Whenever a new device is released to market, the benchmark tests begin almost instantaneously. Today, the iPad mini with Retina display made its long-awaited debut, and although it still appears in very short supply, it has already been put through its paces and compared with some of the other marquee devices in the iOS product line. As it transpires, it's almost identical to the iPhone 5s in terms of speed, although both the iPad mini 2 with Retina display and the Touch ID-enabled handset fall slightly behind the iPad Air, which is faster than both.
In what can only be considered one of the most bizarre Apple product launches of this year, the Cupertino company has officially released their newest miniature tablet: the iPad mini 2 with Retina Display for everyone to consume. If you're unaware, the new iPad was announced alongside it's bigger brother, the iPad Air. This is where the launch similarities end though, as Apple were particularly coy about when, or where, it was going to be available. In a sudden frenzy - as opposed to their standard organized launches - Apple let loose that the iPad mini with Retina Display could be reserved for pickup in store, or purchased directly though Apple's online store.
Apple has shown an increased desire over the last 12 months to highlight the fact that a lot more of their design and manufacturing processes is taking place in the United States. The company's "Designed by Apple in California" slogan is playing an increasingly important role during media events, with Tim Cook and his executive team keen to drill home that products like the new Mac Pro will be manufactured in the US. If today's reports regarding the future of the iPhone and iPad processors turn out to be true then it could mean that upstate New York could be the production home of Apple's chips in the very near future.
The Retina iPad mini 2 was announced alongside the iPad Air at Apple’s special media event in October. But at that time, Apple vaguely announced that the device will be available ‘later in November’, and no proper calendar date was given. And today, out of nowhere, the device has made its way to Apple’s Online Store.
Apple is a company constantly shrouded in mystery, and thus, speculation. For a great deal of time, it has been said that the Cupertino would be looking to expand upon the Apple TV set-top box with a more grandiose delve into the television market, but while many an analyst has stepped forward and suggested that this will be the case, the little black box famously coined as a "hobby" by Tim Cook remains the iPad maker's sole contribution.
We've seen rumors of Apple's claimed interest in launching new, larger iPhones throughout the recent months, and it's clear that those rumors aren't going to go away any time soon after Bloomberg today got in on the speculation action.
Apple's latest edition to the iPad range - the iPad Air - seems to be going down with a storm with those who already have their hands on the 9.7-inch tablet. The latest and so-called greatest iPad yet is thinner, lighter and blazing fast thanks to the new A7 processor and 64-bit architecture, but more important than all of that, it seems to be getting rave reviews from those using it. With the new iPad being such an early success, it was only a matter of time until we started to see new concepts flying around the net, with one of the first bringing the same Air treatment to Apple's iPhone hardware.
EBooks and other book offerings through the Kindle or iBooks remove a lot of that publishing overhead and allow readers to quickly get access to great content wherever they are. The next step in that progression is to remove the need to actually read the book yourself and have it auto-read out loud by the system.
OS X Mavericks brought with it a great blend of new feature additions mixed perfectly with enough power-saving ability to make the operating system a great option for Apple's desktop and notebook using consumers. However, with the initial seed of a new OS there is always going to be a few bugs that managed to slip through the pre-release controlled beta test. If you are one of those perturbed users who has been experiencing some difficulties with the native Mavericks Mail app working alongside a Gmail email account, then hopefully today's Mavericks update will offer up a solution to those woes.
It's commonplace for tech companies to mock competitors in ad campaigns, although in the mobile industry, it's usually between arch-rivals Samsung and Apple. The Cupertino company has today bore the brunt of some ribbing from a different source, though, with Amazon's new Kindle Paperwhite ad taking a not-so-subtle pop at Apple's iPad. Since, as we learned just yesterday, the Kindle Fire HDX can more than hold its own against the new iPad Air (read: display is far superior), perhaps Amazon has a little lee-way to sound off, and although this compares the Paperwhite's readability versus the iPad, it does seem as though Amazon is emerging as a real force in tablet circles.
