Apple officially outs the iPad mini 3

Apple officially outs the iPad mini 3, pre-orders start tomorrow

You knew it was coming; now it's here. Apple just pulled back the curtain on the iPad Mini 3 at its live media event in Cupertino, and so far it's pretty much what we expected -- a modestly updated tablet with some more familiar looks. The saga of the iPad mini 3 hasn't been too spoilerific, but Apple's "accidental" leak from the other day painted the thing with some vague strokes: we figured out what it'd be called and knew it would have a Touch ID sensor (turns out that latter bit is the most notable addition to the mix).

Phil Schiller didn't spend too much time diving into details, mostly likely because there's not much to write home about. Sadly, it doesn't seem like any of the near hardware (zero-gap display, upgraded A8X processor) made its way into Apple's 7.9-inch tab. So what is new? Touch ID aside, you've got the addition of a gold model to match up with iPhones. That Retina display remains intact, too -- Apple basically seems to have tweaked the Retina iPad mini and streamlined its name a bit. It's maybe not the most mindblowing upgrade, but improving something that already seems well-equipped to tickle consumers' fancies is no easy feat. Tim Cook noted that the Retina iPad mini has received 100% customer satisfaction ratings -- can you blame Apple for not rocking the boat? Anyway, you can pre-order yours starting tomorrow: the 32GB model is gone for good, so expect to shell out $399 for the 16GB version, $499 for 64GB and $599 for 128GB. Itching for an LTE model? Expect to pay $130 more for that particular pleasure.

Original Article at www.engadget.com