Apple dropped a press release announcing the iPad Mini 7 today. While my own purchase will have to wait a little bit, I am planning to get one sooner rather than later.
Press releases seldom cover all details (e.g., will the old , but there is enough in the text for me to at least see how my hope-casting back on September 15 did. (Spoilers: I was in the ballpark but probably in the shallow outfield rather than in the infield.)
I think the A18 and A18 Pro chips that went into the latest iteration of the iPhones will make their way into the base iPad and iPad Mini so that the entire iPad line will be able to use Apple Intelligence. I am also willing to bet that the "mighty" iPad Mini will get the Pro version of the chip.
My hope for the more powerful chip did not come to fruition here — although the 3 nanometer A17 Pro is no slouch. That said, my underlying theory that they would make sure the iPad Mini 7 is capable of using Apple Intelligence was correct. If I had been playing the kind of game that is played on Connected, I would have been wiser to say the chip would be capable of Apple Intelligence rather than calling the chip by name.
Next time, I’ll listen to my gut on that one.
That doesn't guarantee that the Mini will get external monitor support but I suspect that is coming, too.
The press release doesn’t say one way or another and there is no mention of this kind of support on the tech sheet, so I suspect my hopes here will be dashed. Until I can get my hands on one (or a reviewer gets their hands on one), there is still theoretically room for hope but it’s the kind of theoretical hope I have for winning the lottery today.
The move to the Apple Pencil Pro (with the required shift in camera placement) also makes sense if Apple wants to fully shift to a two Pencil future ( Pencil — currently called USB-C — and Pro).
I got this one correct! Well, mostly. The front-facing camera has not moved. I would have thought this move would be driven by keeping supply and manufacturing simpler but that thought probably tells you more about me not being an engineer than anything else.
I am really looking forward to the capabilities of the Apple Pencil Pro as a tool for composition on the iPad Mini. My guess is that the revised pallet that appears with the squeeze gesture will make a significant difference.
I wouldn't be surprised if the event's name is “Mighty”, given the rumors of a redesigned Mac Mini. If the HomePod Mini is given some stage time with an Apple Intelligence upgrade to highlight how Siri and Home are moving into the future, it would produce a neat narrative while showing off the prowess of Apple's engineers and what kind of technology they can fit into a small space.
A press release is not an event and the press release didn’t even use the word Mighty. Did they not listen to Tim Cook at the last event?
Given the nature of the iPad Mini’s upgrades, I do wonder why they didn’t add it in to that event. I’m not convinced that it would have cannibalized any sales from the Air and Pro. Perhaps the October Mac event is getting shuffled, crowded, or in some other way adjusted and the Mini was the easiest device to shift to a press release.