edit: oops I mixed up A Pro and A X
Apple used to use the X suffix for bigger versions of their phone processors that went into iPads (starting with the A5X); that went away when the M-series was introduced.
And the "Pro" suffix itself doesn't seem to denote anything in particular-- there was never a non-Pro A17, and the "A17 Pro" going into the iPad Mini is itself a cut-down version of the chip that went into the iPhone 15 Pro (it has one GPU core disabled).
It makes sense to update the model with apple intelligence but that might not be enough for a lot of people to upgrade.
Perhaps we're looking at a device that simply will be out of lineup soon (next few years).
I do like this form factor a lot though, well, eventually we'll get foldable phones to become mainstream I hope.
that's fine? it's a very mature segment - medium-price small screen tablet. it hasn't even really been updated since 2021, and that was basically new case+usb-c.
My 2014 ipad air 2 is only just starting to feel old.
What do you mean, the iPad mini has a higher ppi (326) vs iPad Air (264).
I think the issue is that, iPad OS is scaling the display to a weird resolution.
So is storage and RAM but every OEM has their added vendor tax and so does Apple.
2TB Samsung pro nvme SSD is 170$, how much is 2TB Apple storage...
Same with screens.
Apple has always been about premium price and quality but I agree that it's not for everyone and their needs.
Maybe their hardware is commodity (arguable), but the product + integrations are not.
So I guess I don’t see them as commodities which implies fungibility.
Can I recommend you a 40€ phone? They've been making models that can do calls for a while now and they needn't cost as much as an Apple-branded device to do just that
> they would drop calls and freeze on the dial pad during long calls
Never heard that happen to anyone with any phone model. If you've ruled out some software-specific issue like a call recorder you've installed or so, that sounds borderline implausible. Then again, given the number of issues I experience with software (of any kind)...
If the products are actually commodity, just buy something else.
I also don’t get the complaint about the A-series chip. What does an M1 unlock in iPadOS that the A17 doesn’t?
I will say though the criticism of the A-series getting hot doesn’t make sense. If the A-series gets hot, the M-series is going to be boiling in that tiny chassis.
Depends on a particular A and M chip, tho.
Obviously these aren't directly comparable products but neither are iPads and budget laptops, and Apple asks $750 for a model with equivalent storage and a cellular modem. For a lot of people the screen probably is perfectly adequate but I can also see why some potential buyers would be pretty disappointed given the price point, especially since unlike the air apple doesn't even offer an upsell option at this size.
Can you expand on that? It seems to support DisplayPort over USB-C, and there are a number of 1st and 3rd party adapters that have DP out, power in, and a USB2.0 plug for your other devices. What does “properly” docking it look like?
If you check Apple's comparison, at least on that overview, it seems they changed only the processor, networking, that HDR thingy on the camera, and... that's all. Everything else is the same.
It's a tablet, not a phone. No number of cameras is going to make it into a good device for taking photos.
> Update, 9/28/2021: In response to our inquiry, Apple has told us that the "jelly scroll" issue on the 6th-generation iPad mini is normal behavior for LCD screens.
> Update, 9/30/2021: An iFixit teardown suggests that the iPad mini's more noticeable scrolling issue is a byproduct of how the display controller is mounted.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/2021-ipad-mini-suffe...
FWIW, my 5th Gen Mini doesn't have this issue.
Would it be a sweeter spot without those restrictions?
I hate that I can’t code on my iPad Pro.
I still think they should support it anyway, even if only for three apps at a time on the primary display. iPadOS is weirdly bifurcated into two different window management strategies (Split View vs. Stage Manager) based on what device you bought, which is confusing. They should be expanding Stage Manager to as many devices as possible.
iPhone 13 mini was the last flagship smartphone with such dimensions.
Make iPhone Mini -> Mini only accounts for 10% of sales -> Cancel iPhone Mini -> Notice that 10% of iPhone customers haven't updated for 3 or 4 cycles -> Make iPhone Mini -> Suffer crippling corporate amnesia -> <...>
I'm expecting the brain worms to reach step 4 of the corporate consciousness cycle around the next generation or so.
SE1: 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6
Mini 13: 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.65
Counting the original SE as a mini is perfectly reasonable.
It's also quite clearly what the grandparent comment was referring to.
Soldering the RAM has legitimate performance benefits, but soldering the SSD is just to save space and upsell overpriced upgrades.
[1] https://beetstech.com/blog/apple-proprietary-ssd-ultimate-gu...
If that practice spreads to the MacBooks, you'll also need a CNC mill.
You don't realize how much it matters until it does, and then it changes everything. Always having to carry an external drive just because my email takes 150gb of the 256gb MacBook storage is even more annoying than windows puting candy crush saga on the start menu.
You have a very different email life than me. Is that like, all emails received in your life, or just huge attachments?
I’m afraid though that the core premise of your comment is flawed. Storage and especially memory are increasingly soldered to thin and lights. Even professional grade laptops such as the Thinkpad X1 Carbon have soldered memory.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-scourge-of-fully-soldered-...
