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Apple introduces iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/10/apple-introduces-powerful-new-ipad-mini-built-for-apple-intelligence/
241diwank | | 352 | HN
metadat | parent | next
Why is the bezel so thick? A 1-2cm bezel around the entire "mini" device seems a bit odd, given that the iPad Mini is a relatively tiny device and phones these days come with a 1-2mm bezel (10x less useless border).

Is it a cost saving measure / sneaky margin increaser, or what might be the motivation?

Edit:

Touch interference is a good idea. Still, from the picture, it looks like the bezel could be half as thick and work well. Sorry to be such a stickler, I am genuinely curious if Apple is chasing better margins, the best feasible UX, or something else.

Could it be that since this device is only $650 USD, it isn't expensive enough to warrant a premium display? (Like the iPhone SE https://www.apple.com/iphone-se/)

If so, I wish there was a fancier "Pro" model with premium components. IIRC, I paid $1000 for my first iPad, it was the first super high-resolution one back in 2012. Perhaps there aren't enough customers who are sensitive to wasted screen real estate on an 8-inch device.. and FWIW I have noticed a constant stream of toddlers pacified by iPad Minis whenever I'm at Costco.

Tagbert | parent | next
Bezels are useful for devices that you can’t just hold in the flat of your hand. Provides a place to hold on to.

Also, this is an LCD screen. The substrate is rigid. An OLED, like on the iPhone is on a flexible substrate and can be bent at the edges to connect to the circuit board. That lets you put the screen closer to the edge.

spython | parent | next
I think it's so that the fingers holding the device don't obstruct the view/ don't get counted as touch event.
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simjnd | parent | next
The iPad mini is a second-class product in Apple's lineup. It rarely gets updated, and if you use one you will see how poorly UI is scaled. I was really hyped up and really wanted one, but after using one I gave up on the idea. The 60 Hz LCD screen is also among the worst screen of all the products Apple currently sells.
torginus | root | parent | next
that's a pity. I had a regular iPad, I used it for document browsing and regular reading. I eventually gave up on it because it was just too big and too heavy and required two hands to hold it.

I really wanted something that'more Kindle-sized, which the iPad mini seems to be, which is the perfect form factor for one handed usability.

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caconym_ | parent | next
somewhere to grab it without putting your fingers on the screen?
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ChuckMcM | parent | next
In many ways (no pun intended :-)) I would relate to having an iPad mini and a much much dumber phone which was just text/chat and voice. I have gotten there because I'm constantly in this weird tension between wanting a bigger screen on my phone because the app I'm using and wanting a smaller phone so that it is easier to pocket and carry around. A friend of mine did the folding screen phone thing and that has its advantages but I really like a small phone (and ideally with a long battery life so no 1000 nit screens on it). Definitely first world/21st century problems :-). I do find engineering tradeoffs in product design an interesting thing though.
Syonyk | parent | next
Most of the modern "dumbphones" (or "feature phones") would do this just fine for you.

If you want one that can survive anything life will throw at it, look at the Sonim devices - the XP3+ (flip) or XP5+ (candybar). They're Android Go, have exceptionally good (week and a half, easily) battery life, hotspot just fine, and handle actual use a lot better than the KaiOS toys out there. Maybe 3.x is better, but KaiOS 2.x couldn't handle actual use for more than a few weeks without starting to lag, requiring you to remove texts from it so the interface wasn't glacial, and mine eventually just stopped bothering to notify me about incoming calls and texts, which is your one job... The Android Go stuff seems to actually hold up to sustained moderate use.

0x38B | root | parent | next
I used a KaiOS device for about 6 months. My expectations weren’t high, but texting and T9 input were a mess:

A) I had to manually enter captital I, apostrophe, and ‘m’ every time I wanted to write “I’m”.

B) New words (like brand and place names) displace common words in the built-in wordlist - that is, T9 gets worse the more you use it.

It was still an OK digital minimalist/detox device - the GMaps web app with voice search was good enough.

The Android Go devices you mentioned sound far better – I’m never touching KaiOS again.

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WhyNotHugo | root | parent | next
> Most of the modern "dumbphones" (or "feature phones") would do this just fine for you.

Assuming you use something like WhatsApp, Facebook or something alike. Modern "feature phones" include built-in applications for messaging and calling, and you generally can't install anything custom on them.

bradfa | root | parent
Do any of these Android Go phones have semi decent cameras? That’s a big holdup for many people.
Syonyk | root | parent | next
https://www.sevarg.net/2023/12/30/more-flip-phone-sonim-xp3-... has some sample images from mine - it's an 8MP camera. Not amazing, but also not a 2MP potato.
adastra22 | root | parent
In the context of this thread, that’s what the iPad mini is for.
evrenesat | parent | next
I use the Unihertz Jelly Star alongside my iPhone 14 pro. It's a 3" android 14 phone running on a powerful soc with 8gb ram and 256gb storage. I have the same sim on both phones but I no longer carry the iPhone with me, I use it at home as an iPad micro.

