
iPad mini - k33l0r
http://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/overview/
======
jpxxx
There is no obvious reason this product isn't going to sell in huge
quantities.

Less conceptually fragile, less expensive, more portable, same software stack,
same media stack, same OS, same UX, same premium experience, same monstrous
manufacturing and distribution reach, same monstrous advertising and product
awareness engine.

Every single one of the children you see in restaurants working an iPad so
mommy and daddy can eat in peace will have one of these by January.

Schools will buy in by the hundreds of thousands, regardless of actual utility
or how successful digital textbooks eventually become.

This is the new travel iPad. This is the status gift for the developing world.
This is the throwaway iPad if you're rich or the first one you look at if
you're less so.

It's priced to make Apple the margins they want while still inviting
comparisons with less expensive and similarly sized tablets. It's going to
suck the oxygen out of the $300-$500 price range for anything with a screen.

And it's cheap enough to substantially distinguish itself from the main iPad
line, which is selling millions a week. That's all it had to do, pricing-wise.

I don't want or need this, and I don't think it was particularly necessary for
the health of the iPad line, but they dotted all the Is and crossed all the Ts
when designing this product.

~~~
tharris0101
I couldn't have said it better myself. I'd never use this product but I'm sure
it will do great.

I've been really critical of Apple lately, but I can't find any reason to get
upset over this announcement. I find it funny how people are railing against
this announcement just because its not useful to them. There are a million
different needs and uses out there for different people.

~~~
mark_l_watson
You triggered something: I have been wondering why Apple does not have iPads
support multiple user accounts that are easy to switch between? With iCloud,
it would seem reasonable for a family to have a min, a standard iPad, and
perhaps a future "iPad whopper" (with perhaps a 14 inch screen). They could be
left laying around the house and anyone could just pick up the appropriate
device as-needed.

I can answer my own question: Apple doesn't want people to share these
devices: fewer sales.

~~~
sixothree
I find not having user accounts drastically reduces how much the iPad gets
used in my house. In my case, I'm sure this affects sales in the app store.

~~~
wlesieutre
Maybe this is cynical of me, but I think the preferred solution (from Apple's
perspective) is to buy more iPads.

~~~
GoyGenius
It isn't cynical in the slightest. That is simply the game.

------
AlexMuir
How underwhelming.

 _At 7.9 inches, it’s perfectly sized to deliver an experience every bit as
big as iPad_

What does that even mean? Either it's perfectly sized, and the iPad is the
wrong size. Or it's not. There can surely only be one perfect size to deliver
an iPad experience??? Either it's 10" or it's 7.9".

I think Apple's marketing has always been the same - it's just that for a
while they were ahead of the curve and so their hyperbole was justified. The
iPhone was amazing. The Macbook Air is still amazing. But there is absolutely
FUCK ALL amazing about a smaller fucking iPad.

~~~
akavi
I say this with absolutely no judgement regarding the value of the iPad Mini,
but I'm struck by the similarity between this criticism and the criticism
leveled against the original iPad ("it's just a giant iPod Touch!").

~~~
nirvana
This is what apple haters say about every Apple product. They said the iPhone
would be a total flop and never sell the 10 million units Steve Jobs said they
hoped to sell-- because it didn't have a hardware keyboard.

They said it about the iPod too- claiming that having less capacity than the
creative nomad and no built in radio made it "lame" (CmdrTaco famously said
this.)

They said it about the iMac as well, calling it a toy computer that looked
like candy. Funny how in 2 years all the other manufacturers were making their
computers colorful, and the bondi-blue design aesthetic was adopted by a wide
variety of products around the world.

Now I'm sure somewhere there are people who were not even 10 years old when
the iMac was being put down are saying the iPad mini is lame. For the same
reasons.

Then when the product strikes a nerve with the public, and sells 100 million
units, they decide that the people buying it must be stupid and persuaded by
slick marketing, because obviously its "lame" or "doesn't have the specs" of
the competition (though they never detail how it lacks specs and usually
they're completely wrong and ignoring the terrible usability of the
competition.)

It's the standard issue mythology of the apple hater:

Apple products are inferior (even when they aren't.) Apple products are more
expensive (even though they aren't.) Apple buyers are stupid and easily
persuaded by slick marketing (even though it should be obvious that people buy
Apple products because they work better for them.)

Consequently, EVERY Apple product introduction is "underwhelming".

