“We received a number of tips over the last few weeks from sources that we have reason to believe hold knowledge about Apple’s plans on the upcoming iPad mini,” Seth Weintraub reports for 9to5Mac.
“A reoccurring theme of late is that the iPad mini will ‘look like a big iPod touch’ with smaller bezels along the sides in portrait mode and separate volume buttons and not a ‘rocker’ and a mic on the back,” Weintraub reports. “We were not confident enough to post the above information alone, but the very reliable John Gruber chimes in today with many of the same bits of information.”
Weintraub reports, “The lack of bezel on the side will not allow you to carry it like you hold a full-size iPad when in portrait mode without triggering some multi-touch on the display. Perhaps Apple has some software to dull the side touches when in portrait mode. But, really, this is unnecessary. You will need to hold it from the back more like you hold a phone… When held in a landscape mode, however, you cannot get your hand around the back. You will hold it like an iPad—using the bezels— and it will be better for gaming with two hands.”
More info (camera(s), LTE, launch date) and a large gallery of additional images the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If anything close to the image above is released, Amazon’s and Google’s efforts will have been for naught. Apple will immediately own the “low-end” tablet market, too, even if they price “iPad mini” at a premium. The difference between a 7-inch screen at 16:9 and a 7.85-inch screen at 4:3 is huge. Imagine if Apple somehow also managed to pack an “iPad mini” with a Retina display (264 ppi or higher)! Even, if not, at that size (7.85-inch, 3:4), an iPad 2-quality display (132 ppi) would be more than fine vs. other tablets on the market and for the foreseeable future.
How many people hold in portrait view as oppossed to landscape? I know the only time I hold my iPad in Portrait view is when the app won’t let me hold in any other way. I’ve turn off orientation spin. Landscape is my standard preference of usung and viewing on the iPad.
I use portrait 90% of the time. Landscape only for games.
and videos…
me too, Gk…virtually the only time I use landscape is to watch a movie.
An “iPad mini” could probably get away with a thinner portrait-side bezel. IIRC the reason the bezel is that big on the 10″ iPad is that you almost have to hold it in place with your thumb square on the bezel surface.
A 7″ pad should be light enough to hold comfortably for longer periods in one hand, with thumb and that part of the palm resting just on the thin bezel and clear of the screen.
Music app is much better in landscape.
Huge fail for MDN here. The 7 inch vs 7.85 inch display has nothing to do with 16:9 or 4:3 ratio. The ratio is simply determind by the display resolution or number of pixels. We have been hearing about a 7.85 iPad for months and at the same time we have also been hearing about a display resolution that would make it clearly be a 16:9 device. If Apple makes the move to increase the length of the new iPhone it will clearly be to make the resolution of the display match a 16:9 ratio to make Apples push into HD content even more successful and in line. If Apple is entering the TV market which is already at 16:9, then altering their devices so the OS and apps also use this ratio is a must. The ultimate goal here by Apple is for the OS and Apps to be universal to create a seamless experience. Apple realizes they will get a better response from developers if it is just a matter of upscaling or downscaling content rather than changes ratios all over the places. Within the next 2 years by the time Apple’s Television or Set top box does what they plan on doing, we will see a huge shift in strategy from the iOS realm to 16:9 ratio. I bet MDN $100 on this
“We have been hearing about a 7.85 iPad for months and at the same time we have also been hearing about a display resolution that would make it clearly be a 16:9 device.”
Uhm, I’ll take the $100 bet. Where have you been hearing that this will be a 16:9 device? A 4:3 is exactly what all 3 generations of iPad already are. The point of 7.85″ was that the new device could maintain the 4:3 ratio with 1024×768 pixels at the exact same pixel pitch. The manufacturers don’t need to make new screen panels, they can use the same panels, just cut to size.
You are right and I concede. I was thinking of the display resolution for the new iPhone. My wager was on everything becoming 16:9 over the next two years. Which I am still betting on.
I disagree. When the original iPad was introduced, the point was made that it can be held in both orientations naturally. 16:9 cannot make the same claim. 16:9 in portrait looks and feels awkward, and begs to be landscape. Also, at that orientation, the keyboard becomes overbearing or some applications. Only 4:3 offers a truly orientation neutral device.
If your making a consumption device, then perhaps 16:9 works. But for universal use, 4:3 trumps it. Give me a more versatile device and letterbox the occasional video I want to watch.
I’d buy one the day it was released.
iPad mini, here I come!
Of course a ‘Ballmer’ would want to encourage Apple to invest into a dead end market.
Your comments always annoy me, Derek. Apple goes where there is no market and makes one out of it. There was nothing like the iPhone before it came out. Now that’s what every phone looks like. There was nothing even remotely close to the iPod before it was released. Stop saying it’s a dead end market, when it isn’t even a market,
Hello, anonymous coward ‘Madadelic’ whoever you really are. My comments are supposed to always annoy the annoying. That is my agenda. Target, meet arrow. THWANG! Bullseye!
Now for some facts and fun:
Apple goes where there is no market and blahblahblah
I’ve read this dopey argument before. I already ripped it to shreads. The ~7″ WhateverPad market continues to have NO proof of profit. NONE. All it has is:
hype
Hype
HYPE
HYPE
HYPE!