The fingerprint reader isn't accurate enough so I use pattern lock for NFC payments. Texting on a 3" screen isn't much fun either, but I don't like texting anyway. At least it manages to run FUTO voice keyboard (whisper based) fast enough.

mulderc | parent | next
I am moving away from my phone to just using my Apple Watch/AirPods then pulling out the mini when I need something it can't cover.
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herpdyderp | root | parent
I wish I could do this but I have yet to find a good Apple Watch replacement for owning and syncing music (rather than streaming it)
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blackoil | parent | next
An alternate setup is LTE smartwatch, tws and foldable phones. You can do almost all dumbphone tasks and some more from the watch. It can be relatively distraction free, and you can leave phone at home for swimming/jogging/workouts. Foldable will give you decent camera and tablet when you need it and can be kept in bag or far enough.
xattt | parent | next
Apple keeps a lot of owners addicted to their phones by making Watch support exclusive to iPhone.

I’d love to go dumbphone and a Watch synced to an iPad at home, but this is not an option.

thorncorona | root | parent | next
What keeps them addicted to their watch?

I've never found a compelling use case where I'd willingly buy another Apple watch.

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osrec | parent | next
What was the pun? Many/mini?
imjonse | root | parent | next
You can safely put 'no pun intended' after actually having no puns in the text. It can be disorienting but such is truth sometimes.
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qnleigh | parent | next
A pro of foldables is that you mostly use the outer screen, but the battery is big enough to handle the inner screen. So you get excellent battery life for daily use. If you only use the inner screen for reading in dark mode the battery life is also excellent.

Also at least for the Galaxy Fold, when folded the phone is narrow enough to use one-handed and hold securely.

doublepg23 | parent | next
If I was approaching the dumb phone thing I’d try something similar to this video - “dumbify” Home Screen app for iOS, setting as gray scale, screen time limits, etc. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7jVb1lLniEw
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{"deleted":true,"id":41853621,"parent":41852838,"time":1729030201,"type":"comment"}
zoeysmithe | parent | next
For me its a very nice bedside ebook reader, reddit machine, and video device. Its a perfect size for all those things, perhaps a bit too small for video but good enough. It can fit into a large coat pocket or a medium sized purse too.

I keep trying to get into my kindle but just can't for some reason. E-ink is nice but being able to get a nice glowing black background with white text is really nice and the page changes are so much more fluid than e-ink.

amelius | root | parent
Way more distractions on an iPad, though.
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pyromaker | parent | next
I didn't get the pun......
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jay_kyburz | parent | next
I find it incredible that I can't make calls on my iPad. I would just carry an iPad in my back pack if people could call me on it.
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mouse_ | parent | next
Back in the day when Android was KitKat and full of possibilities, I ran a Nexus 7 2nd gen and a cheap phone from my carrier. I'm not sure if it was enlightenment but it was closer to it than today, where I carry around a smartphone that's too big to use comfortably but still too small to use frequently for media.
jeffbee | parent | next
I was just pitching this yesterday to my friend. My Pixel 8 Pro is a great phone, but in many situations I only want a phone that can show me my messages and answer my phone calls, and it's OK if its interface is my smartwatch and/or earbuds. I want it to be able to take over my mobile number on-demand, and relinquish it to my Pixel afterward.
ein0p | parent | next
A lot of people (myself included) want that, which is exactly why it’s not going to happen - Apple would much rather see you pay twice as much for an iPhone Pro Max
bamboozled | parent
You want an Apple Watch imo, I often leave my phone behind now, I’m contactable without distractions.
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gcanyon | parent | next
If it were possible to do so, I would possibly buy this as my new "phone":

   - I almost never hold my phone to my ear
   - I don't need the dual-lens features of the new iPhones
   - Standby battery life seems up to the challenge
   - Apple doesn't offer the iPhone Mini anymore, which is what I'm carrying now. If I'm going bigger, why not actually go BIGger.
Things holding me back:

   - Not actually sure about the battery life
   - As far as I know you can't transfer your actual phone line to a Mini
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dang | parent | next
We changed the URL from https://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/ but readers may want to check out both.
bonaldi | parent | next
The mini is the absolute sweet spot for me - enough portability that I don’t mind the many restrictions of iPad OS. But the A-line chips and low-quality screen are problems, and not being able to properly dock it at a monitor is a real hinderance. None of those are addressed here, unfortunately.
kmeisthax | parent | next
If you meant "not having Stage Manager", I'm genuinely surprised the A18 Pro wasn't considered powerful enough to run it, given that it outperforms the M1 that was. The only thing I could think of is that Apple thinks the smaller screen is too small for Stage Manager.

