8 ms·

IPad Mini production has kicked off

35 points by bootload 14y ago

navs 14y ago
A smaller iPhone the size of the current iPod Nano would be nice. I just can't figure out a solution to the keyboard input problem.
- unvs 14y ago
  Morse code!
- Newky 14y ago
  The onion have a solution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMQNvGilOVQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMQNvGilOVQ
- berntb 14y ago
  I have toyed with the idea of a chording keyboard. Either as an App or as a cover for an iPhone/Android. (Probably a thousand other people have had this idea, too. So the chording addition probably has been tried -- and don't work well.) I'd love a smaller iPhone. On the subject of a mini iPad without a retina display -- why do people care? The mini is probably a boring product to fill a market niche and make it harder for the competition. The (third/)new iPad's good display is so readable that even I can read books. A 7" screen will have problems showing a full size pdf, even if it was retina. There are other use cases like gaming, but... Meh.
  - protomyth 14y ago
    The 1024 x 768 in a 7" is fine, and one of the big use cases is people with small hands aka children.
    - hellweaver666 14y ago
      I'm actually waiting for a 7" iPad for my son. Have been since my 2 year old son decided my iPad is his favorite toy. He loves the thing, but it's just a bit too bulky for him to use comfortably. I was thinking about getting him a 7" Android tablet but he has so many apps and movies that he loves from the Apple store, he probably wouldn't be interested. We even tried a dedicated "kids" tablet in a shop, after 2 minutes he got so frustrated he threw it down and toddled off to look at the other toys. I think I've raised an Apple fan boy.
- stonemetal 14y ago
  Just give Siri some time then the keyboard problem will be solved by its removal.
  - bergie 14y ago
    I'm having a hard time thinking that people will really do everything by speaking at their computer. This may work if you drive a car alone, or have a private office, but in more public spaces the cacophony would be bad. And would you really want the whole train car to know the email you're writing? But we'll see, naysayers like me have been wrong before. I wrote some predictions of my own about the subject: http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/tablet-productivity/ http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/tablet-productivity/
    - stonemetal 14y ago
      And would you really want the whole train car to know the email you're writing? In the past I had the same sentiment about phone calls, but what people are willing to talk about on cell phones in public proves me wrong time and again. It certainly isn't ideal but people would probably do it if it meant their cell phone was the size of an ipod nano(I certainly don't see it being the main iPhone but the iPhone nano) or built in to their Google glasses.
  - arrrg 14y ago
    Never gonna happen, even if the speech recognition were without flaws. Talking to your device is not a viable input method whenever other people you do not want to disturb are around. That doesn’t make voice recognition useless (I think it’s very useful), but it also doesn’t make voice recognition a viable keyboard replacement.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
- ctdonath 14y ago
  Forget the keyboard. Those of us hauling an iPad everywhere don't need anything else except a minimal phone which is nothing more than a phone. The simple act of calling still hasn't been perfected the way Apple could do it, esp. if paired to a tablet. Give us an iPhone Nano which auto-syncs contact lists, displays call info on a tablet (if that's on), voice dials, VoIPs to non-POTS audio communications (say: uses Skype or FaceTime's audio to contact someone via email address), has dead-simple configuration, forgoes everything not related to making a voice (or perhaps video) call. Seriously, has anyone in the industry tried to get a "just a phone" that isn't an inch thick and downright obnoxious to use? Last time I did, the Verizon clerk had to dig thru the back storeroom to find a 3-year-old "candybar" phone (which tried setting itself on fire a few months later) of tolerable size & minimalism. Closest thing out there is is "John's Phone", which still screws up by insisting on doubling the size for storage space for a paper (!) pad and pencil (!). Please, Apple, an iPhone Nano. You're my only hope.
molmalo 14y ago
If this is true and it releases on October 17, just a few days before Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets hit the market on 10/26, some manufacturers might have just a week to adjust prices to react. I don't expect them to do it anyway, but it will be fun to watch the markets in a few weeks.
michaelfeathers 14y ago
Sounds nice, but the way the market in consumer electronics is going, it's about time for Apple to do something disruptive. This seems like a "me too" move, unless it has features we don't know about.
- mtgx 14y ago
  Maybe not, but a $300 iPad would be enough to completely screw with Windows 8 device manufacturers just before they start releasing those tablets, as most seem to start at double that price.
  - Shivetya 14y ago
    with a 5th generation iPod Touch costing 299 I do not see why they would price a "mini" iPad at the same price. Perhaps as a 16gb model as the 32gb Touch is 299.
    - arrrg 14y ago
      Why not? An iPod touch is an absolutely awful substitute for a 7" tablet. The two are not comparable and totally different products.
      - stonemetal 14y ago
        Yes, but is a 7" tablet a absolutely awful substitute for a iPod touch? It probably is since it wouldn't be as portable(who is going to strap a tablet to their arm to go running), but in the history of small, smaller, smallest iPods has the next size down ever been priced the same as its big brother? As far as I can remember the smaller ones have always been cheaper.
        arrrg 14y ago
        Because they were all iPods. Apple is very safe on that front, I think. Few if any people will even think to compare that.
spot 14y ago
so let's see we have iphone, retina, iphone5, ipad, ipad retina, and now mini ipad. does that count as fragmented?
- ctdonath 14y ago
  No. A product line of 3-5 products with minor variations each (with/without retina, 3 capacity sizes, two colors) is hardly "fragmented". Contrast, say, Sony's offerings.
pxlpshr 14y ago
So the iPad and iPhone are retina, but this iPad mini will not be retina? Surprised that a technology author would assume Apple would take a step backward like that.
- SquareWheel 14y ago
  Why do you think a retina display would be more likely?
  - ceejayoz 14y ago
    The most recent three generations of iPhone, one of iPad, one of Macbook Pro, and one of iPod touch have all been Retina. I looked at a 3GS the other day and had a "this display looks like shit, what's wrong?" moment before I remembered. That's not how Apple wants the first encounter with an iPad mini to go.
    - SquareWheel 14y ago
      It may be necessary if they want to hit a certain price point. Competitors are at the $200 mark and that's with razor thin margins. I understand that the screen is an expensive component and I wouldn't be surprised to see it be lower res, especially since it'd be marketed as a cheaper/lower tier device.
      - ceejayoz 14y ago
        Apple has consistently avoided cheaping out to compete in the lower-end market. Consumer and press response would probably be "Apple has fallen off the wagon, they're making crap now", not "Apple's moving into the lower-end market".
    - Avenger42 14y ago
      In all of these cases, Apple was introducing a retina display into an existing product; it served as a differentiator and reason to upgrade from a previous version. In addition, I'm unsure whether current 7" competitors (Kindle, Nook, Galaxy) have a display so much better than Apple's non-retina display that Apple would need to start out with a retina display just to stay level.
ilmare 14y ago
Been looking for ~7" tablet as reading device. 7.2-8" diagonal is about size of regular book printed on A5 (two pages on A4 as booklet) which I find good balance between portability and readability. Nexus 7 is almost perfect fit but has major issue(at least from what I've seen) - pdf rendering is very rough making reading/navigating books experience inconvenient. Hopefully rumored ipad mini would be better candidate, one worry though is no "retina"/high resolution which imo would be major drawback. Anyone could share experience of reading technical books/sci papers on nexus7?

