I have a retina iPad (after iPad 2, but not the new shiny flavor). With a bluetooth keyboard case, I use it more than my laptop. I've had it for about 3 years now, and still going strong. Not obsolete yet.
The only flaw in your logic, if you want it to replace your mac mini, is you would need the pad to do wifi, as you would have nothing to dock it with when the mini fails. That is the only thing that keeps the iPad from replacing a computer, for me. At some point in time, it has to connect to load content. And Yes, I grumble about it.
Not sure about the mini iPad, as for portability. I have a little backpack for my iPad.
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(FYI, the red is closer to pink than red). Might be a bit large for the mini iPad.
What do you want to do on it, that it would replace your desktop computer? Not sure how you would connect to the internet without wifi. Or I may just be misunderstanding that part of the post. You say your Mac mini is 4GB and the iPad is 16GB, but the Mini 4GB is RAM, not storage, so the comparisson is confusing me a bit.
Sorry, not many answers there. More about needing clarification. The biggest question is always, what do you want to do with it? That will give us a better idea which is the better replacement.
o_a, you cleared something up for me right away (and pinpointed my tech weakness) I was thinking about the memory in completely wrong terms, imagining that the ipad would be faster than the mini. I'm totally dunderheaded when it comes to comparing specs.
Which is why I ask!
I'm thinking about the replacement variable from the perspective of a stopgap just in case the macmini craps out spontaneously...as was the case with its predecessor.
Then again, I could do email and web stuff on an itouch, so the bigger size might not be a huge benefit.
Honestly, I am a strong, independent thinker who spends the whole of my working life helping others make good decisions.
When it comes to stuff like this, I sincerely wish I was one of those people who can say, "I've got a guy" to just tell me what to do.
I trust my judgement in every other way but this!
The only flaw in your logic, if you want it to replace your mac mini, is you would need the pad to do wifi, as you would have nothing to dock it with when the mini fails.
I'm not sure what you mean by this, ominous? Need the pad to do wifi? I don't think you're required to have a computer to have an iPad, anymore...
They totally do wifi. Meara is correct. If you have a wifi connection, you don't need a box to initialize an ipad.
_I_ just don't do wifi.
I have the wifi version of the iPad mini ... it's pretty good about connecting with various wifi networks, but you have to have a network. I can usually connect at Starbucks and it's fine in my office, but without the network, it's cut off. I use it mostly for reading e-books and playing games, I've taken photos and emailed them, but I'm pretty low-tech in my life.
I don't think you're required to have a computer to have an iPad, anymore...
If you want to tranfer media that you didn't purchase through iTunes store (i.e. a CD, or a thumb drive from friends, or ahem videos), you need to connect to the computer and iTunes computer app to do the transfer. Aside from that, they are pretty self suffecient.
Yeah,that is true too.
So far, irl, I have one vote for each, so I'm still on the metaphoric fence.
Which is frustrating because the whole idea behind making this purchase, was to free myself from analysis paralysis.