I still think they should support it anyway, even if only for three apps at a time on the primary display. iPadOS is weirdly bifurcated into two different window management strategies (Split View vs. Stage Manager) based on what device you bought, which is confusing. They should be expanding Stage Manager to as many devices as possible.

smileybarry | parent | next
Speaking of screens, I wonder if they fixed the jelly scroll. It doesn’t bother me that much on my mini, but it would be ridiculous to keep that flaw as-is in the newer gen.
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labcomputer | parent | next
> and not being able to properly dock it at a monitor is a real hinderance

Can you expand on that? It seems to support DisplayPort over USB-C, and there are a number of 1st and 3rd party adapters that have DP out, power in, and a USB2.0 plug for your other devices. What does “properly” docking it look like?

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whiteboardr | parent | next
Was patiently waiting for the mini getting an update - i don’t care as much for the screen, CPU etc. but not moving the front facing camera to the side, hence landscape friendly position is beyond me.
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dartos | parent | next
> enough portability that I don’t mind the many restrictions of iPad OS.

Would it be a sweeter spot without those restrictions?

I hate that I can’t code on my iPad Pro.

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gjsman-1000 | parent
Considering the bestselling laptops at Walmart for $400-500 still sometimes have Twisted Nematic displays, I think the screen is fine.

I also don’t get the complaint about the A-series chip. What does an M1 unlock in iPadOS that the A17 doesn’t?

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throwaway48476 | parent | next
It is interesting that one of their examples is a "community repair fair", they want to market a sheen of social responsibility without actually taking part themselves.
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giancarlostoro | parent | next
Lowkey wish their laptops would be as they used to be. Being able to swap RAM or hard drives is so basic but so useful.
aucisson_masque | root | parent | next
I have a mac, absolutely love it, hate windows and yet my next laptop will be windows because of that.

You don't realize how much it matters until it does, and then it changes everything. Always having to carry an external drive just because my email takes 150gb of the 256gb MacBook storage is even more annoying than windows puting candy crush saga on the start menu.

bschwindHN | root | parent | next
> just because my email takes 150gb

You have a very different email life than me. Is that like, all emails received in your life, or just huge attachments?

dankwizard | root | parent | next
He's replaced Github repos with local email archives because a Medium article said "One trick to enhance your version control"
aucisson_masque | root | parent
It's only a few years but lot and lot of attachment. Unoptimized pdf takes a big chunk.
chemmail | root | parent | next
Unfortunately with DDR5L speeds, they need to be embedded to keep signal stability, so you need to find at least a 16GB laptop which is STILL pretty gatekept with a higher chip like i7 so you have to pay $300 more for that extra 8GB, pulling a page from Apple. Luckily m.2 is still a thing and 99% of Windows still use it.
dijit | root | parent
Why do you need 150G of mail locally? and why did you think it sufficient to bug the absolute minimum spec available?

I’m afraid though that the core premise of your comment is flawed. Storage and especially memory are increasingly soldered to thin and lights. Even professional grade laptops such as the Thinkpad X1 Carbon have soldered memory.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-scourge-of-fully-soldered-...

talldayo | root | parent | next
Drives in particular. Let them solder the memory if they absolutely have to, but exposing even an empty NVMe slot should be standard for laptops. Unfortunately, Apple makes a pretty penny off the storage surcharge so I wouldn't really anticipate that anytime soon.
AlexandrB | root | parent | next
Even when Apple laptops had removable solid state storage, it used a non-standard connector[1]. Very consumer and repair hostile. While OWC still made thirds party drives for these[2], few (no?) other companies did.

[1] https://beetstech.com/blog/apple-proprietary-ssd-ultimate-gu...

[2] https://www.owc.com/solutions/aura-n2

franciscop | root | parent | next
They no longer even have a "memory" chip anymore, it's all part of the same SOC AFAIK, so they cannot "solder" it.
loopdoend | root | parent
I will accept the trade off for the performance boost tbh.
lucb1e | root | parent
What performance boost? As in, same software running for comparison on the hardware of interest, one soldered and the other not. I never heard that soldering your SSD on makes it faster...
jsheard | root | parent | next
It doesn't, Apples SSD performance is fine but unremarkable. Their current machines will do around ~6GB/sec read and ~5GB/sec write, which isn't even at the limit of socketed PCIe4 NVMe drives, nevermind the bleeding edge PCIe5 drives which can do up to ~14GB/sec read and ~12GB/sec write (albeit with excessive heat and power consumption for a laptop).

