On Tuesday, Apple introduced a number of new products at a high profile media event in San Jose, California. Among those was the refreshed, fourth generation iPad, and the all new iPad mini.
The two tablets won't be available for another week or so, but last night, Apple posted schematics for them to its website. We've got the fourth gen iPad above, and the iPad mini after the fold...
After two years of sitting on the sidelines, Sprint will finally be landing the iPad this fall. Once they become available, the carrier will be offering LTE versions of both the new iPad and the iPad mini.
And it looks like it has some new data plans to go with the new tablets. The company announced last night that starting November 11, it will be offering new 4G tablet data plans starting as low $15...
Pundits were flabbergasted when Apple didn't price the iPad mini at $199 to go for the kill. At $329, the iPad mini is a $130 more than seven-inch tablets from Google and Amazon, both starting at just $199. Furthermore, Amazon's 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD with a higher-resolution display than the iPad mini is still thirty bucks cheaper than Apple's gizmo.
On the other hand, Apple is good at these things and it's outrages to assume the company somehow got the price wrong. Analysts are convinced the $329 iPad mini is an absolute homerun. Certainly the device does appear to protect Apple's price umbrella by making the iPad more enticing to budget shoppers while forcing rivals to scrape the bottom of the barrel. Taking it all in, would you buy an iPad mini at Apple's current price points?
Is Apple getting ready to discontinue the iPod touch, now that the Cupertino, California firm has a bevy of low-priced alternatives, including the just-announced iPad mini? That's the opinion of one analyst who has correctly predicted the demise of other Apple products. The iPod touch "has entered the final stage of its product life cycle," according to Ming-Chi Kuo, analyst with KGI Securities. He also believes Apple "will not invest significantly in developing future models"...
iPhone5Mod previously released an interesting iPhone 5 Flash Lightning Dock, its first unauthorized Lightning-equipped accessory, and recently announced a nice backplate replacement for your iPhone 5. Today, they're launching three new Lightning accessories set to ship November 3. Of course, these unsanctioned cables and adapters lure with low prices that significantly undercut Apple's comparable offerings (think a 50 percent discount or more). We've got more information and nice promo clips right past the fold...
Analysts are fawning over Apple's new iPad mini, one describing the smaller tablet as "an absolute home run." Although investors concerned over the $329 price tag briefly sent shares of the Cupertino, Calif. firm down, Wall Street dismissed the worries.
"Due to the high quality of the hardware, we expect the device will be very well received by consumers once they have an opportunity to test it," Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore said.
Although Whitmore described the iPad mini as "a modest disappointment," he said the new iPad includes features "richer than we anticipated."
I have long insisted that Android people (lots of them, but not all) aren't accustomed to pay for quality because Google envision Android as an ad-supported ecosystem, an extension of its business philosophy on the web. Some Apple fans were taken aback when Apple priced the iPad mini at $329 rather than $249 or even $199. While analysts believe the current price defends the iPad ecosystem from above and have no doubt the gizmo will be a smash hit, Apple's head honcho of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller went on the record to defend the iPad mini's price tag, here's what came out of him...
Per rumors, Apple yesterday alongside the iPad mini, a revamped iMac, refreshed Mac mini and the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro also took the wraps off some new Lightning accessories that will be of note to people who want to show off their presentations, apps, games and more on devices that accept HDMI or VGA input.
Each adapter commands a steep $49 price and is available now from the online Apple Store, with shipping estimates already slipped to a 2-3 week backorder. Apple also put on sale a more powerful USB iPad charger that now provides twelve watts of power instead of ten, helping with faster charge times...
In case you were not able to watch the iPad mini keynote live as it was happening yesterday, Apple made the video available for streaming on its website shortly after. But for those of you who don't want to be tied to a wifi network in order to watch the keynote, you'll be happy to learn that the whole iPad mini event is now available as a podcast download from iTunes...
Folks interested in purchasing Apple's new iPad mini may want to make sure and order one as soon as possible when pre-orders go live this Friday. Word is, one of Apple's suppliers for the tablet is having problems meeting its yield rates, and this could lead to a shortage of iPad mini stock...
Remember that cool TV spot Apple played during its media event yesterday? The one that featured a full-sized iPad and an iPad mini playing a duet in piano apps? Well it hit YouTube just a little bit ago, and is now available for your viewing pleasure...
Well, that's all folks. Apple's highly anticipated iPad mini event has come, and gone. All announcements have been made, all new products have been unveiled, and now the day is coming to a close.
A lot has happened in the past 14 hours, with new tablets, computers and software all making an appearance during today's event. And we understand that it might have been difficult to keep track of it all.
That's why we've put together this awesome roundup of everything important that happened today. Here's everything you need to know about the iPad mini event...