iPad mini owners thread (1 Viewer)

Thought I'd start a thread, i have a feeling it might not be too lively.
Well, I can't believe I did it, but I got the mini iPad this morning. I really didnt need it, so it was nuts. I could see the lines for them weren't too big. I went to my local Apple Store which is in a Mall in the mid peninsula of the SF Bay Area verses the shiney big new Apple Store in Palo Alto and got there at 8:00am. There was a line of about a dozen people. As I got in line, they let people in and I got a card from the Apple Genius of the model I wanted, went in, got the iPad and left in 10 minutes. That was fast and painless.
I got the white model because I wanted the silver colored back. Plus my iPads are black. I'm not typing on it now, I'll set it up shortly. I did get a chance to play with one when I went into the store for a minute. It wasn't bad for the size.
One of the reasons I wanted to get one was to be able to use it as a sketch pad. So I look forward to trying it with the new Pogo stylus that is blue tooth enabled. This new stylus should be interesting to try on both the big and min iPads.
I'll look forward to try reading books on it too.
I'll post my reactions to it after I get it going. Anyone else get one?

There she is on top of my iPad 3.
I've had the iPad mini about 2 hours to play with it a bit. I have to say I am really surprised that I like t! The main thing when going back and forth between both is that I am surprised to see how big the iPad 3 looks! Its of course heavier and thicker. So the thinness and lower weight are appreciated.
I synched up the iPad mini with my iTunes and did a back-up recovery so all the videos and bookmarks and images are sent over. So I compared a Star Trek episode I had ripped.
The Retina display is certainly more vivd for colors. Though as far as resolution is concerned, it wasn't much a difference between the two. I didn't expect blu ray quality on the Retina and DVD quality on the mini. The difference was mainly color. The mini was a tad warmer in color, but the Retina was slightly more vivid!
The image brightness was about the same, so ignoring my poor photography above, the images were pretty close. And very watchable. I was very against the idea of watching videos on these devices, but the image quality is so good, i got used to watching stuff on the iPad. So it was a pleasant surprise that the mini was as watchable. Certainly better then the iPhone, and I have an iPhone 4. The iPhone 5 is not set-up yet, so I look forward to getting that going, its still in the box.
I checked out iBooks. There was an odd delay when flipping pages on the mini. I had opened the Steve Jobs bio and I left it on the last page as I finished reading it many months ago and left it there. So it loaded up pages that had family pictures. That must have caused the lag. Text is better on the Retina. But the smaller size of the mini was very readable. And I can see laying in bed and reading on it. Or anywhere else.
Email has smaller text, but compared to the iphone, its nice and full like the larger ipad. Webpages load quickly and are very readable. I could get used to this and this surprised me. The HTF loaded fine and the browser loads the pages just like it looks on the iPad. I figured I'd use this for limited stuff. But I can see this becoming a more regular use device. We'll have to see.
One use is to take to meetings. I can use it to show my portfolio of work and I was again surprised how good the images look. They are viewable ad reads well. Of course, I may opt to use the full sized iPad for this purpose.
As you can see and likely have seen, the thinness is amazing. Star Trek has come true; its very portable, and the ipad 2 and 3 are very portable. This is just so much lighter in weight!
Oh, this is the first device I have used with iOS 6. I have kept my iPhone on the old OS and figure I'll have the new OS on the iPhone 5. The map app looked just like Google Maps so I was fooled by it. I'll enjoy messing about with that. I really appreciate the clock app. I took a quick picture to check out the camera. It took a nice picture. But I need to play more with that.
So far, with so little spent with the mini, I have to say again I like it.

Bought one for my nephew, he is loving it.

I don't *need* one right now (when do we ever NEED any of this?). I'll probably wait for the updated one next year that gives a retina and blah blah.

I read an interesting article on the Forbes website that made an interesting argument that the iPad mini makes a lot of sense without a Retina screen and a game machine.
The article says the use if the iPad 2 screen resolution saved the developers of games and other apps the extra workload of reworking apps for another device. And using the A5 chip and the iPad 2 resolution saved the cost of more memory. And the form factor made for a much more attractive portable game platform.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2012/11/04/why-the-ipad-mini-consolidates-apples-place-in-the-mobile-gaming-world/
I have no doubt the Retina version will be coming, but somehow after using this all weekend, I'm not sure it needs a Retina screen. I'm sure the retina screen would eat into the battery life during daily use too. But we'll see! The iPhone 4 and 5 have long battery lives and has a Retina screen, a smaller screen though.
I've found the main advantage the Retina screen has on the iPad 3 is the better looking text on emails and the iBooks and website text. For images and videos, it's not so obvious.

I went and checked one out this weekend at the apple store, after holding the Mini, it's making it tough to use the original Ipad, the mii really is portable and comfortable to carry around the larger Ipad is not. The screen is fine for the size of the screen, I'm probably selling my 3 gen and getting a 64gb Black verizon model when released.

Oh an BTW their successfull too, Apple sold a combined Mini and 4g Ipad in excess of 3 million this weekend.

Dave Scarpa said:

I went and checked one out this weekend at the apple store, after holding the Mini, it's making it tough to use the original Ipad, the mii really is portable and comfortable to carry around the larger Ipad is not. The screen is fine for the size of the screen, I'm probably selling my 3 gen and getting a 64gb Black verizon model when released.

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Not me, I'm sticking with the real sized one for now.

I'm not too bothered the mini doesn't have a Retina screen since I have the big iPad with Retina.
I was trying to see what the break down of those 3 million sold was for each iPad. No numbers were given, but analysts think the mini was the winner as lines could be seen at Apple stores over the weekend. And the minis were sold out.

Sam Posten said:

Not me, I'm sticking with the real sized one for now.

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I'm going to get a 4th Gen Ipad as well prob a 16gb Wireless only to replace my 3rd gen with Cellular I'm selling to get the mini with Cellular

Microcenter has the iPad2 at $349. The mini at $329. Why would I buy the mini?

You should try out an iPad mini Matt. Then decide. It may not be for everyone.

mattCR said:

Microcenter has the iPad2 at $349.  The mini at $329.   Why would I buy the mini?

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1. Apple doesn't carry 32 GB and 64 GB variants of the iPad 2 any more – unless you want to shop for a refurbished one.
2. Upgraded cameras similar to the ones on the iPad 4.
3. Updated cellular radios similar to the ones on the iPad 4. There's a third purchase-time carrier option ("Sprint") that wasn't available on the iPad 2, and the overseas 4G coverage might be better, too.
4. Siri.
5. Half the weight of the iPad 1-4, and a bit less bulky.
Then again, the iPad 2 should be easier to read, and for now, the iPad 2 has the edge on connecting to "iPad ecosystem" accessories (since it still has the Dock connector).

Keep hope alive~http://9to5mac.com/2014/07/29/mac-mini-mid-2014-model-listed-on-apple-support-page-could-indicate-product-refresh-coming-soon/

Sam Posten said:

Keep hope alive~http://9to5mac.com/2014/07/29/mac-mini-mid-2014-model-listed-on-apple-support-page-could-indicate-product-refresh-coming-soon/

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Probably want to look at the thread title a little closer.

-Keith

Keep hope alive~http://9to5mac.com/2014/07/29/mac-mini-mid-2014-model-listed-on-apple-support-page-could-indicate-product-refresh-coming-soon/

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If Apple gets a Mac mini updated to fit a 1/8" form factor with integrated 7" retina screen for $599, I'm buying day one!

Doh!