Yeah doubt it. I agree that Apple just dlesnt care about the form factor much anymore. No way it's getting refreshed until the fall.
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Questionable Rumor Claims iPad Mini 4 With A8 Processor and 802.11ac Wi-Fi May Launch Soon
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this sounds like another crappy incremental update....we need TRUE iPad mini upgrade with 2 GB And Thinner design!
Id love to see the iPad line get the rounded glass form factor of the iPhone 6/6+. And the mini needs some new guts to keep up with the Air 2!
They did. It's called the iPhone.
The question you should be asking is why they haven't updated the Touch line yet? A5 is ageing.
If the iPad mini 4 got just a regular A8, it will be yet another dud. The A8 is meant for iPhones, not iPads. Same thing can be seen with the A7. The A8 already struggles with the resolution of the 6+, why would it make any sense to put that in a device with an even higher resolution? Maybe if the A8 had 6 GPU cores and 2GB of RAM it could work, but with the same measly combo of 4 GPU cores and 1GB of RAM, the iPad mini 4 will suffer in terms of UI performance just like the iPad Air, iPad mini 2, and iPad mini 3.
If the iPad mini 4 had the A8X however, I would be extremely tempted to buy one even though the A8X will be succeeded in 6-7 months. The A8X in iPad Air 2 is a hell of a lot more future proof than the A7 inside the iPad Air, iPad mini 2, and iPad mini 3. Even if the display, camera, and build remained the same, I would be sold. I am sick of having a 1 year old iPad that stutters with UI more than a 2 or 3 year old iPad. Now if they implemented a display on par with the one in the Air 2, plus an A8X, it would be the dream iPad for me.
Because that would be an iPhone without an earpiece. No, it wouldn't be able to do SMS/MMS/normal calls on its own with stock apps, but many third party app solutions are out there. Skype can make calls, hangouts can as well. You can get a Google voice number, and also iMessage/FaceTime audio could cover the rest for friends, family, or coworkers with an iPhone/iPad/Mac.
If the iPad mini 4 had the A8X however, I would be extremely tempted to buy one even though the A8X will be succeeded in 6-7 months. The A8X in iPad Air 2 is a hell of a lot more future proof than the A7 inside the iPad Air, iPad mini 2, and iPad mini 3. Even if the display, camera, and build remained the same, I would be sold. I am sick of having a 1 year old iPad that stutters with UI more than a 2 or 3 year old iPad. Now if they implemented a display on par with the one in the Air 2, plus an A8X, it would be the dream iPad for me.
Because that would be an iPhone without an earpiece. No, it wouldn't be able to do SMS/MMS/normal calls on its own with stock apps, but many third party app solutions are out there. Skype can make calls, hangouts can as well. You can get a Google voice number, and also iMessage/FaceTime audio could cover the rest for friends, family, or coworkers with an iPhone/iPad/Mac.
It mainly suffers because of shoddy software. The issue is that iOS 8 still needs a lot of work and that certainly doesn't help the 6 Plus when it also has to deal with downscaling. The A8 in terms of power is capable and definitely on par with top of the line SoC's on the market.
The A7 had no problem running iOS 7 on the Air until iOS 8 came along and severely crippled the iPads and the iPhones to some extent.
And 2gb of ram (also applies to next iPhone). Maybe an A9 that's as fast as an A8X or faster if that's feasible. 2gb for sure.
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Now that should be a given by this point, but with Apple...??? Full color gamut, A8X/A9 and 2gb of ram to get the mini to where it should be in 2015.
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Unless Apple decides to give the iPad Air 3 some breathing room and release the iPad mini 5 next year???
iOS 7 was still not perfect. App Store was and still is riddled with lag. Control center, Notification Center, rotating, rotating app screenshots, pinching to close app screenshots, all stuttered back then as far as I'm aware. Also, Control Center, Notification Center, Siri, and rotation with the keyboard open was always stuttery. Control Center and Notification Center plus the lock screen stuttered back then as well. Control Center and Notification Center over an open folder stuttered, still does. Spotlight had that huge jump that would occur when the keyboard popped up, and rotating spotlight stuttered too.
Pretty much all of these stuck around for iOS 8 except many were intensified. Plus, a few new ones were added. The split keyboard is utter and complete crap to use because it's so laggy and stuttery in safari. Scrolling up and down a page with the split keyboard is a good 20-30FPS where it is 100% smooth with the regular keyboard. Actually going through the process of splitting the keyboard stutters. Text input is way behind and very wonky and laggy when typing with the split keyboard. Tapping the URL bar always stutters in safari where it was fine before (most of the time). Rotating with the split keyboard is far worse than with the regular, while I remember in iOS 7.1.2 rotating with the split keyboard was 100% smooth while the regular was a little stuttery.