~~~
untog
Any discussion involving the terms "apple hater" or "apple fanboy" immediately
disappears into a hole of stupidity.

That said, Apple are inviting some of these comparisons. "More expensive", for
example. The iPad Mini _is_ more expensive than a Nexus 7, by a significant
margin. Apple invited the comparison by _comparing the two devices themselves
on stage_.

~~~
jpxxx
Google should be delighted. I've yet to find a "normal" who is aware that
anyone else sells "iPads". And Amazon doesn't count, they sell "Kindles".

No amount of competitive marketing seems to have brought the two product
families into competition beyond "well I heard the iPad has books too but my
friend loves her Kindle".

~~~
untog
I'm yet to find a "normal" that watches Apple Keynotes, though.

~~~
bruceboughton
No but the iPad Mini was above-the-fold breaking news on the BBC news website
before the keynote was even over.

------
rryan
One of the best parts about my Nexus 7 is that it fits perfectly in my back
pocket (and even front-jeans pockets but that's much less comfortable). Having
a tablet on my person (i.e. not having to reach inside a backpack to get it
out) has been a great convenience.

The increase in width from the 7.9" screen is surely going to mean that this
won't which is a pity.

~~~
cheald
It's 5.3" vs the N7's 4.7". My N7 with case fits in my pocket, so a bare iPad
Mini should, but once you add a case, it may be a little too big.

(Totally agreed on the fits-in-pocket thing as a key value point, though!)

------
metadept
With their announcement speech so full of contradictions, it seems like
they're struggling to differentiate the Mini from the cheaper Nexus 7. The
major appeal is its small size, but in comparison to the Nexus 7 they
emphasize how much larger it is (albeit lower total resolution). Seems to be a
clear case of presenting weaknesses as strengths, which will, unfortunately,
probably succeed with many existing Apple customers. The two compelling
advantages over the Nexus 7, the presence of a second camera and the
availability of cellular capability, were barely mentioned.

~~~
kellishaver
I thought this was weird, too. The reason I bought a Nexus 7 was because of
the 7in screen. Saying "It's a smaller iPad, but bigger!" just wasn't doing it
for me. Maybe it was an attempt to sell people on the higher price tag.

------
stcredzero
I suspect that lots of women will be buying these with the 4G wireless. That
form factor could fit into a lot of purse and pocketbooks quite comfortably,
but the screen is still much more usable than a phone. Having that around
while shopping will be awesome for users.

I also suspect that lots of doctors will buy these. I suspect this will fit
very nicely into a lab coat, and the form factor will be a much better fit for
doctors with easier one handed operation.

------
bluetidepro
Why does it cost more than the Kindle Fire HD but has way worse specs? Apple
have shot themselves in the foot with this launch. I'm so disappointed in the
iPad Mini.

~~~
siglesias
Apple competes on user experience. Not price, and certainly not specs.

~~~
bluetidepro
The poor specs lead to a poor UX, so I fail to see the difference.

~~~
matheusalmeida
Are you serious? A well designed ecosystem is much more important than trying
to increase the number of gigahertz/megaflops every release. Just because a
corvette is more powerful and way cheaper than a Ferrari/Porsche it does not
mean that you will have a better experience than buying one of the latter.

~~~
flomo
The iPad 1 has serious usability issues due to the limited amount of RAM.
After experiencing this, I would be nervous about the lifespan of an iOS
device with only 512MB. On some level, specs really do matter.

------
quux
Steve Jobs must be rolling in his grave ;)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFAjfUT8wZI>

~~~
spot
"you can't just scale down the interface"

oops

~~~
grecy
They didn't. It's exactly the same resolution as the original iPad and iPad 2

~~~
spot
same resolution, scaled down by 20%.

so if you designed a button to be as small as a finger for the ipad, it's now
too small.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
The tap targets on a 10" iPad are quite big, there was some room to shrink the
screen without it hurting usability. Besides, the 7.9" screen size wasn't
randomly picked:

The tap targets on an iPad mini are exactly the same size as they are on an
iPhone or iPod touch (which also confirms that Apple is using the same
equipment to produce the iPad mini screen panels as they used for the iPhone
3GS — they're just cutting the panels in a different size).

