back to article HUMANITY STUNNED - Apple Retina iPad Mini arrives. A solemn moment

OMFG! It's true! All the signs and portents have borne fruit. After the ritual disembowelling of an Apple support tool, auguries foretold that on this day a new iPad should come forth, and lo, the Apple stores verily did shut down. Then as the day dawned, behold, even such an iPad did appear. It is the Retina iPad Mini, which …

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  1. Longrod_von_Hugendong

    Excellent...

    I know several people who have been waiting for this. We all knew it would happen. Awesome.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Excellent...

      I didn't buy it when it came out because of the lack of retina screen...........

      Compared the original mini to the iPad 4 and the difference was obvious....

  2. nematoad

    I know several people who have been waiting for this

    Have an upvote for making me laugh.

    (Note to El Reg, where's the sarcasm icon, we really need it!)

    1. Khaptain Silver badge
      IT Angle

      Sarcasm is defacto for all posts..

  3. ratfox

    Nice display

    I had not realized that it has the same number of pixels as the big iPad. That's fairly impressive on such a smaller screen.

    1. sabroni Silver badge

      Re: Nice display

      That's fairly pointless on such a small screen, more like.

      1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: Nice display

        Waddyamean pointless! it has far more little points than the old one!!

        Sorry, couldn't resist.

        Best exit fast before Bad Punnery Enforcement Squad arrives

      2. qwarty

        Re: Nice display

        The point is to use the same pixel scaling factor as the larger model so as to be able to run apps without need for change software.

        1. sabroni Silver badge

          Re: so as to be able to run apps without need for change software.

          Indeed, no need to change the software, just need a magnifying glass....

          Besides which the software should already be able to run on different size displays. Pretending the screen is the same size as an iPad when it isn't is not a good solution, it's a bodge. Adaptive rendering ftw!

          1. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

            Re: so as to be able to run apps without need for change software.

            Like most of Apple's recent "innovations", the benefit is for Apple, not the consumer.

            By making both display panels have the same number of pixels, they can use the exact same display driver parts for both the Air and Mini models. That's at least one fewer component to keep track of, with potential gains in other sub-assemblies too (if the driver was on the main logic board, now there only has to be one logic board, not two; if it wasn't, now you can put it on the board if it works out cheaper there).

            Nothing special here - it's what every manufacturer does. But, once a supply-chain manager, always a supply-chain manager, eh Tim?

          2. Nick Pettefar

            Re: so as to be able to run apps without need for change software.

            You can use the Kryton-2 zoom mode....

    2. EPurpl3

      Re: Nice display

      So now you will all realise how bad the old screen, the one who so many bought, was. Why so few pixels on a such a big screen? Even more, why would anyone switch to the new one, why would anyone buy the whole hardware for a screen, they should've sold only the screen which, btw, does nothing special, in fact, does the same thing. Anyway, one thing is certain, Apple's marketing methods are getting old.

  4. Matt Siddall

    Retina?

    Any word on the actual resolution? It seems to me that Retina is becoming a bit meaningless these days.

    Let's see. According to the Apple website, the 5S has:

    "4-inch (diagonal) Retina display

    1136-by-640 resolution

    326 ppi "

    Whereas the new Nexus 5 has 4.95 inches, 1080p, 445 ppi.

    Hell, my old HTC One X (which has been around for a year and a half now) has 4.7 inch, 1280 x 720, 312 ppi...

    1. Si 1

      Re: Retina?

      It's 2048x1536 at 326 ppi, the same res as the 10" model..

    2. Len

      Re: Retina?

      Of course it is becoming meaningless. The whole idea is that above a certain density the human eye, at normal usage distance for that device (hence why phone differs from TV), can not distinguish individual pixels.

      Anything above that number is just nonsense for marketers who like to put higher numbers in spec sheets to suggest they are relevant.

      1. Matt Siddall

        Re: Retina?

        To be fair, the original retina display was just meant to be as good as a human eyeball (iball?) can see at 12 inches. I dunno about you but that's where my tablet tends to be. My phone is a good deal closer though, so higher numbers could have value for phones.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Retina?

          I've done my own experiments and found that with a suitable test pattern I can see a one-pixel step on my 100 dpi desktop screen from a distance of 4 metres. That means you'd need 1200 dpi to make the pixels truly invisible at 12 inches in all cases.

