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Thoughts On the iPad Mini
John Gruber at Daring Fireball has a thoughtful piece about the design of Apple's smaller iPad, which the company is expected to announce on September 12. Simply shrinking the current iPad's dimensions to a new form factor is unlikely, he says, and the bezel surrounding the display is more likely to be a cross between an iPad and an iPhone. He also discusses evidence of Apple's PR team getting the rumor mill going immediately after the announcement of Google's Nexus 7, and how Apple has probably bet on having a thinner and lighter tablet than Google, rather than worrying about a better display. Quoting:
"Apple product designs are true to themselves. Each thing has proportions suited to its own nature. Consider how the iPad doesn’t look like a blown up iPhone. They share a few similar design elements — a family resemblance, if you will — but the proportions are different. The iPad has a thick bezel surrounding all four sides of the display; the iPhone does not. Why? Because you need a place to rest your thumbs while holding an iPad. ... Should not the iPad Mini fall somewhere in between? Not as close to the aspect ratio of its display as the iPad-as-we-know-it, but also not as far away from its display aspect ratio as the iPhone. You might need more thumb-rest room on the sides than you do on the iPhone, but not nearly as much as you do on the full-size iPad. If that assumption is right, the proportions of a 7.85-inch 4:3-aspect-ratio display iPad Mini are likely not the same as the proportions of the 9.7-inch 4:3-aspect-ratio display iPad."
Hmmmmm. It's true -- some people do prefer 7" over 9".
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
It's a smaller iPad. Tiny differences about bezels don't matter, we all know what to expect here. The only question is the price - how much of a premium is this going to be over a Nexus 7?
I think it is fair to say we don't know anything. Gruber along with everyone else is just guessing. His point about this not shipping in September but being announced in September is a good one, we don't know enough so this isn't a few weeks from going on sale. October/November sale date seems more likely.
Here are the resolutions:
iPad 1/2: 1024 x 768
iPad 3: 2048 x 1536 (doubled)
iPhone 4S: 640 x 960
iPhone 5 (rumor): 640 x 1136
earlier iPhone: 320 x 480
I'm going with a bigger version of the iPhone 5 resolution. 1136x640 is close to what the original iPad had, allows for a cheap screen, doesn't require developers to support yet another resolution... But no one really knows.
The other big question for September is whether there will be a 13" inch retina macbook pro.
Here's a thought. How about just waiting until September 12th to see what they actually release? Maybe take the extra time you'd be wasting on speculation to get some actual work done.
If everyone took all the time they waste on speculating on future Apple products and the 2012 U.S. Election and actually did some useful work, the economy would recover in a week.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
It's not a slashvertisement. It's an opinion piece about a rumoured product. TFA is a well written opinion piece, but that's all it is, you should read it. Your post on the other hand is whining in tone. If googles products are good enough, they won't have the slightest thing to worry about.
Perhaps you could write something interesting on the subject, instead of whining. Perhaps that's too difficult for you.
Just like anything about Apple, people make up rumor based on what the rest of the market is doing or past behavior. Every year there have been rumor of an iPad mini and before phone with XL screen like the Galaxy were successful there were rumor of iPhone nano.
Sure I like a good piece of tech gossip, but analysis based on opinions about rumors that will inevitably end up in ePenis fight between Android and Apple fanboys are getting tiring.
Some people are even actively mocking that state of affair: http://day4.se/how-we-screwed-almost-the-whole-apple-community/
Skinny jeans might be all the rage among hipsters these days but us normal people can easily fit a cellphone in a pants pocket. Where the hell are you carrying yours? In your "it's not a purse, it's European!"?
I would have figured at least 1/3 of the crowd here would be sporting a utility kilt. You can carry a netbook in those.
Less thumb space? You either need your thumb on the front of it to hold it in one hand, or you need it on the side. It's not like you can use a smaller thumb if the device is smaller... Phones are typically held with the thumb and fingers opposing each other on the sides of the device, whereas the larger pad devices are held with the thumb and fingers opposing each other on the front and back of the device.
This just sounds like an invitation for complaints and more "You're holding it wrong" responses.
I think Apple would be happy with 10% unit share and 75% profit share in the mobile market, not that unit share matters a bit to Apple if history is any guide. They are always focused on the profit. Always.
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
This, by far, is the most uninteresting article I've read in ages. Seriously, how much more non-newsworthy can it get? It ranks somewhere between soap-gossip and determining the mathematical function that most closely approximates the shape of my toe nails.
So informed speculation about the biggest change to one of the most innovative products to hit the tech scene in a decade isn't news for nerds at all? If this thing is released it'll probably redefine the Christmas gaming scene and have a huge impact on the eReader and educational computing market. Yes, this is newsworthy, even if you as an individual don't want to read it.
E pluribus unum
The kilt itself doesn't have pockets, it's the "Sporran" (Scottish Gaelic for "purse", it is the progenitor of the "murse," the jockstrap cup and the pocket protector) that is worn in front of the kilt that serves as the pocket. I expect it's only a matter of time before Belkin and Griffin make a $50 piece of plastic you can snap your iPad into to hang in front of your crotch from a cord, making it conveniently placed when sitting down or quickly accessible by simply flipping up when standing... also useful as an electronic billboard in public spaces for featuring paid advertisements or dubious national pride statements, such as: "A true Scotsman wears nothing beneath his kilt."
To be honest, the Nexus 7 blows the iPad out of the water. The Nexus 7 is the best tablet device I've ever gotten my hands on, for less than half the price of an iPad.
It also has a lower resolution, less storage, a smaller battery and less app for it.
It's more customizable, easier to get content, and with the soft back - easier to hold.
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/Google-Nexus-7,Apple-iPad-3/phones/7143,5715
More customizable? I guess you need to fiddle with it because it comes setup so poorly and you have to do something out of boredom whereas iPad users "use" their devices. I can customize the lockscreen background, wallpaper, notifications and alert sounds. What more do I need? I could also jailbreak it if I really wanted to do more tweaking but I prefer stability and security over futzing around. Content? Yeah, as long and the music is in MP3 format whereas the iPad supports MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WAV, M4A (Apple lossless). For video, the iPad also supports more formats and third party apps easily support additional formats. Games and apps are more plentiful on the IPad as well.
Services are more integrated than the iPad, IMHO, you could get by fine without having a computer to sync up with the Nexus 7.
What services? Google services? What if I don't want to use Google+? You can get by without syncing to a computer on an iPad since the release of iOS 5.0.
With the Nexus 7 you can download Torrent clients and apps such as Music Paradise to get all of your content, while there really isn't any alternative to the iTunes store with the iPad unless you root it.
Oh, I get it, you mean pirated shit. I thought you meant quality content.
Google Now works very well, I rarely type things in because the voice recognition is so accurate.
The Nexus 7 is a very nice device. I don't see why anyone would choose an iPad over the Nexus 7 right now.
How much did you get paid for that post Mr. Google shill? Yeah, why would anyone choose an iPad with its higher resolution and more apps and commercial games when you can get a device with less apps and less storage.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
And a swimming pool is just a supersized bathtub.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Nexus 7 is 1280x800
With that in mind, I doubt that Apple would go for a lower resolution.