 _“I think there’s a method to Apple’s madness in recommending 44-point-or-
larger tap targets for all iOS apps, both on the iPhone and iPad, despite the
fact that on the iPad-as-we-know-it, each point is physically larger than a
point on the iPhone or iPod Touch. (1 point maps directly to 1 pixel on iPad
1/2 and older iPhones; 1 point maps to a 4-pixel square on the iPad 3 and
iPhone 4/4S.) A 44-point tap target on the rumored iPad Mini would be exactly
the same physical size as a 44-point tap target on the iPhone.”_

<http://daringfireball.net/2012/07/this_ipad_mini_thing>

~~~
smackfu
We'll see how many apps actually work well though, and which ones have to be
tweaked. Not every developer follows the standards.

It's not like Apple even does either. The recent iOS 6 apps store on iPhone is
a good example of something where they made the tap targets too small to
expand app updates and it was very frustrating. They finally fixed that just
recently so that the target was much larger.

------
hkmurakami
_> There's less of it, but no less to it._

I must say, I've consistently been impressed with Apple's copy writing.

~~~
kristiandupont
I might be too Danish to get it but I for one can't _stand_ the full-of-
ourselves copy and acting in those videos. I buy many of their products so you
might argue that they work anyway but it feels to me like I buy them in spite
of the marketing.

~~~
jrnkntl
Exactly. I cringed so much during that live event because of all the
'amazing', 'great', 'innovative', 'beautiful' word dropping, I paused it a
couple of times just to yell at the screen (but maybe that's just me)

~~~
modeless
Tim Cook's opening remarks were really over the top. You could practically see
an "Applause" light blinking every time he dropped a superlative. Phil
Schiller, on the other hand, seemed more genuine.

~~~
arrrg
I so want Phil Schiller to take over all Keynotes. He is very clearly the best
presenter Apple currently has. I don’t think an Apple CEO has to be a good
presenter. Just because Steve Jobs could fill that role doesn’t mean Tim Cook
has to force himself to do it, too.

I honestly was relieved whenever Phil Schiller came onto stage today.

------
ChuckMcM
For those of you who are wondering, this is how a market evolves. When Apple
built the iPad they took their best guess at what the 'right' size for the
device was. Designers debate this stuff all the time, and I'm sure they looked
at the iPod/iPhone screens vs MacBook screens etc. The 10" form factor was
very successful for them.

Other folks have smaller form factor devices, the Dell 'Streak' [1] being an
early example of an Android based device that started out at 5" and 'grew' to
7". 5" was not very successful and mocked as being an unwieldy phone, the
larger size was better.

Laptops got 'huge' the 17" one being the pinnacle, and then 'small' again with
the most popular models being 13 - 16"

Other tablets came out in 6, 7, 9, 10, 11" sizes at various levels of
acceptance or not.

The Kindle was the first e-reader with a solid market foot print, it was
'small'. E-readers of 7" are common.

So dialing all of that together you end up with a bunch of different designers
trying different ideas and some of them are successful and some aren't. The
same designers look at the successful products and try to extract what aspects
of the design were critical, which weren't? How did people use them, how did
people think of them, what did people want that they didn't get.

So this market is evolving.

So the folks at Apple see these things and try to capture as much of the
market as they can. They saw folks buying a bunch of Kindle fires and Nexus
7's and hey, they could do that.

I'm completely conflicted because I like the idea of an A6x iPad but I really
like to 30 pin connector on my 3rd Gen iPad.

[1] <http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/mobile-streak-7/pd>

[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Streak>

------
blinkingled
The app situation they highlighted vs Nexus 7 was pretty damning for Google
although I have a feeling Apple cherry picked apps that make the N7 look
especially bad.

On the plus side for the N7, they screwed up on price though - for the
ecosystem and build quality advantage may be a $50 premium would have been
attractive esp for lesser screen resolution and older CPU/GPU. The N7 also
feels like it should be more single hand friendly than the iPad mini.