          If you want to repeat my experiment, the test pattern I used was to have the top half of the screen black and the bottom half white (or the other way round) and a one pixel step, either up or down, in the border between the two regions. The computer displays one of the two images at random and you have to say whether the step goes up or down before coming closer to see if you were right. The screen is blank for a second before the test pattern is displayed.

          Of course, distinguishing the pixels in most realistic use cases is much harder than with a carefully chosen test pattern.

      2. G 14

        Re: Retina?

        spot on.. it's the new dpi that used to matter for printers (but only up to a certain point)

      3. P. Lee

        Re: Retina?

        > Anything above that number is just nonsense for marketers who like to put higher numbers in spec sheets to suggest they are relevant.

        Are the higher figures relevant to the short-sighted? ;)

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: Retina?

          It's easy to take the mickey out of 'Retina', but after TV companies confused the heck out of consumers with talk of "HD Ready", "Full HD", "True HD" and various 1080 720 i p labels, I think it was a sensible marketing decision by Apple to come up with a new term for their high DPI displays.

          Of course they have some competition now, and their are a handful tablets and laptops available that boast more pixels (though users who really care will also look at tests of colour accuracy and the like, depending upon their own requirements).

          1. SuccessCase

            Re: Retina?

            Colour accuracy is so damned good now on all these small screen devices by all the manufacturers, we are beginning to take it for granted, but really it is fantastic how much it has improved. Also I was listening to some podcasts on my new iPad Air and was struck by the sound quality. This is another thing that's true for most mobile devices these days. Sure the speakers are tiny, so of course they lack power and base, but really, in the last 4 years, the increased quality of the mid tones from small speakers is just simply outstanding (at least to anyone of my age). The richness and natural timbre in voices means now you can mistake them from being in the room and the accuracy sometimes catches me unawares in an uncanny way. Music will still of course easily expose the constraints of the "tonal envelope," but still, the rapid improvement in the state of the art just blows me away.

            1. theblackhand
              Headmaster

              Re: Retina?

              "Sure the speakers are tiny, so of course they lack power and base"

              Looks like these newfangled devices also lack a spell check function....

              1. Natalie Gritpants

                Re: Retina?

                These tiny speakers have no base at all. Normal speakers have to have some base otherwise they would not stand up. Try standing an ipad up and it will fall over due to lack of base.

      4. DiViDeD

        Re: Retina?

        "Anything above that number is just nonsense for marketers who like to put higher numbers in spec sheets to suggest they are relevant"

        Too true. Just like the 'BAZILLION MEGAPIXELS!' they crow about on new cameras, a figure that is meaningless without reference to the sensor size.

        In the same way that 42 million sensor pixels is a waste of time on a 4.8mm sensor, so 2048 display pixels is utterly wasted on phone/phablet screen sizes.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Retina?

          I don't know why you think the size of the sensor is so important. It's true, though, that the number of pixels doesn't tell you much. I had a one-megapixel camera once (a Kodak) whose pictures, if taken outside on a sunny day, could be enlarged to A4 and still look fairly good. Today's cheap ten-megapixel cameras don't do such good landscape pictures (though they probably do work better in other circumstances).

    3. ItsOkayReally

      Re: Retina?

      2048 x 1536 px at 326 PPI

    4. ItsOkayReally

      Re: Retina?

      Good luck with your HTC One X, that little beauty has a nice GPU overheating defect.... blank display not happening yet? Be patient it will...

      1. Matt Siddall

        Re: Retina?

        "Good luck with your HTC One X, that little beauty has a nice GPU overheating defect.... blank display not happening yet? Be patient it will..."

        Oh, it gets plenty hot enough if it's plugged in and I'm playing games, but I can live with that. Generally if it's plugged in, I'm at home - so can just use my pc instead. If it's not plugged in, it gets warm but not excessively so. The only other thing that makes it excessively hot is the camera. I accidentally turned it on in my pocket once and a few minutes later it was starting to really heat up (at which point I noticed it and turned it off).

        I'm starting to get occasional glitches with the touchscreen. All fixed by turning the screen off and on again though. It is nearly time for a replacement, so I'm not overly concerned about fairly minor issues that I can deal with without too much effort.