Soldering the RAM has legitimate performance benefits, but soldering the SSD is just to save space and upsell overpriced upgrades.

throwaway48476 | root | parent
It's crazy that some people think it's apple so it must be special and better not realizing NVMe is a industry standard.
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adolph | root | parent
Hot air rework is more accessible than ever. This video is kinda over-the-top breathless, but removing components and reballing new ones isn't rocket science.

https://youtu.be/apEKAY11NQs?t=328

wasabinator | root | parent | next
It is and will always be rocket science to most people, and orders of magnitude more difficult than swapping a drive or ram sticks.
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duskwuff | parent | next
It's a bit of filler text in a demo. You might be reading a little too much into it.
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ranunez64 | parent
It is interesting that one of their examples is a "Mahjong Club", they want to market a sheen of board game enthusiasm without actually taking part themselves.
xyz-x | parent | next
Too bad Apple hasn't released Apple AI at all; why bother with press releases featuring it? (EU)
Aeolun | parent | next
Can I just get a a flagship iPhone sized like an iPhone SE please?
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llIIllIIllIIl | parent | next
This Apple Intelligence starts reminding about Tesla Autopilot. I hope they will not hire people on the other side of the world to click buttons on your phone.
jerojero | parent | next
I wish they had improved the screen a little bit as well.

It makes sense to update the model with apple intelligence but that might not be enough for a lot of people to upgrade.

Perhaps we're looking at a device that simply will be out of lineup soon (next few years).

I do like this form factor a lot though, well, eventually we'll get foldable phones to become mainstream I hope.

tiffanyh | parent | next
> I wish they had improved the screen a little bit as well.

What do you mean, the iPad mini has a higher ppi (326) vs iPad Air (264).

I think the issue is that, iPad OS is scaling the display to a weird resolution.

https://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/specs/

https://www.apple.com/ipad-air/specs/

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sgerenser | parent | next
There was some chatter on Macrumors that they flipped the orientation of the controller board so that the Jelly scrolling will be gone when used in portrait mode. That was the #1 display complaint on the outgoing model, so if its true then I’d count that as a win on improving the screen.
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lovethevoid | parent | next
The alleged roadmap leak indicates they’re aiming for 2026/2027 foldable screens (no word on whether it’s horizontal or vertical) so if all goes according to plan, you would be right that this is the last update for the “iPad mini” device.
bananapub | parent
> It makes sense to update the model with apple intelligence but that might not be enough for a lot of people to upgrade.

that's fine? it's a very mature segment - medium-price small screen tablet. it hasn't even really been updated since 2021, and that was basically new case+usb-c.

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seanvelasco | parent | next
i would've considered this if it had slimmer bezels or a 120 Hz display.

the current iPad Mini is laggy compared to other iPads, and i'm not sure why. an iPhone with the same processor is not laggy at all. it becomes obvious when scrolling or opening and closing apps.

ratedgene | parent | next
I'm curious about users who do use something similar. I have an iPad pro, but I find either a notebook and pen, or butcher paper and pen to be far superior for capturing anything.

Can someone tell me how they're increasing their creative productivity with these outside of making illustrations?

I have a ton of ideas that I organize and illustrate, but I can't give up my pen/paper as I haven't found the killer combo yet.

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hankman86 | parent | next
One would think that they avoid the embarrassment of releasing another device before their AI features are even available. But no.
stanislavb | parent | next
What I want Apple to introduce is a multi-user option for the iPad. Then, I'm buying one of them for the family. We just don't want (or need) an iPad per person.
sroussey | parent | next
A17 Pro and WiFi 6E like the iPhone 15 Pro, not like the iPhone 16 series.
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jessekv | parent | next
The lineup sizes are filling in, a bit like A-series paper.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size

nicbou | parent | next
Since Apple Intelligence won’t be available in the EU, this is a very underwhelming refresh.

I do love my iPad Mini to bits though. I use mine purely to read, sketch and take notes. It does not receive any notifications. I carry it almost everywhere I go.

All4All | parent | next
Does anyone here have insight as to the differences between the various versions of Apple's "Smart HDR" feature? Interesting to see it took the leap from Smart HDR3 (previous model) to Smart HDR 4 (new model), and yet the latest iPhones released last month apparently use Smart HDR 5.
turnsout | parent
The version is tied to the Image Signal Processor (ISP) of the A-series chip. So the A17 has Smart HDR 4, while the A18 has Smart HDR 5.