~~~
cheald
They did very much cherry-pick apps that run poorly on the N7. The equivalent
would be demoing the N7 against an iPad running iOS apps that only have an
upscaled iPhone variant.

~~~
aes256
Obviously there are cases in which the opposite is true and the interface on
Android is better, but not many.

In my experience, Android apps on tablets are horrible. Apple has the upper
hand here in controlling the hardware, and releasing the iPad mini with the
same resolution as the iPad 2 was a really smart move. Instant compatibility
with all existing apps.

~~~
thedufer
Hardware control has basically nothing to do with it. Far fewer people have
been motivated to create two (phone/tablet) versions of Android apps than iOS
apps. Its almost certainly a volume issue.

~~~
aes256
Why aren't developers motivated to do that? Hardware control.

Look at the top-selling Android tablets. Every single one has a different
screen resolution/pixel density; Nexus 7 has 1280x800 (216 ppi), Kindle Fire
HD has 1024x600 (169 ppi), Nook HD has 1440x900 (243 ppi), Galaxy Tab 7.7 has
1280x800 (197 ppi), etc.

It's an absolute nightmare for developers, and this is just tablets. The
Android smartphone market is even more fragmented, and there is just as much
variation in display specifications.

Hardware control has everything to do with it.

~~~
thedufer
If that was the case, the smartphone apps wouldn't have come about either. But
they did, as evidenced by the made-for-smartphone apps that look silly on
tablets, which is what this whole conversation is about.

The fragmentation in smartphones is incomparably worse than the tablet market.
But Android has nice ways of dealing with it in display-independent ways, and
they work.

------
bobsy
I don't really understand the point. Don't Apple now have 4 devices which do
the same thing?

iPod + iPhone.. as far as I can tell are identical apart from the iPod cannot
make calls.

iPad is a giant version of the iPod... which I really like to use to browse
the web on the sofa.

We now have the iPad Mini which is that awkward size which is too big put in
your pocket and yet you don't want to put it in your backpack as you could put
your netbook / iPad / laptop in your bag.

I am sure they will sell plenty. I just don't really get it. Its like
innovation has stalled at Apple. How many sizes can we make the iPhone?

Beyond this the iMac is incredibly disappointing. Its thin! Oh well. No SDD.
No Retina Display. Probably has a little spec boost over last model. Its
disappointing. Glad I didn't wait for it.

~~~
robotresearcher
> iPod + iPhone.. as far as I can tell are identical apart from the iPod
> cannot make calls.

Neither does the iPod have a data modem. It's not an always-connected
communicator like the iPhone. There's a big difference in utility between
always-online and mostly-online.

------
rickdale
I have the same reaction the other companies are taking towards apple products
nowadays: Meh.

~~~
jopt
Thank you for the timely announcement. I'll put you down for "meh."

------
jbigelow76
It looks good. The 7.9" screen size may hit the sweet spot for smaller form
factor tablets, my rooted Nook Tablet feels just a wee bit small at 7". I'm
not an Apple fan but I'll be surprised if Apple doesn't sell these things by
the truck load.

~~~
Rygu
I'm really disappointed by the screen's resolution though. I don't even think
I'm the only one. Cuz the (current) iPad has a 264 dpi screen, whereas the
Mini has a 162 dpi screen.

~~~
jbigelow76
It is odd with the iPad maxi and the iPhone both having retina displays that
Apple didn't go with that out of the box for the mini. But maybe hamstringing
the resolution is one of the ways Apple hopes they can nudge buyers over to
the full size.

~~~
MartinCron
Can we agree to not say "iPad maxi" again? Thanks.

~~~
jbigelow76
I'm not aware of anything you need my permission or inclusion as a
precondition to agreeing to.

------
Achshar
The resolution, they are putting retina displays in macbook pros but launch a
tablet with non-retina display. Why?

~~~
aidenn0
Meh, 164 PPI isn't bad, and this resolution allows them to run legacy iPad
applications unscaled.

~~~
DannyBee
isn't bad?

