As previously predicted Apple made a whole set of announcements on 22 October-- revealing the 5th iPad generation (now called "Air"), a Retina-equipped iPad mini and a MacBook refresh, as well as more details on the latest Mac Pro and OS X Mavericks.

Of course, you can have an Apple event without some big Apple numbers. Apparently the iPhone 5C/S launch was the biggest yet, with 9 million iPhones sold during the post-launch weekend. How many of devices actually belong to the latest generation is anyone's guess though, seeing how Apple gives no breakdown of the totals in question.

Meanwhile iO7 devices clocked at 200 million just 5 days after launch. As for the iPad, CEO Tim Cook says “iPad is used more than any of the rest, and not just a little more…a lot more,” after revealing the company sold 170m tablets to date.

As these things tend to be, the iPad Air is the thinnest (7.5mm) and lightest (453g) iPad yet. Apparently the "Air" monicker refers to a number of admittedly subtle hardware changes, namely rounded edges on the an aluminium rear plate, a shiny metallic bezel, a 5MP front-facing camera and dual microphones.

Nokia hoped to steal at least some of the limelight from Apple as it revealed not one, not two but six devices at Nokia World 2013-- a trio of Asha devices, two 6-inch Lumia devices and the first Nokia Windows tablet.

No doubt the tablet is the most intriguing device, seeing how the soon-owned-by-Microsoft Nokia presented what amounts to a Surface 2 killer. Dubbed the Lumia 2520, it is a Windows 8.1 (not Windows Phone) device with a 10.1-inch 1920x1080 display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU, 6.7MP rear-facing camrea, 8000mAh battery and 4G LTE support inside a glossy polycarbonate unibody in red, white, black or cyan.

Like other Windows RT devices the Lumia 2320 gets the Office RT suite (packs Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook) for free, as well as Nokia software such as Music, HERE maps and the newly revealed Storyteller photo organiser.

The time has come again to mark your calendars-- according to AllThingsD the 5th generation iPad launches on 22 October at an event hosting fresh demos of the new Mac Pro and OSX Mavericks.

Where will it take place? Probably either the Apple Cupertino HQ or the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco.

AllThingsD is fairly reliable when it comes to Apple launches, having rightly reported (if not simply guessed) the iPhone 5C/5S reveal date back in August. Such a roll-out schedule is also similar to the one seen last year with the iPhone 5 and iPad 4/mini launches.

Further speculation includes latest iPad features-- thinner, lighter design similar to the iPad mini's, improved camera, use of the 64-bit A7 chip (maybe with the M7 co-processor) and TouchID fingerprint sensor.

Bloomberg reports Microsoft is in talks with HTC on adding Windows Phone as a second OS on Android smartphones, an idea reportedly made more attractive through either cutting or outright elimination of license fees.

According to unnamed sources HTC top brass was approached with the idea by no other than Microsoft OS unit head Terry Myerson. HTC is one of the few companies making use of Windows Phone, even if it has not revealed a handset running on the OS since June 2013 and reportedly "has no current plans to release any more."

But why would Microsoft even want to share the spotlight on a device? The combination of still-small market share (currently at 3.7% according to IDC) and efforts to appease hardware partners following the $7.2 billion Nokia handset unit acquisition.