I think if I was in the market for a drawing device on a budget I'd go with an iPad Air that supports the Apple Pencil 2nd generation. Something like the iPad Air 5th or 4th would do well.
I agree with the other poster; maybe look at refurb and a 2nd gen pencil.
Or just don’t get one. But it sounds like this is on the short list to buy for you two.
> Or just don’t get one.
This is actually what I am going to do: wait until there is a better base iPad version. Unless I can get an older iPad Pro for a cheap price, but it is unlikely here in EU.
It's unknown how useful any of this will be in day to day use-cases.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BN_Q51d_wUFMs7ajdwI07ESmnmS...
Teachers get $55k-$72k depending on their qualifications. Not great, but not poverty levels either. If they want an iPad, they can probably get one.
[*] For reference, the iPad Air with the Magic Keyboard is about as heavy as a 13" MacBook Air.
Although I wouldn't mind if they got rid of one or two iPhone variants, or at least gave them more meaningful names. I have no idea what the difference between Plus, Pro and Max is. I only know that Pro doesn't mean pro, and that doesn't make it any easier.
Edit: also Steve Jobs was still alive when you could choose between four different iPod variants.
Surprised though that they don't have an option with cellular so you can have always-on data access (i.e., with a data-only plan).
Updated: my bad, it does come with cellular -- it's just not advertised on the main product page
Will full coverage screens with a software driven, virtual bezel every be a thing?
Will nuclear powered phones with built-in fusion reactors that never need recharging ever be a thing?
I wouldn't mind 3cm wide bezels and accordingly larger batteries.
Never heard of anyone making that but this would honestly sound like the first innovation in several years, not incremental like "GPS now finds a solution 2 seconds faster" and "the mobile data now uses 7% less energy" but something that is now possible that wasn't a feature before
They could even give it only the virtual bezel on the left and right sides, in whichever orientation you're holding it, since you don't really hold it on the top or bottom.
Smart HDR uses neural image segmentation for tone mapping and other processing. In my opinion it goes way too far; trying to grab a faintly blue sky and make it as blue as possible, identifying a face and lightening any hint of a shadow, etc.
When people complain about iPhone photos looking over processed, this is why.
More discussion on official post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41848298
typeof(x) y = (typeof(x))x; // no pun intendedI keep trying to get into my kindle but just can't for some reason. E-ink is nice but being able to get a nice glowing black background with white text is really nice and the page changes are so much more fluid than e-ink.
If you want one that can survive anything life will throw at it, look at the Sonim devices - the XP3+ (flip) or XP5+ (candybar). They're Android Go, have exceptionally good (week and a half, easily) battery life, hotspot just fine, and handle actual use a lot better than the KaiOS toys out there. Maybe 3.x is better, but KaiOS 2.x couldn't handle actual use for more than a few weeks without starting to lag, requiring you to remove texts from it so the interface wasn't glacial, and mine eventually just stopped bothering to notify me about incoming calls and texts, which is your one job... The Android Go stuff seems to actually hold up to sustained moderate use.
A) I had to manually enter captital I, apostrophe, and ‘m’ every time I wanted to write “I’m”.
B) New words (like brand and place names) displace common words in the built-in wordlist - that is, T9 gets worse the more you use it.
It was still an OK digital minimalist/detox device - the GMaps web app with voice search was good enough.
The Android Go devices you mentioned sound far better – I’m never touching KaiOS again.
Assuming you use something like WhatsApp, Facebook or something alike. Modern "feature phones" include built-in applications for messaging and calling, and you generally can't install anything custom on them.
Is it not possible to sync MP3s to Apple Watches anymore? I have a really really old model, and I selected a few playlists on my iPhone, and when they change, the songs automatically sync to my Apple Watch.
I’d love to go dumbphone and a Watch synced to an iPad at home, but this is not an option.
I've never found a compelling use case where I'd willingly buy another Apple watch.
I used to leave the house with just my watch and it was great - I could read and send text messages, email, even take calls on my watch and have everything synced up to my phone at home. You can even download music to it and pair it to your airpods.
The missing piece here is just having a dumb phone - somehow I think that with some ingenuity you might be able to something that serves 80% of your needs here or something like that.
That said, you can embiggen things like Safari browser buttons under Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Larger Text.
I've owned 8 or 10 tablets in my life and never gotten along with any of them. The Mini6 is my latest experiment, and it's my favorite, but I still find myself rarely using it.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/16/24194423/math-notes-ipad-...
It sure looks like it would though.
Noteful and a competent calculator with CAS functionality on the other hand might be a different outcome.
Either way, and on a more fundamental note: I’m a little dubious that “completing equations” is a net benefit for math education. It really seems like a small nice-to-have-available affordance tacked on to the real game changer: a computer that can adaptively challenge a student and competently answer clarifying questions without making it too easy. Y’know, just AGI stuff lol
As we’ve all seen from ChatGPT’s impact on English courses already, this all will require a fundamental rethink of how we teach children and adolescents. Homework is a bandaid over capitalist failings, and it’s beginning to peel…
As for education, you don't really need a calculator. We don't really use them that much. Pen, paper, ears.