The original android g1 had greater PPI (180) than this thing.

~~~
aes256
Smartphone versus tablet is not really a fair comparison.

The pixel density for the new iPad mini sits between the iPad 2 and iPad 3
with Retina display. As far as I'm aware, no one was complaining about the
iPad 2 display.

In any case, I suspect the choice of resolution was driven more by
compatibility concerns (i.e. it can run iPad 2 apps unscaled), and this paves
the way for a 'Retina display' iPad mini at some point in the future.

------
monkeyfacebag
Apple stock is down on the news. Although I'm personally underwhelmed by this
announcement, I'll bet analysts are more worried about the lower priced iPad
cutting into margins than they are Apple's ability to ship them.

~~~
mbreese
I doubt it. This is typical for Apple's stock. There is always a run up before
an announcement, and a drop immediately after.

It's the old adage: buy on the rumor, sell on the news. I wouldn't read too
much into it. The only time I really pay attention to what the street thinks
about Apple is when earnings are announced.

~~~
coob
AAPL has dropped from 670 odd over the last few weeks. There is no pattern
with announcements.

~~~
mbreese
There are only a few product announcements each year, so of course there isn't
a correlation with the overall price fluctuations.

However, you can be pretty sure what the price will do a couple of days before
and the day of an announcement.

------
zerohm
1\. Apple releases new product

2\. Critics yawn, criticize etc.

3\. AAPL goes down

4\. Many speculate as to what Jobs would or would not have done, joke about
rolling in grave, call for Tim Cook to be fired etc.

5\. Apple makes a mint's worth of money, AAPL hits new high.

It's been happening for 5 years. It's not just unsurprising, it's predictable.

------
hiddenstage
After clicking on "Shop iPad" it's interesting that they place an ad next to
the iPad mini for the regular iPad saying "Just as stunning. Twice as fast."
The regular iPad is only $170 more.

------
wavesounds
Someone invent a screen that can change size already, sheesh.

~~~
Tycho
a folding screen would be good.

especially if the underside was also an eInk display

~~~
wavesounds
Yeah or maybe some way to stretch pixels closer or further apart being that
you move your face further away from larger screens. Seems a little silly to
have so many devices that do the exact same thing but just have different
sized screens.

------
maxpert
$329 for WIFI only? No thanks!

------
tiredoffps
Apple: Pay more for less......and again in 6 months.

~~~
camus
People buy a brand , not a product.It's like buying a Vuitton bag , it's not
better than the other ones , it's just cool to have one , because now people
feels they are defined by what they own. Then people try to justify this
behavior by repeating apple talking points , so they dont sound like sheeps.

~~~
lukifer
This just in: people are not all the same.

------
spot
wow, it's way more expensive than the nexus 7. $330 vs $200 for the bottom.

~~~
TwistedWeasel
$200 Nexus 7 has 8Gb storage, iPad mini base model has 16Gb. I still think
$330 is a little high though.

~~~
k7lim
wait a week.

the 16GB Nexus 7 will drop to $200, with the 32GB release.

~~~
kellishaver
Have you heard anything about what they plan to do with the 8gb when this
happens? I've heard they'll stop making them, but it'd be nice to buy one of
the leftover stock at a reduced price. I have an 8GB and it's fine for my
needs (still 4.7gb free) since I mostly use it for online content.

~~~
k7lim
<https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_7_8gb>

appears to already be sold out now

------
edgeman27
What baffles me is the ease by which someone can walk while using and iPad
mini with a bicycle between their legs at 0:38.

------
robomartin
For me the iPad Mini highlights what I think is a serious problem with iBooks:
Landscape orientation should give me the option to read a single page at full
screen width. I have never found the two page display to be useful. When
looking at PDF files online it is great to rotate to landscape and read full
width with nice-big type. This is particularly true at night after a long day
in front of the computer.

The other thing that iBooks is sorely missing is the ability to use two
fingers to zoom in and out of a page. I really don't understand why we have to
look at a page with a one inch white border all the way around the page on a
digital device, which forces a smaller font to fit the same content.

I think that the iPad mini might just stress the need or a better user
experience in software such as iBooks.

------
ableal
Apple are exploiting one obvious flaw of the current "accepted wisdom" - that
16:9 movie-oriented wide-screens are to be foisted on all devices in sight.

