Apple iPad mini draws New Yorkers; crowds thin elsewhere

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's iPad mini hit stores around the world on Friday, attracting sparser crowds than previous Apple launches, but the kickoff still drew hundreds of New Yorkers only days after one of the biggest storms to hit the United States.

A proliferation of rival gadgets aimed at the holidays and cheaper tablets from Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc may have sapped interest in Apple's latest bet, resulting in shorter lines outside stores from Tokyo and Amsterdam to Sydney and Hong Kong.

The 7.9-inch iPad mini marks Apple's first foray into the smaller-tablet segment, and is the company's first major new device since the death of its co-founder, Steve Jobs, last year.

In Manhattan, crowds braved crippled public transit and an early morning chill to line up outside Apple's Fifth Avenue flagship store just two blocks from where a damaged crane dangled from a high-rise building - a stark example of how superstorm Sandy ravaged the city.

Some turned up on impulse, lacking power and heat at home.

Lisa Sieber, 59, from Germany, rode a bicycle to the store because she said she was going "stir crazy" at her 81-year-old mother's home in Manhattan's Lower East Side.

"There's not much to do without power and lights," she said. "I didn't think I needed an iPad but once you get your first Mac, you slide into the iPhone and the next one and it makes it easy to get more Apple products."

While the city was still grappling with Sandy's unprecedented devastation, some New Yorkers were angry that Apple delayed the store's opening until 10 a.m.

"Usually it's 8 a.m.," said Vincent Leroy, 27, a student from Long Island City in Queens who showed up at the store at 6:30 a.m. His friends complained loudly in unison when he told them he had found out about the delayed opening.

On the U.S. West Coast, fewer than a hundred people thronged Apple's new outlet in Palo Alto, California, near the company's Cupertino headquarters, and staff appeared to outnumber customers.

Shares of Apple, which hit an all-time high in September, slid as much as 2.7 percent on Friday to $580.14, their lowest level in more than three months. The shares were down 2.5 percent at $581.65 in late afternoon.

LATEST SALVO

The iPad mini marks Apple's assault on the smaller 7-inch-plus tablet segment, hoping to beat back major inroads by Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire this year. It is the latest salvo in a global mobile-device war, with software giant Microsoft Corp angling its Windows 8-driven Surface tablet for the holidays.

Unveiled last week, the iPad mini has won mostly positive reviews but criticism centered on a heftier price tag and a screen considered inferior to those of rival gadgets like the Nexus 7. It replicates most of the features of its full-sized sibling.

Apple will likely sell between 1 million and 1.5 million iPad minis in the first weekend - far short of the 3 million third-generation iPads that sold last March in their first weekend, according to Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster.

"While launch lines and initial weekend sales may not be as impressive as previous iPad launches, the iPad mini will be a hit product for Apple and become a more significant part of the story over the next two to three quarters," Munster said.

The iPad mini is the first device to be added to Apple's compact portfolio under Chief Executive Tim Cook, who took over from Jobs months before his death a year ago. Analysts credit Google and Amazon for influencing the decision.

Some investors worry that Apple might have lost its chief visionary with Jobs, or that new management may struggle to stay ahead of the pack as rivals innovate and encroach on its turf.

Jobs launched the original iPad in 2010, which has since taken a big chunk out of PC sales. On Friday, Apple also began selling the fourth generation of that 9.7-inch device, much the same as before but with a faster A6X processor and better Wi-Fi.

Both devices hit stores across 34 countries on Friday.

HONG KONG, AMSTERDAM

When Apple's flagship Hong Kong store opened on Friday, staff appeared to outnumber those waiting in line. In Amsterdam two hours after the store opened, it looked like a typical day, with no lines outside. An Apple employee told Reuters that people had lined up ahead of the store opening.

There were queues of 100 or more outside Apple stores in Tokyo and Seoul when the device went on sale. But fewer people turned up in Sydney than for previous iPhone launches.

"It's so thin and light and very cute - so cute!" said Ten Ebihara at the Apple store in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district.

Reviewers have applauded Apple for squeezing most of the iPad's features into a smaller package that can be comfortably manipulated with one hand. But at $329 for a Wi-Fi-only model, the iPad mini is a little costlier than predicted, though some analysts see that as Apple's attempt to retain premium positioning.

Some investors fear the gadget will lure buyers away from Apple's $499 flagship iPad, while proving ineffective in combating the threat of Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7, both of which are sold at or near cost.

(Additional reporting by Mariko Lochridge in Tokyo, Stefanie McIntyre in Hong Kong, Miyoung Kim in Seoul, and Roberta Cowan in Amsterdam; writing by Noel Randewich and Edwin Chan in San Francisco, Sinead Carew in New York; editing by Phil Berlowitz, Alex Richardson, Steve Orlofsky and Matthew Lewis)

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iPad 4, Mini LTE ship date arrives with iOS 6.0.1 - Product Reviews

We managed to get hands-on the day Apple’s iPad mini launched, although this hadn’t been with the 3G/4G model thanks to Wi-Fi versions being first out the door with cellular options following shortly after. Next week will see the launch of the iPad 4 and iPad Mini LTE models, and this version is about to hit its ship date after multiply emails were sent out this week to those of you that pre-ordered the cellular plus Wi-Fi version.

The recent emails explained that the early pre-orders would start shipping within five business days, which considering this had been a few days ago means that the iPad Mini and iPad 4 LTE ship date will be around Monday/Tuesday next week. It is fair to say that some people will be disappointed if they ordered the new LTE 4G iPads a lot later, which is thanks to ship dates slipping within hours of pre-orders going live last month.