Smart HDR uses neural image segmentation for tone mapping and other processing. In my opinion it goes way too far; trying to grab a faintly blue sky and make it as blue as possible, identifying a face and lightening any hint of a shadow, etc.

When people complain about iPhone photos looking over processed, this is why.

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vjulian | parent | next
I have an older (but not old) Mini, and I find it almost unusable, as screen elements don’t scale up. For example, Safari browser buttons are stupidly small. Is that still an issue with the Mini?
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dialup_sounds | parent | next
The mini display is 326 PPI vs 264 PPI for larger iPads, but the same scale factor so things will always be smaller. (iPhones with even higher PPI use a 3x scale.)

That said, you can embiggen things like Safari browser buttons under Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Larger Text.

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rgreekguy | parent
I am not sure I understand what you mean by the scaling issues, so, I guess, no? I have the 6th generation. The problem I have (and I do not see getting improved, somehow) is that applications do not care for it. Many times I have to turn it to landscape for some more room to fit everything. Most applications feel better on landscape, but then you lose vertical space. Affinity Photo 1 is very guilty of that, having buttons overlay each other on the left.
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pcurve | parent | next
120hz would’ve been nice… since they likely won’t make pro modal in this size.
volemo | parent
I luckily don’t care for higher refresh rate, but I’m disappointed this model doesn’t come with OLED.
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russellbeattie | parent | next
That page uses a lot of words to say,

"We added more RAM because there's no way we could make an LLM useful in only 4GB. While we were there, we updated the CPU. Might as well.(We grabbed the A17 Pro because we were in a rush.)"

insane_dreamer | parent | next
Nice choice, always been my favorite size.

Surprised though that they don't have an option with cellular so you can have always-on data access (i.e., with a data-only plan).

Updated: my bad, it does come with cellular -- it's just not advertised on the main product page

throwaway48476 | parent | next
Do you still need to buy the cellular version to get a GPS chip?
giancarlostoro | parent | next
Most carriers offer iPads as far back as I remember? You have to get it through their stores though.
wiredfool | parent
I'm seeing it on the Ireland store, for 170 eur.
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234120987654 | parent | next
A17 Pro huh, that's a first for putting a pro chip in a non pro iPad, isn't it? I guess it's, as they advertise, to handle Apple Intelligence although I don't understand why they are doubling down on this _now_ while nothing from the newly announced AI stuff is available as of today...
jsheard | parent | next
It makes sense, the iPad Pros graduated to using full blown M series chips so the A Pro chips they used to use can filter down the stack.

edit: oops I mixed up A Pro and A X

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mcintyre1994 | parent | next
I'm guessing the delays to Apple Intelligence came late in the process and it was supposed to release with the new iPhones? And then they just left hardware plans as-is when the software got delayed.
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zitterbewegung | parent | next
Bump up from 64 GB default to 128 GB is nice.
lucb1e | parent
It certainly was, like eight years ago when I got the bigger SD card for my phone

At this point, the only word that can be applied to it is "overdue" for anything who uses it beyond a thin client for server-side storage or a streaming service

Gigachad | root | parent
Uh, I'd be willing to bet that almost all ipad mini users use cloud storage and streaming services. That's an extremely common use case.
rvnx | parent | next
Is there somewhere where this Apple Intelligence can be used ?
zie | parent | next
Some of it is available in the beta's, but no, it's not released to stable yet.
dumbo-octopus | root | parent | next
Which boggles the mind… did nobody tell the software team that a release was coming?
fshbbdssbbgdd | root | parent | next
Apple doesn’t have a reputation for letting engineers slack. I have to guess they are working like dogs to meet some standard before they are willing to release.
dumbo-octopus | root | parent
They don’t have a reputation for releasing hardware without software to back it either. One way or another, an unprecedented process failure has occurred.
fshbbdssbbgdd | root | parent
Well, the phone’s software works great. They just haven’t released those new AI features - which are supposed to come out on some older devices as well. And it’s hardly the first time Apple delayed a release.

IMO, the only thing weird here is the way the iPhone 16 demo day kept talking about these unreleased features front and center instead of the actual capabilities of the new phone. Probably that’s because the phone is so incremental and there was not much to talk about.

dumbo-octopus | root | parent
Can you name another time the software team has lagged so far behind the hardware release and marketing? Nearly every ad I’ve seen the world over has touted “Apple Intelligence” as if it’s a thing that exits, not some Coming Soon^{TM} pipe dream.

