Slog
News & ArtsWednesday, February 15, 2012
Tech Would You Buy a Mini-iPad?
Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 8:12 AM
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal published a rumor that Apple is preparing a smaller, more affordable, roughly 8-inch iPad to counter smaller tablets like the Kindle Fire. The tech blogs have been hyperventilating over the news ever since. Gizmodo says the rumors are crap, and points out that rumors of a smaller iPad have circulated since the very first iPad was released. Other blogs contend that the Wall Street Journal has such a good record with Apple rumors that they're practically an unofficial PR department for the company. Let's pretend the smaller iPad rumors are true for a moment, and ask the question:
1
Not for me, though it's none of my business if they want to offer an ensmallened version. If the other rumors are right, and the launch is of a faster version with advances in Siri integration and an improved display, then sure.
4
Sure these products are made by exploited Chinese laborers, (see the recent NYT article) but how cool it is to be seen with the latest Apple gear?
7
@2: Yeah, there's no "I have an iPhone already" option.
Matt Hickey should totally layer his iPhone on his iPad on his full iPad on his Macbook and continue the hipster-escalation.
Matt Hickey should totally layer his iPhone on his iPad on his full iPad on his Macbook and continue the hipster-escalation.
8
I don't think the small-handed toddlers in China have the motor skills needed to make the tiny iPads. Yet.
10
I'm on the "rumours are crap" side. Apple's not going to ask developers to program for three different sizes, and touch based interfaces don't scale well.
11
@2 beat me to it. Apple already has a mini-iPad. It's called an iPod/iPhone.
Is there really a significant separate market for something larger than an iPhone but smaller than an iPad? It's an easy device for Apple to make at this point, I suppose. The R&D is pretty much done. They already have all the software and technology in place; they just need a mid-sized screen and they're good to go.
Is there really a significant separate market for something larger than an iPhone but smaller than an iPad? It's an easy device for Apple to make at this point, I suppose. The R&D is pretty much done. They already have all the software and technology in place; they just need a mid-sized screen and they're good to go.
12
An iPad that fits in a jacket pocket? Yes, please. This is the size of a mass-market paperback book, a skinny old one before they were all 1200 pages long. I've been looking at the smaller Kindles for a while now. This is the PERFECT form factor.
It's not nothing to do with an iPhone. You can't do anything worth a goddamn on an iPhone.
It's not nothing to do with an iPhone. You can't do anything worth a goddamn on an iPhone.
14
I'll buy only if the suicide rate to produce such a product is just stupidly high.
I am now only buying products that come to me via blood..lots of human blood and preferably the blood of children.
I am now only buying products that come to me via blood..lots of human blood and preferably the blood of children.
15
I want one sold in a pack with an iTV, an iPad, an iPhone, and a special extra-large iPhone for people with poor eyesight. Then I'll play the same stupid youtube videos on all of them at once.
16
The form case factor is the same as the alpha iPad3D which they went back to the drawing board on.
It's kind of more like one of those PSP or Nintendo 3DO kind of deals, really.
If you want to watch videos and TV a lot, don't get it.
If you tend to watch YouTube and listen to music and so on, go for it.
It's kind of more like one of those PSP or Nintendo 3DO kind of deals, really.
If you want to watch videos and TV a lot, don't get it.
If you tend to watch YouTube and listen to music and so on, go for it.
17
Viewsonic sells 7" tablets for 170$, work fine, but you have to manually install Google Marketplace, which is a bit of a annoyance.
I dont know why anyone would pay more than 300$ for a tablet.
I dont know why anyone would pay more than 300$ for a tablet.
18
@16, do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound when you comment on any technology thread?
You have apparently decided to double down on this idiotic claim of yours that you "alpha tested" a 3D iPad. You keep repeating it, over and over. You never did any such thing, nor has anyone. There is no such thing as an "alpha tester" for hardware like this, and if there was, the chances that a non-Apple employee, let alone a COMPLETE AND UTTER MORON like yourself, would ever be allowed to come within ten miles of the thing. Apple never tested a 3D iPad. And you are not on the list for testing anything at all.
Furthermore, your description of this putative new iPad as having the same "form case factor" (a nonsensical phrase) as a PSP or 3DO betrays a total lack of familiarity with common measurements, to say nothing of tech products. The PSP and 3DO have phone-sized screens.
You are the stupidest person in the history of the universe. What is your fucking problem? Do you have a death wish? Is there something so broken inside you that you literally cannot stop making yourself look like a stupid asshole?
GO AWAY, WILL. GO FAR AWAY FOREVER. No one likes you. No one respects you. No one believes you. You are the turd in the punchbowl, and you ruin everything for everyone. GO AWAY.
You have apparently decided to double down on this idiotic claim of yours that you "alpha tested" a 3D iPad. You keep repeating it, over and over. You never did any such thing, nor has anyone. There is no such thing as an "alpha tester" for hardware like this, and if there was, the chances that a non-Apple employee, let alone a COMPLETE AND UTTER MORON like yourself, would ever be allowed to come within ten miles of the thing. Apple never tested a 3D iPad. And you are not on the list for testing anything at all.
