Apple Announces 7.9-inch iPad Mini

[TheMailMan78]

Originally Posted by Binge

Damn the sensationalist news. Verified with a mac here at work. It felt wrong to touch the thing, but oh well... for science!

Yeah I couldn't see them removing Java from OSX.

[Dos101]

Originally Posted by Binge

Damn the sensationalist news. Verified with a mac here at work. It felt wrong to touch the thing, but oh well... for science!

Make sure to go through the proper decontamination process

[Hilux SSRG]

Wow Apple, you suck [at least from my perspective].

I was interested in your ipad mini but...

Two major announcements in 2 months? are both flops.

First, nothing new for the iphone 5 other than speed bump and
a another row. Makes my iphone 4 look still new, thanks!

Second, an ipad mini that is way, way overpriced for such a
poor resolution. I'd rather buy a Nexus 7 and save $150+
for apps and/or cold beer.

Apple got the price point wrong on a mass-market tablet,
wall street is going to kill their stock if sales numbers don't hit.

[Sasqui]

Originally Posted by Binge

Damn the sensationalist news. Verified with a mac here at work. It felt wrong to touch the thing, but oh well... for science!

Originally Posted by Dos101

Make sure to go through the proper decontamination process

Funny, I went with a friend to buy some Mac tower thing from Craigslist and felt dirty after touching the mouse, like I had been violated.

[j924]

Been waiting for this announcement all day. Thanks for Techpowerup to give good fast news. I never believed the rumors of the mini going for $200-250. Apple has always overpriced their products.

[Binge]

Originally Posted by Sasqui

Funny, I went with a friend to buy some Mac tower thing from Craigslist and felt dirty after touching the mouse, like I had been violated.

You call that 'thing' a mouse?

I'm sorry to macophiles but I can't get behind a man-made trend that goes against convention.

[avatar_raq]

IMO there is nothing wrong with the mini apart from its price. I expected apple to keep the screen resolution @1024x768 to minimize the number of resolutions developers need to optimize apps for. It was either that or the same resolution of the iPad 3 which is too much for such a small screen and it would be an engineering challenge to manage its power requirements and thermal properties in such a small package. Announcing the iPad 4 and discontinuing iPad3 however, took everyone by surprise!

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

I just don't see the appeal of a device that's the same size form factor as everyone else had, yet costs 2x as much for tehcnology that's years old, all because it has a hipster brand name on it.

[Prima.Vera]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

That so F#$KING stupid. Really.

No is not actually. Flash is the worst thing ever invented. It should have died a painful dead a long time ago on Windows also. Besides runs like crap on Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile. Apple knew why it dumped this trash that is the nr.1 main reason for browser crashes and very high resources...

[TheMailMan78]

Originally Posted by Prima.Vera

No is not actually. Flash is the worst thing ever invented. It should have died a painful dead a long time ago on Windows also. Besides runs like crap on Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile. Apple knew why it dumped this trash that is the nr.1 main reason for browser crashes and very high resources...

Never had an issue and a lot of sites I go to need it.

[dwade]

So this is what Android phones would look like if they continue to increase in size. Haha.

[Gjohnst4]

Kindle HD 8.9 inch for $299 is starting to look a whole lot better.

[tacosRcool]

Originally Posted by johnnyfiive

The 8GB Nexus 7 is $199. The 16GB iPad mini is $329. That's the products I'm comparing. As for a $249 32GB Nexus 7, has that been officially announced yet? No.

True but it will be soon. (Last I checked at work its soon)

[_Zod_]

Originally Posted by erocker

Flash is dead. There isn't any support for Android anymore either.

Not quite dead yet unfortunately

HTML 5 isn't ready to replace flash yet. Flash and Java are the two largest security holes on the Internet and they should die die die

If a website wants my traffic they best not be using Flash or Java at their core.

Back on topic, this is obviously overpriced for what it is. Take the Apple name off of it and what do you have? A non starter.

[johnnyfiive]

Originally Posted by ShiBDiB

hmm i could buy an ipad.. or upgrade my galaxy nexus to an s3..

Any opinions?

