Dummy 'iPad mini' compared to Apple's full-size model
A dummy version of a smaller iPad, based on Apple's anticipated design, has been photographed next to a traditional 9.7-inch iPad to offer an idea of the potential size difference.
The dummy "iPad mini" was obtained by Giz-China.com via the website Taobao for about $13. The mockup device has a thinner bezel than the regular iPad and features a black strip across the top signifying the inclusion of a cellular radio.
On the bottom of the device, the design is similar to Apple's recently announced iPhone 5, with the new, smaller Lightning dock connector and speaker style. However, unlike with the iPhone 5, the headphone jack on the iPad mini mockup remains atop the device, along with the lock button.
On the right side are the expected volume buttons and mute/rotation lock switch. The volume buttons have a new design on the dummy device, featuring two separate buttons rather than the rocker style found on the full-size iPad.
The left side of the dummy device has a micro-SIM slot, but not a nano-SIM slot. The iPhone 5 features a new nano-SIM slot, allowing the device to be thinner and lighter than its predecessor.
A closer look at the dummy device arrives only a day after a mockup of the iPad mini design appeared online. That mockup looks largely identical to the one shown next to a full-size iPad on Wednesday.
Apple is expected to hold a media event in October to introduce its smaller and lighter iPad, which is believed to feature a screen that will measure 7.85 inches diagonally.
The dummy "iPad mini" was obtained by Giz-China.com via the website Taobao for about $13. The mockup device has a thinner bezel than the regular iPad and features a black strip across the top signifying the inclusion of a cellular radio.
On the bottom of the device, the design is similar to Apple's recently announced iPhone 5, with the new, smaller Lightning dock connector and speaker style. However, unlike with the iPhone 5, the headphone jack on the iPad mini mockup remains atop the device, along with the lock button.
On the right side are the expected volume buttons and mute/rotation lock switch. The volume buttons have a new design on the dummy device, featuring two separate buttons rather than the rocker style found on the full-size iPad.
The left side of the dummy device has a micro-SIM slot, but not a nano-SIM slot. The iPhone 5 features a new nano-SIM slot, allowing the device to be thinner and lighter than its predecessor.
A closer look at the dummy device arrives only a day after a mockup of the iPad mini design appeared online. That mockup looks largely identical to the one shown next to a full-size iPad on Wednesday.
Apple is expected to hold a media event in October to introduce its smaller and lighter iPad, which is believed to feature a screen that will measure 7.85 inches diagonally.
Comments
I think aluminium looks great on most of their products and adds a bit of class that other devices generally don't have but it just doesn't seem to work on this shape. With all the undercuts and complex curves it looks un-natural to be carved out of aluminium and it must certainly be a lot more work than their other designs which suit this particular manufacturing process much better.
Plastic would actually be a preferable materials choice in an iPad mini IMO.
[B]Since this product doesn't actually match/fit/work with *any* of the iPad mini cables that we've seen leaks of,[/B] I am going to cling to the hope that this is actually not at all what the iPad mini will look like even though it seems increasingly likely that it is.
It's easier to make a fake shell than it is a fake cable/port combination.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
I sure hope it doesn't look like this, I find it quite ugly. The form itself is not great, but even besides that I am so sick of the aluminium and don't think it fits here.
I think aluminium looks great on most of their products and adds a bit of class that other devices generally don't have but it just doesn't seem to work on this shape. With all the undercuts and complex curves it looks un-natural to be carved out of aluminium and it must certainly be a lot more work than their other designs which suit this particular manufacturing process much better.
Plastic would actually be a preferable materials choice in an iPad mini IMO.
Since this product doesn't actually match/fit/work with *any* of the iPad mini cables that we've seen leaks of, I am going to cling to the hope that this is actually not at all what the iPad mini will look like even though it seems increasingly likely that it is.
It's easier to make a fake shell than it is a fake cable/port combination.
Remember how awful the first leaks of the iPhone 5 were? Partially the photography was to blame but also the mockups were not always the same material or build quality of the final production model. Honestly most of the iPads I see in the wild these days have a full case, now that many work in conjunction with smart cover. The strength and rigidity of the aluminum is a good design material in my opinion even if you won't see it.
And how would you like your plastic? Pebble finished? Rippled? Smooth and shiny? Matte, to hide (and collect) the grease?
And how would you suggest the heat get dissipated? What drugs would you recommend for the design team so they could swallow the thought of using such a vast expanse of plastic on their new mini flagship device?
