iPad Mini Revealed

I’m sure that most of you already know this (heck, it’s been rumoured for months), so I’ll be brief. So Apple announced the iPad Mini today at a conference. It’s going to be released on November 2nd, at a price of $329 in North America. The unit itself is 7.9 inches (compared to the new iPads, which are 9.7 inches), and is about $100 cheaper. Apple says that it’s battery life is up to 10 hours, though your mileage may vary.

Personally, I find it a bit odd that Apple would release a version of their product that is of competitive price, because if you’ve read up on Apple, you know that they don’t do “re-imagining” of their products. They tend to release one product after another. Actually, it reminds me of what Nintendo used to do with their Game Boy line many moons ago (Game Boy Pocket, Color Game Boy, Game Boy Light, which were all essentially the same product, just priced at lower costs). It also reminds me of Apple’s Apple ][ line (Apple II Plus, Apple IIe, and the like).

With the competition from Microsoft (Surface), and Android tablets, it would make sense for Apple to release an iPad that was more competitive in price. Will this make me jump onto the iPad bandwagon? It’s hard to say. For one, it doesn’t have retina display, and it’s processor is a little slower (the iPad 2 A5 processor). Do I wait until the iPad Mini 2? I guess that only time will tell. One thing is for certain though: with the holiday season coming up, they’ll be no tablet shortage.

What do you think about the iPad Mini? Will you be buying it this holiday season?

Remembering Steve Jobs

It’s been one year since the untimely passing of Steve Jobs. I have thought long and hard about how I will remember Steve Jobs, and I think that the best to do this is to remember the products he envisioned.

In my opinion, the two most important products that Apple has ever made are the Apple ][ and the first Macintosh (also known as the Macintosh 128K).

Why these two computers? Well, because the Apple ][ is the computer that made computer accessible to use for everyone. It could fit on your desk, and was affordable. It may have not been easy to use (there was no graphical interface in the first couple of iterations of the Apple ][, only text), but it was powerful. A lot of people bought an Apple ][ back in the day, and there was no shortage of software that was developed. Not to mention that VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet for a personal computer showed businesses the potential for computers as effective business tools. The Apple ][ was so popular that when Apple tried to replace it with the Apple III, it flopped. Nobody bought the Apple III, but everyone continued to buy and write software for the Apple ][. Without Steve Jobs, it’s doubtful that the Apple ][ would have ever reached its full potential. Even so, the Apple ][ wasn’t conceived from the ground-up by Steve Jobs alone, it was more Steve Wozniak’s (the other co-founder of Apple) project. The Macintosh, however, was conceived by Jobs himself.

Pages: 1 2