My money is on it being a massive failure if it ever does come out, the only thing stopping me from buying options is I don’t have a clue as to the timeline for when they’ll give up and ship whatever they have.

zie | root | parent | next
It clearly wasn't ready. My guess: the powers that be decided they had to make a public showing of being an AI company, hence the giant marketing push ahead of release.

It's unknown how useful any of this will be in day to day use-cases.

hbn | root | parent
I don't think Apple can simply delay an iPhone. There's entire industries relying on there being a new iPhone out every September.
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nicbou | root | parent
And it’s not coming to the European Union.
bradgessler | parent
You can get it in the public betas, but it’s very underwhelming and not useful. I’m surprised they’re talking this up so much to be honest.
thr0waway001 | parent | next
Never had an iPad but I think I will buy this one.
DennisP | parent | next
I'm wondering how advanced it can get with the math. If it had capabilities like decent symbolic math software, that'd be pretty interesting.
hnburnsy | parent | next
Ugh, that bezel.

Will full coverage screens with a software driven, virtual bezel every be a thing?

alpaca128 | parent | next
I don't get why some people get so worked up about bezels. I like being able to hold my devices without accidental inputs, and to me they look better anyway.

I wouldn't mind 3cm wide bezels and accordingly larger batteries.

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fckgw | parent | next
iPads need to have some sort of bezel, else how are you going to hold the thing? iPhones you can grip the sides, iPads not so much.
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ClassyJacket | parent | next
I was just thinking the same thing. Why couldn't they give it a tiny bezel, with a software option to put a virtual bezel if you want to hold it in a way it matters.

They could even give it only the virtual bezel on the left and right sides, in whichever orientation you're holding it, since you don't really hold it on the top or bottom.

gjsman-1000 | parent
Ugh, my batteries need recharging.

Will nuclear powered phones with built-in fusion reactors that never need recharging ever be a thing?

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wslh | parent | next
I love iPad minis, but a keyboard folio for this size would be great. I've used this form factor with the iPad Air for writing, and it's perfect for carrying in a small bag. I know this is an expensive toy, though.

[*] For reference, the iPad Air with the Magic Keyboard is about as heavy as a 13" MacBook Air.

criddell | parent
I bought and returned a 13" iPad Pro M4 because I couldn't get a Smart Keyboard Folio for it. Only the Magic Keyboard is available. I'm still using my 2018 iPad Pro.
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protoman3000 | parent | next
The size of the mini is really the best, but the external monitor support is very disappointing. Do jailbreaks etc. allow for native monitor resolutions or are we limited to the iPads screen resolution by hardware?
zer0zzz | parent | next
All I want to know is can it do windowed multi tasking with stage manager?
RIMR | parent | next
All of this looks good, but if they want to retain trust with artists, the last thing they should be doing is integrating generative AI tools into their art programs.

Creatives are getting more and more frustrated with the AI tools showing up in places like Windows or in Photoshop. For the first time ever I am meeting career artists and designers who are actively looking to add non-AI alternatives to their usual toolchains because they feel betrayed by the addition of generative AI.

Apple is asking to lose the trust of a major market segment by charging forward with this stuff. You would think that the backlash to their "Crush!" commercial would have been an eye-opening moment for them about what Artists actually expect from them...

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zer0zzz | parent | next
Pretty sure theres no stage manager, hard pass. Sticking to my 6.
rgreekguy | parent
Well, they call it stage manager, but in iOS 18 (too) it only offers split screen and one window overlaid to the side. There is an example in the page somewhere.
paul7986 | parent | next
Apple Intelligence more like Apple Idiotic as ...

- Today the summary it gave to an iMessage was "Going to sleep, talk to you tomorrow." The girl and I scheduled a video chat date and she said nothing of the sort rather, "Getting ready for tomorrow (along with some other stuff), talk to you soon."

- Siri is still stupid especially compared to ChatGPT on the same iPhone. I use ChatGPT.. speak to it to count my calories throughout the day at the various places i eat at (Chipolte, Cava, Panera, etc) which it knows calories for everything, calculates and keeps track so i add later add my dinner calorie count .. it even knows how many calories i had on Saturday (still recalls it and speaks it upon me asking). Siri via Apple Intelligence is still the old stupid Siri one pony trick which you still can only speak to it once vs. ChatGPT have a conversation with.

What was this Apple Intelligence supposed to do and how was it supposed to be better? I want a ChatGPT phone and by Microsoft sure their Windows Phone was nice!

