Tag: apple ipad mini

WSJ : Next iPad To Be Thinner, Will Use iPad Mini’s Light Touch-Panel Technology

Various sources have been mulling for months that Apple’s fifth-generation 9.7-inch iPad will adopt the overall appearance of the iPad mini, including its skinnier side bezels and thinner, lighter enclosure. And as if you ever needed more proof, now the credulous Wall Street Journal is finally out with its own report :

The same touch-panel technology that made the iPad mini thin and light will likely feature in the next iPad, which is currently being produced by Apple Inc.’s Asian suppliers, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

What many consumers generally call a “screen” consists of multiple layers, and the “touch panel” specifically refers to the layer equipped with touch sensors, between the liquid-crystal display and the outermost cover glass. The iPad mini, according to a teardown report by research firm IHS iSuppli, uses a film-based touch panel, which is thinner and lighter than the glass-based touch panel that the current full-size model uses. Following the iPad mini’s success, Apple plans to use the film-based touch panel in its next regular-size iPad, the people said.

Apple’s next iPad is expected to take other design cues from the iPad mini, including a thinner bezel on the sides of the device, allowing the overall frame to become smaller while still offering the same 9.7-inch display. It’s also possible that the fifth-generation iPad will include stereo speakers, like the iPad mini.

In the second quarter, Apple was still the largest tablet vendor accounting for 32.4% of the market by shipments, but its share had declined from 60.3% a year earlier, according to research firm IDC.

Apple’s next big event is scheduled for September 10th.

[Via]

August 12, 2013
Report : Apple Will Not Launch iPad Mini With Retina Display This Year

The iPad mini Retina display may be taking longer than expected and a new report suggests we won’t see it until 2014.

The claim was published on Friday by China’s Economic Daily News, which said that though Apple originally planned to launch a Retina iPad mini this fall, it may be delayed until the first quarter of 2014. As such, the rumor suggests that a second-generation iPad mini will not launch this year.

That doesn’t mean we won’t get a new iPad Mini before the end of the year, though. The report notes that Apple may release a refreshed model before the end of year without Retina Display, though it’s unclear how prices and specs may differ across the two tablets.

The news lines up with an earlier report from NPD Display Research analyst Richard Shim, suggesting Apple will roll out a refreshed tablet with a thinner design, A6 processor and iOS 7 out of the box.

It’s been nearly a year since the iPad Mini was introduced. It features a 7.9 inch display with a screen resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels, advanced Wi-Fi connections, built-in applications including Siri and FaceTime, impressive A5 chip, 10-hour battery life, iSight camera, HD video for full 1080p, 5 megapixel camera and AirPlay. It’s a small tablet with the premium experience. It also comes with a somewhat hefty price tag.

[Via]

July 13, 2013
Apple Still Leader In Tablet Market, But Samsung Closing In

Apple’s share of the tablet market declined again in the fourth quarter of 2012 but the company still has twice the share of its nearest rival, Samsung.

Research firm IDC and their latest numbers are showing that current market leader Apple with their iPad are losing tablet market share. Apple’s tablet market share dropped from 51.7% to 43.6%, where in the last three months of 2012 Samsung jumped up to 15.1%.

When taking in consideration the year-over-year numbers, Samsung’s growth has been huge where a year ago they sold just 2.2 million tablets, and twelve months later they’re seeing sales of 7.9 million units.

IDC said the strongest growth came from Android, including tablets made by South Korea’s Samsung and Taiwan’s Asus, which makes a Google-branded Nexus tablet.

The survey found that Microsoft, which launched its new Surface tablet in the quarter, failed to break into the top five sellers and shipped a modest 900,000 of the devices in the quarter.

IDC said Amazon, which does not provide its own sales data, delivered some six million tablets in the quarter to retain its spot as the number three vendor.

That represented 26.8 percent growth, giving Amazon a market share of 11.5 percent, IDC said.

Fourth place belonged to Asus, which sold 3.1 million tablets, year-on-year growth of more than 400 percent. That gave the Taiwan-based firm a 5.8 percent market share. Barnes & Noble sold one million of its Nook tablets and accounted to 1.9 percent of the market, the survey found.