        All told, I'm very happy with it. The Nexus 5 does have me quite interested in upgrading though - just have to see what's around next April :-)

      2. EPurpl3

        Re: Retina?

        Haha, for the price of a iPhone you can buy 2 or 3 HTC with 4 or 6 years warranty.

  5. Ted Treen
    Trollface

    Wait...

    Waiting for what?

    Maybe the next episode in The Register's long-running sulky grudge against Apple; dating back to the time when Apple failed to accord them "Most favoured journalists" status, thus sparking one of the longest hissy fits in history...

    1. dogged

      Re: Wait...

      Is that the hissy fit where the Reg took the piss out of the way Dead Steve said "Jaguar" (ie jag-WAH) and Apple refused to ever speak to the Reg again?

      You mean that hissy fit, right?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wait...

      it's a hissy fit on a par with you the one you just threw

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        Re: Wait...

        Operation "enduring hissy fit". It is also sustainable.

    3. EPurpl3

      Re: Wait...

      Reg had a lot of copy paste articles from Apple, I think I am paranoid in the other direction, hahaha.

  6. Yves Kurisaki
    Trollface

    Having a slow day in the old creative writing department, have we?

    1. TheOtherHobbes

      "Having a slow day in the old creative writing department, have we?"

      Who - The Reg, or Apple?

      (Not that that's an ex-or.)

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Joy to the world

    Joy to the world the I-pad mini has come... la la la la la....

    Errr... is there really such a penury of real news or is this is yet another clever reverse marketing campaign promoting yet another useless product by poking fun at it?

    We all know the fruity company dances hand in hand with the NSA and has its sticky fingers in many apples pies..... (hmmm I am getting a tad peckish now)...

    It would not take them much to inject malware and - oh blasphemy ! - fiendishly distort the ever so objective articles of our holy register !!!!

    (Hmmm maybe I did read a bit too much conspiracy theory stuff of late :-) )

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Devil

      Re: Joy to the world

      I recall a leaked memo from the NSA where they labeled iPhone users "stupid"...

      1. Lost in Cyberspace

        Re: Joy to the world

        Perhaps, as a generalisation.

        But I'm glad to be using a phone for work that -er- just works.

        My PC is where all the tinkering happens.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OMG

    Jesus has risen for the umpteenth time !

    I already have a hard on and my heavy breathing has reached orgasmic proportions.

    Why didnt anyone tell me earlier. Could have had a wet dream too, last night.

    Oh. BTW my eyes also have two retinas and can see well enough.

    Where were you all my life ?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    YAWN!

    Why are the luddites STILL banging on about shitty Apple prodcuts?

    HELLO, it's 2013! iWHATEVER is OVER. Move on, like the rest of the world has, to newer better products!

    They are there, should you wish to look.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      YAWN?

      According to your reaction, it is worth a comment with LOTS OF CAPS. Don't care? Next time just ignore it.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: YAWN?

        "According to your reaction, it is worth a comment with LOTS OF CAPS. Don't care? Next time just ignore it."

        Do not feed the Obviously!, you only encourage it.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: YAWN!

      Therefore in your argument, everyone should be driving <insert supercar of your choice here> simply because it is better than the ordinary Ford, Honda, Toyota etc etc etc car that the majority of us drive?

      For many people these (in your opinion) sub-par/shitty/crapple products are perfectly usable and people are happy with them.

      Not everyone has the same opinions as you. Once you accept that you might actually become a better person.

      If everyone did have the same opinions as you then the world would be a very boring place. Perhaps you might like to get back to reading your collected works of Mao because that if obviously the world you inhabit.

      I don't own any Apple tablet products but I do own a really crap Android one but it does the job it was bought for. It is obviously the Trabant of tablets.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: YAWN!

        Err and what car do you drive? Just out of curiosity :-)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: YAWN!

          I drive a 10yr old Volvo Estate. Yeah, I'm a boring old fart. It does the job it was bought for. My two dogs appreciate the space in the back.

          I ride a Ducati 995 for fun though.

      2. EPurpl3

        Re: YAWN!

        You are an idiot.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: YAWN!

      "HELLO, it's 2013! iWHATEVER is OVER. Move on, like the rest of the world has, to newer better products!

      They are there, should you wish to look."