Personally, I'm grateful someone is sticking to the 4:3 aspect ratio. If that
made a comeback on laptops and monitors, so much better.

------
confluence
Oh look it's my Nexus 7 with more marketing speak.

Apple is now on the back foot and is heading towards market saturation and
commoditisation via Android and intense foreign competition. Consequently I
have held a large short position from 700 and will continue to do so following
my sale of AAPL stock following the Samsung case - unless something changes.

You can only win in the brutal consumer electronics space by inventing the
future. Otherwise you're just another commodity producer. You can't defeat the
entire market by just doing more of the same.

Not impressed.

------
jeswin
The best priced tablet out there right now is the Barnes and Noble Nook HD+. 9
inches, 1920x1200, for 269 bucks!

If it ran vanilla Android, it would have been a no-brainer for many of us.

~~~
rdhyee
I have a Nook tablet and like it except for the fact that I can run only B&N
blessed apps (of which there are so few).

------
tayl0r
I hate that you can't use the iPad mini as a cell phone. It's small enough now
that in a lot of situations you can carry it around with you. And in those
cases, it would be nice to only have to carry your iPad mini and leave your
phone at home.

Sure, with the 3g model you can still use iMessage, Whats App, Skype, etc- but
you're missing out on regular voice calls and SMS.

From an engineering perspective- is it that difficult to add a sim card slot
and the extra cell antennas?

------
chucknelson
Was hoping for $299, but it still looks like a nice product.

------
disappointment
'tis a fine product but $190 for an extra 48Gb of storage? Can we not kill
this practice already? I was pretty pissed that Google pulled the same stunt
with the Nexus 7. It's 2012. Flash storage is cheap and widely available but
Google and Apple (and probably Microsoft) don't want us to have it. It's very
irritating behaviour.

------
bane
IMHO Apple learned the lesson of aspect ratio for watching video with the
iPhone 5, then forgot it again with this device. They missed out on a huge
opportunity to start kicking their entire lineup towards the new aspect ratio
and slowly eliminating any sort of Android-like fragmentation that will induce
in their lineup.

------
Kylekramer
My reaction: I imagine Google/Amazon/B&N must be very happy with this. I am
sure Apple will sell a boatload and possibly even own a clear majority of the
space, but Apple just threw a huge wave of interest into a market where they
are being very clearly undercut on price and not offering that much
differentation.

~~~
listic
Google/Amazon/B&N will be certainly happy with this, but it's because it will
make people consume even more internet/books.

------
pooriaazimi
Change title to " iPad mini" (an space at the beginning so HN doesn't
automatically capitalizes it, and lowercase m)

------
tharris0101
The size of the normal iPad is perfect for me. I don't see me ever using this
product. On the other hand, I think some people will like this more or this
will fit their needs/price range better. Not a very exciting announcement by
Apple but not an awful one.

I'm more excited about the new iMacs. They look great.

------
DenisM
Hello, fragmentation.

Resolution might be the same as iPad 2, but pixel density is different.
Therefore an area that is clickable on iPad2 or iPad3 may become too small to
click on the iPad mini.

So we had two platforms - iPad2/iPad3 with one tap area size, and iPhone
4/iPhone 5 with another, and now we have three.

~~~
czr80
Click targets work out the same size as an iPhone (iPad was always a bit
bigger), so no, this is no big deal.

------
treskot
So now with iPad Mini here, what do you think of "Apple's Contradictions" :
Think different each time? - [http://blog.cloudmagic.com/2012/10/25/ipad-mini-
steve-jobs-a...](http://blog.cloudmagic.com/2012/10/25/ipad-mini-steve-jobs-
and-apple/)

------
anigbrowl
It's interesting that they also released an iPad 4 but hardly anyone is
talking about that. I presume that this is to address the complaints some
people had about the iPad 3 performing less well because of the additional
overhead from the retina display?

------
andrew_wc_brown
When my macbook pro died and I had to get the logic board replaced I tried
using my iPad (3) to replace basic web maintenance for the week.

I couldn't add a mouse or command-tab between programs. (without
jailbreaking).

I'd pay for an update for these software features.

------
dman
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4683962>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4683980>

------
pacomerh
Want it or not these units are gonna sell like pancakes. All the same goodness
but now more portable equals a win. Anyways, I was hoping for a little more
fanboy vs apple-hater drama on this thread, I always find that entertaining.

------
DannoHung
It's gonna sell like hotcakes. Also, they probably just iced the iPod Touch.