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kokada | parent | next
Would be nice if Apple also introduced a new base iPad with at least support for a decent Apple Pencil. I want to buy my wife an iPad, but she wants to draw and the Apple Pencil USB-C doesn't support presure levels, so it is either a base iPad with an old Apple Pencil 1st Gen (that still is lightining) or paying extra for the iPad Air and Apple Pencil 2nd Gen/Pro. The fact that Apple Pencil USB-C doesn't support presure levels at ALL is infuriating too.
1123581321 | parent | next
The Air is a significantly better drawing display.
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ToucanLoucan | parent
If she's looking to sketch or just doesn't mind not having color, I can't recommend the Kindle Scribe enough. I bought it for reading but it's become my combination work notes/presentation board/drawing tablet, and I absolutely love it. The premium pencil honestly smokes the Apple pencil and it feels so nice to use. I just wish it did color too.
ivanjermakov | parent | next
It's sad that "ultraportable iPad" marketing works, but "ultraportable iPhone" does not make sense for most people.

iPhone 13 mini was the last flagship smartphone with such dimensions.

roughly | parent | next
The typical iPhone Mini product cycle:

Make iPhone Mini -> Mini only accounts for 10% of sales -> Cancel iPhone Mini -> Notice that 10% of iPhone customers haven't updated for 3 or 4 cycles -> Make iPhone Mini -> Suffer crippling corporate amnesia -> <...>

I'm expecting the brain worms to reach step 4 of the corporate consciousness cycle around the next generation or so.

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robin_reala | parent | next
Nothing wrong with continuing to use the iPhone 13 Mini today: Apple CPU has been so far ahead of the competition that apart from on-device generative AI there’s nothing that hugely pushes it. For data, search for “single-core” and “multi-core” in https://infrequently.org/2024/01/performance-inequality-gap-...
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Mistletoe | parent | next
How long do we have on the 13 mini before it becomes so slow I have to get a new phone? I don’t know what I’ll do at that point. On the 12 mini now and can never go to a big phone.
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{"deleted":true,"id":41850244,"parent":41850135,"time":1729009637,"type":"comment"}
ChrisArchitect | parent | next
[dupe]

More discussion on official post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41848298

dang | parent
We'll merge those comments hither.
marmaduke | parent | next
lol as if teachers have money to buy this to make their lessons plans.
All4All | parent | next
You might be surprised as to how many are willing to make the splurge. Anecdotal, but I'm married to a high school teacher. She and several of her coworkers have been willing to eat the cost personally just to avoid using dated district-provided assets, which are often clucky and make the job worse.
criddell | parent | next
This is the salary schedule for teacher in the district my kids were in:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BN_Q51d_wUFMs7ajdwI07ESmnmS...

Teachers get $55k-$72k depending on their qualifications. Not great, but not poverty levels either. If they want an iPad, they can probably get one.

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poszlem | parent | next
I still remember the Steve Jobs era when people would praise Apple for having a simple lineup of devices, in contrast to Android, which had some crazy amount of variants of every device. How times have changed.
alpaca128 | parent | next
What other large brand has a simpler lineup? Samsung released 22 phones just in 2024 with memorable names like C55 and M05.

Although I wouldn't mind if they got rid of one or two iPhone variants, or at least gave them more meaningful names. I have no idea what the difference between Plus, Pro and Max is. I only know that Pro doesn't mean pro, and that doesn't make it any easier.

Edit: also Steve Jobs was still alive when you could choose between four different iPod variants.

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hbn | parent | next
It's mainly just the iPad lineup that's a mess, but it's optimized for there always being an iPad available for increasing budgets in $100 jumps, give or take. It's confusing to try and keep track of them all, but that's not really the point. What they have is anyone can walk into a store and say "give me an iPad, I'll pay $600" and they'll get a good device.
scarface_74 | parent | next
When Jobs did that Apple was close to bankruptcy. When the first iPhone was introduced in 2007, was less than $25 billion. It’s now $385 billion.
wslh | parent | next
Regarding variants, it continue to be more complex to buy a Microsoft Windows notebook.
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paulclark | parent | next
[flagged]
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mlajtos | parent | next
iPad mini 2024 with Pencil Pro and Math Notes is going to revolutionize math education.
rty32 | parent | next
I don't know which bubble you are in, but $499 + $129 for devices at MSRP is not going to revolutionize anything, especially just for maths.

A $200 Chromebook can do 10x. Guess what, that's exactly why schools buy Chromebooks.

insane_dreamer | parent | next
> revolutionize math education

math education is not likely going to be "revolutionized" with technology or that would have already happened

kccqzy | parent | next
That's like saying giving students a better calculator revolutionizes math education.

