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Apple introduces iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

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Re: Apple introduces iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

#222
post #49

I still remember the Steve Jobs era when people would praise Apple for having a simple lineup of devices, in contrast to Android, which had some crazy amount of variants of every device. How times have changed.

What other large brand has a simpler lineup? Samsung released 22 phones just in 2024 with memorable names like C55 and M05. Although I wouldn't mind if they got rid of one or two iPhone variants, or at least gave them more meaningful names. I have no idea what the difference between Plus, Pro and Max is. I only know that Pro doesn't mean pro, and that doesn't make it any easier. Edit: also Steve Jobs was still alive…

Google Pixel has one Tablet.

Re: Apple introduces iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

120hz panels are dirt cheap at this point, look beyond the Apple ecosystem and they're everywhere at nearly every price point. Even barebones office monitors meant for doing spreadsheets are often ~100hz now, there's no reason to make them 60hz when faster panels are more or less the same price.

>120hz panels are dirt cheap at this point So is storage and RAM but every OEM has their added vendor tax and so does Apple. 2TB Samsung pro nvme SSD is 170$, how much is 2TB Apple storage... Same with screens.

[deleted]

Re: Apple introduces iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

#224

I have an older (but not old) Mini, and I find it almost unusable, as screen elements don’t scale up. For example, Safari browser buttons are stupidly small. Is that still an issue with the Mini?

Yes. The mini feels like an abandoned product. In landscape mode, the keyboard takes more than half of the screen. UI elements are routinely covered up in various apps. For example, in Flighty, the flights "drawer" cannot be hidden in the way it can on the iPhone. This is probably fine in a larger iPad, but on the Mini, it covers more than half the screen, meaning it HIDES THE AIRPLANE ICON of the flight you're tracking. Apple Maps has a similar behavior with its drawer in portrait mode, but, IIRC, at least that one can be hidden.

I've owned 8 or 10 tablets in my life and never gotten along with any of them. The Mini6 is my latest experiment, and it's my favorite, but I still find myself rarely using it.

Re: Apple introduces iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

#225

Why is the bezel so thick? A 1-2cm bezel around the entire "mini" device seems a bit odd, given that the iPad Mini is a relatively tiny device and phones these days come with a 1-2mm bezel (10x less useless border). Is it a cost saving measure / sneaky margin increaser, or what might be the motivation? Edit: Touch interference is a good idea. Still, from the picture, it looks like the bezel could be half as thick and…

So that they can release a successor model with thinner bezels.

In reality this may be to (1) to keep costs down and (2) to distance the iPad mini from the more premium iPhone Pro Max.

All in all, this device leaves me wondering who this is for? iPads are mostly used for media consumption, no matter how Apple wants to position them. Not sure why this necessitates AI hardware, but perhaps people really start using iPads for productivity/creativity workloads that can make use of “Apple Intelligence” (the silliest moniker since “Spatial Computing” and “Retina Display”).

The comparatively small difference in screen real estate between an iPhone Pro Max and the iPad mini makes the latter rather pointless. Perhaps they are targeting people with a smaller iPhone who want another device to watch YouTube. What could have made a difference is a folding display. I think the iPad mini would have been the ideal candidate for that.

Re: Apple introduces iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

#226

In many ways (no pun intended :-)) I would relate to having an iPad mini and a much much dumber phone which was just text/chat and voice. I have gotten there because I'm constantly in this weird tension between wanting a bigger screen on my phone because the app I'm using and wanting a smaller phone so that it is easier to pocket and carry around. A friend of mine did the folding screen phone thing and that has its a…

I didn't get the pun......

Re: Apple introduces iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

#228

In many ways (no pun intended :-)) I would relate to having an iPad mini and a much much dumber phone which was just text/chat and voice. I have gotten there because I'm constantly in this weird tension between wanting a bigger screen on my phone because the app I'm using and wanting a smaller phone so that it is easier to pocket and carry around. A friend of mine did the folding screen phone thing and that has its a…

I didn't get the pun......

Maybe they pronounce “many” as “mini”?

Re: Apple introduces iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

#229

Why is the bezel so thick? A 1-2cm bezel around the entire "mini" device seems a bit odd, given that the iPad Mini is a relatively tiny device and phones these days come with a 1-2mm bezel (10x less useless border). Is it a cost saving measure / sneaky margin increaser, or what might be the motivation? Edit: Touch interference is a good idea. Still, from the picture, it looks like the bezel could be half as thick and…

So that they can release a successor model with thinner bezels. In reality this may be to (1) to keep costs down and (2) to distance the iPad mini from the more premium iPhone Pro Max. All in all, this device leaves me wondering who this is for? iPads are mostly used for media consumption, no matter how Apple wants to position them. Not sure why this necessitates AI hardware, but perhaps people really start using iPa…

>Not sure why this necessitates AI hardware

New Siri and iOS notification summaries seem like it should be enough of a reason for apple to want to ship an iPad with ai hardware.

Re: Apple introduces iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

#230

In many ways (no pun intended :-)) I would relate to having an iPad mini and a much much dumber phone which was just text/chat and voice. I have gotten there because I'm constantly in this weird tension between wanting a bigger screen on my phone because the app I'm using and wanting a smaller phone so that it is easier to pocket and carry around. A friend of mine did the folding screen phone thing and that has its a…

I didn't get the pun......

many/mini are very similar if not identical in casual US English pronunciation.
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