iPad mini released | What you need to know

Until very recently, the iPad mini has been the stuff of legend. Bigfoot, lost-city-of-Atlantis, unicorn style legend. But no more — the iPad mini is finally real, as CEO Tim Cook has unveiled the slightly smaller Apple tablet on stage.
The iPad mini, the long-rumored smaller tablet from Apple, has made its debut.
Apple launched the 7.9-inch tablet computer at an invitation-only media event Tuesday morning, telling a crowd of reporters that the device is as thin as a pencil and weighs .68 pounds. Price for the iPad mini starts at $329.
"It's as light as a pad of paper," said Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller.
Rumors have swirled for months that Apple was designing a competitor to Amazon.com's Kindle Fire HD and the Google Nexus 7, smaller and cheaper devices that appeal to on-the-go consumers who don't want to shell out for the pricey iPad.
Apple has sold more than 84 million iPads since its debut in April 2010.
Now, despite resistance from late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who reportedly said consumers would have to "sand down their fingers" to properly use a smaller tablet, Apple is looking to expand its share in a growing, highly competitive tablet market.
The timing of the launch, just ahead of the all-important holiday season, is a smart move, analysts said. Many have already predicted strong demand from consumers for the smaller iPad.
"In our view, the iPad mini stands to target price-sensitive users and the e-reader crowd," JPMorgan analyst Mark Moskowitz wrote in a note to investors ahead of the media event. "Given the global economic uncertainty, we think price-sensitive users could gravitate toward an iPad mini instead of making a PC purchase."
Shares of Apple were down 0.75% Tuesday at around $629 a share.
No reason to delay the deets any more than they already have been. Here’s the story:

Specs

DIMENSIONS:

• 7.2mm thin
• 53 percent lighter
• .68 pounds

DESIGN:

• Thinner bezels
• Ultra rounded edges
• Updated smart covers
• White and Black models
• Of course, a unibody design

DISPLAY:

• 7.9-inches
• LCD
• 1,024 x 768 resolution
• All software for original iPad works on iPad mini because they share the same screen resolution.

Phil Schiller pit the iPad mini against the Nexus 7 on stage, and showed that the display is actually 49 percent larger in portrait, and 67 percent larger in landscape.

That has to do with a new design that makes the bezels much smaller than we’ve seen on the larger iPad models. Schiller showed off Yelp!, eBay and Pandora apps on both tablets, showing the difference between apps developed specifically for a tablet as opposed to apps that have been stretched from a smartphone.

GUTS

• Dual-core A5
• Lightning dock
• 10 hours of battery life

Most of the parts you’re seeing above are included in the iPhone 4S. They’re components that Apple has already been sourcing from various manufacturers, meaning they’re much easier to procure this time around. By retooling the same components for the iPad Mini, Apple is likely cutting costs.

CONNECTIVITY

• Wifi
• 3G wireless
• 4G LTE wireless
• CAMERA
• 5-megapixel camera
• FaceTime HD front-facing camera

The iPad isn’t great for taking pictures. It’s just too big. But the iPad Mini will be even more portable than its big brother, and perhaps a bit more wieldy, too. The new iPod touch is clearly trying to replace the average digital point-and-shoot camera, and the iPad mini is to the iPad as the iPod touch is to the iPhone 5.

Attention to camera capabilities may be a nice counter to the lower-grade specs.

Pricing/Config

The iPad mini goes up for pre-order on October 26, and Wifi versions ship on November 2.
One the device is up for sale, we'll know more about viable jailbreaks.