As for computers, programmed randomised questions with deterministic answers and documented steps to solve the problems are the right way. LLMs can't do that even if they look like they can. some universities actually have tools which generate those. Those are truly enlightening as you can see the reasoning properly.
A $200 Chromebook can do 10x. Guess what, that's exactly why schools buy Chromebooks.
math education is not likely going to be "revolutionized" with technology or that would have already happened
Even giving students full access to Mathematica (which I think is worthwhile BTW) won't revolutionize it.
At this point, the only word that can be applied to it is "overdue" for anything who uses it beyond a thin client for server-side storage or a streaming service
Creatives are getting more and more frustrated with the AI tools showing up in places like Windows or in Photoshop. For the first time ever I am meeting career artists and designers who are actively looking to add non-AI alternatives to their usual toolchains because they feel betrayed by the addition of generative AI.
Apple is asking to lose the trust of a major market segment by charging forward with this stuff. You would think that the backlash to their "Crush!" commercial would have been an eye-opening moment for them about what Artists actually expect from them...
Is it a cost saving measure / sneaky margin increaser, or what might be the motivation?
Edit:
Touch interference is a good idea. Still, from the picture, it looks like the bezel could be half as thick and work well. Sorry to be such a stickler, I am genuinely curious if Apple is chasing better margins, the best feasible UX, or something else.
Could it be that since this device is only $650 USD, it isn't expensive enough to warrant a premium display? (Like the iPhone SE https://www.apple.com/iphone-se/)
If so, I wish there was a fancier "Pro" model with premium components. IIRC, I paid $1000 for my first iPad, it was the first super high-resolution one back in 2012. Perhaps there aren't enough customers who are sensitive to wasted screen real estate on an 8-inch device.. and FWIW I have noticed a constant stream of toddlers pacified by iPad Minis whenever I'm at Costco.
How else were they supposed to make room for the extra 4GB of RAM required to support Apple Intelligence?
In reality this may be to (1) to keep costs down and (2) to distance the iPad mini from the more premium iPhone Pro Max.
All in all, this device leaves me wondering who this is for? iPads are mostly used for media consumption, no matter how Apple wants to position them. Not sure why this necessitates AI hardware, but perhaps people really start using iPads for productivity/creativity workloads that can make use of “Apple Intelligence” (the silliest moniker since “Spatial Computing” and “Retina Display”).
The comparatively small difference in screen real estate between an iPhone Pro Max and the iPad mini makes the latter rather pointless. Perhaps they are targeting people with a smaller iPhone who want another device to watch YouTube. What could have made a difference is a folding display. I think the iPad mini would have been the ideal candidate for that.
New Siri and iOS notification summaries seem like it should be enough of a reason for apple to want to ship an iPad with ai hardware.
Edit: For the non-pilots reading this, it's also worth noting that the most popular flying app by far for general aviation at least, ForeFlight, is iOS only. So your choices are generally small iPad or big iPad, and a lot of people don't like big iPad in a small airplane cockpit.
You know, you could just read all the other comments on this post talking about why they like the mini.
I know children who study with their iPad minis and prefer them over notebooks. This isn’t necessarily a pro-Apple statement, but rather a reflection on how different user groups may engage with devices in ways that are cognitively distinct from what we discuss here on HN.
without jobs it's just a matter of time they go back to being "just an expensive dell" like before
So you have somewhere to actually hold the bloody thing.
Bezelless gadgets look great in photos but are impractical as fuck to handle.
I do love my iPad Mini to bits though. I use mine purely to read, sketch and take notes. It does not receive any notifications. I carry it almost everywhere I go.
The keyboard is the most important part really (although I did want a good screen too). I'm on my second keyboard, they are only about $30 each, which is better than iPad prices. The first one wasn't so convenient to unfold quickly, the new one is working really well.
It will have the new flagship A18 processor and adequate RAM for Apple Intelligence.
Unfortunately, it will be larger (6.1") than the SE 3 (4.7"). Probably with a notch and Face ID as well. :(
"We added more RAM because there's no way we could make an LLM useful in only 4GB. While we were there, we updated the CPU. Might as well.(We grabbed the A17 Pro because we were in a rush.)"
Can someone tell me how they're increasing their creative productivity with these outside of making illustrations?
I have a ton of ideas that I organize and illustrate, but I can't give up my pen/paper as I haven't found the killer combo yet.
I have phases where I convince myself this is true, in between switching back to a note taking app (TickTick last few yrs) and every time I go back it's because it a) has total historical recall + a search box when I want to find something and b) I already carry my phone everywhere, like the grocery store, or I'm on my laptop for work.
Papers only true benefit is focus and "zen" stuff.
So to answer who this is for? One who does not want to get sand in his laptop, and one for whom the bigger and higher-end models might just be slightly overkill. This is very dog-park friendly.