$329 for ipad mini

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

Yep. He made some comment about requiring a user of a smaller tablet to have sandpaper handy to sand down fingers for using a smaller screen.

Of course, he also maintained that 3.5 inches was the perfect smartphone screen size, and now there's an iPhone with a bigger screen now that he's gone.

Lemur, don't you realize that Mr Jobs is dead and gone, and now that their champion is missing, many Apple "myths" are also dead and going fast.

Relax man. "It's a whole new exciting world out there."

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by WillysJeepMan

For starters, where can you find a Nexus 7 with an aluminum unibody?

Does anyone need one?
Various metals, various composites, various woods? As long as they do the job.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by mewmartigan

I'm not a big fan of Apple (except for their outstanding MacBook Pro line) and I am really surprised the price is that high with all the older components in it.

Doesn't matter though....half the folks that line up will probably buy an iPad 4 and an ipad Mini and use their iPad 3 while waiting in line. Never underestimate the Apple faithful!

There is a lot of comradeship built up in those long lines. Sorta like "old home week."

[wizwor]

Originally Posted by WillysJeepMan

For starters, where can you find a Nexus 7 with an aluminum unibody?

There you go -- aluminum body is a game changer. How about where can you find a Nexus with an apple logo?

I find it interesting that the same people who damned the Fire as a media consumption device love a device described this way...

It appears that this is more for content consumption than creation. It’s particularly excellent for gaming, reading a magazine or a book, and running iWork apps.

I had been led to believe 7" was too small for magazines and comic books. What a difference an icon makes!?!

Meanwhile, Staples is bundling the similarly spec'd FireHD for $200 with a $20 gift card this weekend -- about half the price of the mini. No aluminum case, but you can buy Apple logo stickers on ebay for about $2, so I'm in

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by wizwor

Meanwhile, Staples is bundling the similarly spec'd FireHD for $200 with a $20 gift card this weekend -- about half the price of the mini. No aluminum case, but you can buy Apple logo stickers on ebay for about $2, so I'm in

[JoHunt]

Just a caveat to those who are considering buying: this device may be obsolete in 6 months as Apple will find some reason or other to "refresh" it.

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

Does anyone need one?
Various metals, various composites, various woods? As long as they do the job.

Some king of tungsten-carbide alloy to make it dog proof would be nice

[Chi Cygni]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

Lemur, don't you realize that Mr Jobs is dead and gone, and now that their champion is missing, many Apple "myths" are also dead and going fast.

Relax man. "It's a whole new exciting world out there."

I think Lemur knows as I know. I was just, well mourning is too strong a word, pondering on the loss of a visionary.

[Kai Winters]

Overpriced and still too large for me.

[Aidan]

I have to admit that I don't understand apple's thinking for this, the IPad mini is essentially the IPad 2 with a smaller screen, 2 year old technology. This would be fine if it was priced accordingly say $229 or $250, if it was not priced significantly higher than the nexus and the Fire HD it would destroy them.

The other sensible option would have been to make it a premium device, build it around a retina screen and A6 or A6X. Apple have proved people will spend extra for high end devices and this would have been the best small tablet on the market and would have sold a lot even at $350.

What they've done is built a device between these two options with compromises made to keep the price down without compromising on the profit margin. As the tech guy for family/friends I won't be telling anyone to buy this device. I mean even if you really want this form factor does anyone doubt they'll be a mini retina in 6 months, a year at the outside?

[Prestidigitweeze]

Apple kit can be a bit like a fine artist's version of a chair: Gorgeous to look at, revelatory in its minimalism, and even refreshing to play with for a time. But in the end it can prove to be a costly deviation from practicality that ends with the user needing to return to a normal chair.

Still, I think it's too easy to discount the experience of using the Mini in the name of pure specs and brand aversion.

I don't feel I'm in a position to judge the Mini because I haven't actually used it. Apple has a way of seeming worse on the page than in the hand, which is one reason people always laugh at their newest devices and wrongly predict they'll fail. (That's almost as delusional as lining up to pay to be a beta tester for an overpriced electronic device which still has bugs -- Apple at launch, but a lot of other companies, too.)

