#36 - Tech Announcement Week Day 1: Apple & the iPad Mini

Motto: "Apple iPad Mini" is an anagram of "Animal I Pipped" - and I'm not sure what that means.

This needs to be short because it's a weeknight and I have a job. I have a tendency to ramble on about things in general, and it's worsened when I talk about something I'm really interested in. This post is about things I'm interested in. Not like all those other boring posts.

 Today, Apple announced nearly all of its non-iPhone products to be released for this holiday season. Later this week: Microsoft officially announces Windows 8 & Windows Phone 8 and Google announces "something" which may be/definitely is a trio of Nexuses. I will cover all those announcements with my skewed opinions like I have this one.

THE NEXUS 7 VS THE IPAD MINI (in the most condense way possible)
Note: I pulled this image from this article on ComputerWorld. I like to give credit where it's due.
Outline of the iPad Mini's advantages:

  • A much better developed tablet application ecosystem
  • It's thinner, lighter, and many would argue more "beautiful"
  • A backfacing camera (which I would argue is pointless)
  • A bigger screen with a smaller bezel
  • More storage options
  • The option for a cellular connection
  • Dual-band wifi
  • iOS 6
Outline of the Nexus 7's advantages:
  • A higher resolution screen, effectively showing more content at once (this also means a better PPI, which is funny given Apple's love for PPI since the original retina display)
  • A quad-core processor, which has been more recently developed than the iPad Mini's throwback processor
  • A smaller overall form factor for better portability
  • It uses a standard MicroUSB connector (some would say "big deal", but finding one of these will be way easier than finding Apple's lightning connector for a long time)
  • GPS - the iPad Mini has GPS, but only on the more expensive LTE enabled option
  • The price: $250 - and that's not even the cheapest option, it's just the one that matches the wifi-only iPad in terms of storage
  • Android 4.1
Advantages that the iPad Mini will likely lose by the end of this week (what the Nexus is likely getting):
  • Higher storage options for the same (low) price, rumor is they are doubling the storage available at the two tiers and keeping the price the same
  • An option for cellular connection
  • Android 4.2
No matter which way you swing it, these are two very compelling products that I think could (and should) become more popular (in terms of opinion) and more prevalent (in terms of market share) than their bigger siblings. When I switched from my 10" Asus Transformer to my 7" Nexus, I thought I was going to hate it. It turned out to be so far the opposite direction that I am still surprised on a daily basis how much better I like it. The 7-8" form factor is where it's at, yo.


 I argued with an Apple fanatic on Google+ for an hour right before this post. He was staunch Apple and I represented the Android side of the coin. We argued about differing specs and their varying levels of importance. We argued about arguments. After a while, we came to terms with the other's viewpoints and let bygones be bygones. It was interesting getting insight into the mind of an Apple Fanboy that actually knew the variables of the equation on both sides. I think I need people like that to balance me out sometimes. The whole experience struck me as being oddly natural. The two of us are set to debate tacos vs. burritos sometime next week.


 Top 5: Things Apple announced today by how much I care about them.
5. The Mac Mini (the Mac what? Exactly)
4. The new iMac
3. The upgraded regular iPad (A newer iPad with newer newness!)
2. The new Macbook Pro
1. The iPad Mini (by leaps and bounds I cared about this one most)

Quote:
"so your argumentation goes like this. Everything that the iPad mini is truly better at is unimportant and all the flaws that Nexus 7 have a negligible therefore I'm wrong."
    - Ivan Raszl -

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