Apple iPad Mini 4G LTE shipping with iOS 6.0.1 – we’ve been running the iOS 6.0.1 update on our iPad mini for a number of days now, and while we didn’t notice any problems previously, the good news is there are no issues after installing the latest software on our review model. If you’ve preordered the iPad Mini with 4G/LTE and Wi-Fi, then you should find the latest iOS 6.0.1 update already installed on your device. You can see our iPad mini review here, which shows the size of the iPad 4 and iPhone 5 next to the 7.9-inch Apple tablet.

Have you had an iPad mini Wi-Fi + cellular shipping notice from Apple? Initially it had been expected that the iPad 4 and iPad mini LTE versions would ship 2 weeks after the Wi-Fi only launch, but this started to get confusing after shoppers saw expected shipping dates get even later after they ordered. We always hear scaremongering about Apple meeting the demand for new products, and the same has happened with the 4th generation iPad and mini version.

Bottom-line: If you placed an order soon enough for the iPad mini, or iPad 4, with LTE then you should receive a tracking number from Apple within the next couple of days. It is also true that some people that were a little late to the launch party might see a much longer wait, which is due to normal demand seen with most new Apple products. You might want to see our article from yesterday that looks at the iPad 4 vs. Nexus 10, and also takes Apple’s ecosystem into account as well. Will you be using AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon with your cellular iPad 4 / mini?

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30 Best iPhone and iPad apps this week - The Guardian (blog)

It's time for our weekly roundup of the best new iPhone and iPad apps released this week on Apple's App Store, with another crop of 30 for you this week.

As ever, the list doesn't include games, as they get their own separate post: this week's picks included iOS titles like Curiosity, Angry Birds Star Wars, My Little Pony – Friendship is Magic, The Hobbit, Madden NFL 13 Social and more.

Android apps get their own separate post: this week's can be found here. Windows Phone has a monthly roundup, with the latest edition found here.

On with this week's iOS selection.

Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse has already been turned into a film and play. Now it's an app too, produced by Touch Press (of The Elements fame), working with book publisher Egmont and film company Illuminations. It includes the novel, but also a timeline of the First World War for historical context, video interviews with historians and experts, and a full reading of the book by Morpurgo himself.
iPad

The Big Issue has traditionally been sold by homeless and vulnerably housed people on the streets, but now it's going digital. That means a weekly edition delivered through its iOS app for £2.49 an issue. Bad news for vendors? The Big Issue explains that the app revenues will go into a "central pot from where it will be used to provide essential support for homeless men and women".
iPhone / iPad

There's a lot of excitement around 3D printing at the moment, and Autodesk's new iPad app plays right into it. The idea: "create amazing 3D printable designs, right on your iPad". That means choosing basic shapes, editing them and connecting them together to create 3D objects, then exporting them to the 123D design web and desktop apps, and actually printing them. If you have the kit. The app also shows off the creations of other users.
iPad

Digital station Insight Radio is apparently Europe's first radio station for blind and partially sighted people, part-funded by the Royal National Institute of Blind People. Now it's got an app which streams the station live, provides access to older shows and podcasts, and offers news for its community of listeners.
iPhone

Fox Broadcasting has joined the second-screen bandwagon, with an app released in the US to help viewers "tap into the social conversation" around shows such as Glee, The Simpsons, New Girl and Family Guy. It's a Zeebox-like experience offering a mixture of social chatter and extra content related to whatever show is currently on: video clips, episode previews and recaps, and information on the stars.
iPad

Tens of millions of people are playing Temple Run on their smartphones and tablets, but now it's got a digital comic spinoff. Produced by Ape Entertainment, which has done a similar thing for the Pocket God game, it promises to fill in the backstory for Temple Run ("What are the temples? What are the secrets of the golden idols? What exactly are the demon monkey creatures?" with each issue set to cost 69p via in-app purchase.
iPhone / iPad

You wouldn't catch Miffy messing about with demon monkeys in a temple. Dick Bruna's famous bunny is more focused on schoolwork in this new app, based on the book of the same name. It's the third Miffy app for iPad, offering a story with voice narration, a pair of mini-games, creative activities and the option to record up to three children (or parents, grandparents...) reading the story.
iPad

UK retailer Boots has launched a standalone app for Christmas shoppers, offering info on potential gifts, and features to help shoppers narrow down the selection based on whether the recipient is a "natural beauty", "classy chick", "domestic goddess" or other categories. The app also ties into Boots' video gift tags – a new thing this year that lets gift-givers record video messages to attach to their physical presents.
iPhone

High-street retailer Dorothy Perkins and the Kardashians... Together at last! Yes, Kim, Kourtney, Klaxon, Killahghostface and the other ones star in this app for Dorothy Perkins, with a competition to win a day in the life of the famous reality-show family. More usefully, the app enables customers to browse the DP collection, compile wishlists and actually buy clobber.
iPhone

Another week, another whizzy-looking photo/video sharing app jostling for attention on the App Store. This one has a twist though: rather than being just another Instagram wannabe, it's more focused on helping you organise the photos stored on your iPhone by date and event/experience, although sharing to Facebook, Twitter and Google+ is also included.
iPhone

iPad app Desti – only available in the US for now – is getting American tech blogs excited this week: "Siri for travel" seems to be the most common press reaction. What that means is an app providing travel recommendations, using natural language processing technology to respond to questions about "lodging, attractions or restaurants". For now, it covers Northern California only.
iPad

Peter Gabriel has been one of the more tech-savvy musicians for a while now, and his new iPad app is intriguing. Released alongside a remastered version of his So album (which originally came out in 1986), it's a new way to explore the album's lyrics as animations and illustrations, while sharing favourite bits on Facebook and Twitter. One for fans, but pretty interesting.
iPad