"I am so sick" of narcissists saying they are so sick of this or that stable design feature simply because they have seen it before and they now know it's not going to change. It's like a two-year-old kid throwing a tantrum over something he knows is good for him, just to be perverse.
Actually I don't even believe what you're saying is real. Just your inner troll coming out.
Looks to me like it's a Lightning connector. Why are you confused by that?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flaneur
And how would you like your plastic? Pebble finished? Rippled? Smooth and shiny? Matte, to hide (and collect) the grease?
And how would you suggest the heat get dissipated? What drugs would you recommend for the design team so they could swallow the thought of using such a vast expanse of plastic on their new mini flagship device?
"I am so sick" of narcissists saying they are so sick of this or that stable design feature simply because they have seen it before and they now know it's not going to change. It's like a two-year-old kid throwing a tantrum over something he knows is good for him, just to be perverse.
Actually I don't even believe what you're saying is real. Just your inner troll coming out.
Wow. This post is incredibly rude even by AppleInsider forum standards.
I say what I think, and you just throw personal insults back, including responding to things I didn't actually say or even imply. Where do you get off telling me what I "actually" think?
If I wouldn't get banned for saying it I might suggest you go f*ck yourself. Please note that I didn't actually say that, I think this might be just what you think you can detect me thinking again. :rolleyes: Moderators please note that this guy personally attacked me first ("narcissist"), if you're going to start banning/warning folks.
For the record:
- There is nothing wrong with plastic, lots of Apple products are plastic (always shiny despite your straw man about plastic textures).
- There are many ways to dissipate heat beginning with not generating as much to begin with.
- Your sentence about "drugging the team" kind of implies that you have a strong bias *against* plastic for no real reason other than you don't like it, yet you are calling me out for the very same thing. Yeah, that makes sense. :-/
You also probably missed the great care I took to talk about how I actually like the aluminium on most of their products and that I felt only that it was a bad choice on this *particular* product before you took to blanket insults about my character.
OK you two, if you don't cut it out right NOW, I'm gonna have to come back there and separate you - so KNOCK IT OFF !
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
Looks to me like it's a Lightning connector. Why are you confused by that?
I wasn't clear I guess. I meant that there have been two separate "leaks" (photos) or purported "iPad mini cables," and that neither of them actually fit with this shell design that we keep seeing lately.
The first one here:
Has the earphone jack on the bottom, it's black, and it's an earphone jack that would only fit in a device of a different profile (hard to see, but it's cut off at a 45 degree slant just like the one in the current iPad).
The more recent one:
Comes in Black and White varieties and has a earphone jack that would fit in a device with this more rounded profile, (note teh "saddle" curve of the earphone connector), but is still on the bottom of the device, not the top.
Since the last two iPads used black only connectors cut off at a slant, and the devices were aluminium, and the latest cable leak shows black and white connectors with the curved profiles, I initially thought that this meant the new iPad mini would be plastic and come in black and white varieties as this makes the most sense out of the various leaks IMO.
The fact that this aluminium mock-up keeps popping up is giving me pause, but I still think the picture of the "iPad mini cables" (second one above), is more believable than most things we've seen so who knows?
I can't believe this continues to make headlines. Really an iPad Mini? Come on we're smarter than that. If I wanted a smaller screen I'd get an iPod Touch - oh maybe we'll see a 7" iPod Touch. Only a clone manufacturer would come up with kinda thing.
Originally Posted by AnalogJack
Is that an iPad mini in your pocket, or Samsung's next galaxy S IIII
{comment about fitting into pockets}
Quote:
Originally Posted by Walt
I can't believe this continues to make headlines. Really an iPad Mini? Come on we're smarter than that. If I wanted a smaller screen I'd get an iPod Touch - oh maybe we'll see a 7" iPod Touch. Only a clone manufacturer would come up with kinda thing.
An iPad mini is half way between my iPhone and my iPad. Let's say I owned a scooter and an SUV. Would there be no place for a economy car in my life. Sure there would. An iPod Touch is like a bicycle in my opinion because it has no cellular connection, plus i already have an iPhone. I just don't get your line of reasoning. An iPad mini makes perfect sense to me.
Silly comparison.
First, it's nothing like an iPod touch. The suggested iPad Mini has 4 times the screen area of an iPod Touch. The iPod Touch is a media consumption device. Games, music, videos. The iPad is a full blown computing device. Even though there's a lot of overlap, the intent and target markets are entirely different.
