OctoMonkey

Mike Wuerthele said:

OctoMonkey said:

henrybay said:

Best of all, it still has a Home Button! Which for many people, makes the iPad so much easier to use. 

The home button is one of just a couple reasons I purchased an iPad mini (5th gen) for my wife the day they announced the 6th gen.  A quick upgrade to 14.8 and a firewall block to prevent further i-device OS upgrades and we are golden!

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/06/07/apple-wont-force-updates-to-ios-15-from-ios-14

I'm not sure you want to block at the firewall. This will probably also block the security updates that Apple will continue to apply to iOS 14.

Blocking the update servers at the firewall is an easy way to stop our collection of i-devices (iPads, iPods, iPhones & Apple TVs) from constantly nagging and pestering us about updating.  Also, since it is a single point of control it is also very easy to disable the block (on either a temporary or permanent basis) should we decide to allow updates.  Both my wife and I are concerned about the potential for abuse from on-device scanning and have no intention to upgrade any i-device to 15.

henrybay said:

Best of all, it still has a Home Button! Which for many people, makes the iPad so much easier to use. 

The home button is one of just a couple reasons I purchased an iPad mini (5th gen) for my wife the day they announced the 6th gen.  A quick upgrade to 14.8 and a firewall block to prevent further i-device OS upgrades and we are golden!

crowley said:

OctoMonkey said:

crowley said:

beowulfschmidt said:

suddenly newton said:

xyzzy-xxx said:

I don't believe anything Apple tells about privacy until image scanning (CSAM) on the device is finally declared to be dead. 

It has already been explained that you have to opt-in to iCloud Photos syncing to enable CSAM scans.

Until such time as some government mandates the scanning of images on device, irrespective of whether they're bound for iCloud Photos or not.  Apple will then "comply with all local laws and regulations", privacy be damned.

Which a government can do at any time.  Apple's iCloud Photos solution has no bearing on that.

Are you saying you believe a government (body) can mandate on device image scanning?

Sure.  Why wouldn't they be able to?

In some countries, I am sure they can (North Korea and China are two excellent examples).  In the USA, a mandate could certainly be made, but it would not be enforceable.  Even if in the form of a law (which is quite different from a mandate as demonstrated by the plethora of "health" mandates which have been issued these last 20 months) there would almost certainly be an immediate injunction issued as the SCOTUS (in 2014 I believe) has essentially declared cellular phones private and exempt from search without a warrant.

Since my free AppleTV+ is valid for another 8 months or so I will probably give this a watch...  although given how it appears to be little like the book I have my doubts.

dewme said:

OctoMonkey said:

Ordered a mini 5 this morning.  $379 for the 64GB was a deal!

One thing I did find odd is the mini 6 display has a lower resolution in one dimension when compared to the mini 5 (1488 vs 1536 respectively).  I would have expected the mini 6 to either meet or exceed the mini 5 display in all ways.

I think they slimmed down the width to make it a bit more comfortable to use in one-handed scenarios. I think more people will prefer the 1/3rd of an inch narrower width over the loss of 48 pixels when using the mini in portrait orientation. It's only a single data point, but the only complaint I ever received from a colleague who owned a 7" screen Android tablet when he tried my original iPad mini was that the iPad mini was uncomfortable to hold one-handed compared to the Android tablet.

I don't know if this has anything to do with the new iPad mini, but Apple does seem to follow intentional design practices and settled on the final design for very specific and logical reasons. I guess I'll find out whether Apple's choices were in my best interests next week.  

If looking at the device in portrait mode (as you indicated) the height is reduced by .31 inches, the width remains the same at 5.3 inches.  However, the vertical resolution is increased while the horizontal resolution is decreased.  So in the physical dimension the iPad got smaller, the pixel count increased and where the iPad stayed the same the pixel count decreased.  Very odd in my book.  It only amounts to a 3-1/8% decrease in width...  oddly it also changes from an (old) standard of 4:3 aspect ratio to something...  else.

As an aside, the biggest complaint I have heard regarding the iPads is they are too thin resulting in hand cramping.