Talking of famous people from 1986... Former Liverpool star Ian Rush has released his own, ahem, "scrAppbook" celebrating his career: "the medals he won, the shirts he wore and swapped in the big games, the hat-trick balls he collected" and, judging from the screenshots, some comedy childhood mugshots too. Fans should expect lots of photos, audio, video and rotating boots. Trinity Mirror made the app, which requires an in-app purchase of £4.99 to unlock all the content.
iPad

Talking of famous people with rotating boots... Bradley Wiggins is thankfully recovering from being knocked over by a van this week. Hopefully HarperCollins' new Team Sky app will cheer him up. It's a companion app for the publisher's celebratory Tour de France book, so you don't get the actual text, but you do get some photos, and the ability to point the app at the physical book to hear related recordings from Team Sky's podcasts.
iPhone / iPad

There is no spurious way to link this to a Bradley Wiggins cycling app. Cloud Smart Meter is a very-serious business tool for anyone managing an Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, providing analytics on the go. The idea being that its target audience of "CIOs, IT Managers, DevOps and other cloud users" can quickly check stats when not in front of a computer.
iPhone

More iPhone photography here, with a port of an app that was previously iPad-only. It's based on the Shutterstock stock-photos library, providing subscribers with an easy way to browse the photos using keywords and colour. They can then be cued up for downloading from a computer later.
iPhone

Just in time for Remembrance Sunday comes this iPhone app from the RAF Benevolent Fund, based on its memorial in central London. The app includes audio interviews with veterans, a guide to the Bomber Command Memorial itself, and a guide to various bomber aircraft. The proceeds will go towards the upkeep of the monument.
iPhone

Fayve is another US-only app getting Silicon Valley in a stir. It's a film and TV discovery app that aims to learn your preferences and then suggest suitable things to watch from Netflix, Hulu Plus, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon Instant Video and other US services. There are search tools to pinpoint specific shows and movies, social features, and the ability to look up films being shown at nearby cinemas. It's the work of Vulcan Technologies, the company of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen
iPad

This year's second official Children in Need app has a creative angle: it wants people to "give pretty much anything a voice of its own". That means pointing the app at inanimate objects and shooting videos either with your own voice, or that of a celebrity – the latter cost 69p via in-app purchase, with the proceeds going to Children in Need. The BBC worked with agency Weapon7 on the app.
iPhone / iPad

This app from book publisher HarperCollins is all about space: 90 photos taken from around the world for the Royal Observatory in Greenwich's Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. Comments from the snappers and experts are included, as is the ability to share the pics on social networks.
iPhone / iPad

Stop us when Bloxy HD starts to sound familiar: a digital set of more than 50 colourful brick-types that fit together to make buildings, vehicles etc, accompanied by 14 "mini-figures" including knights, princesses... Yep, it's fair to say Bloxy HD has been inspired by Lego, but assuming the lawyers don't step in, it's an imaginative app that taps into children's creativity.
iPad

Quips is a spin-off from social TV startup Miso, and wants to be "the best way to talk about TV". What that means is pretty clever: searching for a specific scene from a favourite show, scribbling your own caption for commentary, then sharing it with friends in the app, or via Facebook and Twitter.
iPhone

Shopping lists as photos rather than text? It sounds like a strange idea, but that's what the Snipbase app is all about, with its developer suggesting it's faster, smarter and more useful than traditional lists, whether supermarket shopping or compiling a wishlist for Christmas or birthdays.
iPhone

This is another photography-focused app, but this time revolving around travel rather than shopping. Travel to a specific place, too: Italy. It pulls in images from the community on photographic website Fotopedia, while adding interactive maps, trip-planning features and social sharing.
iPhone / iPad

There are dozens of Dr. Seuss books now available as apps, with If I Ran the Circus the latest to get the treatment from developer Oceanhouse Media. It's the colourful tale of the imaginary Circus McGurkus, with voice narration and words that zoom up and are spoken individually when pictures are touched, to aid young readers.
iPhone / iPad

Effortlessly trumping the price of every other app in this weekly roundup put together, this app from Oxford University Press is based on its existing Practical English Usage book, offering more than 600 entries on questions about the English language's peculiarities.
iPhone / iPad

"Think of Backdraft like a remote control for Twitter – or a 'tweemote'," suggests the App Store listing for this iPad app from Purdue University. Please don't think of it as a "tweemote". But do think of it as useful: it's an app that "enables you to write tweets in advance, and then release them while you are giving a presentation". Yep: livetweet YOUR OWN conference presentations. Which could be fun if you don't tell your audience how you're doing it.
iPad

NowThis Media's new app promises "the latest scoops", but we're talking web-novelty scoops as well as hard news in this case, from the "top 5 worst on stage rockstar meltdowns" through to "Steve Jobs Tributes That Will Amaze You". If you love sites like Buzzfeed, you'll love it.
iPhone / iPad

British developer Secret Attic have their own characterful take on Charles Dickens' Christmas fable, aimed at 3-14 year-old children. Illustration, excerpts from the original text and voice narration are all included.
iPhone / iPad

And finally... This may be a novelty, but there's something undeniably fun about it. The idea: silly sound effects triggered just before taking photos, with the aim of jolting subjects out of their standard photo-face expressions. You can also rate their success, for other users to see which ones work best.
iPhone

That's our selection, but what new iOS apps have you been using this week? Make your recommendations in the comments section.

This article was updated on 9 November to tweak the NowThis News entry, to reflect that it does have hard news, not just novelty stories.

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Nexus 7 Destroys iPad Mini in Drop Test [VIDEO]

The iPad mini hit stores Friday, and the folks at SquareTrade are back with a video of what the tablet does when it hits somewhere else: the pavement.

[More from Mashable: iPad Mini Launch in NYC Gets Late Start [VIDEO]]

The group dropped an iPad mini, Nexus 7, and iPad 3 onto concrete and into water to see how they survive.