I'm really having a hard time understanding why so many people are opposed to the idea. I guess Apple should only have one size of MacBook Air. After all, everyone must have exactly the same needs, so there's only one size of light laptop needed. And there should only be one size of MacBook Pro - who needs different sizes? And the iMac? Obviously, one size is enough - get rid of the 21" model. For that matter, let's make 16 GB standard on every computer and sell only dual CPU Mac Pros.
There are plenty of people who have said that they would prefer a 7-8" device. There's absolutely no reason why it couldn't be offered and I haven't seen a single good reason why it SHOULDN'T be offered. The only arguments advanced so far are either unfounded (any 8" device must be crap) or straw men (Apple would not introduce a crappy product).
Quote: "I am so sick of the aluminium . . ."
Probably no other living person has done more than Jony Ive to bring out the aesthetic and functional potential of aluminum by stretching process engineering to its current limits. And you want to rag on this new device because it might continue this breakthrough in mass manufacturing into low-cost devices that are possibly meant for little kids as much as anyone else? You want to make it plastic like the Kindle or the Samsung Whatever, ignoring all that Apple has accomplished in liberating us and the kids from yet more polymer hell?
I'm reading this along with your post yesterday about how Apple is losing itself to "Dogma" and Steve Jobs-lessness, as a turn to trolldom:
The server side rules being borked is one of the things driving me crazy lately too. I really think that now their market is so much bigger, that Apple should revisit their reluctance to put settings in so the user can actually change things (using a different email is one of them of course although for me, I've never seen one as good as Apple's yet). Being able to get rid of all the built-in apps is another one. I would bet that only one out of a thousand iPhone owners has a stock portfolio or gives a rat's behind about the stock market, but we all have that stupid stock app!
I find myself being bugged an extraordinarily large amount by all the little things that I can't change like the new "VIPs" in mail. It's a feature I will never use, it's ugly ("stars" of any kind are just tackiness personified), it's right at the top of my folder list, and it can't be removed. It's the kind of feature a tech blogger or Apple employee would love because they get an ocean of email and want to separate out the "good" ones only, but the average person just doesn't get that much email. It's something that I could really use in my work email but something I will never, ever have a use for in my personal email (which is what I use on my iPhone). A simple setting to say use/don't use this feature would be really practical, but it goes against Apple dogma so it probably won't happen. I have to stare at that stupid ugly star every single time I use my email now for at least a year, possibly many years. Why? Dogma.
Let's face it, Apple has become quite a different company than the one we knew when they were in the wilderness and in danger of going under. They are quite different from *any* of their previous incarnations and their market is different too. I think they should try changing some of their rigid, dogmatic policies on this kind of stuff as a result of that. One simple setting to allow the user to change the paper colour in Notes from Yellow to White, would be childsplay to implement and would stifle a veritable chorus of complaints from many quarters about the "ugliness" of Notes. How many articles have been written on he aesthetic failure of Notes? It's no secret that Notes replacement apps are one of the hottest items in the store. One setting and all that negativity disappears.
Yet they don't do it. Why? Dogma that's why. They are scared to move on from Steve Jobs perhaps.
Sorry, but I'm lumping you with the new Samsung trolls that have shown up in the last few days. Apple is under attack, Jony Ive is perhaps just as subject to irrational negativity as Steve Jobs was over the blogosphere reception to the first iPad, and you're getting all snotty over design issues all of a sudden. What do you expect?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flaneur
...
Not going to participate in a flame war and this story is already buried under four others so ... whatever.
No hard feelings on my part, hopefully none on yours.
Right-o, mate, likewise. I tend to get a bit overdramatic myself these days. The new Samsung ad, for example. If you squint at it just right, it seems Apple is in a twilight struggle for the tech soul of mankind.
I'm sorry, but "Giz-China.com". That joke almost writes itself.
If there's a $300 Touch and a $400 iPad, where does the Mini fit?
The iPhone/Touch is the solution Apple offers for when you're on the go and the iPad handles the rest. No need for the rumoured Mini. It is especially suspicious that the time frame for an announcement has been pushed out to October. Why would Apple have left the Mini out of the announcement for the iPhone? After all, nterest inthe iPhone announcement was high and that would have been the opportunity to unleash the Mini with a larger audience paying heed.