the best thing of the 1st iPad mini, that the rest do not have, is its perfect weight for holding it with one hand.
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Apple Removes Original iPad Mini From Apple Online Store
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You're right, the extra 23g weight of the Mini2 is really noticeable...
(331g v 308g wi-fi editions)
Yet the 5th generation iPod touch with A5 remains. Very strange. They should have discontinued this iPad mini and the 5th generation iPod touch last year and not worried about putting iOS 9 on them. The iPod touch should have been updated with an A7.
Actually with iOS 9, devs will be able to only target 64-bit devices so they wouldn't have to support A5 devices if they decide to, though this would also leave out pre-iPhone 5S and pre-iPad Air devices.
Scrap 2, lower the price of 3 (or as I like to call it 2.1) and release a REAL UPDATE to iPad Mini.
iPad Mini 3 is an infuriatingly insulting offer where Apple shows VERY WELL that they are not just about enriching everyone's life and money isn't all that important yadda yadda <insert favorite Tim Cook line here>
Glassed Silver:mac
I can see Apple including either A9X or A8X in the Mini 4 with at least 2GB to join the Air 2 & Air 3 in having the split screen view for multitasking.
A5 and 16gb memory are two things that should not be sold in 2015.
Going to rock my day one mini until it dies on me. 
Safari doesn't work on mine for whatever reason anymore, it craps out eventually even after reinstalls. Editorial now has a URL scheme that lets you open webpages in its built-in browser though, so I have the Launcher widget with my bookmarks that open in there instead. Decent workaround.
But yeah, it is really time for it to go.
Safari doesn't work on mine for whatever reason anymore, it craps out eventually even after reinstalls. Editorial now has a URL scheme that lets you open webpages in its built-in browser though, so I have the Launcher widget with my bookmarks that open in there instead. Decent workaround.
But yeah, it is really time for it to go.
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Though I can't find an article that says definitively, it seems iOS 8 takes up between 2GB and 3GB of space from a survey of a few articles on the topic. It seems difficult to pin down, because it's unknown how much of the space in "other" is dedicated to various caches and temp files at any given moment. In theory, a specialized version of iOS with multitasking disabled and no apps would take up even less space.
Taking the conservative 3GB for iOS, that would still leave 1GB of usable space for apps. Most simple apps are under 100MB, but I suppose one can imagine an app with lots of high-resolution graphics or the need to maintain a large complex database locally, and thus might be as large as 500MB or so. Anything larger is typically a game. Thus, core-OS plus one app should work on 4GB.
Remember, such an iPad wouldn't be for installing multiple apps, taking pictures, listening to music, and watching movies. It would be a set-it-and-forget-it single-purpose device.
At this point it would probably cost them more to re-tool for a 4Gb, camera-less version than to keep building the 16Gb version. Memory is cheap, even more so wholesale.
Good. It didn't make sense anyway to ship a 3 year old device...
Oh wait they're still selling the iPad 2. Point still stands. The mini 2 was still the better deal with the Retina display and the A7.
Oh wait they're still selling the iPad 2. Point still stands. The mini 2 was still the better deal with the Retina display and the A7.
"Which is well illustrated by the fact we sell a Watch strap that costs $2.09 to produce for $49! It's all about diversity."
I think they sort of reached a certain point where it's hard to actually improve things. Sure, they can flatten all icons, add transparency to more elements, but iPad Mini 3 is pretty much end of the line. Retina display, Touch ID. All they can do for iPad Mini 4 is make it thinner.
I'm wondering if they pulled iPad Mini from the inventory simply because they managed to sell 99% of what they had left, or do they still have five basements filled with iPad Minis that nobody wants to buy thanks to iOS 8.
I agree. I am concerned about the well being of iOS for developers come iOS 10 or iOS X (just a speculation?) when lots of people who bought a cheaper iPad a year or two ago who keep getting updates. People buying them are right to buy them because they are cheap and STILL getting support. But what happens when 60 percent of your iPad users who don't care to update every year or two decide to stay put? Developers have to support a large chunk of iOS users.
This reminds me all to well of Windows XP and what started to really kill Microsoft
The hardware configuration/target market sound good (though 8GB makes more sense to me), but that price is way too low - it places way too high a price tag on the camera and memory, and way too little on what remains. A camera and 12GB account for 60% of the value of the device? A device that costs half as much as its screen replacement and is one third the price of the cheapest available retail model?
Yeah, it's probably the right price if Apple wants to dominate POS etc., but I doubt Apple would be willing to pay that much for market share.
Apparently this won't be a problem anymore since developers will be allowed to ship 64 bits only apps - that will remove anything that doesn't have an A7
So basically bigger better faster stronger, so it can run iOS 10 when it comes out and cripples three-year old machines. I'm sold! Apple, take my money.
(Is Force Touch something to get excited about? I've read a few reviews where reviewers found it more frustrating than anything, but I haven't tried it myself.)
For me it was worth another $100 for the 2GB, triple core processor, laminated display and fingerprint reader of the iPad air 2. 1GB iPad's already have a foot in the grave.