So, So Much News About The 'iPad Mini'
Just as this week's political news cycle surrounded Paul Ryan and how he fits in with Mitt Romney, so too has this week's tech cycle revolved around a smaller, thinner, more mysterious version of a well-known public entity: We are talking, of course, about the iPad Mini, the long-rumored miniaturized version of the 10-inch iPad that is said to have a 7.0-inch screen and a low, low price tag (<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/paul-ryan-worth-millions-_n_1774346?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012" target="_hplink">uh, not Ryan-esque</a>) to compete with the likes of the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire.
Ayn Rand fetishizers aside (and at the risk of straining an already tenuous metaphor), there were three notable reports concerning the iPad Mini to bubble up this week. The first comes from Canada's number one Apple blog iMore, which you may remember as the well-sourced news outlet who first predicted the iPad 3's release date as well as the widely-accepted September Apple event date for the iPhone 5.
This time, iMore is <a href="http://www.imore.com/ipad-mini-smaller-bezel-incredibly-thin-and-light" target="_hplink">hearing some fresh whispers</a> about the form and release date of the iPad Mini (which it still claims will be announced on September 12, along with the new iPhone). iMore hears that the iPad Mini will have the same thickness as the (super-thin) iPod Touch; that it will be much lighter than the current iPad; and that it will cost between $200 and $250. <a href="http://www.imore.com/ipad-mini-smaller-bezel-incredibly-thin-and-light" target="_hplink">More on that at iMore</a>.
9to5Mac, meanwhile, <a href="http://9to5mac.com/2012/08/14/ipad-mini-will-look-like-a-large-ipod-touch-with-smaller-side-bezels-gallery/" target="_hplink">not only has a mock-up</a> (drink!) of what it thinks are the dimensions of the iPad Mini (at left); it also has some information of its own, too. The iPad Mini, it says, will look a lot like a bigger iPod Touch, rather than a smaller iPad. (Maybe instead of the iPad Mini, they could call it the iPod Maxi? iMaxiPad? Tim Cook, are you listening?). It puts the price at somewhere between $200 and $300, for a launch in November/December. <a href="http://9to5mac.com/2012/08/14/ipad-mini-will-look-like-a-large-ipod-touch-with-smaller-side-bezels-gallery/" target="_hplink">More at 9to5Mac</a>, including what this thing might look like next to the Nexus 7.
Finally, John Gruber of Daring Fireball (who is close like Glenn with Apple PR folks) <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2012/08/ipad_mini_even_througher" target="_hplink">weighs in with his own predictions</a>, especially as it concerns pixel density, aspect ratio, bezel size, the precise millimeter measure of each dimension, etc. If this is how you like to spend your time, <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2012/08/ipad_mini_even_througher" target="_hplink">you can read that here</a>; Gruber does predict that an iPad Mini will be quite thin and quite light and that it will more closely resemble an iPad than an iPod Touch, which seems to be the hot debate nowadays (in certain circles).
What all of this indicates, when taken together with the reports from Bloomberg and Reuters, is that an iPad Mini (or iPad Air, or iPad Nano, or whatever) is looking more likely than ever to arrive in stores by the end of 2012. We had previously catalogued the ways in which Apple PR was likely leaking details about the next iPhone; the past month's iPadito rumors are probably coming from the same place. Apple is priming for an iPad Mini launch: Expect it by Christmas, if not sooner.
And now, I know you've been doing that little dance you do when you really have to pee but the bathroom is occupied: Hold it in no more, hear is your weekly dose of iPhone 5 rumors...
9to5Mac.com