Even giving students full access to Mathematica (which I think is worthwhile BTW) won't revolutionize it.

hggigg | parent | next
Mathematician here. No it's really not. Having used it extensively it craps out all the time, fails to parse things properly, doesn't understand anything other than a very narrow undefined subset of anything that needs to be done and generally makes things harder.

It sure looks like it would though.

Noteful and a competent calculator with CAS functionality on the other hand might be a different outcome.

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wasabinator | parent | next
Ironic how one demonstrates a questionable grasp on maths if they think an expensive iDevice will revolutionise maths education for the masses.
p00dles | parent
What is math notes?
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tommica | parent | next
Looks really nice, wish could afford it, but Apple products are so expensive... Commodity products for premium price
skadamat | parent | next
I usually like to buy these 1-2 years old off Craigslist / Marketplace and that's been a sweet spot for price and quality.

Apple has always been about premium price and quality but I agree that it's not for everyone and their needs.

JumpCrisscross | parent | next
What’s with the sour grapes? I can’t afford a Pagani. Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the engineering.
tommica | root | parent
Not sure why you're calling me "sour grapes"? I only lamented the fact that I could not afford the thing
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hbn | parent | next
The iPad lineup starts at $350, and that's brand new, look used or refurbished and it becomes even cheaper. If that's too much for you, you'll be pressed to afford any computer.
insane_dreamer | parent | next
True, but they last long enough that you can get them second hand, whereas used products from other vendors tend to be junk not worth spending money on even at a cheaper price point.
lucb1e | root | parent
Also when buying second hand, you pay for that premium brand
Findecanor | parent | next
There is a definite lack of worthy competitors to the iPad Mini in the market. Most other tablets are 10" or larger. The only other contemporary tablets I've found in that size have had very low-end specs in comparison.
tommica | root | parent
True - long time ago I had the "new ipad", and it was really, really nice - lasted me for years, until I could no longer update it.
auc | parent | next
Apple products are not commodity, because there is very little fungibility due to network effects.

Maybe their hardware is commodity (arguable), but the product + integrations are not.

mezeek | parent | next
It's ok, lotsa people have the money for it.
skywhopper | parent | next
They are hardly commodities. The build quality and lifetime of iPads is incredible compared to any other tablet I’ve ever used (typing this on a six year old iPad Pro that’s still going strong).
macintux | root | parent
I recently traded in my 5-year-old iPad Pro because it was badly banged up, and they still offered me ~$400 in trade-in value. Great iPads.
geodel | parent | next
Its commodity you can buy from dozens of other vendors for much cheaper price.
dmitrygr | root | parent | next
Then buy it there instead of complaining?
skywhopper | root | parent
Uh, where can I buy a cheaper iPad?
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meroes | parent
Many of these devices aren’t actually fungible commodities though.I tried to buy a phone in the $200 range and Android phones were so much worse than used iPhones. I they would drop calls and freeze on the dial pad during long calls where I was on hold. Tried two different models and had the same issues. I could have tried a used $200 Android but I was not wanting to try for a third Android. All I wanted/needed was to make important calls.

So I guess I don’t see them as commodities which implies fungibility.

II2II | root | parent | next
I realize that there are bad Androids out there and the abundance of choice makes it difficult to sift through the good and the bad, but there are good Android phones out there in the $200-$300 USD range. My current phone is a bit over three years old and it is still very usable.
dsissitka | root | parent
Especially with companies like Motorola. The 2022 Edge cost $400 on release. A bit over a year later it was on sale for $140.
lucb1e | root | parent
> All I wanted/needed was to make important calls.

Can I recommend you a 40€ phone? They've been making models that can do calls for a while now and they needn't cost as much as an Apple-branded device to do just that

> they would drop calls and freeze on the dial pad during long calls

Never heard that happen to anyone with any phone model. If you've ruled out some software-specific issue like a call recorder you've installed or so, that sounds borderline implausible. Then again, given the number of issues I experience with software (of any kind)...

preaching5271 | parent | next
So it's useless in Europe
tomovo | parent | next
Or: more free space and lower CPU usage in the EU.
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jdswain | parent
I got an 8" Android tablet instead of an iPad mini. What I wanted, was to have something really compact that I could use emacs on, mainly for org-roam, notes and writing in general, not for writing code. It works well with termux, I don't think there is a good way to have a local version of emacs on iOS.

The keyboard is the most important part really (although I did want a good screen too). I'm on my second keyboard, they are only about $30 each, which is better than iPad prices. The first one wasn't so convenient to unfold quickly, the new one is working really well.