The tablet market is expected to get much more serious this year, with multiple Nexus tablets from Google, as well as Microsoft’s upcoming Surface Pro slate.

February 3, 2013
Retina Display Coming To Next Gen iPad Mini?

Apple is rumored to be focusing on upgrading the resolution of its recently released iPad mini to Retina display specifications, with the changes said to be arriving in the next generation of the small form factor tablet’s next generation.

Retina seems like a logical update for Apple’s second generation iPad mini, and a report from Digitimes today says that Apple is indeed planning to increase the resolution of its next iPad mini.

[quote]Apple’s next-generation iPad mini will focus mostly on enhancing the device’s display resolution, according to Taiwan-based backlighting industry sources. The sources have yet to specify whether the device will use Apple’s Retina Display technology to enhanced resolution, but market observers said it is highly likely based on the development of past Apple products such as the iPhone and 9.7-inch iPad series.[/quote]

Adding a Retina display to a device as thin as the iPad mini could be a tricky prospect, possibly requiring a large battery and a more robust processor, as it did when Apple introduced the Retina display to the full-sized iPad.

If Apple did a Retina version of the Mini it would be approximately 300 pixels per inch. That’s really hard to manufacture and hasn’t been done yet for the 7.9-inch class display that Apple uses. That said, Amazon has come close. The larger Amazon Kindle Fire HD has an 8.9-inch display boasting 254 pixels per inch. By Apple’s own definition of pixel density, that’s Retina resolution.

[CNET]

December 14, 2012
Apple, Samsung Patent Clash Expands To iPad mini, iPad 4, New iPod touch

Samsung Electronics has alleged that three recent products from Apple, including the iPad mini, infringe on its patents.

The South Korean company said in a filing Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose division, that the products were released by Apple after Samsung submitted its original infringement contentions on June 15, and a motion to supplement on Oct. 1 that added the iPhone 5 to products that allegedly infringe its patents.

The products included in the latest motion to amend and supplement the infringement contentions are the iPad mini and the latest versions of the iPad and iPod touch.

Samsung has also asked for clarification from the court if its original contentions properly allege infringement of U.S. Patent No. 7,672,470 by three prior generations of the iPod touch, and alternatively asks leave to add these products to its infringement contentions.

[quote]On Wednesday, Samsung’s chief executive Shin Jong-kyun told The Korean Times: “Without Samsung-owned wireless patents, it’s impossible for… Apple to produce its handsets.”[/quote]

Samsung and Apple are no strangers to court battles, having been engaged in vicious patent battle that extends across four continents since April 2011. Back in August, a court awarded Apple over $1 billion in damages after upholding claims that Samsung had infringing several iPhone and iPad patents with its Galaxy S-series smartphones. Samsung has since appealed against the ruling.

But it hasn’t all been going Apple’s way, with courts in the Netherlands, the U.K. and Japan dismissing Apple’s claims of infringement by Samsung.

November 22, 2012
$1.5 Million Worth Of Apple iPad Minis Stolen In Heist At JFK Airport

Apple’s latest product release is always a hot commodity— a fact that certainly isn’t lost on the bandits and black marketeers of the world. The company was the victim of a large scale heist at JFK Airport in New York this week, where two men absconded with multiple crates containing approximately $1.5 million worth of iPad Minis.

In what has been described as a “Goodfellas”-style heist, two thieves reportedly stole about 3,600 of the Apple devices from a cargo building at John F. Kennedy Airport earlier this week. The New York Post, which had the exclusive on this story, writes:

[quote]The crooks struck shortly before midnight on Monday and used one of the airport’s own forklifts to load two pallets of the tablet computers into a truck, according to law-enforcement sources.

They might have gotten more, but the thieves drove off leaving three more pallets of the Apple tablets behind after they were challenged by an airport worker returning from dinner.[/quote]

The million-dollar iPad mini caper has reminded some of the infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist, which was immortalized in the 1990 film “Goodfellas.” The Lufthansa heist thieves reportedly stole $5 million in cash and nearly $900,000 in jewelry from the very same JFK cargo building from which the iPads were snagged, the New York Post notes.