      Orly? Compared to e.g. the Nexus 7, the retina iPad mini seems to be a clear winner. Bigger screen in the same form factor, faster CPU and GPU, longer battery life, made of metal.

      The Nexus 7 is cheaper, and probably a better "value," but a better device? I'm not seeing it.

    4. ItsOkayReally

      Re: YAWN!

      "They are there, should you wish to look."

      But we don't so back off...

  10. Khaptain Silver badge

    Retina is dead, long live the Vagina

    What we need know is Vaginal not Retinal....

    Now that would make some interesting news.

    1. handy

      Re: Retina is dead, long live the Vagina

      So many pixels you go blind looking at them ?

  11. Aebleskiver
    Coat

    Sorry, going to pass on this; I'm waiting for the Retina iPad Mini Air - Pro edition...

    1. Slartybardfast

      I'm waiting for the same but with fingerprint reader

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I think I'll hold out for the Retina iPad Mini Air Pro 2 with Iris.

    3. Vociferous

      > I'm waiting for the Retina iPad Mini Air - Pro

      ...in gold.

      1. DiViDeD

        @Vociferous

        "...in gold"

        Would that be SPACE gold, or just ordinary everyday gold like the poor people buy?

    4. EPurpl3

      Hahaha

  12. At0micAndy

    I am still using my iPAD1 - does everything I need a pad for (browse web). Other stuff is adequately covered by my MBA, MBP and iMac. Interestingly, my eyesight is poor enough that I do not notice the improvements in my retina display on my MBP over my MBA. My OH still uses her iPadMini on a daily basis and loves it and feels no need to upgrade (but she does want a new case, her existing case is beginning to fall apart). All is calm in the world.

    1. EPurpl3

      OMG, dude, you are not a good consumer, people like you are the cause for Apple's decrease in profits >:(

      Haha

  13. qwertyuiop

    I'm sure this will be a great relief...

    ...to the poor souls in the Phillipines who survived the terrible storm and are now desperate for food, water, medicine and help to bury the estimated 10,000 dead. At least they'll be able to console themselves with their shiny new iToy.

  14. Jim 59

    £659 (128GB with mobe data)

    Never was so much spent on so few by so many

    1. dogged

      it has the why fyes and the three gees, apparently.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re:

        But no ring dings

  15. Dave 126 Silver badge

    >**Space is not grey.

    Holly: Well, the thing about a black hole - its main distinguishing feature - is it's black. And the thing about space, the colour of space, your basic space colour, is black. So how are you supposed to see them?

    1. Tom 7

      Re:>**Space is not grey.

      Its actually transparent so it has no colour at all - least of all black which would absorb anything trying to pass through it.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: **Space is not grey.

        Oh dear Tom, it would appear that you have some homework to do:

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dwarf#Setting_and_plot

        And here's the latest smartwatch. Smart? It's got an IQ of 6000!

        http://clickclicksnapsnap.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/holly-watch1.jpg

        1. thesykes

          Re: **Space is not grey.

          thanks.... after reading some of that, I am now singing The Rimmer Song. Repeatedly.

    2. Fink-Nottle

      And the thing about space, the colour of space, your basic space colour, is black.

      Space is grey in the same way that a dwarf is red.

      (And space does have a colour - cosmic latte.)

    3. EPurpl3

      Black is not even a colour. I think they where referring to "space gray" as a free spot instead of ram memory.

  16. Vociferous

    My life is finally complete.

    I can now die content.

  17. Caff

    boring...

    Wake me when it comes in GOLD

  18. Jerome
    Happy

    Loved the second note "**Space is not grey."

    1. TimNevins

      "Space is not grey"

      It is if you have an LCD TV

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    SSD storage ripoff

    £80 for +16Gb storage is one serious ripoff, disappointing Apple continue to price incremental storage as if it is still 2010, while sitll not providing user expansion. The never give a sucker an even break school of marketing is alive and well in Cupertino.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: SSD storage ripoff

      They are a company. Their purpose is to make money. They achieve this by selling goods at a mark up against their cost of manufacture.

      In other news, ursine creatures observed defecating in arboreally dense locations.

  20. Sander van der Wal
    Thumb Down

    Scraping the bottom of the barrel

    for funny and to-the-point Apple jokes, aren't we?