Each tablet was dropped from the SquareTrade “drop bot” to ensure that each was dropped the same way.

[More from Mashable: iPad Mini and iPad 4 Teardowns Show They’re Hard to Fix]

When dropped on its corner, the iPad mini survived with minimal damage to just the corner where it came in contact with the pavement. The Nexus 7 screen cracked on the edge of the screen, and the iPad 3 took a serious beating, cracking in a number of places on the screen.

SEE ALSO: iPhone 5 Humiliates Galaxy S III in Drop Test

When dropped directly on the screen, the iPad mini took a pretty hard beating, cracking across the screen in a number of places, so much so that the screen would definitely need to be replaced before you could continue to use the tablet, the same for the iPad 3. The Nexus 7 survived the fall, however, with just a few bumps and bruises.

All that’s well and good, but what happens when you drop your tablet in water? The iPad mini appeared to survive a 10-second dunk with no problem. The iPad 3 survived the dunk, but had a few malfunctions, and the Nexus 7 reset itself and appeared unresponsive after getting wet.

Check out the video above to see the test for yourself. Let us know what you think of the results in the comments.

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Review: iPad Mini charms with design and finish, but screen is a letdown

NEW YORK, N.Y. - I bet the iPad Mini is going to be on a lot of wish lists this holiday season. I also bet that for a lot of people, it's not going to be the best choice. It's beautiful and light, but Apple made a big compromise in the design, one that means that buyers should look closely at the competition before deciding.

Starting at $329, the iPad Mini is the cheapest iPad. The screen is a third smaller than the regular iPads, and it sits in an exquisitely machined aluminum body. It weighs just 11 ounces — half as much as a full-size iPad — making it easier to hold in one hand. It's just under 8 inches long and less than a third of an inch thick, so it fits easily into a handbag.

The issue is the screen quality. Apple has been on the forefront of a move toward sharper, more colorful screens. It calls them "Retina" displays because the pixels — the little light-emitting squares that make up the screen — are so small that they blend together almost seamlessly in our eyes, removing the impression that we're watching a grid of discrete elements.

The iPad Mini doesn't have a Retina screen. By the standards of last year, it's a good screen, with the same number of pixels as the first iPad and the iPad 2. The latest full-size iPad has four times as many pixels, and it really shows. By comparison, the iPad Mini's screen looks coarse. It looks dull, too, because it doesn't have the same colour-boosting technology that the full-size model has.

This is not an entirely fair comparison, as the full-size iPad starts at $499 and weighs twice as much. The real issue is that this year, there are other tablets that are cheaper than the iPad Mini, weigh only slightly more and still have better screens.

Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire HD costs $199 and has about the same overall size as the Mini. While the Kindle's screen is somewhat smaller (leaving a bigger frame around the edges), it is also sharper, with 30 per cent more pixels than the Mini. Colors are slightly brighter, too.

Barnes & Noble Inc.'s Nook HD costs $229 and has a screen that's even sharper than the Kindle HD's. It's got 65 per cent more pixels than the iPad Mini.

Why do tablets from two companies chiefly known as book stores beat Apple's latest for screen quality?

Sharper screens are darker, requiring a more powerful backlight to appear bright. That, in turn, would have forced an increase in the battery size. That's the reason the first iPad with a Retina display was thicker and heavier than the iPad 2. So to keep the iPad Mini thin while matching the 10-hour battery life of the bigger iPads, Apple had to compromise on the display.

This can't last, though. By next year, it will likely be even more obvious that Apple is seriously behind in screen quality on its small tablet, and it will have to upgrade to a Retina display somehow. That means this first-generation iPad Mini will look old pretty fast.

The display causes a few other problems, too. One is that when you run iPhone apps on the Mini, it uses the coarsest version of the graphics for that app — the version designed for iPhones up to the 2009 model, the 3GS. You can blow the app up to fill more of the screen, but it looks pretty ugly. The full-size iPad uses the higher-quality Retina graphics when running iPhone apps, and it looks much better.

Some apps adapted for the iPad screen don't display that well on the Mini screen, either, because of the smaller size. Buttons can be too small to hit accurately, bringing to mind Steve Jobs' 2010 comments about smaller tablets. The late Apple founder was of the vociferous opinion that the regular iPad was the smallest size that was also friendly to use.

In some apps, text on the Mini is too small to be comfortably read — the section fronts in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal apps are examples of this.

Of course, in some other respects, the iPad Mini outdoes the Fire and the Nook, so it isn't just the tablet for the buyer who needs the prettiest and the thinnest. In particular, the Mini is a $329 entry ticket to the wonderful world of iPad and iPhone apps. For quality and quantity, it beats all the other app stores. (Oddly, there's an inverse relationship between screen quality and app availability in this category — the Nook HD has the best screen and the fewest apps, while the second-best Kindle Fire HD has middling access to apps.)

The Mini also has front- and back-facing cameras, for taking still photos and video and for videoconferencing. The Kindle Fire HD only has a front-facing camera for videoconferencing. The Nook HD doesn't have a camera at all.

In short, the iPad Mini is more versatile than the competition, and I'm sure it will please a lot of people. But take a look at the competition first, and figure that by next year, we'll see something from Apple that looks a lot better.

___

Peter Svensson can be reached at http://twitter.com/petersvensson

___

About the iPad Mini:

The base model of the iPad Mini costs $329 and comes with 16 gigabytes of storage. A 32 GB model goes for $429 and 64 GB for $529. Soon, you'll be able to get versions that can connect through cellular networks, not just Wi-Fi. Add $130 to the price.