There were three pallets remaining in the building when an airport employee confronted the pair and they drove off.

“So, as a caper goes, it was probably unsuccessful,” a source told the New York Post.

Airport workers are being questioned by the New York gumshoes and given polygraph tests, with the thieves still at large.

The sought-after devices had just arrived from China and were set to be distributed to Apple Stores all over the country. Now they’re headed straight for back alley retailers who won’t treat them nearly as nicely!

November 16, 2012
Apple : 3 Million iPads Sold Over The Past 3 Days

The iPad mini and the “fourth generation iPad” went on sale last Friday. The iPad mini is smaller, thinner and lighter than any previous version of the 10-inch iPad and Apple sent out a very interesting press release today. Usually when a product launches they boast about the millions of sales it produced in 3-days. This time around they did – claiming that “Three Million iPads in Three Days” – but that number combines both the iPad mini and the fourth-gen iPad with Retina display.

[quote]No clear numbers on how the iPad mini specifically performed. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, noted that“Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad. We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis. We’re working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand.”[/quote]

This “practically sold out of iPad mini” is somewhat new for Apple. They have repeatedly sold out of product on launch weekend. The iPad mini was released in 34 countries on Friday. Perhaps people are waiting for the 3G version to be released in a couple weeks.

Regardless, 3 million iPad sales in something to be proud of.

November 5, 2012
iPad Mini Teardown : Samsung Display, Stereo Speakers And Low Repairability Score

The iPad mini isn’t even officially on sale yet, but iFixit managed to get its hands on one to tear apart.

Like many of Apple’s other gadgets, the iPad mini isn’t very easy to open up and repair yourself. iFixit gives it a 2 out of 10 repairability rating.

A lot of the parts are familiar, coming from either the iPhone 5 or MacBook Air, and Samsung makes a somewhat surprising appearance as an LCD panel supplier, something some early reports suggested Samsung would not be involved in supplying this component for this device.

[quote]”Though the markings on the back of the LCD (display) don’t turn up much information, the Samsung display driver IC (chip) reveals that Apple, once again, went with Samsung in its display manufacturing,” iFixit said, detailing the teardown on its website.[/quote]

The iPad mini is the first Apple tablet to come with stereo speakers, likely owed to the space saved from the new Lightning port. This makes it more-than-likey the fifth generation iPad will sport a similar design. Judging from early reviews, the lack of physical speaker separation renders the addition largely superfluous — there’s no real dynamic range — but it’s still a welcome find.

Image Courtesy : iFixit

Unlike with the iPhone 5, the mini’s LCD and glass are not fused together into a single unit, so these parts can be replaced individually if needed. Also, the battery is also not soldered to the logic board here. Still, the battery and other parts like the front- and rear-facing cameras, front glass, and logic board are held together with “copious amounts of adhesive,” according to iFixit.

November 2, 2012
Apple Launches new iPad Mini with a 7.9 Inch display

Apple at its iPad Mini special event has finally launched a new iPad Mini with a 7.9 inch display boasting a resolution of 1024 x 768 px. The new hardware is 7.2mm thick, .68 pounds heavy and has been manufactured with a new process with the same anodized edges as the iPhone 5. The iPad Mini has a Dual-core A5 processor, FaceTime HD camera and 5-megapixel iSight camera on the back with 1080p recording. Apple is also claiming a 10 hour battery Life. The new iPad mini will also come with a cellular LTE capable modem, basically a separate variant.

The 16GB is the smallest configuration with WiFi, priced at $329. 32GB mini is $429, 64GB for $519. $130 each additional for LTE connectivity similar to the older siblings.

Both the iPad 4th and the Mini will be up for pre order on the 26th of October, shipping 2nd November.

October 23, 2012
200 Million Devices Running On iOS 6 : Apple

Apple CEO Tim Cook, during his keynote presentation today in San Jose, announced that 200 million devices are now running iOS 6, which is the fastest operating system update in history.

Apple has also announced that 300 billion iMessages have been sent, 100 billion received (interesting…). There have been 35 billion app downloads, with $6.5 billion paid out to developers.

Also, the Apple App Store now has 700,000 apps.