What is hype good for? Propaganda, aka NOTHING AT ALL. It is merely a manipulation tactic. In this case, apparently the point is to lure Apple into a bogus ‘market’ where they can waste R&D as well as manufacturing and marketing money.
Go read what Steve Jobs said about the ~7″ tablet market about a dozen more times. Maybe it will finally sink in. THEN go read the market figures for the OtherPads that have been attempted to be sold into the ~7″ market and note how their sales fit Steve Job’s statements perfectly. Then imagine Apple selling a ~7″ iPad into that bogus market and it FAILing to make a profit, aas Steve Jobs had predicted. OOPS!
Meanwhile, after that FAIL, anonymous coward hype mongers like you sit back and go ‘oh well!’ and move on unscathed. Apple meanwhile has been SCREWED! thanks to all the HYPE!!!
IOW: As a HYPE monger, you are either deluded are a mere troll.
And yes, I realize that eating hats is not good for one’s digestion. Nonetheless, all of the above remains the case until proven otherwise. tick-tick-tick… WAITING! tick-tick-tick…
And no, HYPE monger, we are NOT talking about the ~7″ eReader market. An iPad is NOT an eReader. It’s a full blown computer. The eReader market ≠ the iPad market. Say that over and over and over until you figure out what it means.
Is there a market for the ~7″ eReader? YES. Would there be a market for a $199 ~7″ iPad Mini? OH YEAH BABY! But would Apple pull a Microsoft/Amazon move and buy market share by selling a ~7″ iPad Mini at a HUGE LOSS? I don’t think so. Dream on. dream on…
I’m wasting my time with the likes of you, aren’t I? Hype on. hype on…
zzzzzz
Wow. This makes a whole lot of sense, totally unthinkable.
Apple will again rewrite the rules. And this time no stupid copying will ensue, too obvious if anyone did.
I’m still unconvinced. Report after report suggests that sales of smaller tablets are dire. An iPad mini would inevitably cannibalise the current iPad. I just don’t see it in the near future, but of course I might be proved wrong.
Not without precedent. If (if!) there’s a significant demand for lighter 7″ tablets and Apple doesn’t deliver, then every 7″ Android tablet sold is a lost 10″ iPad sale, too.
Granted, Apple hasn’t cared about this in the desktop/laptop market, but as everyone should know, tablets *are* a different ballgame so business logic of one market doesn’t necessarily apply to the other.
Huh. That’s funny, Samsung is going to launch one of them there iPaddies that happens to look the same. Assgooks.
What is the ppi of the iPad 2 display when you shrink it down to the iPad mini size? Not a morning for math, but I think it makes for a reasonably high ppi
The same ppi as the iPad 1 & 2, unless they go retina on us.
The iPad mini is so beautiful.
Even more beautiful will be the calling out of MDN commenters who swore it would never come.
You do realize that that is an artist’s rendering above?
16:9 screens are good for 16:9 video/film, but 4:3 is the best for all the apps out there.
i think apps in 16:9 screens are just visually stressing. I hope apple stay supporting 4:3 adpect ratio in ios devices
4:3 is much better for internet browsing too.
After reading up on this development, I think I just fell even more in love with the iPad mini.
I was worried that the overall footprint of the 7.85 inch device would make it a tad too wide compared to the Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, etc. but the thinner bezels on the side idea completely negates that fear. We’re talking a device with the overall footprint of a Nexus 7 but with a larger 4:3 screen and full iPad tablet apps. And it just so happens to be remarkably thinner and lighter than a full sized iPad. My God, it will be a master stroke. Apple has finally cracked the smaller tablet puzzle.
Also, as Gruber says, this is really more like the iPad air than the iPad mini. It’s about creating that ultra thin, ultra light tablet experience that I’ve been dreaming about the past couple years, not just making it smaller. OMG I can’t wait!
http://9to5mac.com/2012/08/14/ipad-mini-will-look-like-a-large-ipod-touch-with-smaller-side-bezels-gallery/
http://daringfireball.net/2012/08/ipad_mini_even_througher
Whoops, my mistake, that first link should be this one:
http://www.imore.com/ipad-mini-smaller-bezel-incredibly-thin-and-light?style_mobile=0
I’m still dubious of the idea. The “small tablet” market is fairly robust with many competitors and is dominated by devices that are basically e-readers… unlike the “full-sized” tablet market (before the iPad) which was basically non-existent. People have been buying those devices for years and years, for primarily one purpose… to read with.
People talk about the iPad as a consuming device vs. a creation device, but what the iPad really is… is a general purpose device. Less than a computer, more than a smart phone.
Making a smaller version to compete with what are essentially consumption devices doesn’t make a lot of sense, particularly when that market space is already well served.
However, after thinking about it, I realized there is one particular market space where the existing iPad is really too big, bulky and heavy for its primary users, and where a smaller form-factored, general purpose device would be perfect. A market where those primary users have smaller hands and fingers.
Education.
I can see an iPad mini being called the iPad E, the ePad, or even something else before seeing it called the iPad mini or iPad Air.
zzzzzz…
WOT? Oh, more 7″ iPad ‘mini’ rumor BS?
zzzzzz
for me, it willl be my primary computing device. my phone will be relegated once again to just making phone calls and maybe some email..