iPad mini and other—yawn—oh, excuse us!—new product announcements

There weren't too many surprises at Apple's big event Tuesday. The romance, the allure, the mystery... gone. The honeymoon is over (but it did last a long time, didn't it?) and Apple is starting to play it safe. ( Fast Co.DESIGN has a good article on Apple's apparent new posture.)

To sum up the new gear:

• Yes, an iPad mini is finally here, despite Steve Job's strong words against the entire category two years ago.
• Not even a year after the iPad "3" with Retina display is launched, we get a new iPad with faster new guts (A6X chip).
• Hello, 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display.
• And finally, there was one nice surprise: a new super-thin iMac. It looks gorgeous and has some smoking-hot hardware.

The iPad mini—while we wonder who this is really for—does excite us with its gaming potential. All the power of the larger iPad in a smaller form factor? We'll be getting our hands on one right away to see what we can do with it. And the new thin iMac? Well, Christmas is around the corner, people...