35 points by bootload 14y ago

navs 14y ago

A smaller iPhone the size of the current iPod Nano would be nice. I just can't figure out a solution to the keyboard input problem.

unvs 14y ago
Morse code!
Newky 14y ago
The onion have a solution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMQNvGilOVQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMQNvGilOVQ
berntb 14y ago
I have toyed with the idea of a chording keyboard. Either as an App or as a cover for an iPhone/Android. (Probably a thousand other people have had this idea, too. So the chording addition probably has been tried -- and don't work well.) I'd love a smaller iPhone. On the subject of a mini iPad without a retina display -- why do people care? The mini is probably a boring product to fill a market niche and make it harder for the competition. The (third/)new iPad's good display is so readable that even I can read books. A 7" screen will have problems showing a full size pdf, even if it was retina. There are other use cases like gaming, but... Meh.
- protomyth 14y ago
  The 1024 x 768 in a 7" is fine, and one of the big use cases is people with small hands aka children.
  - hellweaver666 14y ago
    I'm actually waiting for a 7" iPad for my son. Have been since my 2 year old son decided my iPad is his favorite toy. He loves the thing, but it's just a bit too bulky for him to use comfortably. I was thinking about getting him a 7" Android tablet but he has so many apps and movies that he loves from the Apple store, he probably wouldn't be interested. We even tried a dedicated "kids" tablet in a shop, after 2 minutes he got so frustrated he threw it down and toddled off to look at the other toys. I think I've raised an Apple fan boy.
stonemetal 14y ago
Just give Siri some time then the keyboard problem will be solved by its removal.
- bergie 14y ago
  I'm having a hard time thinking that people will really do everything by speaking at their computer. This may work if you drive a car alone, or have a private office, but in more public spaces the cacophony would be bad. And would you really want the whole train car to know the email you're writing? But we'll see, naysayers like me have been wrong before. I wrote some predictions of my own about the subject: http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/tablet-productivity/ http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/tablet-productivity/
  - stonemetal 14y ago
    And would you really want the whole train car to know the email you're writing? In the past I had the same sentiment about phone calls, but what people are willing to talk about on cell phones in public proves me wrong time and again. It certainly isn't ideal but people would probably do it if it meant their cell phone was the size of an ipod nano(I certainly don't see it being the main iPhone but the iPhone nano) or built in to their Google glasses.
- arrrg 14y ago
  Never gonna happen, even if the speech recognition were without flaws. Talking to your device is not a viable input method whenever other people you do not want to disturb are around. That doesn’t make voice recognition useless (I think it’s very useful), but it also doesn’t make voice recognition a viable keyboard replacement.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
ctdonath 14y ago
Forget the keyboard. Those of us hauling an iPad everywhere don't need anything else except a minimal phone which is nothing more than a phone. The simple act of calling still hasn't been perfected the way Apple could do it, esp. if paired to a tablet. Give us an iPhone Nano which auto-syncs contact lists, displays call info on a tablet (if that's on), voice dials, VoIPs to non-POTS audio communications (say: uses Skype or FaceTime's audio to contact someone via email address), has dead-simple configuration, forgoes everything not related to making a voice (or perhaps video) call. Seriously, has anyone in the industry tried to get a "just a phone" that isn't an inch thick and downright obnoxious to use? Last time I did, the Verizon clerk had to dig thru the back storeroom to find a 3-year-old "candybar" phone (which tried setting itself on fire a few months later) of tolerable size & minimalism. Closest thing out there is is "John's Phone", which still screws up by insisting on doubling the size for storage space for a paper (!) pad and pencil (!). Please, Apple, an iPhone Nano. You're my only hope.