The Mini does sound under-spec'd for the current market, esp. considering the ironic position Apple's in this time: following as opposed to initiating or spinning a trend. It's also underwhelming considering what's about to happen to iPad 3 pricing and the availability of Apple-refurbished 3s. If I were interested in a tablet with a Retina display, I'd find the iPad 3 far more affordable today than a week ago. Given that pricing change, I'd be even less inclined to pick up an iPad Mini.

Don't read below this line unless you're interested in music production.

------------------------------

Of course, that's leaving out a need which I seem not to share with anyone else on MR: A UI made for composing music and a massive professional software library to use with it.

Long ago, people used to hire me to play and program the Fairlight and Synclavier, both of which cost between $50,000 and $80,000. Today, the same gentleman (Peter Vogel) who, along with Kim Ryrie, gave us the Fairlight now offers its most of its functionality on the iPad for $9.99 and its complete library of sounds for $50. The same goes for Native Instruments -- the people who make a lot of the software used on IDM and EDM. The Maschine control surface becomes the iMaschine and can still actually be used for creating complex beats. Ditto for NI's array of softsynths and instrument creation environments.

You can laugh at the blindness of Apple users all you like, but I'd be blind if I insisted on completely renouncing a platform that offered the most efficient software/hardware for my chosen field.

PCs are quite competitive when it comes to music production, so laptops are an entirely different subject. But when it comes to tablets, music production and notation, Android can't touch iOS (and has very little incentive to try). Ditto for Windows 8 for tablets, which has yet to build any sort of library and probably won't given the decline in big recording studios and the twilight of musical literacy.

Forget trying to notate music on an Android device -- especially with the urgency of a composer who's just had an idea for a quartet and wants to scribble it down in a hurry. Music software that involves sight-reading is a niche which no one wants to pump R&D into at this point, especially in a post-music-literate society. That's why Apple has a back-catalog which is still useful to many of us and -- for the fleeting moment -- still hasn't been sabotaged by their massive desertion of pro users. The scary part is that Microsoft seems to be following the same course.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by piper28

I'm just wondering which guy in line MrDoug is in the Samsung commercials .

He's all of them, it's a condition.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by kennyc

He's all of them, it's a condition.

I still don't think he was serious (though I'm not interested in resorting to character assassination if he was). He already owns a Nexus 7. Who can resist the allure of Android customization?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

I still don't think he was serious (though I'm not interested in resorting to character assassination if he was). He already owns a Nexus 7. Who can resist the allure of Android customization?

Clearly read like a joke to me, thus my on my above comment.

and hey as far as music, what the heck's wrong with Sonar?

[kennyc]

From The Guardian:

iPad mini features: what tablet users like – and what the analysts say

Data from Nielsen surveying existing tablet owners shows a skew away from price and towards features

Charles Arthur
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 October 2012 06.20 EDT
Jump to comments (1)

The new iPad mini is projected on a screen during an Apple event in San Jose
Apple's new iPad Mini enters the crowded market of smaller tablet computers dominated by Amazon, Google, and Samsung. Photograph: Robert Galbraith/Reuters

The launch of the iPad mini by Apple has gained huge interest – as much as anything for the fact that Phil Schiller compared it directly in onscreen presentations to the Google Nexus 7, pointing out the differences in some app experiences and screen area available for web browsing.

But what do the analysts say – and what do people say? First, some data from the survey company Nielsen; and then what the analysts have said.

Nielsen has some data about American tablet owners (and non-owners) which may be telling as we consider the coming "shelf wars" between the different tablets from Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung and others.

According to Nielsen:
• More than 15% of US TV households own one or more tablets (Q1 2012).
• 60% of new US tablet owners said device size was important in their decision to buy within the last year (Q2 2012).
• 27% of US tablet buyers said they already own an eReader in their household (Q2 2012).
• Among US tablet buyers, 68% didn't consider purchasing any other device (Q2 2012).

And how do they use them?
• A majority of American tablet owners are likely to purchase media content on their tablets – and more likely to buy music, books, and movies on their tablets – compared with European consumers. In comparison, European tablet owners are more willing to pay for news content.

• American families see tablets as teacher, playmate, and babysitter: 70% of tablet-owning households with children under 12 say they let them use the device.

• While smartphone owners are more likely to use their devices for activities on-the-go and in-store, US tablet owners are more like to use it for online shopping than on smartphone.
....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...?newsfeed=true