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Next-Generation iPad Mini Rear Shell Surfaces in 'Space Gray'
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syd430
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Haha so the first Mini 2 leaks a few weeks back were all black, now all of a sudden they're space grey post iphone announcement. Honestly how hard would it be for a small time manufacturer to make a mockup in space grey and sell it to a publication for a grand or 2, pretending its the real deal.
With aluminum alloys, Anodizing itself has a faintly whitish, but transparent appearance. It's merely the even buildup of aluminum oxide on the surface, and the hardness is constant, but the durability depends on how thick you've allowed that anodizing layer to grow. Like a sponge, the oxide layer is very porous, and those pores can be filled with other chemicals.
When a color is desired, is a dye added, fills the pores, and light passes through it, reflects some back through it, and gives anodizing that look.
Sometimes industrial lubricants are added instead. PTFE or Teflon is a popular treatment. This gives the olive colored appearance. Since other colors blend poorly with Olive, it is usually left that color, unless a black dye is added as well, for cosmetic reasons. Typically this is only done for surface wearing parts, and as such is usually accompanied by an oxide layer made as thick as possible for maximum saturation and durability. As the part wears, more pores break open and release more teflon to lubricate the mating parts.
"Space gray" is just another off-the shelf color dye, no different in price than any other.
but... space isn't gray.
The best looking color combo in my eyes is the silver back and black front, like the original iPhone.
When a color is desired, is a dye added, fills the pores, and light passes through it, reflects some back through it, and gives anodizing that look.
Sometimes industrial lubricants are added instead. PTFE or Teflon is a popular treatment. This gives the olive colored appearance. Since other colors blend poorly with Olive, it is usually left that color, unless a black dye is added as well, for cosmetic reasons. Typically this is only done for surface wearing parts, and as such is usually accompanied by an oxide layer made as thick as possible for maximum saturation and durability. As the part wears, more pores break open and release more teflon to lubricate the mating parts.
"Space gray" is just another off-the shelf color dye, no different in price than any other.
but... space isn't gray.
The best looking color combo in my eyes is the silver back and black front, like the original iPhone.
Same. Although, I find it odd admitting that a gold iPhone seems classy, while a gold iPad feels austentatious to me....
To paraphrase Nigel Tufnel: "How much more gray can you get? The answer is 'None. None more gray.' "
I may avoid iPhone six rumors just to see what comes out at the keynote. Coming here makes it too easy to see everything.
Pedantic: For space gray to be accurate it would have to be black... or really, really, really, really, really, really dark gray.
More than anything, I think space gray is testimony to the power of Apple's marketing. They can totally make up a color that - when taken at face value - makes no sense whatsoever and in a matter of days have people using it as naturally as saying hi.
On topic: Even though my iPad2 is still running like a champ (can't seem to break it), it's either the new mini or a rev2 Nexus 7 after they work out the kinks. The back of the gray mini looks pretty nice. Hopefully it will come with a hi-dpi screen. If so, sold.
1) It grew. The bigger the anything the harder to control leaks because there are more places where leaks can come from... look at any gov't.
2) It's popular. The more popular something is the more interested people are in news about it. The more interested people are about it the more money and publicity 3rd parties can make leaking. Reward becomes larger than the risk.
Leaks are nothing new to Apple. Perhaps you don't recall when the Pixar lamp iMac was leaked by Time ahead of the official announcement? Or when the CEO of McGraw Hill leaked the iPad. Or the fat iPod nano. The only way to insure no leaks is to pre-announce or only contract with robots.
I could see Apple not giving the iPad mini the Touch ID this fall... to create more product differentiation in their tablet lineup indefinitely. I hope we see mini's with a 128GB option, but that may not happen either even though it can via hardware logistics/real-estate.
I hope this isn't true of course, and no matter what of course, Touch ID is definitely coming to the iPad, and it better come to the iPad mini.
Apple would be smart here, to play the market in its favor, and not give the iPad mini the Touch ID home button for the next update(since they own the patents & predict the market per se for bio-metric thumb scanning)... but, maybe they will think on the larger scale, and release to all iPads & mini's to generate more income (via ease of use from the Touch ID) online on the iTunes Store, App Store, etc...
I hope this isn't true of course, and no matter what of course, Touch ID is definitely coming to the iPad, and it better come to the iPad mini.
Apple would be smart here, to play the market in its favor, and not give the iPad mini the Touch ID home button for the next update(since they own the patents & predict the market per se for bio-metric thumb scanning)... but, maybe they will think on the larger scale, and release to all iPads & mini's to generate more income (via ease of use from the Touch ID) online on the iTunes Store, App Store, etc...
Stuff not scratching>aesthetics.
If it scratches it doesn't matter how nice it was, it scratches, it sucks.
Yes it looked awesome but have you seen how badly some of the iPhone 5 scratches were? Pretty bad. I'd like to not have to baby my iPad. My iPad 2 from 2-1/2 years ago doesn't have a single scratch on the back.
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But those horrible bezels