molmalo 14y ago

If this is true and it releases on October 17, just a few days before Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets hit the market on 10/26, some manufacturers might have just a week to adjust prices to react. I don't expect them to do it anyway, but it will be fun to watch the markets in a few weeks.

michaelfeathers 14y ago

Sounds nice, but the way the market in consumer electronics is going, it's about time for Apple to do something disruptive. This seems like a "me too" move, unless it has features we don't know about.

mtgx 14y ago
Maybe not, but a $300 iPad would be enough to completely screw with Windows 8 device manufacturers just before they start releasing those tablets, as most seem to start at double that price.
- Shivetya 14y ago
  with a 5th generation iPod Touch costing 299 I do not see why they would price a "mini" iPad at the same price. Perhaps as a 16gb model as the 32gb Touch is 299.
  - arrrg 14y ago
    Why not? An iPod touch is an absolutely awful substitute for a 7" tablet. The two are not comparable and totally different products.
    - stonemetal 14y ago
      Yes, but is a 7" tablet a absolutely awful substitute for a iPod touch? It probably is since it wouldn't be as portable(who is going to strap a tablet to their arm to go running), but in the history of small, smaller, smallest iPods has the next size down ever been priced the same as its big brother? As far as I can remember the smaller ones have always been cheaper.
      - arrrg 14y ago
        Because they were all iPods. Apple is very safe on that front, I think. Few if any people will even think to compare that.

spot 14y ago

so let's see we have iphone, retina, iphone5, ipad, ipad retina, and now mini ipad. does that count as fragmented?

ctdonath 14y ago
No. A product line of 3-5 products with minor variations each (with/without retina, 3 capacity sizes, two colors) is hardly "fragmented". Contrast, say, Sony's offerings.

pxlpshr 14y ago

So the iPad and iPhone are retina, but this iPad mini will not be retina? Surprised that a technology author would assume Apple would take a step backward like that.

SquareWheel 14y ago
Why do you think a retina display would be more likely?
- ceejayoz 14y ago
  The most recent three generations of iPhone, one of iPad, one of Macbook Pro, and one of iPod touch have all been Retina. I looked at a 3GS the other day and had a "this display looks like shit, what's wrong?" moment before I remembered. That's not how Apple wants the first encounter with an iPad mini to go.
  - SquareWheel 14y ago
    It may be necessary if they want to hit a certain price point. Competitors are at the $200 mark and that's with razor thin margins. I understand that the screen is an expensive component and I wouldn't be surprised to see it be lower res, especially since it'd be marketed as a cheaper/lower tier device.
    - ceejayoz 14y ago
      Apple has consistently avoided cheaping out to compete in the lower-end market. Consumer and press response would probably be "Apple has fallen off the wagon, they're making crap now", not "Apple's moving into the lower-end market".
  - Avenger42 14y ago
    In all of these cases, Apple was introducing a retina display into an existing product; it served as a differentiator and reason to upgrade from a previous version. In addition, I'm unsure whether current 7" competitors (Kindle, Nook, Galaxy) have a display so much better than Apple's non-retina display that Apple would need to start out with a retina display just to stay level.

ilmare 14y ago

Been looking for ~7" tablet as reading device. 7.2-8" diagonal is about size of regular book printed on A5 (two pages on A4 as booklet) which I find good balance between portability and readability. Nexus 7 is almost perfect fit but has major issue(at least from what I've seen) - pdf rendering is very rough making reading/navigating books experience inconvenient. Hopefully rumored ipad mini would be better candidate, one worry though is no "retina"/high resolution which imo would be major drawback. Anyone could share experience of reading technical books/sci papers on nexus7?