22, 2013.

Apple Unveils New iPads

"Oh----Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement's. That was a rhyme we had when I was a little boy. How it goes on I don't remember, but I do know it ended up, "Here comes a candle to light you to bed, Here comes a chopper to chop off your head." It was a kind of a dance. They held out their arms for you to pass under, and when they came to "Here comes a chopper to chop off your head" they brought their arms down and caught you. It was just names of churches. All the London churches were in it -- all the principal ones, that is."

SAN FRANCISCO----Apple Inc.'s AAPL -0.29% answer to the increasingly cutthroat tablet-computer market: more product choices and free software.

Winston wondered vaguely to what century the church belonged. It was always difficult to determine the age of a London building. Anything large and impressive, if it was reasonably new in appearance, was automatically claimed as having been built since the Revolution, while anything that was obviously of earlier date was ascribed to some dim period called the Middle Ages. The centuries of capitalism were held to have produced nothing of any value. One could not learn history from architecture any more than one could learn it from books. Statues, inscriptions, memorial stones, the names of streets----anything that might throw light upon the past had been systematically altered.

At an event here Tuesday, Apple showed off a new full-size tablet----now called iPad Air----that is thinner and slimmed down to one pound. It also revealed an updated iPad Mini with a faster processor and a sharper display.

"I never knew it had been a church," he said.

Just as important, Apple's new holiday lineup lowers the entry price for the cheapest iPads to below $300 for the first time. Apple said it will sell a range of tablets starting with last year's iPad Mini for $299, up to the new iPad Air, which starts at $499. That brings Apple closer in line with competitors like Amazon.com Inc., AMZN +1.87% who have pushed tablet prices down as far as $229.