Originally Posted by mstone 
Yeah the motorcycle cop can write you an e-ticket. Press the "I agree button". Saves him time at the end of the shift since it already synced the license plate, GPS and time with the court computer. Free app idea!

Not a bad implementation! For the iPad, that is. Double the errors and the time spent pulled over trying to type on a mini's keyboard.

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Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 

Not a bad implementation! For the iPad, that is. Double the errors and the time spent pulled over trying to type on a mini's keyboard.

Can you please go to the Apple store and hold one in your hand?

Originally Posted by mstone 
Can you please go to the Apple store and hold one in your hand?

I'd love to. I plan to at the nearest opportunity. But I already know how large the keyboards are. That doesn't change my view.

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Originally Posted by mstone 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 

Not a bad implementation! For the iPad, that is. Double the errors and the time spent pulled over trying to type on a mini's keyboard.

Can you please go to the Apple store and hold one in your hand?

TS, I agree with mstone... Just like the original iPhone or iPad -- you have to experience it to know what it's all about.

The onscreen kb is acceptable in landscape mode and leaves 1/2 the display available for text (unlike the 7" tablets).

The onscreen kb in portrait is easier to thumb type on than the one on the full iPad.

I am sitting here with a retina iPhone 5, a retina iPad 3 and the non-retina iPad Mini -- you can see the difference side-by-side, but it's not a deal-breaker. The Mini display is beautiful and, I suspect, much better overall than anything lower or close in price.

Again, just ignore the specs and the techie posts, and try one for yourself -- I think you will be sold!

Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum 

Again, just ignore the specs and the techie posts, and try one for yourself…

Oh, absolutely. That's the only way to do it. It could be half the "power" of something else and still move like butter since it's from Apple.

I find typing on the mini to be quite easy.  In portrait you can type with just your thumbs, making it rather quick.
 

Originally Posted by Cash907 
I wonder if they count people who exchanged iPad 3's for 4's as a "sale."

Why not, as long as the same number is deducted from the iPad 3's sales? It IS a sale. The person WANTED it, so when they paid for it is of less importance.

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Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 

Originally Posted by mstone 
Can you please go to the Apple store and hold one in your hand?

 

I'd love to. I plan to at the nearest opportunity. But I already know how large the keyboards are. That doesn't change my view.

Since you were bragging about how fast you can touch type on an iPad, I can understand that you would not want any keyboard that would force you to relearn the key placement. But with Siri you can do a lot less typing. In the hypothetical case of the police officer writing you up there would be almost no typing. Take a picture of the license, registration, insurance card, license plate and vehicle. The system could have some OCR installed for converting it to text. Speak the details of the violation and everything else is automated. About the only thing you would need to type in is the person's email so the system could send a copy of the ticket to their email. The reason I brought it up this example is because the obvious uses of a smaller iPad are in industries where they are already using that size of written input such as the policeman's ticket book, which the last time I saw one, was about the size of the iPad mini so the it would fit in whatever saddle bag or compartment the old ticket book lived. Same with waiter in a restaurant.

But aside from the similar size making it a natural, there are literally thousands of occupations that could find new ways to use the mini just because of it increased portability.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cash907 

I wonder if they count people who exchanged iPad 3's for 4's as a "sale."
Thank god for Best Buy's 60 day return policy, that's all I'm saying on the matter.

Best Buy -- and other similar non-Apple retail outlets -- likely accounts for a small portion of Apple sales (in the US).

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Originally Posted by Flaneur 

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Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum 

I was one of those people that was an early skeptic of the viability of a smaller iPad.  Then, I began to think maybe -- but it had to be price competitive, say, $249 for a 16 GB model...

I was wrong!  As soon as you get your hands on an iPad Mini, you realize that this is the "best seller" tablet for the next few years.  It is a perfect combination of utility, quality and desirability... and the price is secondary -- when it is what you want!

Now here you have it, from someone who was won over. Me, I thought it would be a good idea from the beginning to have a jacket or purse size, and that it would be desireable for its charming mini-ness when compared with the "standard" iPad.

But I was not prepared for HOW desireable it is. This object is one very erotic little piece of metal and glass. The curvature of the edge of the back, the texture of the aluminum finish, the way the glass looks poured on, most apparent on the white one, and even the bezel, the riskiest piece of computer machining ever attempted on a mass product (I'm guessing here)—all these combine to hook a susceptible person into having an "I want, must have" float up from their reptilian brain into awareness.

They're going to sell millions and establish a new standard, like they did with the MacBook Air. I predict that "aluminum fetish" will enter the general vocabulary.

I almost feel like a voyeur reading your post 

And now we know why Apple priced the Mini the way they did - they're going to sell every single unit they can manufacture between now and Christmas.  

Sure, they could have accepted slightly lower margins and sold this thing for $299, but why?  They're going to sell every unit they can possibly make, and they're leaving the low-end of the market for the various Android craplets, Amazon and Microsoft's wacky Surface RT to squabble over.  It's the same strategy Apple employed back in the days of the home computer wars of the early to mid '80s.  Worked then, and it'll work again.

