9-5 Mac said it has iOS 18 on it, Iām sure itās a typo.
But it supports the Apple Pencil Pro.
Speaking as someone who loves his mini 6ā¦ Itās quite a disappointing and lazy upgrade (down to even the same wallpapers). Tim Cook is apparently clearing the warehouse full of binned A17 Pros with a faulty GPU core that could not have been used in the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max.
Donāt think it is, itāll be out before 18.1
I think he meant it will use iPadOS, not iOS.
Iād go back to a mini if it had at least a TB of storage. I like having my photos downloaded on all my devices. If my phone can do it so should every iPad.
āminiā stands for the amount of work and effort that theyāve put into this update. 
Yea, it seems that Apple this yearā¦didnāt put in much effort in anything. Everything feels very āsub-parā but still with the premium price. I have the Mini 6 and was hoping for a Mini 7ā¦I have been slowly reducing what I need to do with my Mini to keep it moving a bit. Itās sluggish along with my iPad Pro Gen 3 (A12X chip)
Considering
- Do I still want to give Apple my money?
- Perhaps upgrade the iPad Pro to the new M4, and maybe forget about the Mini and get an 11?
Ughā¦
Use Case
- iPad Pro - my driver when I am outside my house, not near my Mac Mini, or if I am home but need to be with my kids and doing homeschool with them (the office can be isolating). Used for writing, researching and entertainment when traveling.
- iPad Mini - used daily/weekly as my presenter notes, reading, entertainment
If you can, why not get a large iPad Pro for 14 days then return it to Apple and swap it for a smaller iPad Pro.
The smaller iPad Pro will feel tiny, and powerful, and you will feel like itās so small that youād never cope with a mini.
Serious suggestion. Iāve got both sizes and I canāt believe how tiny the 11 inch is.
I had a mini and a 12.9 pro. The 12.9 was so unwieldy and the 8 just too small to get anything done. I gave the 8 to my son and traded in the 12.9 for am 11 Pro and youāre right- itās the Goldilocks iPad for me. Perfect size for most things. I say āmostā because the keyboard is difficult for me to type on. Other than thatā love it!
True, but it was enough to allow the mini to run Apple Intelligence. Who would buy an apple device without that?
I still donāt get the hype behind Apple Intelligence. Itās using ChatGPT, right? If one already has a paid account to that, what would be the additional benefit?
ChatGPT isnāt Apple Intelligence
Apple Intelligence is using data about you (I.e. data available on your phone) not data about the wider world.
Understandable that itās not, but it is integrated together. (Thatās what Apple is saying though)
I am trying to see what features would be useful. I prefer my own writing (even with its mistakes). Did a playful group project, gave them samples, most of the attendees could distinguish my writing from AI. According to the attendees, when they read over both pieces, āone of them didnāt sound like meā.
ā¦.which means I must be a really bad writer with lots of mistakes hahahah
But all in all, from the Apple Website, I think I need to play more with Apple Intelligence to see its benefit in my workflow life. Recording phone calls / transcribing seems to be a way to save time on in-person meetings.
Thatās a pretty good question both for Apple and us ā their customers here in the EU, as Apple Intelligence is not a factor for the 16 series of iPhones or the new iPad mini.
Since Wall Street is betting big that AI is the future, Apple had to come up with an AI plan. And Appleās brand of AI is promising to be on-device and draws on my āpersonal context without allowing anyone else to access your personal data ā not even Appleā
ChatGPT, Gemini, and CoPilot, etc. doesnāt promise that.
I donāt have a lot of personal data on my iPhone. I only have one copy of the emails I have sent or received. There are others sitting on servers all around the world. All my important information resides on my bankās servers, and those belonging to my insurance company, and my doctor, etc.
Iām going to have to wait like everyone else to find out what advantage Apple Intelligence has.
Itās not a factor for me either. AFAIK, my old iPhone can access every existing AI service available to individuals. So I have no need to upgrade.
But how would it look to investors if Apple released a new iPad that was already obsolete?
Anybody caught sight of a keyboard for this machine yet?
So they stuffed in the oldest processor and minimum RAM that support AI, threw in a few incremental and cosmetic updates, and called it a day.
Itās clear the Mini is a bit player in the iPad lineup. Could be due to lower sales for the small model, and maybe some key players in Apple who still think Steve Jobs was right when he said 8 inches was too small for a tablet.