iPad Mini Spotted by Developer
Two new iPad devices were discovered by Instapaper developer Marco Arment this week.
He found two new device codes for these Apple tablets in his logs that he believes belong to the long rumored iPad Mini.
The codes he found were iPad2,5 and iPad 2,6. Arment stated that iPad 2,1 through iPad 2,3 designations represent the iPad 2's WiFi, GSM and CDMA models. The iPad 2,4 represents a die-shrunk, cheaper version of the iPad 2 that was released with the third-generation model. The third-gen model carries the iPad 3,x designation.
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The two new codes spotted by Arment have not been seen before, so this indicates that they belong to new models of the device that are based on iPad 2 hardware. This seems to match up well with rumored iPad Mini as the device is expected to be a smaller version of the second generation iPad.
Arment feels this is the only theory that makes sense.
"The much more likely explanation is that iPad 2,5 and iPad 2,6 are the new iPad Mini in Wi-Fi and GSM, and I haven't recorded the likely iPad 2,7 CDMA version yet," he said. "If so, this suggests that the iPad Mini is effectively, an iPad 2: A5 with 512MB RAM and enough GPU power to drive the Gruber Display, but not a Retina Display."
The "Gruber Display" Arment speaks of is related to John Gruber's assumption that the iPad Mini would have a 7.85-inch display with the same resolution as the original iPad's.
With the iPad Mini's rumored unveiling date just around the corner, the device's popping up in Arment's logs seems to make sense.
Apple's iPad Mini will be the company's answer to the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire, two devices that have captured much of the iPad's marketshare.