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iPad sold for $200 was actually a mirror - Geeky gadgets

By Conner Flynn on Sunday 11th November 2012 11:37 am in iPad, Technology News

People really really really want an iPad. They want one so badly that they open themselves up to scams. One woman from Arlington was deceived recently when she was fueling her car at a gas station. A stranger approached her and offered to sell her an iPad that he claimed was originally worth $800. The price was $200, so the woman took the offer and drove home.

She was surprised to find a tablet-sized mirror that had been duct-taped with an Apple logo on it. Now she has some good advice for all of us. “Don’t buy nothing on the streets from nobody.” If only she had heeded that warning.

The police said that last year similar incidents were reported. “Crimes of this kind always increase leading up to Christmas,” a police spokesperson said. Always look before you buy people.

Source Ubergizmo

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Everybody Loves the iPad Mini

The reviews for the latest hyped-about Apple device are in and, surprise surprise, everybody thinks it's amazing. The iPad Mini was announced last week after a seemingly never-ending torrent of rumors about its existence, and with just two days left before the device hits store, the embargo on the reviews was just lifted. Like we said, the reaction, so far, is expectedly ecstatic.

RELATED: The iPad Mini Event Invites Are Out

It's so pretty!

RELATED: Why Is Apple So Scared?

This is more or less the first thing out of any reviewers mouth (or fingertips) when talking about a new Apple device. We get it. Apple makes beautiful objects. How beautiful? "If the iPhone 5 is reminiscent of jewelry, the iPad mini is like a solidly made watch," wrote The Verge's Joshua Topolsky. "The iPad mini's paint job is similar to the iPhone's, but smoother, and on the black version I tested has a glint of blue and purple to it in certain light. It looks dangerous, and it feels great."

RELATED: What Does 'Sold Out' Mean for the iPad Mini?

It's so small!

RELATED: Apple CEO Is Sure You Will Hate Your Cheap Non-Apple Tablet

So the big thing about the iPad Mini is that it's smaller. This feels incredibly obvious, but tech bloggers are still blown away by just how much smaller it is. It's really small! "The most striking thing about the mini is in how thin and light it is. It is really thin and light," wrote Bloomberg Businessweek's Rich Jaroslovsky. "Crazy thin and crazy light, even." We saw this one coming, Rich. Impossibly thin has been Apple's jam ever since the MacBook Air debuted in 2008, and after the iPhone 5 stunned reviewers with its lack of heft, we should have expected the iPad Mini to be truly mini. As Jaroslovsky points out, though, it impressively beat competitors on weight and thickness -- it's 21 percent lighter than the Kindle Fire HD and 30 percent thinner -- despite having a larger screen.

RELATED: Google Doesn't Get the Importance of Gadget Packaging

It's so comparable!

At this point in time, it feels wildly cliché to drop the whole "It's just like the iPad only smaller!" line, but it's so wildly true. Everyone seems thrilled that the iPad Mini has instant access to the 275,000-plus iPad apps as well as the 700,000 iOS apps currently on the market. That's mostly because, the smaller package also sports the same screen resolution as the iPad 2. It's not jaw-droppingly sharp like the Retina display or anything, but it'll do. 

Come to think of it, though, this lower resolution screen is a real down side. The Kindle HD is a little bit thicker and heavier, but Transformers 2 looks awesome on the high resolution screen. Maybe the difference isn't that big a deal, though. "Apple insists the device does better than standard definition, if you are obtaining the video from its iTunes service, since iTunes scales the video for the device, so it will render somewhere between standard definition and HD," explained The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg. "In my tests, video looked just fine, but not as good as on the regular iPad."

It's kind of expensive!

The $329 the iPad Mini is not the $199 Kindle Fire HD, and it is not the $199 Google Nexus 7. It's significantly more expensive, but it's also built out of aluminum and glass rather than plastic. Expensive is bad, right? No, silly goose. We're talking about an Apple product here. The fact that it cost so much is practically generous on Apple's part. "By pricing the Mini so high, Apple allows the $200 class of seven-inch Android tablets and readers to live (Google Nexus, Kindle Fire HD, Nook HD)," wrote David Pogue at The New York Times. "But the iPad Mini is a far classier, more attractive, thinner machine. It has two cameras instead of one. Its fit and finish are far more refined. And above all, it offers that colossal app catalog, which Android tablet owners can only dream about."

Class, glass and apps. All in the iPad Mini. Get in line now.

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iPad mini or Nexus 7: Which is best for you?

Cheap and more than cheerful, the world of affordable tablets means now everyone can get in on a slice of slab action. Right now, the two tech big boys that are Google and Apple are both fighting it out for the money in your pocket.

But which tablet should you go for - the Nexus 7 or the iPad mini? Pocket-lint has had plenty of time playing with both. Read on to find out which is best for you.

Cost

The iPad mini starts at £269, whereas the Nexus 7 is £159. It's a big price difference. The Nexus 7 is getting close to generous stocking filler, but the little Apple tab over £100 more.

In the iPad mini's defence, pick it up and you still feel like you are getting a lot for your outlay. The premium feel is definitely there in the Nexus 7 but it's not in the same class as what Apple has come up with. Simply put, the iPad mini is a more expensive product and it feels it.

If you aren't fussed, then the cheaper price of the Nexus 7 is very persuasive indeed. At just £200 for a 32GB version compared to the equivalent iPad mini at £349, and a 3G option coming to the UK soon, you are getting a lot more memory for your money. Worth considering if you are the sort that likes to carry about a lot of movies and gaming apps.

Design

We've already mentioned the premium design of the iPad mini. The black version in particular, which looks like a big version of the iPhone 5, is a joy to pick up and hold.

Size-wise, the iPad mini is svelte enough to be easily slipped into a bag or rucksack. We want to say coat pocket also, but unless you have pockets 134mm wide, there isn't much chance. As for thickness and weight, the tablet is thin at 7.2mm and light at 308 grams.

