Apple Sends Out Invitations to October 23 iPad mini Media Event | Hacker News Reader

Apple Sends Out Invitations to October 23 iPad mini Media Event

macobserver.com

21 pointsdigiwizard31 comments

Never mind iPad mini - I can hardly wait for the "new" iTunes! I'm sure it'll be terrible (like iPad's Music.app in iOS 5&6), but no matter how bad it is, it's gonna be 10 times better than the current piece of crap the iTunes is.

I don’t think it’s so bad. I quite like iTunes and there isn’t really any alternative out there (easy to sort through music library). That only applies to me, however, and may not necessarily apply to you.

The new one, however, seems like a pretty big improvement, very much unlike the iPad version, both aesthetically and functionally. What I want to know is whether the goddamn preferences dialog is still modal.

True. iTunes is the best, no arguing that. But it doesn't mean it's any good :) It just happened that the rest are even worse!

Ditto. The preview from the iPhone 5 presentation looked really promising.

The pace (or lack thereof) of iTunes development has been really frustrating over the past few years. There are so many little bugs that just don't get fixed. They even released an update about six months ago that made all the album artwork in grid view blurry.

I'm just hoping they've been neglecting the 'old' iTunes because they've been focusing on making the 'new' version good.

I've been looking at possibly picking up an iPhone next month, and iTunes is really the sticking point. I know iTunes isn't strictly required, but it does enhance the experience or so I'm told. But iTunes as it exists right now is awful IMO.

iTunes on OSX isn't a bad experience like Windows.

For simply organizing music, iTunes is pretty solid. I think once you start introducing the iTunes Store, iOS device syncing and iCloud it all goes to hell.

Which is a shame, because while there's a chance I might end up with an iPhone, there's no chance I will end up with OSX.

Since they de-tethered iOS from iTunes, you really don't need to use iTunes any more.

A story about a press release announcing a press event. A tour de force of tech-journalism.

By one of macobserver's many spam accounts, no less!

Why are spam accounts allowed to exists? If an account only submits articles from 1 domain, isn't it easy to tell it's a spam account and delete it? How many of these accounts exist?

They should be incredibly easy to detect, I assume nobody's looking.

http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=jmartellaro

http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=digiwizard

http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=Semteksam

http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=davethenerd

http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=mfiman

http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=tanousjm

Ziff Davis (geek.com / extremetech.com / pcmag.com) has about the same number of accounts here to submit their rubbish, in the case of geek.com it's just rewrites of rubbish which is extra retarded.

That's ridiculous! It just makes it harder for everyone to sift through the new page and find quality content to upvote.

I sincerely hope the iPad mini's new screen specs don't require us (iOS app designers and developers) to add yet another batch of device-specific assets to apps to maintain universality.

I think screen size flexibility is coming to iOS, so we can't rely on two static screen sizes any more.

It's already three: iPad, iPhone<5, iPhone5. Five if you count retina/non-retina variants. Still easy to deal with though.

Easy if you area are developing an app in UIKit. If you are an OpenGL 2D game developer every new resolution is a lot of work.

Good point. I am the former, but may dabble with the latter :)

Why would one think that? All the "reports" so far says the smaller iPad will have the exact same resolution as an iPad 2.

Am I the only one disappointed that Apple is reaching down to cater to this market?

As a consumer, yeah I get it...7" is smaller. But I'm just fine with my iPhone when looking to interact with a smaller screen.

As a developer, Android isn't looking so fragmented after all.

iPhone - plain, retina, retina+ iPad - 7" plan/retina?, plain, retina

Am I now going to create a dozen icons for every universal binary?

I think you've missed some of the rumors. Rumor has it that the new 7" thingie isn't retina. It's going to be have a 1024x768 display (i.e., iPad 2's display resolution) but with more density. If you do the math, it turns out that it will be 163 PPI, the same as original iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S. So Apple can use the same machines that it's been using for years to produce iPhone (non-retina) displays and just cut them a little bigger.

So, according to rumors, there won't be fragmentation. How well that would work in practice? I'm personally pessimistic.

>Apple is reaching down to cater to this market?

"Reaching down"? Targeting people who prefer a smaller form factor is akin to what, scraping the bottom of the barrell, for you? Fact is, some people just prefer that size (e.g. a 7'' tablet fits easily in a purse, while a 10'' doesn't )

>iPhone - plain, retina, retina+ iPad - 7" plan/retina?, plain, retina

This was bound to happen, unless you expected Apple to never vary the bit depth, resolution, and aspect ratios of their phones and tablets? Deal with it. Or don't.

Reaching down in terms of price point. That's a very saturated market, and for once, they are late to the game. They should stick with the high price points and quality devices.

"We've got a little more to show you"

How is this Event confirmed for iPad mini launch? It might be something else too.

Seems pretty clear cut. What else "little" are we expecting Apple to release? I can only think of the 13" retina MBP.

I guess I'm the only one hoping for a smaller iPhone.

On the other hand the "biggest" thing was their phone getting skinnier.

No, the "biggest" thing was their phone getting a bigger screen. It's not complicated.

Consider: http://www.apple.com/iphone/

Giant black text: "iPhone 5: The Biggest thing to happen to the iPhone since the iPhone"

Page title: "The thinnest, lightest, fastest iPhone ever" ..but not biggest...

I think it is fair to say that they are using the word "big" to encompass the many changes, not simply to say "it got bigger".

So excited about iPad mini. Wether it sells for $199 or $249, it will be in a price point where most of the small businesses could afford.

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