I've never used an iPad Air 2 but I've heard that the UI is very very smooth where the Air 1 stutters regularly. All retina iPads pretty much have to have the "X" series chip, no questions asked. Even if it's a generation behind. There needs to be something there to compensate for the high resolution. The mini 1 was okay getting a "regular" chip because it didn't have a retina screen. The mini 2 and mini 3 continue to have regular chips, as does the mini 4 it seems at this point. The mini 2-4 all will have UI stuttering and awful RAM contraints while the iPad Air 2 is pretty much completely fine.
If the iPad mini 4 got the A8X and the iPad Air 3 got the A9X, then the mini 5 got the A9X and the Air 4 got the A10X, it would be fine. Just anything that can properly run the UI and not refresh apps/tabs nonstop, and spam the system with JetsamEvent/Low Memory logs.
Maybe they could have the minis always on par with the full size iPads if they just waited until Spring to release them? I think that's highly unlikely because one, it would not sell as well in the Spring long after the first iPad with the same specs was already announced, and two, it would miss the holiday season, tying into number one again. Anyway, just a thought.
just for my personal experience, I'd love the ipad & ipadmini to be on a spring cycle. For me it's a spring & summer device, good for travelling, outside on terraces 
If the ipadmini gets updated, I definitely buy one! A8x or just A8. I'm confident the experience will be great
If the ipadmini gets updated, I definitely buy one! A8x or just A8. I'm confident the experience will be great
I don't see how it matters at all. They paid for a product, so thats what they got, no matter how soon they release the next one.
And leave customers who are buying A5 devices without OS support soon? Thats terrible. Apple made the poor decision to keep the A5 around so long, so now it has the responsibility of supporting it. (Plus 55-60 percent of iPads in use are A5).
I sold my iPad 3 yesterday (long overdue! but I still loved it ), and I'm itching to replace it with a Mini, but I feel I should wait until after Monday -- just in case!
I should acknowledge that it's absolutely crazy that I'm fighting myself to buy one this weekend since I hadn't used my iPad a considerable amount recently anyway. But the itch is still there.
), and I'm itching to replace it with a Mini, but I feel I should wait until after Monday -- just in case!I should acknowledge that it's absolutely crazy that I'm fighting myself to buy one this weekend since I hadn't used my iPad a considerable amount recently anyway. But the itch is still there.
Rumours of mid-cycle release is not new, but it always stayed as a rumour. Whats the difference this time ?
Is the anti reflective screen without problems?
I read something negative about the anti reflective screen: More oil/fat from the fingers being on the screen, the screen having lesser or more imprecise touch?
Or I is this not a problem? Anyone who knows or has experiences?
I read something negative about the anti reflective screen: More oil/fat from the fingers being on the screen, the screen having lesser or more imprecise touch?
Or I is this not a problem? Anyone who knows or has experiences?
This would be a nice upgrade and right on time.
I picked up a first gen iPad Mini about a year ago for $100 and it's been rock solid. Opted for 16GBs and it's served me well, but now I'm spoiled and want to keep more apps and more music on it.
I held out of the Mini 3 but that only got Touch ID and it just not worth the upgrade.
Make it like the Air 2 but smaller and I'll drop the cash for it.
I picked up a first gen iPad Mini about a year ago for $100 and it's been rock solid. Opted for 16GBs and it's served me well, but now I'm spoiled and want to keep more apps and more music on it.
I held out of the Mini 3 but that only got Touch ID and it just not worth the upgrade.
Make it like the Air 2 but smaller and I'll drop the cash for it.
In almost every way I feel the iPad Mini 2 with Retina is the perfect tablet and I won't need to upgrade it anytime soon. I use it less and less now that I carry around an iPhone 6+ but I love browsing, reading and playing games on it in bed and its the perfect Hearthstone companion.
With all that said, the mini would need some serious improvements to nudge me into upgrading.
With all that said, the mini would need some serious improvements to nudge me into upgrading.
Apple stopped supporting A5 devices when iOS 8 was released. I mean supporting them with an update that doesn't cripple them. Apple should've stopped selling all A5 products six months ago. Unless, they plan to offer iOS 9 to all A5 devices which will actually improve performance. I doubt it.
When you've got over half of iPad users on A5 devices, thats an issue. iOS 9 should hopefully improve performance.
iOS 8 is not unusable on A5 devices - I'm on my iPad 2 right now and it could be faster but its still useable!
This's stupid!
If Apple really does this, they haven't learnt from mistake with iPad 3 & 4 only came out a few months apart. That was the time when iPad sales figure started to go downhill. People won't want to update their iPads every time when a new model comes out because of that.
If Apple really does this, they haven't learnt from mistake with iPad 3 & 4 only came out a few months apart. That was the time when iPad sales figure started to go downhill. People won't want to update their iPads every time when a new model comes out because of that.