~~~
morsch
I think at the moment they'd have to try _really_ hard to release a device
that didn't sell like hotcakes. What could happen, when they release kind of a
dud (I'm not saying they did), is that they lose momentum.

~~~
DannoHung
I dunno, they could put out another iPod HiFi :D

------
sneak
It's really annoying that the only way to get LTE in Germany on these things
(and an iPhone5) is through the shittiest carrier ever.

Why is it so hard to build an iPad or iPhone that speaks LTE on 800MHz?

------
peterwwillis
I have nothing against Apple fans.

That said, if you own an iPhone 3G, an iPhone 4, an iPod, an iPod Mini, an
iPad, and then go and buy an iPad Mini, I am judging you.

------
smackfu
I'm surprised competitors haven't attacked the $129 3G upcharge more directly.
That seems like about $100 of profit right there.

------
taytus
I was so ready to buy this but a non-retina tablet at the end of 1012 sounds
like a big no no for me, I pass.

------
mokash
It's only a tiny but smaller. Should have called it the Slightly-smaller iPad
instead.

------
boh
I'm surprised there's so little talk about the new iMac. It's pretty amazing.

------
stinky613
The iPad mini looks like it could be the perfect remote for smart homes

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bitwize
No NFC. Less screen resolution than a Nexus 7. Lame.

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mdonahoe
Think they will make a larger iPad? 13" maybe?

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ashleyblackmore
Can't watch the videos on linux. Nice.

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sigzero
Not the "right price point" for me....

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billsix
But does it come with sandpaper?

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ahall
snooze.

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nirvana
I've been looking forward to this product since the rumors started. I've owned
iPads and iPhones and iPod touches.

The iPhone (original and 4S) were both great devices but too small. I could
carry them everywhere, but the reading and browsing experience was cramped, by
necessity of the small screen.

The iPad (original and Retina) are big, and lovely for reading and browsing,
but too big to hold with one hand. This really is an issue for me, the way I
sit when I'm reading... it ends up limiting my use of what otherwise would be
a fantastic device.

So, the mini seems perfect. Light enough to hold, big enough to get a
fantastic reading and browsing experience. I know it will be a little cramped
compared to the iPad (well, expect it will be, but the same resolution
original iPad was not cramped at all) but that's a fine tradeoff for being
able to use it, literally, everywhere.

I like that they decided to start at $329 with 16GB, about perfect pricing for
me. We spent over $650 on our retina iPad with LTE, and ended up not using the
LTE much at all.

For our startup, which is heavily involved in iOS, and all of us have iOS
devices, we will probably buy 2-3 of these minis.

In fact, I think I'm personally, done with the iPad and iPhone... I don't need
the phone part (which is why I've mostly bought iPod touches) .... only went
with it because the original iPad was not as portable as I'd like.

So, I'm totally stoked that this device is as it was rumored... I see no
downsides to it at all.

~~~
SoftwareMaven
I totally agree. I really like my iPad for a lot of things, but it has been
disappointing for pleasure reading of books because it is just too heavy.

Given that my primary use case will be reading, I now have to decide between a
Kindle Paperwhite or the iPad Mini, with the one additional input that my kids
would love to have another iPad in the house.

~~~
Littleme
I use a Kindle for reading simply because of the lack of distractions. On the
iPad I see notifications every time someone posts on Facebook, every time I
get a new e-mail... it's hard to lose myself in the book.

~~~
emp
Why don't you simply turn off notifications? Or even better, enabled the 'do
not disturb' mode in the settings app?

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bashzor
Funny how it's only 1.9 square centimeters larger than the iPhone 5, and I'm
guessing it lacks a call feature. Who does phone calls nowadays anyway right?
And this old iPod Touch is incredibly obsolete now anyway, nobody uses that
anymore.