The Nexus 7, while slightly varied on the spec sheet, really is the same in terms of pocketability. It is 198.5 x 120 x 10.5 mm and weighs 340 grams. Hold both tablets in either hand and you won't notice much of a portability difference, apart from the taller shape of the Nexus 7's 16:9 screen.

As for design, the Nexus 7 is still a very well put together product. Its dimpled matte back is grippy as anything you could need and the whole piece of kit feels very solid in the hand. There isn't all the metal and shine of the iPad mini, but then some might prefer that.

Processor and performance

We're not interested in what either of these leisure devices can bench. In terms of real world performance, neither are particularly slow.

Both the iPad mini and Nexus 7 handle standard tablet activities, like email or web browsing, absolutely fine. Project Butter and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean has done a good job smoothing Android out and iOS is as responsive as ever.

READ: iPad mini review

The differences come really when you take to gaming. In fact, this is the only time that we found performance to be distinguishable in any way. If you run a really demanding app, such as Shadowgun, then the iPad mini can start to lag up. Pushing games over AirPlay to an Apple TV can also cause the odd frame-rate drop. The Nexus 7 however, with its class leading Tegra chip, is very fast. Games are all a breeze on the tablet.

So for day to day activities then, both are neck a neck. If however you are serious about tablet gaming, then the Nexus 7 is most definitely the one for you. Do remember however, that some of the big titles might come out on iOS first.

Content: apps, films, music, books, etc

Android or iOS, that is the question. In terms of raw day to day performance, there is very little in it. Where the difference probably appears most regularly is with apps. Android is still a touch clunky in the way it manages applications on a tablet.

Let's take BBC iPlayer as an example. It runs on every version of iOS. However with Android and the Nexus 7, those who use Android 4.2 will find they have to sideload iPlayer to get it working; a complex process. The iPad mini guarantees support of every app on iOS, the Nexus 7 with Android, does not.

As for what sort of apps are on offer, we could argue all day about volume, but Apple still has a thin edge over Android in terms of the number of actually useful and exciting applications you can run on a tablet, however for most of the key app players, you really won't notice any disparity between the two.

Alongside apps, the other real differentiator is availability of music, books and movie content. Defining exactly what media is available on Google Play and iTunes is impossible. Think about it this way; there is a lot. If you're talking about in-house stores, then iTunes has it over Google Play. Google Music does launch next week, which helps, but there's the odd annoyance with the Android system like the fact that it's streaming rentals rather than anything you can actually download - potentially tedious if you're out of range of Wi-Fi or 3G.

Of course, in real terms, there's little difference for films, books and music because of the available apps on both systems in the shape of Kindle, Amazon MP3, Spotify, Lovefilm, Netflix and just about anything else you'd care to mention along with whatever you're prepared to sideload from your PC.

Ecosystem

What is different, in terms of content, is what you can actually do with it. Apple has plenty of other products that you can play a track back on or, say, you own an Apple TV, then your music or movie can be played on you TV too.

There's an extent to which this is also true with the Nexus 7. Anything Google-running, and on which you can access the Play store, is a place where you can listen to or watch whatever bits and pieces of media you bought or rented from there. So, that's your PC sorted but where it can't quite keep up is with AirPlay music devices and AirPlay mirroring on your TV.

READ: Nexus 7 review

Yes, a touch of DLNA is great for movie playback but it's just not possible to mirror whatever is on your iPad desktop in quite the same manner - not without a fair bit of head scratching. Likewise, with music, there's plenty of wireless pieces of kit for Android that work over Bluetooth but the truly beautiful stuff is often at its most seamless with Apple.

So, if blending with your other devices and home set up is key, and you want that to be easy and smooth, then it's really the iPad mini that you're after. Just don't expect all that integration and accessorizing to come cheap.

Pictures, video and VoIP

With the iPad mini, Apple didn't go all out on the rear camera, which is a shame because at this size, taking photos feels a lot less ridiculous than it does on a full size tablet. What you get is a 5-megapixel camera on the back and a 720p capable FaceTime HD camera on the front.

For the Nexus 7, there is no rear mounted camera. Instead just a 1.2 megapixel 720p snapper on the front for video calling. So then, the iPad wins here just by the number of cameras alone. How good is that rear facing camera though? Well from the test shots below, it isn't bad by tablet standards. If you are used to using any current-gen smartphone, it's a big step back.

As for the VoIP end of the cameras, we tested some video calling on Skype on both tablets and the quality was good. There was no discernable difference between the two. Interestingly enough though, the picture was clearer on the iPad at our end. It's quite possible due to differences in connection quality at the time the calls were made but it's certainly worth noting.

Screen

This is the other major difference between the two tablets. In terms of resolution, the iPad mini is 1024 x 768 and that equates to a 163 ppi pixel density. The Nexus 7 is 800 x 1280 with a 216 ppi pixel density. What do these numbers mean? Essentially that text, video and images are sharper on the Nexus 7.

However the iPad mini has a 7.9-inch screen and that's larger than that of the Asus tablet. In practice, the 16:9 screen ratio of the Nexus means that watching movies on both tablets is nearly identical anyway. In fact, you also get higher resolution video on the Nexus because of the cropping on the Apple screen.

With other activities though, where screen estate is key, say games for example, Apple's bigger tablet surface is a bonus. Whether it's browsing the web or anything else, it's just nice to have a bit more space.

In terms of screen technology, both are IPS panels. The iPad mini is LED backlit and the Nexus 7 is straight LCD. What that ends up translating to is a brighter screen on the iPad with better colour reproduction and we would say deeper blacks, although the Nexus 7 is definitely very good.