Sometime in April or May look for them to roll out a spec-bumped Mini with a retina display and faster CPU.  Just in time for graduation gifts and the back-to-school shopping season.  A new full-sized iPad will probably follow in October, in time for Christmas.

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Originally Posted by drewys808 

This is what is holding back sales as well...the fact that many think that retina display will be available next year at same cost (and without any negative tradeoffs, like battery life or processing).  Many will not buy immediately but will wait 'til next year.

 

Let's see if Apple marketing can convince most to ignore that.

 

Keep in mind that this is a VERY DIFFERENT argument than TS's (i.e. that people just don't want a mini because it's too small, not functional, etc, etc).

Apple needs several months to ramp up Foxconn production of the mini anyway. and it will be the hottest gadget gift for the Holiday sales. so add those two factors together, and Apple will sell every mini it can deliver. until January at least. so "waiting til next year" (like i will) doesn't matter as long as next year's V.2 launch comes pretty soon. that's why i guessed March. anyway, as soon as the 8" 326 dpi retina screens are ready for full volume production at acceptable yeild - the A6 chip is ready now.

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Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 
Seems odd that you know exactly what the future's like. And for more reasons than the aleph-null minus one number of possibilities of futures.

It may, but the truth is that I can foretell the future. Some futures are hard to predict - this one is easy.

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Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 
Ah, but it doesn't. If you need to do any work, the regular iPad is the one to get.

That depends on the kind of work.

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Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 

So the 13" MacBook Pro's keyboard(s) are of different sizes than the 15" MacBook Pro's keyboard(s)?

No but that doesn't change the analogy. If you are going to spend a lot of time writing you'll either get a mbp, mba or a wireless keyboard. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 

 

Why would that be obvious?

in addition to what others have said, it was obvious to me the second i picked one up at the Apple Store on Saturday. my two main drawbacks in using the iPad 2 and iPad 3 (me and my wife's) are the bulk and weight. for any prolonged use, i have to rest it on something somehow, use both hands, or swap hands. eveyone does. sometimes you wish you didn't have to, and it's kinda clumsy. with the mini, you don't have to.

and of course it's also $170 less expensive. that explicitely expands its potential market, sounds like "$170 off" to most shoppers (not "$130 more" than x), and makes it more tempting to buy them for kids. all existing iPad apps work, so not problem there. plus a new generation of accessories ready for the lightning connector will quickly come to market.

i think this 8" 4:3 tablet form factor is the true "sweet spot" for all tablets, period, and certainly the best for mid-size tablets, defined as tablets you can easily hold with one hand. it delivers the best "reward" - screen area and map/web viewability in particular - for the "effort" required - physically holding the thing. it kicks 7" 16:9(10) tablets conclusively in the butt in these regards.

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Originally Posted by philipm 

 

It's better than Microsoft's report on the early sales of Surface. Seen that?

Break dancers and wigger rappers; the MS Surface is flying off the display tables... didn't you know?

They've even sold a few too. Barnum Bailey is still right!

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Originally Posted by Flaneur 

A couple of years ago, I saw a reference to an MRI study that showed German men, when shown pictures of tools, lit up the same brain areas that lit up in other men when shown pornography. I think that's what's going on here. Jony Ive has a thing for Stahlwille and Hazett wrenches, sorry, spanners. So do I.

Research has shown that a male's search for perfect tools is as old as his search for the perfect sex partner. Another test has shown that male test subjects who are shown a photo of a Vista "Start" screen have an involuntary tightening of the sphincter muscles. 

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Originally Posted by Alfiejr .

 

i think this 8" 4:3 tablet form factor is the true "sweet spot" for all tablets, period, and certainly the best for mid-size tablets, defined as tablets you can easily hold with one hand. it delivers the best "reward" - screen area and map/web viewability in particular - for the "effort" required - physically holding the thing. it kicks 7" 16:9(10) tablets conclusively in the butt in these regards.

Yes. I think Apple essentially maximized the amount of screen you can hold in one hand spanning grip.  This captures 80% of the screen feel of the bigger iPad but in half the weight. It blows the teeny 7" narrow screen tablets out of the way.

I expect the Mini will be Apples top selling iPad this quarter. But the big one still has a compelling feature in it's retina screen, but when the Mini gets Retina, I think the full size becomes a much harder sell. Hopefully Apple has something to make the bigger iPad desirable when the Retina Mini arrives.

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Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 

 

Seems odd that you know exactly what the future's like. And for more reasons than the aleph-null minus one number of possibilities of futures.

 

 

Ah, but it doesn't. If you need to do any work, the regular iPad is the one to get.

 

 

So the 13" MacBook Pro's keyboard(s) are of different sizes than the 15" MacBook Pro's keyboard(s)?

Throw a Mini in one pocket and Folding keyboard in the other.

http://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-Wireless-Bluetooth-Folding-Keyboard/dp/B004L9LT2E

Still more mobile than a fullsize iPad and a wider more normal spaced actual keyboard.

http://www.splatf.com/2012/11/ipad-mini/

via Gruber

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallest Skil 

 

I'd love to. I plan to at the nearest opportunity. But I already know how large the keyboards are. That doesn't change my view.

