The iPad 4 took everybody by surprise when Apple announced it towards the end of last month, but perhaps less surprisingly, when teared-down to the bare bones, there's not a lot of difference between it and its predecessor - the iPad 3.
In line with the Steve Jobs vision, many of us hold our smartphones and tablets in the same regard as our cars, and as some of us have specially adapted our automobiles for compatibility with our iPhones, some companies have already been installing the iPad mini into the dashboards of cars.
Any new device worth talking about is, as a matter of protocol, subject to numerous public tests, with the drop test being by far the most popular. As well as enjoying the perverse pleasure that is watching a brand-new device sustain serious damage, viewing such a test does have its practical benefits, since if a gadget performs particularly poorly, perhaps we'll think twice before parting with our cash.
It was only yesterday when a United Kingdom based court of appeals took the decision to reprimand Apple for their failure to act in proper accordance with an original judgment in October that stated they must issue an apology to Samsung Electronics through their customer facing UK website. Although the company has removed the initial linked statement from their website and are yet to publish the new homepage based announcement, they have started publishing the notice in UK print publications.
The coming weeks may be all about Apple pushing out new hardware in the form of the iPad mini, the fourth-generation iPad and new Macs but it seems that today is firmly dedicated to getting improved versions of iOS out to as many users as possible. In addition to the public release of iOS 6.0.1 earlier today Apple have seeded the initial beta of iOS 6.1 to registered developers via the official developers center.
Whenever a new version of iOS is released to the public (or indeed, simply to developers), the attentions of many quickly turn to the possibility of a jailbreak. Offering a freedom impossible at stock level on an iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, jailbroken devices offer the iOS experience without limitation, and it's thanks to utilities like the iPhone Dev-Team's Redsn0w that jailbreaks can be achieved.
Visually speaking, iOS’ Springboard “launcher” hasn’t changed much over the years. If you look at the iOS 1 vs. iOS 6 image we’ve placed after the jump, you’ll find the preceding statement to be very much true.
It was only a matter of time before a UK court of appeal got involved and ruled that Apple's apologetic statement to Samsung on their UK customer facing website didn't comply with the original ruling.
The new Apple iPad mini is set to hit shelves this coming Friday and with the majority of pre-order models already sold out, it looks like the company has another early commercial success on their hands. Although consumers seem to have reacted positively to the new mid-range tablet, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the likes of Amazon have acted quickly in attempting to convince customers that they would be much better off buying the new Kindle Fire.
The reviews are in for the iPad mini, and as usual, Apple's hand-picked journalists (all of whom have a reputation for saying positive things about the Cupertino company's products, have queued up to pour a little pre-sale glory on the scaled-down tablet.
