Mobile Technology

Apple announces the iPad mini

Apple announces the iPad mini
It's official: Apple has announced the long-rumored iPad mini
It's official: Apple has announced the long-rumored iPad mini
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It's official: Apple has announced the long-rumored iPad mini
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It's official: Apple has announced the long-rumored iPad mini
It's official: Apple has announced the long-rumored iPad mini
2/4
It's official: Apple has announced the long-rumored iPad mini
It's official: Apple has announced the long-rumored iPad mini
3/4
It's official: Apple has announced the long-rumored iPad mini
The iPad features black/slate and white/silver colors - just like the iPhone 5
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The iPad features black/slate and white/silver colors - just like the iPhone 5
View gallery - 4 images

It's official. At the California Theatre in San Jose, Apple has unveiled the iPad Mini. The smaller iPad marks the first expansion Apple has made to the iconic tablet's product line.

As expected, the iPad Mini sports a 7.9-inch 1024x768 display, with narrow bezels on the side. It doesn't quite have cutting edge specs, as its resolution and many of its internals are borrowed from the nearly two-year-old iPad 2.

Design

The iPad features black/slate and white/silver colors - just like the iPhone 5
The iPad features black/slate and white/silver colors - just like the iPhone 5

The iPad Mini's killer feature, then, may be its design. It sets new precedents for lightness and thinness, weighing a mere 0.68 lbs (308 grams) and measuring just 7.2 mm thick. That's 0.4 mm thinner than the iPhone 5, and just 1.1 mm thicker than the iPod touch 5G.

The iPad mini's design may lend itself more to the iPhone 5 than to the full-sized iPad. It comes in black/slate and white/silver color options, just like Apple's latest smartphone. Its back also appears to be made of the same aluminum as the iPhone 5.

Mysteries solved

It's official: Apple has announced the long-rumored iPad mini
It's official: Apple has announced the long-rumored iPad mini

After many of the tablet's details were leaked in advance, the biggest questions leading up to the event were the iPad Mini's name and price. Despite rumors about an iPad Air, Apple went with the oft-rumored iPad Mini moniker after all.

The pricing of the tablet was accurately predicted as well, starting at US$329 for the 16GB Wi-Fi only model. That puts it well above rivals like the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD (they both start at $200), so it will be interesting to see how they all sell over the holidays.

The iPad mini also got an updated 720p front-facing (FaceTime) camera, and Apple designed a new smart cover for the device. It foregoes the larger cover's aluminum hinges, placing the magnets instead on extensions of the accessory's material.

Broadcast news

It's official: Apple has announced the long-rumored iPad mini
It's official: Apple has announced the long-rumored iPad mini

For the first time in recent memory, Apple streamed a live broadcast the event. The keynote was broadcast on Apple TV and on Apple's website, provided you were visiting it on a Mac or iOS device with recent software. This was likely a move to help guarantee maximum pre-orders for the brand new product.

Source: Apple

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4 comments
4 comments
Fahrenheit 451
Going on twenty-nine years of being a Mac user, I no longer watch any of the fanfare after Jobs' death. Apple is not the same and its products are not the same. For the first time I'm looking to what others have to offer.
phissith
To Fahreheit 451
So, because Jobs is dead you no longer like Apple products? Really? I am no Apple fanboy, just curious that your decision coincide solely upon the man death!!
Fahrenheit 451
@phissith,
Jobs was Apple's showman/pitchman. So much so there will likely be no other to fill his shoes. The other reality is the by year's end consumers can "shop" again for products in the same category of each of Apple's products. Microsoft is awaking again; Google is growing its hardware/software. OS similarities are now when reach of each other. Yes, it's a great time for the consumer. Plus, an Apple-centric world is not a world I want to live in any longer....the world is about choices and the diversity choices yield.
Jon A.
But at least it has a high-end price.
Seriously, though, I like the 4:3 screen and the 1024x768 resolution, but the skinny bezels and price aren't impressing me.