Developing…

October 23, 2012
Apple Announces Oct 23rd Special Event- Here comes the iPad Mini

Apple has just sent out invites for a “Special Event” to be held on Oct 23rd, supposedly announcing the new iPad Mini. While its only been a couple of weeks since when the iPhone 5 was launched Apple has still got a lot more up its sleeve.

While the iPad Mini has been leaked all over the internet, there are more rumors of various other products being launched. Alongside the iPad Mini, Apple will also reportedly update the Macbook Pro 13 inch and offer a retina version of the laptop. A new Mac Mini, revised Cinema displays and iMac are also long overdue.

But its unlike Apple to announce so many products at a single event. While the iMac and revised Cinema display may have to wait, a new Mac Mini is reportedly being worked on alongside the fully confirmed Retina Macbook Pro 13. While speculations will continue to go on, we wont let down the coverage come Oct 23rd, So stay tuned.

The iPad Mini apparently has a 7.85-inch display powered by an A5 processor and 512MB of RAM, priced starting anywhere from $250 to $350, available in a week or two. It will probably come in both Wi-Fi and 3G versions, and will look like, well, a smaller iPad. The event will be held at 10am PST/1pm EST at the California Center in San Jose.

October 16, 2012
iPad Mini will launch Oct 23rd according to All Things D

iPad Mini is all set to launch on the 23rd of this month according to a report by AllThings D. The Apple iPad Mini is said to be a stab at success stories behind the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 type tablets. The iPad Mini will be, if at all, Apple’s first foray into this size segment. Weather or not the tablet will fit the size bill is unknown.

You might want to take this news with a pinch of salt as there is really no confirmations surrounding it. Recent reports have been in agreement that we should expect a 7.85-inch iPad with Apple’s new Lightning connector, and an “ultra-thin” design.

[All Things D]

October 12, 2012
Report : Apple Orders 10 Million iPad Mini Units

Apple has reportedly ordered as many as 10 million iPad mini units from its suppliers, to be shipped in the holiday quarter this season.

A report in The Wall Street Journal notes that the order of 10 million units is approximately twice the amount that Amazon has placed with its suppliers for the same quarter. The report does not reveal any fresh details on the launch date of the iPad mini or price.

Rumors indicate that the iPad Mini will have a 7.85-inch display, with a possible resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels — the same as the third-generation iPad’s Retina display. The smaller iPad is also expected to have thinner side bezels, giving it a similar look to the iPhone 4, 4S, and 5. Topeka analyst Brian White tells AllThingsD that the iPad Mini “could outshine the new iPad in terms of how the device feels in a consumer’s hands.”

Reports out last week say that iPad Mini production has already run into a number of snags, with display suppliers for the device unable to meet demand. This could potentially result in significantly delayed shipping times for iPad Mini buyers — a problem that continues to haunt the iPhone.

October 8, 2012
The iPad Mini might be the most gorgeous 7 inch form tablet to date

The iPad mini leaks are starting to bomb the circuit. The new anodized Aluminum design is certainly eye-catching. Gizmodo reader Martin Hajek has produced some high-quality renders of the device that show off what its black anodized aluminum casing will look like. The pictures sent to Gizmodo not only show off the tablet’s casing but also showcase the device’s rumored 7.85-inch display that features thinner side bezels when compared to the iPad.

The color options make us drool check them out.

October 5, 2012
iPad Mini : Latest Specs Leaks

According to the latest leaks of the iPad mini, the 7.85-inch tablet will come in black and white colours, differentiating itself from the silver anodized aluminum of its bigger brother. The colour scheme gels with the iPhone 5, and could mark territory for Apple as they move away from the single-toned iPad.

Inside the device, we see a nano-SIM slot and antennas for 3G/LTE connectivity, so expect the iPad mini to come in both WiFi and cellular-compatible versions, likely for a smaller premium than we’re used to. The Lightning connector input is present as well, which is unsurprising.

You can see a hole for a rear camera, no flash, and the typical Apple logo with a simple ‘iPad’ insignia etched on the back. The black tone seems darker than the ‘Slate’ colour we are used to on the iPhone 5, though we don’t know what it will look like in the real world.

October 3, 2012