  21. David 138

    I want to defecate on Steve Jobs grave every time I hear the word Retina. Buzz words for the clueless. The mini should never had had the low res screen it was released with but a small device should not be wasting power pushing too many pixels about either.

    Im sure they will have plenty of people on there knees with their mouths wide open ready to take it though.

    1. Tom 38
      WTF?

      I want to defecate on Steve Jobs grave every time I hear the word Retina…

      Nice to see you are taking this news in a calm manner.

  22. nanchatte

    <option>title</option>

    After the ritual disembowelling of an Apple support tool

    Not fair:

    Killing shop staff is illegal where I live..

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why mock?

    Why mock Apple for updating its products? What would you rather them do? Not update?

    And if you think doubling the processor speed and quadrupling the pixel count is only a minor "incremental" upgrade, then don't buy it.

    BTW, the device isn't only being sold to people who already own last year's model. For most of the people who buy a retina iPad mini, I would bet that it's a pretty significant upgrade over whatever they're currently using, if they own a tablet computer at all.

    1. Tom 38

      Re: Why mock?

      You've got it wrong, this is just the appropriate point in the story cycle. Wait a few months after launch for the stories "Why Apple is failing to launch new things" and "Apple insider rumours insist new iphone fellates you".

      It's all click bait to get the people who either hate or like apple to post, but you need to use a different lure depending upon the season.

  24. Wardy01

    Apple does it again ...

    Somehow adding the word "retina" to a product makes it worth another £600 in every fanbois eyes.

    Yes it may havea few more pixels but lets consider the reality ... its still an inferior product as about 99.9% of all software that is considered "good" on it requires about half that (angry birds anyone?) ...

    Seriously .. why bother ... give me a Surface Pro 2 with a retina display an i'll consider being impressed, USB for a start and I wont have to pay an extra £400 to gain another 128GB of space.

    Isn't it about time people started looking at iProducts as what they really are ... toys ... and toys don't deserve such hype ...

    Dear Apple,

    Please make a serious tablet ... lets call it the MacTab Pro.

    It'll come in 5" and 10" variations and have an i7 processor with 8GB of ram.

    It'll support USB and DLNA so I can plug in a USB hard drive stream to a movie any smart TV in my house.

    It'll charge using USB so I don't have to pay a premium for some connector that will be useless when the next version comes out.

    It'll run a touch enabled version of Mac OS so I can run all that cool high quality software that fanbois really hype about instead of "kiddy mode" iOS.

    It'll be smart and talk to me thorugh Siri, be able to talk to my home through the same conversation and even allow me to talk to others through integration for simple productivity options like skype.

    It'll as always look good, but actually be useful for a change.

    It may actually be worth your rediculous prices for a change.

    It'll be the first product I actually bought since the iPhone 3G.

    Regards,

    Someone with common sense.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Apple does it again ...

      You say you want an i7-powered tablet that charges from a 2.1A (max) USB socket, and sign off as "Somene with common sense". Hmmm...

      If you do want a tablet with OSX (and a high-end Wacom digitiser) for productivity, you can have it... but it ain't cheap:

      http://www.modbook.com/modbookpro-features/

      and you'll have to make do with a 13" screen and a Magsafe power cable.

      1. ISP

        Re: Apple does it again ...

        ~8" High Def screen 4:3 format, sounds about right to for what I want. Like to see the HP Slate 8 Pro which sounds comparable but I'm betting will be about the same price (the Pro part is a dead give-away) Any other 4:3 high def tabs about?

        i7 in a tablet, what for? Sounds like all the camera gear zealots who all want full frame sensors in point and shoot size bodies. Physics called, it says no...

    2. Tom 38
      WTF?

      Re: Apple does it again ...

      "Someone with common sense" complains that ipad is a waste because the apps won't use that power, and then asks for a 5" tablet with an i7 inside it.

      "Someone who hasn't taken their meds" sounds more probable.

      PS: Did you know that all Apple phones and tablets with Lightning ports come with a free USB to Lightning adapter so you can charge from USB ports? It's just like the cable you use to charge your iphone 3G, but one end is tiny instead of fat. I can see how this might upset you.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So they have updated the resolution/dpi abit........... zzzzzzzzz

    What happened to innovation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation

    or

    Revolution?

    not these meely mouth incrementals?

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