Welcome to the World, Mini!

Attendees at Apple’s launch of the iPad Mini got to try out the little tablet for the first time upstairs at the California Theatre in downtown San Jose, Calif. The last time the 85-year-old venue was used for an Apple launch was back in 2006, when the company launched the iPod Nano Red. Bono attended the event. No musicians stopped by the Mini launch, however.

Lots of times people get caught in situations where they cannot use two hands on a connected device. The iPad Mini solves this by being small and light enough to use with one hand—including using a thumb for navigating the interface.

Camera technology in mobile devices continues to improve, and the iPad Mini is not an exception. The new tablet comes loaded with a high-definition version of FaceTime for use in one-to-one video chats, and the camera is designed to facilitate crystal-clear images using the device’s high-definition screen.

Apple on Oct. 23 also announced a new fourth-generation regular-size iPad costing the same ($499 for basic 16GB on up to $830 for the 64GB connected model), but outfitted with a faster processor, improved graphics performance and faster WiFi performance, the company claimed. Here you can see firsthand the size difference between the regular (left) and mini iPads.

One of the key claims Apple made at the event Oct. 23 was that the iPad Mini’s size and shape afford a 67 percent larger screen size, which enables applications to run in fuller-looking fashion. Artwork and other attributes of a Web page don’t fall off the screen as they do in some competing tablets.

Maps—an application topic that has gotten Apple into trouble lately due to its estrangement with Google—show up in their entirety in this photo shot, compared with a 7-inch Android device.

The latest Apple television commercial, previewed at the launch event Oct. 23, will feature no dialogue or sales pitch. Music will be the international language. In the ad, a regular-size iPad and a Mini will perform a duet of Frank Loesser’s “Heart and Soul.”

The iPad Mini retains the same screen aspect ratio to that of the large iPad, just scaled down on width and height.

Apple will not price the iPad Mini to compete directly against Android models, such as Google’s Nexus 7, Samsung’s Galaxy, RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook, Amazon’s Kindle Fire or Barnes & Noble’s Nook, which all retail for $199 or close to it. The price list is shown here, with the basic 16GB WiFi model price-tagged at $329 and the 64GB connected device at $629. Many observers had expected a price below $300.

The iPad Mini stole most of the attention on Oct. 23, but Apple also introduced two new PCs at the event. This one is the 13-inch MacBook Pro. It weighs only 3.5 pounds, is a mere 0.75 inches thick, has a Retina display and boasts a 2,560-by-1,600-pixel display. That’s a lot (more than 4 million) of pixels. Look for eWEEK to deliver more-detailed information on this one soon.

Apple launched two new professional-level desktops: 21- and 27-inch screen versions of the iMac Pro. Both feature extremely thin monitors, are about 8 pounds lighter than previous models and feature the Apple Fusion Drive (including 128GB of NAND flash described in the next slide). They also use 50 percent less power than their predecessor. More details in eWEEK later this week.

Apple has combined the speed and processing power of NAND flash with its SATA hard disk drives to come up with the new Fusion Drive, making its debut in the new 21- and 27-inch iMacs. Fusion contains 128GB of flash and either 1TB or 3TB of disk drive space. Expect to see more details on this soon in eWEEK.