Reprinted from TidBITS by permission; reuse governed by Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 3.0. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the entire TidBITS archive, visit http://www.tidbits.com/ Apple Redesigns iPad mini; Upgrades the iPad Josh Centers At Apple's '[1]California Streaming' event, the company unexpectedly announced an incremental upgrade to its base-model iPad and, in an even more surprising announcement, unveiled a redesigned iPad mini. Both are available to order now and will ship 24 September 2021. The Sixth-Generation iPad mini The [2]iPad mini is small and apparently easily overlooked, since Apple last updated it in March 2019, and that upgrade replaced the model previously released in September 2015. So the iPad mini was long overdue for an update, but what an update it has received! In short, Apple has turned the sixth-generation iPad mini into a smaller version of the iPad Air, with the same squared-off industrial design and modern specs. Prices start at $499 for 64 GB of storage, with an upgrade to 256 GB for $649. That may seem high compared to the $329 starting price for the iPad, but the fifth-generation iPad mini started at $529 and that was with an old industrial design ('[3]Apple Quietly Releases New iPad mini and iPad Air,' 18 March 2019). The new iPad mini comes in space gray, pink, purple, and Starlight, which is a sort of silvery gold. Here are the [4]key specs of the sixth-generation iPad mini: * An 8.3-inch IPS Liquid Retina display at 2266-by-1488 resolution (326 pixels per inch), with P3 wide color, True Tone, 500 nits of brightness and an antireflective coating * Powered by an A15 Bionic chip, the same new chip found in the iPhone 13 * Touch ID in the top button, like on the iPad Air * USB-C connectivity for faster data transfers and support for accessories like USB hubs, keyboards, mice, thumb drives, and even ultrasound scanners * Optional 5G wireless with up to 3.5 Gbps download speeds * Speakers on the top and bottom so you get stereo in landscape orientation * Two 12-megapixel cameras. The rear camera captures video in 4K resolution. The ultra wide front camera maxes out at 1080p, but supports Center Stage. * Support for the second-generation Apple Pencil; like the iPad Pro and iPad Air, the pencil magnetically sticks to the side of its squared-off body There's one big missing feature: the Smart Connector, which lets you directly connect keyboards and cases. That means you're limited to Bluetooth keyboards, which don't provide as coherent of an experience. It's not too surprising, given that Apple would have to create keyboards and cases purely for the iPad mini form factor, and it might not sell in sufficient quantities for that to be worthwhile. Overall, it's not a bad package for $499, particularly for someone who wants a small iPad above all else and doesn't care much about hardware keyboards. I'd like to see a cheaper iPad mini focused on reading, but I doubt that'll ever happen. If you want 5G cellular connectivity, add $150 to the price, making it $649 for 64 GB and $799 for 256 GB. While the iPad mini lacks a Smart Connector for keyboards, it does offer a magnetic attachment for Apple's Smart Folio, which costs $59 and comes in five colors: black, white, English lavender, dark cherry, and electric orange. Lastly, Apple made much of the fact that the iPad mini now uses 100% recycled aluminum in its enclosure, making it the final iPad to use entirely recycled aluminum. That may not be a reason to buy the iPad mini or any other iPad, but it's great to see Apple continuing to reduce its usage of natural resources to the extent possible. The Ninth-Generation iPad Apple favored the base-model [5]iPad with yet another update, keeping it fresh while retaining its bargain-basement $329 price. On the outside, there's nothing new in this ninth-generation iPad: it still has a Home button for Touch ID and still works with the first-generation Apple Pencil. But it picked up a couple of tricks from the iPad Pro: * True Tone display: True Tone started as an iPad Pro feature but has now worked its way down into the base iPad. True Tone relies on a built-in light sensor to adjust the display's color temperature based on ambient lighting conditions. * Center Stage: Think of Portrait mode, but for video calls using FaceTime, Zoom, and other videoconferencing software. Center Stage keeps whoever is on camera in focus while blurring the background. It comes courtesy of the new 12-megapixel ultra wide front-facing FaceTime HD camera, which is a huge upgrade over the 1.2-megapixel camera in the previous model. The front-facing camera can now capture 1080p video too. Oddly, the front-facing 12-megapixel FaceTime HD camera now captures more megapixels than the 8-megapixel rear-facing camera. The ninth-generation iPad is powered by the A13 Bionic chip, the same chip in the iPhone 11 series and a generation newer than the A12 Bionic in the previous model. It may not compete with the A15 Bionic in the iPad mini, but it helps keep the price down and is plenty powerful. The ninth-generation iPad also comes with double the storage of the previous model, starting at 64 GB. A 256 GB configuration is available for $479. Add $130 if you want 4G LTE cellular connectivity, making the price $459 for 64 GB or $609 for 256 GB. Overall, the base-model iPad is one of Apple's best values and is all the iPad most people need. References Visible links 1. https://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2021/ 2. https://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/ 3. https://tidbits.com/2019/03/18/apple-quietly-releases-new-ipad-mini-and-ipad-air/ 4. https://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/specs/ 5. https://www.apple.com/ipad-10.2/ Hidden links: 6. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2021/09/iPad-mini-2021-shades.jpg 7. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2021/09/iPad-mini-2021.jpg 8. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2021/09/iPad-2021-environment.jpg 9. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2021/09/iPad-mini-2021.jpg .