"keyboards". There is already a scanner so you could swipe a suitably coded driver's license card. Heck I paid for a couple of meals at 10K in The California Sierra that way this past summer. Received an email receipt on my phone  before I could reach the door. Okay out of staters might be different unless there was a cross- state standard, but there's precedent for that as well with the toll RFID: EZ-Pass. IIRC Apple stores use a similar pad-scanner system.

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Originally Posted by Snowdog65 

 

Yes. I think Apple essentially maximized the amount of screen you can hold in one hand spanning grip.  This captures 80% of the screen feel of the bigger iPad but in half the weight. It blows the teeny 7" narrow screen tablets out of the way.

 

I expect the Mini will be Apples top selling iPad this quarter. But the big one still has a compelling feature in it's retina screen, but when the Mini gets Retina, I think the full size becomes a much harder sell. Hopefully Apple has something to make the bigger iPad desirable when the Retina Mini arrives.

yup, agree. i think people will only buy the full size 10" iPad after that next year for some specific good reason. like "real work" for example, photo/video editing, and many business purposes. the mini will become the most popular consumer tablet. which is why Apple is going to maintain its typical profit margin prices for it @ $330 price.

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Originally Posted by igriv 

 

Who does video editing on an iPad?

 

people like me who still have a camcorder to shoot videos while on vacation that are a little better than a smartphone clip. and want to make a simple home movie in the evening back at the motel/tent. iMovie is good enough for that.  i'll have to get a new lightning/USB adapter tho.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mstone 

I think they are completely out of sync. For example they have six notebooks now

and the new management shake up did not look well planned to say the least. All I see is chaos. As stylish as the new iMacs are, they seem impracticably thin so much so that they had to put the SD card reader on the back. They have totally left the Mac Pro out to pasture and screwed up the Maps app. They also abandoned a large portion of their users when ML would not boot with 32 bit kernel. Yep, sounds like a smooth running machine alright. I'm not criticizing anyone, it just seems to me that everything is sort of falling apart, like iOS 6 needing a new updater app because it couldn't update over the air. Everything is just a patchwork of temporary fixes and placeholders. I'm still upgrading to all the new products except the iPad 4 since I recently purchased the new iPad. I already have the iPhone 5 and the Retina MBP. I've been ready for a new Mac Pro for awhile and also over due for another iMac. Even with all the confusion, they still make the best stuff in my opinion.

Actually, they have three notebooks: Macbook Air, Macbook Pro and Macbook Pro/Retina. How are you counting six?

The only problem I have with the management shakeup was that it didn't happen sooner. It makes perfect sense to have both operating systems under one general manager, and I think Federighi is the best choice. Putting Ive in charge of the overall experience for all platforms also makes a lot of sense. I can only assume you believe that a management shakeup of this nature can be organised overnight. Well, I can tell that it takes time, careful negotiation and a hell of a lot of money, especially when you want to dump someone and at the same time keep them out of the hands of the competition.

The Mac Pro market is just not big enough to warrant as much attention as the iMac, which most prosumers are happy with. Still, the MacPro is being upgraded next year. I have no idea what it will be like, but I'm pretty sure you won't like it ... 

You say they abandoned a large portion of their users when ML wouldn't boot with a 32bit kernel. That statement can be pretty much ignored as you have no idea how many were affected.

Maps? Well, for every comment I read that said it was a disaster, I read at least comment that said the problems were exaggerated. I imagine the truth is somewhere in the middle.

And the position of the SD card? Yes, what a disaster. That'll sink 'em for sure. . They moved it to the back because everything else is on the back, and it keeps the lines clean. Is it a problem, well, no more than having all the USB ports on the back, and that hasn't been a deal breaker, has it?

You've listed a couple of small edge cases (aside from the Maps) in an attempt to justify your main beef: Apple hasn't updated the Mac Pro as promptly as you'd like. Against these small problems, you've had the successful rollout of the Mountain Lion update, the new iPhone, the new iMac, and the new Macbook Pro. The shops are doing a roaring trade and they are working very hard to dump Samsung as a supplier.

Any company of that size that doesn't have any problems is not doing anything of note.

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Originally Posted by igriv 

 

Who does video editing on an iPad?

 

Me. 

Edited a short safari piece on it.

Nothing professional though.

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Originally Posted by igriv 

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Originally Posted by Alfiejr 

people like me who still have a camcorder to shoot videos while on vacation that are a little better than a smartphone clip. and want to make a simple home movie in the evening back at the motel/tent. iMovie is good enough for that.  i'll have to get a new lightning/USB adapter tho.

 

 

Fair enough.

 

Just to add a little legitimacy...

I have a friend who is a high-level executive at one of the major broadcast networks.   When FCP X was announced, I asked for an opinion of how it would fit into their video editing process.  I was surprised by a portion of the response (emphasis mine):