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More iPad Mini Shells Leaked Online

It’s Monday again, and that means it’s a new week and time for more iPad Mini rumors. Today’s leak comes from Apple.pro, a Chinese blog. They claim to have turned up a set of rear shells for the iPad Mini on Weibo, the Chinese blogging site. You can see one at right.

As you can see, it’s a solid back with no spot for the camera. There’s 3 more photos after the break, and yes they are all that dark.

I’m going to go ahead and call these as fakes right now. Sure, they do say iPad, but these photos are not nearly as convincing as the ones which leaked back in June. Those photos revealed a cut out for a rear camera, the new smaller docking port, and a second cut out for what I assume will be a 4G antenna.

These photos show diddly squat. They’re too dark to show real detail – almost artistically so. They’re also too small, and that’s why I think someone was having fun with us. I’m not sure if it’s Apple or some Chinese techie, but something’s not right here.

And yes, I’m posting the anyway because they give me a chance to just make shit up. Maybe this shell doesn’t have a camera on the back because Apple’s new holocamera can see through the shell. Maybe they’ve replaced the camera with a sonar imager. Or maybe these shells are fake. Who knows.

via Apple.pro

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Comments


fjtorres August 7, 2012 um 11:12 am

I’ve been thinking…
Everybody expects the new Apple gadget to be an iPad mini; a miniature version of the first iPad, more or less. (Single core CPU, XGA display, etc.)
What if it isn’t?
What if it is a subset of the iPad’s functionality?
Apple’s strategy with entry-level versions of existing products is to make them barely acceptable to those than simply can’t afford to go high in price so as to nudge those that can to move to the more expensive version.
Here, that strategy would argue that the new gadget would give up capabilities in gaming and possibly video to hit the price point. And, to better sell that degradation, Apple might choose *not* to call it an iPad at all.
I’ve heard iPod XL bandied about, which is possible.
But I’m thinking Apple still owns the trademark for iBook.
So an 8in tablet with a stated focus on reading that sold for $250 would not undercut the market for the larger tablet and (if it is really as thin and light as rumored) address the market’s need for a quality color reader.
That it might run *some* iPad apps would be just a bonus. Emphasis on some, because if the new iBook is connected to a "separate" app store, they could keep competing reading apps off the iBook. In fact, the thing could boot straight to the iBooks app.
Keep the thing simple (no cameras, mikes, GPS, or other frills) and they would have a build cost not much higher than the $100 budget Android tablets which would mean it woud easily meet Apple’s 300% markup guideline. 🙂

(And the pictured shell could easily fit that need.)

fjtorres August 7, 2012 um 11:13 am

Yes, I saw the iPad stamp on the shell. (shrug)
Preproduction samples. 😉


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