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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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…

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.