Furthermore, your description of this putative new iPad as having the same "form case factor" (a nonsensical phrase) as a PSP or 3DO betrays a total lack of familiarity with common measurements, to say nothing of tech products. The PSP and 3DO have phone-sized screens.
You are the stupidest person in the history of the universe. What is your fucking problem? Do you have a death wish? Is there something so broken inside you that you literally cannot stop making yourself look like a stupid asshole?
GO AWAY, WILL. GO FAR AWAY FOREVER. No one likes you. No one respects you. No one believes you. You are the turd in the punchbowl, and you ruin everything for everyone. GO AWAY.
22
If I had a small business and a need for an 8" iPad maybe. But it'd be a redundant item with my existing personal tech.
23
@21, quite so. If Will didn't exist, I wouldn't need to yell. Ah, that would be lovely, if Will didn't exist, wouldn't it?
The funny thing is, I get called a bully by people for yelling at Will, but in reality Will is the bully. His whole life revolves around separating out the world into potential friends and enemies, sucking up to the former until they are repelled, and attacking the latter. He regards me and every other Slogger with total contempt, our only function as receptacles for his idiotic views, which serve mainly to persuade himself that he is Clever and Important. He's the ultimate narcissist. He's never had a real conversation with anyone in his entire life.
The funny thing is, I get called a bully by people for yelling at Will, but in reality Will is the bully. His whole life revolves around separating out the world into potential friends and enemies, sucking up to the former until they are repelled, and attacking the latter. He regards me and every other Slogger with total contempt, our only function as receptacles for his idiotic views, which serve mainly to persuade himself that he is Clever and Important. He's the ultimate narcissist. He's never had a real conversation with anyone in his entire life.
24
@20: Since he pointed out Will's posting on gadget threads, I can't help but notice the "I've skimmed CNN's take on a topic but don't really understand the industry really well" posts.
I mean, seriously, how could you take
"The form case factor is the same as the alpha iPad3D which they went back to the drawing board on.
It's kind of more like one of those PSP or Nintendo 3DO kind of deals, really."
Seriously?
There was never an iPad 3D, the PSP isn't 3D, and the 3DO is a totally different console.
I mean, seriously, how could you take
"The form case factor is the same as the alpha iPad3D which they went back to the drawing board on.
It's kind of more like one of those PSP or Nintendo 3DO kind of deals, really."
Seriously?
There was never an iPad 3D, the PSP isn't 3D, and the 3DO is a totally different console.
25
@24, I missed that before -- the 3DO isn't even a Nintendo product; it's a 20-year-old console from Panasonic. Presumably he meant the 3DS, which is a Nintendo handheld. Which nonetheless bears zero resemblance to any tablet, including imaginary ones. When you encounter as many gross errors in a block of text, it's easy to overlook one.
I think you give him too much credit with CNN; he gets all his news not from KIRO news radio but from KIRO news radio's twitter feed. He has a thing for "The News Chick" there, and constantly tweets her. No doubt he's got a Costco Chicken Meme going there as well as with Ellen Barkin.
The "back to the drawing board" is him trying to cover for the obvious lack of any 3D iPad, as he originally claimed to be "alpha testing", by saying that there were problems with it and they abandoned it, based on his feedback. The biggest problem being nonexistence, of course. No Apple employee has ever heard of Will Affleck-Asch, or if he or she has, there's a restraining order there somewhere.
He also mentally associates "cake" with "eating santorum". But I'm the one that needs therapy?
I think you give him too much credit with CNN; he gets all his news not from KIRO news radio but from KIRO news radio's twitter feed. He has a thing for "The News Chick" there, and constantly tweets her. No doubt he's got a Costco Chicken Meme going there as well as with Ellen Barkin.
The "back to the drawing board" is him trying to cover for the obvious lack of any 3D iPad, as he originally claimed to be "alpha testing", by saying that there were problems with it and they abandoned it, based on his feedback. The biggest problem being nonexistence, of course. No Apple employee has ever heard of Will Affleck-Asch, or if he or she has, there's a restraining order there somewhere.
He also mentally associates "cake" with "eating santorum". But I'm the one that needs therapy?
26
Gruber's take on this is that both pre-iPhone and ever since, Apple has made test iPads/iPhones/iPod Touches in various sizes and configurations. Apparently, this 8" was never supposed to be the iPad 3 and, while it was considered, it seems no more likely to go forward than any of the others that non-Apple/Foxconn staff never hear about.
Since Gruber has years of being more accurate than Will, I'm going to trust him.
Since Gruber has years of being more accurate than Will, I'm going to trust him.
28
@26, of course they have -- in the lab. Let's all reflect for a minute on the chances that Will in Seattle would ever in a million years be allowed in Apple's lab.
29
I can't help it, every time I look at this headline, all I can think is: "well, yes, of course, if I were spotting."
30
Really should have had a "Wait, do you mean the iPod Touch?" option for the poll.
Also, well done Fnarf. :-)
Also, well done Fnarf. :-)
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