Apple's lineup is getting so confusing. The iPad Mini is praised by a lot of Apple enthusiasts but for me it just adds more chaos to their product lineup. Which tablet supports which pen? Can I connect my iPad to my Macbook using the included cables? Do I charge with USB-C or lightning? Does my device support 3D touch? What's the difference between an iPad and an iPad Air? What's the difference between the Macbook and the Macbook Air and why is the Air thicker? Does my Mac have a T2 chip (the new iMacs don't). Can I get my device of choice with 128GB (only the XR, not the XS). There's too much segmentation and I think it's appropriate to ask whether this would've happened under Steve. If I can't keep up with this mess, how do they expect non-tech people to do so?
This may sound crazy, but I would consider my iPad Mini 4 (with cellular) to be my primary computing device.<p>To be fair, I have multiple desktop computers, laptops, and servers in my house. And for work we each get a development laptop and a desktop with multiple monitors. So I'm no luddite by any stretch.<p>But it fits in the front pocket of a pair of Dockers type pants. Meaning, I often leave my phone at home and carry just my iPad.<p>It travels with me to work and home. I bring it to meetings instead of my laptop, unless I am coding. I leave it open to skype so that conversations don't break my typing flow.<p>It sits in front of my computer while I am home playing youtube. I bring it onto the front porch on a cool evening for kindle and carcassonne. And it goes with me to the hot tub.<p>I originally bought it as a travel companion device. But found it fit so well, that I just carry it with me pretty much anywhere.
> It has the same A12 CPU ... with 3 GB of RAM on the <i>system-on-a-chip</i><p>Actually that's <i>package-on-package</i>. The LPDDR4X DRAM is glued (well, reflow soldered) to the back of the A12 Bionic.<p><a href="https://www.techinsights.com/about-techinsights/overview/blog/apple-iphone-xs-teardown/" rel="nofollow">https://www.techinsights.com/about-techinsights/overview/blo...</a><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_on_package" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_on_package</a>
There's an acute problem with using the iPad Mini that no one has yet mentioned here. The text is too damn small unless you have perfect eyesight. For example, Hacker News in Safari on the Mini appears in a super tiny font. If you pinch-zoom, the edges of the page roll off the screen, and you'd be constantly panning left and right. I've tried extensions that increase the font size on web pages -- they all have some failing, like making the letters run together or messing up tables.<p>I'll grant that this is not the fault of the iPad Mini itself. I blame web standards and browsers for not requiring all parts of a page to scale linearly and re-flow cleanly. It is (in theory) a problem solvable entirely by software. However, the reality of the web is what it is. If you don't have perfect eyesight, it's better to buy a large iPad with the same resolution as the Mini, and then everything is nice and legible. It's a shame because I love the portability of the Mini.
I love that someone finally made a small 8" 4:3 tablet again - it seems like the perfect form factor for reading. Right now I'm still using my aging Galaxy Tab S2, but it's software support has ended.<p>The only serious annoyance I have is the lack of USB-C... all my other devices (laptop, phone, headphones, etc.) are on that new port now and I only have to carry a single charger. Except for the tablet :(
Wish they'd come out with an iPhone Mini! That is, back to the 5/SE roots. I love the iPad Mini but it doesn't really have a space in my repertoire alongside my SE and Watch.
So what is the nomenclature for these things now? Apple keeps calling them the "New" i-X, which gets me confused with the last one they released that they called the "new" one, and eventually we settled on some kind of retroactive name for it like "Retina i-X" or "i-X (20XX)".
I feel like the mini is way underrated and I was worried they would cancel it. My mini is my favorite device. I'm excited to trade in my old one for a new one.
> The iPad Mini hits a sweet spot: it’s way bigger than any phone and way smaller than any laptop.<p>Yeah, I bought a One Mix Yoga 2S for that purpose. I understand the need for pure tablets for some but you can't beat that little powerhouse of a laptop-tablet. The hardware practically matches up with the latest Macbook Air -- Amber Lake Core CPU, 8GB RAM, NVMe SSD. It's 7". I love, love, love it for emergency purposes. Not an everyday workhorse but if you are on call ... beats hauling a 14" laptop everywhere for those once-in-a-half-year emergencies.
I've been eyeing a tablet for a while. Unfortunately, the pickings with Android are rather slim, so that really only leaves the iPad. I haven't bought the iPad (6th gen) due to it only having 2gb of ram, but maybe the Mini is right for me.
$3xx - iPad 9.7<p>$4xx - iPad Mini 7.9<p>$5xx - iPad Air 10.5<p>Is it just me, or is the small cheap one to give to the kids, or keep around as the 'spare iPad', missing from the lineup? Even if it was just 20 or 30 bucks less than the current iPad 9.7 ?
I used to read Gruber often, but I feel his reviews especially grew stale and uninformative, well written but plain. Also, he’s quite late to a lot of stuff while not adding enough insights to justify being that late.
I think I changed in the way I read Apple-related news, so maybe he has always been like that and it’s just my perception that shifted?
Either way, I think I just don’t want to spend my time reading one-company pundits.
(He usually gets any other company’s doings so shallowly wrong, it’s embarrassing)
No FaceID? TouchID often failed. never works with wet fingers, for example.<p>I’ve also gotten used to saying “Hey Siri, my weather” as I pick up my phone then looking at my screen to unlock.<p><pre><code> “open New York Times”
“open Wall Street Journal”
“open CNBC’
</code></pre>
I should look into Siri shortcuts. I’d like a “Hey Siri, Hacker News”<p>[Update]<p>Done! Siri was ready with Hacker News as a suggestion.<p>I noticed on another device, even without a shortcut, I can say “open the website Hacker News”