Connections

In terms of connectivity, don't expect much. Apart from a 3.5mm headphone jack you won't find a single connection on either tablet other than the one you use to charge it. For the iPad, this is a Lightning connector. For the Nexus, a micro USB.

The latter is simply more handy, just because most people are privy to a micro USB charger, should you forget your connector. Apple's Lightning port means new accessories or an investment in the 30-pin adapter; a bit of an irritation if you ask us.

As for storage, neither offers and SD or microSD expandability, so whatever capacity you buy, you're going to be stuck with. As for mobile broadband access, at the time of writing, the Nexus 7 3G version was on the way but not yet available whereas the iPad mini comes with HSPA+ if you're willing to pay anywhere upwards of £369. An LTE version is also supposed to be in the pipeline for some time soon.

Which one should I buy?

It really comes down to a just few differences between these two mini-tabs. Are you a gamer? If so, the iPad mini gives you more screen to play with and a bigger library of apps in general. However, when it comes to processor pushing games, the Nexus 7 will fly.

If you want to take photos with your tablet, then the iPad mini is your only choice. For movies, things are evenly matched with the Asus arguably having the edge due to its higher resolution screen.

The ecosystem and usability of the iPad is more straightforward. Things like AirPlay, iTunes Match and the compatibility of apps all make for a device that is much more pick up and play, and perfect for those who might be making it their first tablet.

Then finally there is cost, which is tied in neatly with design and build quality. Simply put, you are paying extra for the Apple marque, but, with that, comes high quality materials and a thin and light tablet that's a joy to pick up.

So, which is the one to go for? Well, if you're all about style and cache, then it's the iPad mini that you should go for but you will be paying quite the premium for it. If you're about watching films, then we'd plump for the Nexus 7. Despite the better processing power, we'd advise gamers to go with the iPad mini, and if it's just about all round use then, if you can afford it, then it's the iPad mini once more.

The only other reason to go for the Nexus 7 is if it's a question of budget. It's a fantastic piece of kit with a fantastic price, but is the iPad mini a better tablet if cost is to be ignored? The answer - probably, yes.

© copyright Pocket-lint 2012

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First iPad mini teardown reveals Samsung display

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's iPad mini uses a display from South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, one of Apple's major suppliers and also its fiercest rival in the global mobile-device market that the two companies dominate.

Analysts say the Silicon Valley-based iPhone maker is trying to wean itself off its reliance on Samsung, as both giants are embroiled in a bitter international legal battle over mobile patents, for everything from microchips to displays.

In the first dismantling of the iPad mini, which will be sold in 34 countries beginning Friday, teardown and gadget-repair specialist company, iFixit, discovered a Samsung display driver chip, which indicated that Apple had picked the Korean firm's screen technology.

Like most producers of mobile hardware, the U.S. company typically employs several suppliers for the same components in its gadgets. Apple has been known to use screens made by LG Display, for instance.

"Though the markings on the back of the LCD (display) don't turn up much information, the Samsung display driver IC (chip) reveals that Apple, once again, went with Samsung in its display manufacturing," iFixit said, detailing the teardown on its website.

Supplying parts for Apple's iPhones and iPads - some of the industry's most popular and advanced gadgets - is considered a coup for chipmakers and other manufacturers.

The iPad mini also employs SK Hynix Inc flash memory, a Broadcom touch controller, and a number of microchips from Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc, according to iFixit, which acquired one early.

The 7.9-inch iPad mini marks the Apple's first foray into the smaller-tablet segment. The company hopes to beat back incursions into its home territory - carved out with the original iPad's launch in 2010 - with 7-inch slates that are popular with consumers, even as it safeguards its lead in a larger tablet space that even deep-pocketed rivals like Samsung have found tough to penetrate.

It has won mostly positive reviews focused on its ability to wrap most of the functions of its full-sized iPad sibling into a smaller package, but critics pointed out the higher price tag of the iPad mini and an inferior display relative to those of rival products like Amazon's Kindle Fire HD and Google's Nexus 7.

START YOUR ENGINES

A smaller tablet is the first device to be added to Apple's compact portfolio under CEO Tim Cook, who took over from predecessor Steve Jobs just before his death a year ago. Analysts said it may have been Google and Amazon that helped influence the decision.

Online sales have run for a week, but Apple has not disclosed sales numbers so far. Friday's global sales rollout may offer a hint of demand for the gadget, which analysts expect to be strong.

Still, it will be playing catch up. Priced at $329 for a Wi-Fi only model, the iPad mini is more expensive than many analysts had expected. Amazon's Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7, both released at $199, have grabbed a chunk of the lower end of the tablet market.

Meanwhile, it is battling Samsung in the smartphone arena, which still yields the majority of Apple's revenue and profit. The Korean giant last year became the world's largest maker of smartphones as other rivals lost steam.

Apple and Samsung are engaged in patent disputes across several countries, and Apple is believed to be seeking ways to rely less on Samsung. But the Asian tech powerhouse remains a key supplier for Apple, manufacturing its application processors and providing other components.

Samsung has stopped supplying displays for Apple's iPhone, and plays a reduced role in the full-sized iPad, according to DisplaySearch. Apple is also buying fewer memory chips from Samsung for the iPhone 5, relying more on Hynix and Elpida Memory.

Many analysts believe Apple will also gradually phase out Samsung as the main producer of the mobile micro-processor and shift business to rival supplier TSMC.

(Editing by Matthew Lewis, Tim Dobbyn and Bernadette Baum)

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20 Best iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phone games this week - The Guardian (blog)

It's time for our weekly roundup of new games for smartphones and tablets, this time covering iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

The week's pick of new and notable games includes Peter Molyneux's mobile comeback, Angry Birds getting The Force, ponies, hobbits, rope-cutting, magic, knights and word puzzles. A good night in, you could say.