Google event is on the 29th. Wait and see what else comes out. Also, Windows Phone 8 devices are releasing soon. I can't be the only one interested in what Redmond is doing am I?

[phanbuey]

no you're not i'm really interested to see windows 8. I am a big OSX fan and i thought about adopting some of the other devices so I could get the benefit of everything integrating... but no... this is terrible. It's such a massive waste of money.

There is no freaking way Jobs would have let this crap get out of the lab... this and the overpriced macbook air they just announced lol.

Time to upgrade my HTC to the S3.

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

This is a big fat pass for me and should be for everyone else as well!

[Soylent Joe]

It's a shame that they couldn't have bumped up the resolution at that price. Don't get me wrong, the PPI is still high enough to look good and sharp, but they should have designed it with something higher than 1024x768 in the year of our lord 2012 when the goddamn new iMac is possible.

Seems like the best small tablet on the market for 4G users, however the Nexus 7 is still the best small wi-fi tablet considering price.

[Syborfical]

So there is a Samsung Glaxay Tab 2 7inch which is cheaper and better ...

Or I can get a Google Android thing :P

Apple seems to have missed the mark with the IpadMini

[wickerman]

Even at the risk of being called a fanboy, I still think the new mini is a winner. But even I am troubled by the price. The base price is well ahead of the competitors and spec it up and you are well into the price range of the full size iPad 4th gen which has the epic new A6X.

But having said that, I'll still be pre-ordering one for my mother as it is an ideal companion for her. She complains on occasion about not being able to fit the 10" ipad into her purse (yea.. I know). Specs wise, the A5 isn't going to be an issue as it'll just be a device for her to toss into her purse and when she is at home or on a longer trip she will likely take her laptop or the 10" iPad. The bigger factor is really how portable it is and that all her current software is compatible, the same aspect ratio, and the whole experience will be nothing new for her to learn.

But beyond this type of usage, I don't think I can see much to impress. It is a great looking design, and I suppose having an even cheaper iPad entry price is always a good thing in the Apple world given how popular they have become in education.

But to a certain extent it is obvious that they held things back a bit specifically so that they have something to improve next generation. The cameras are a prime example of that, and honestly with icloud they really could have done an even cheaper 8gb model. The new A6X really would have been overkill though, would be like running a GTX 680 on a 1080p monitor. The hardware is FAR more capable and would just go to waste having that much GPU power on a 1024 display. I would assume it is the 32nm A5 with 512mb of ram, but 1gb is where I would have gone...but I have a feeling we wont see that until the next refresh.

So I'm not excited or blown away, I'm a bit mixed on the hardware, but I really think the price at every point should be at least $50 lower. As much as I am always willing to pay extra for a better looking device, a solid warranty, and known compatibility with the existing software library, I see the mini as a companion device and these prices are just silly against things like the new Kindle.

But for people who have a large iOS software library, it really isn't an option to buy a Kindle or Android device and rebuy everything. So people are more likely to buy the mini than a cheaper alternative, even if the ~$100 difference could actually buy all the software they need.

[DannibusX]

Overpriced or not, the iPad mini is going to sell millions of units.

[Wile E]

I think it's too pricey, but we do need to take into account that it's constructed of aluminum instead of plastic, and Apple does make very nice casings, so maybe it's not as overpriced as it appears at a glance.

What are other mini tablets made with aluminum cases going for?

[TacoTown]

So its just a tiny bit larger than a Itouch?

[Dos101]

Originally Posted by johnnyfiive

Google event is on the 29th. Wait and see what else comes out. Also, Windows Phone 8 devices are releasing soon. I can't be the only one interested in what Redmond is doing am I?

Nope, MS has caught some of our eye's (more so me it seems lol)

Windows 8 clubhouse

Windows Phone user clubhouse

When I get my Lumia 920 (whenever that's released), and the Surface Pro tablet (hopefully before the new year) I'm hoping to do a little review on how those two OS's and the Xbox work together in the ecosystem Microsoft is building.

Exciting times to be a Microsoft fan!

[entropy13]

Originally Posted by dwade

So this is what Android phones would look like if they continue to increase in size. Haha.

There are already Android tablets of roughly this size way before the iPad Mini was announced.