Thoughts On the iPad Mini

John Gruber at Daring Fireball has a thoughtful piece about the design of Apple's smaller iPad, which the company is expected to announce on September 12. Simply shrinking the current iPad's dimensions to a new form factor is unlikely, he says, and the bezel surrounding the display is more likely to be a cross between an iPad and an iPhone. He also discusses evidence of Apple's PR team getting the rumor mill going immediately after the announcement of Google's Nexus 7, and how Apple has probably bet on having a thinner and lighter tablet than Google, rather than worrying about a better display. Quoting: "Apple product designs are true to themselves. Each thing has proportions suited to its own nature. Consider how the iPad doesn’t look like a blown up iPhone. They share a few similar design elements — a family resemblance, if you will — but the proportions are different. The iPad has a thick bezel surrounding all four sides of the display; the iPhone does not. Why? Because you need a place to rest your thumbs while holding an iPad. ... Should not the iPad Mini fall somewhere in between? Not as close to the aspect ratio of its display as the iPad-as-we-know-it, but also not as far away from its display aspect ratio as the iPhone. You might need more thumb-rest room on the sides than you do on the iPhone, but not nearly as much as you do on the full-size iPad. If that assumption is right, the proportions of a 7.85-inch 4:3-aspect-ratio display iPad Mini are likely not the same as the proportions of the 9.7-inch 4:3-aspect-ratio display iPad."

I have an iPad and a Nexus 7

[Anonymous Coward]

To be honest, the Nexus 7 blows the iPad out of the water. The Nexus 7 is the best tablet device I've ever gotten my hands on, for less than half the price of an iPad.

It's more customizable, easier to get content, and with the soft back - easier to hold.

Services are more integrated than the iPad, IMHO, you could get by fine without having a computer to sync up with the Nexus 7. With the Nexus 7 you can download Torrent clients and apps such as Music Paradise to get all of your content, while there really isn't any alternative to the iTunes store with the iPad unless you root it.

Google Now works very well, I rarely type things in because the voice recognition is so accurate.

The Nexus 7 is a very nice device. I don't see why anyone would choose an iPad over the Nexus 7 right now.

Re:You must have very large pockets.

[guttentag]

The kilt itself doesn't have pockets, it's the "Sporran [wikipedia.org]" (Scottish Gaelic for "purse", it is the progenitor of the "murse [wikipedia.org]," the jockstrap cup and the pocket protector) that is worn in front of the kilt that serves as the pocket. I expect it's only a matter of time before Belkin and Griffin make a $50 piece of plastic you can snap your iPad into to hang in front of your crotch from a cord, making it conveniently placed when sitting down or quickly accessible by simply flipping up when standing... also useful as an electronic billboard in public spaces for featuring paid advertisements or dubious national pride statements, such as: "A true Scotsman wears nothing beneath his kilt."