Prices apply to the initial download, so when a game is "Free", it may well include in-app purchases. All prices are correct at the time of writing (8 November), but may have changed if you're reading this at a later date.

This is veteran games designer Peter Molyneux's big new idea for smaller screens: a giant virtual cube that players around the world are chipping away at, trying to discover "the life-changing secret" buried in its centre. Is it a good game? Is it even a game? That's being fiercely debated, but it's true that the actual chipping is rather moreish.
Android / iPhone / iPad

You can read our full review for an explanation of why Angry Birds Star Wars is the best Angry Birds game yet, but as a guide: it does a good job of integrating Star Wars characters and weapons, provides plenty of depth with its 120 available levels, and isn't over-aggressive with its in-app purchases.
Android / iPhone / iPad / Windows Phone

If you've been keeping up with the 'bronies' phenomenon, you'll know that My Little Pony isn't just for young girls these days. That should be good news for Gameloft's official game, which sees you rebuilding the town of Ponyville, playing mini-games, and connecting to friends. It's a freemium game, which parents of younger fans should be aware of when downloading.
iPhone / iPad

Peter Jackson's new Hobbit trilogy hasn't made it to cinemas yet, but there's a new game from social developer Kabam. It sees (in theory) thousands of players teaming up to drum the goblin hordes out of the Misty Mountains. Expect elves, dwarves, lots of diplomacy, and in-app purchases to fund your ambitions.
iPhone / iPad

EA has already turned FIFA into a social mobile game, but now another of its big sporting franchises is following suit. Madden NFL 13 Social has been launched across Facebook and iOS, and sees you building a team and taking on friends, all based on real-world NFL players.
iPhone / iPad

Windows Phone got two Angry Birds games this week, with Angry Birds Space finally making its way onto Microsoft's Marketplace. The game sees you firing birds through gravitational fields across 150 levels.
Windows Phone

And here's one more huge mobile gaming brand making the leap onto Windows Phone. Cutesy monster Om Nom has brought his rope-cutting action to the Marketplace, with 300 physics-puzzle levels and the promise of "more to come".
Windows Phone

Describing itself as a "visceral whack'n'smash action-adventure", Wraithborne uses the Unreal Engine 3 to deliver spiffing graphics alongside its fantasy ("wraiths, goblins and werewolves stalk the lands...") plot. Your job is to kill as many as possible with spells and weapons, while exploring the landscape.
iPhone / iPad

Less a pure game (although that's its App Store category), and more a "GPS-triggered treasure hunt" around the capital city. This is based on a 1908 map of London, and a book by folklorist Edward Lovett. The game involves wandering around London looking for 64 of Lovett's amulets, while listening to audio readings, looking at images and reading the text.
iPhone

Atari is busily updating a number of its famous games from the late 1970s for the apps era, with Outlaw following Centipede Origins and Super Bunny Breakout onto iOS. This takes the Wild West theme of the original Outlaw game and runs with it: a variety of locations, weapons and a freemium pricing structure.
iPhone / iPad

Air Patriots is an inventive take on the line-drawing genre that made Flight Control such a hit: while planes figure here, it's as much a tower defence game than a copy of its predecessor. It's also the first mobile game from Amazon Game Studios – yes, that Amazon – available on its Kindle Fire tablets, but also iOS and Android.
Android / iPhone / iPad

Wreck-It Ralph is the new animated film from Disney, but it's also crashing onto the App Store in game form. In fact, there are three mini-games based on the movie to play here: fixing, blasting and climbing along with characters from the film.
iPhone / iPad

More tower defence here, but with less planes and more shambling undead monsters. Based on the famous movie from the Evil Dead trilogy, it sees you fending off 50 waves of zombies with the help of various characters from the film, with power-ups to help you stay unbitten.
Android

It's a good week for app-based warmaking, with Gameloft joining the fray with its freemium strategy game World at Arms. It sees you building a base, training up troops and then battling other players from around the world, like a modern-warfare (as opposed to Modern Warfare) take on the currently-popular Clash of Clans.
iPhone / iPad

Square Enix's Mensa Academy game started life as a Wii, 3DS and PC title, but has now been ported to iOS. It promises more than 1,000 questions spread between numeracy, language, logic, memory and visual, with shades of Nintendo's famous Dr Kawashima in its tracking and testing features.
iPhone / iPad

More zombies here – a week without any new mobile games featuring zombies remains an unfeasible prospect – but they're joined by robots and ninjas, at least. The game sees you boarding a train to have at them all with a range of weaponry and gadgets, with virtual coins (and thus in-app purchases) fuelling the destruction.
iPhone / iPad

League of Heroes is a charming, social hack'n'slash adventure that sees you slashing (and hacking) your way through monster armies while earning coins, upgrading your character and connecting to Facebook friends.
Android / iPhone / iPad

As elite iOS word-game players mull whether to ditch Words With Friends for Letterpress, Electronic Arts enters the fray with its own literate game, Word Smack. It involves trying to find as many five-letter words as possible over three rounds, playing against individual friends asynchronously.
iPhone / iPad

Here's another interesting puzzle game designed for online multiplayer action, this time splicing poker with match-three puzzles. Friends can be challenged through Facebook or Game Center, as you swipe to match pairs, straights and other cardy combos.
iPhone / iPad

This looks great fun: an Android version of an existing Flash web game called Coign of Vantage, which has been out on iOS for a while. Each level presents you with a cloud of pixels, which you have to rotate until you uncover an image. More a "zen exercise" than a pure game, but still good.
Android

That's our selection, but what are you playing this week on your smartphone or tablet? Make your recommendations, or provide feedback on the games we've chosen, by posting a comment.

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