Apple gets official with iPad mini; upgrades iPad again

After months of speculation, Apple officially introduced the iPad mini during a media event in San Jose on Tuesday morning.

But Apple's SVP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller started off with a bit of a surprise when he announced the fourth-generation iPad, which was a bit of a shock considering the last one was introduced earlier this year.

Here are some of the upgrades:

New LTE chipset that works on more networks worldwide
Front camera now supports FaceTime with 720p HD video capture
2x faster Wi-Fi connectivity
New cables for SD and USB connectivity
10 hours of battery life
Same configuration/pricing starting points (i.e. starts at 16GB Wi-Fi only for $499, etc.)

But Schiller didn't disappoint, quickly introducing the "thin as a pencil" iPad mini. Here's the rundown on the sized-down iOS tablet thus far:

7.9-inch display
Dual-core A5 processor
53 percent lighter than full-sized iPad at 0.68 lbs
7.2mm thin and 0.68 pounds light
23 percent thinner than 4th-gen iPad
Same resolution as 1st- and 2nd-gen iPads: 1,024 by 768 pixels
802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi @ 5.2Ghz
FaceTime HD front camera
5-megapixel iSight rear camera
Lightning connector
10-hour battery life
Comes in white and "slate black"
LTE options

Schiller took some time to describe how the iPad mini stacks up against the competition, calling out the direct competitors in the 7-inch tablet market.

Specifically remarking that the iPad mini has 35 percent more display real estate than Google's Nexus 7, Schiller continued that the 7.9-inch mini is 49 percent larger in portrait mode and 67 percent larger in landscape when it comes to browser use.

More to come...

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Oct 15, 2012

Felix Baumgartner's supersonic freefall from 128k' - Mission Highlights

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After flying to an altitude of 39,045 meters (128,100 feet) in a helium-filled balloon, Felix Baumgartner completed a record breaking jump for the ages from the edge of space, exactly 65 years after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier flying in an experimental rocket-powered airplane. Felix reached a maximum of speed of 1,342.8 km/h (833mph) through the near vacuum of the stratosphere before being slowed by the atmosphere later during his 4:20minute long freefall. The 43-year-old Austrian skydiving expert also broke two other world records (highest freefall, highest manned balloon flight), leaving the one for the longest freefall to project mentor Col. Joe Kittinger.