New iPad Mini just announced.

Grum.Man said:
My Mini 2 is really getting laggy and is totally out of space. Time for an upgrade!
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MooneyDriver78 said:
Holy cow, I exceeded mini 2 capabilities years ago, then the mini 4 about a year ago
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cowman said:
It looks like a nice little step up, if I had a 4 I'd definitely jump but my 5 really isn't lacking in any way and I don't really see the point in trading up every year just to be current.
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Anyone with a mini *older* than the 5 should upgrade NOW. Since Apple hasn't been updating the Mini very often, it's best to buy one right when it comes out and upgrade every time. It's already been 2.5 years since the Mini 5 was introduced, and the Mini 4 is already 7 year old technology.

ChopAndDrop said:
When you get it, Please give us a report of how well the screen works in direct daylight. I’m worried that it’s “only 500 nits”, but the anti-reflective should help.
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The Mini 5 has the same 500 nits. I use it all the time, and I've never felt like it wasn't bright enough. :dunno:

Stewartb said:
Holy cow, how much memory does Foreflight consume? My Garmin Pilot uses 3.65gb.
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For both, the amount of space they use is mostly dependent on how much you download. If you have low, high, VFR, and approach charts plus high-resolution terrain for the entire country, it's gonna suck up a lot. If you have VFR and no terrain for a limited area, pretty small. The ForeFlight app itself is somewhat larger than Garmin Pilot, but only by megabytes, not gigabytes, and both are in the neighborhood of 1/4 gig. In ForeFlight, I have 41GB of documents and data downloaded - Jeppesen and government Low, High, VFR, Approach/taxi charts for most of the country, POHs and avionics/accessory manuals for both my plane and the work planes, several thousand pages worth of FAA-required "paper"work for part 135, and plenty of FAA and Jeppesen publications... And of course, when there's a new chart cycle, I'll have doubles of all the charts. Needless to say, I don't use a 64GB iPad. ;)
 
Stewartb said:
Holy cow, how much memory does Foreflight consume? My Garmin Pilot uses 3.65gb.
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5.8 gb but I use it for a bunch of other things, pictures, music other apps. It used to be OK and then for flight changed how they do uploads. I’m not a computer person by any stretch of the imagination but it seems to me that they reload the entire database every time you do an update. All I know is I have 26 gigs on the unit being used and ForeFlight says there’s not enough room to update. But as I mentioned, it is noted my primary unit. All the features are functional except for Geo referencing.
 
Stewartb said:
Holy cow, how much memory does Foreflight consume? My Garmin Pilot uses 3.65gb.
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WingX NE, NW and SW country VFR and low alt IFR is under 6 gb. FF for only Colorado is almost 21 gb.
 
murphey said:
WingX NE, NW and SW country VFR and low alt IFR is under 6 gb. FF for only Colorado is almost 21 gb.
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I bet you have high res terrain and/or high res basemap on for the full US... All chart data for Colorado only takes up 1.34GB, and I believe that includes the entirety of any chart that has any part that comes within 50nm of the state.
 
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flyingcheesehead said:
Anyone with a mini *older* than the 5 should upgrade NOW. Since Apple hasn't been updating the Mini very often, it's best to buy one right when it comes out and upgrade every time. It's already been 2.5 years since the Mini 5 was introduced, and the Mini 4 is already 7 year old technology.
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I'm surprised that ipadOS 15 still has planned support for the A8 chips. Support for those chips on the iPhone side was dropped way back in iOS 13.

In any case, the mini4/Air2/iPad5 were the last with 2GB RAM. Those could be dropped on that basis. The mini4 and the Air2 were the last iPads to ship with 16GB flash, but Apple doesn't seem to use that as criteria for iOS/iPadOS support. However the mini4/Air2 are the only iPads with the A8 chip and that could be a reason to be dropped.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I bet you have high res terrain and/or high res basemap on for the full US... All chart data for Colorado only takes up 1.34GB, and I believe that includes the entirety of any chart that has any part that comes within 50nm of the state.
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yup
 
Delivery time mid-October right now. I can pick one up locally but in a different color. Since it'll always be in a case, color really doesn't matter.
 
Looks great. I'll keep flying my Mini 5 until it runs out of steam, then upgrade to the new Mini when the time is right. Really glad Apple is investing in the Mini. We can sure use it.
 
I’ve always got these for my phones and pads. https://mygoflight.com/products/arm...MIqK2Nh7SD8wIVkzytBh2xfQQFEAAYASAAEgJVcfD_BwE
Apple didn’t have anti glare screens. I hated the reflections. ArmorGlas works great. I see the the mini 6 has anti reflective coating. It says this:

Antireflective coating
1.8% reflectivity
500 nits brightness

I don’t know what those numbers mean. I hope to get a Pirep from anyone who gets one about glare/reflections. Especially from those who have used ArmorGlas. Thanks in advance.
 
I ordered mine on the first day and it will arrive on the 24th. For veterans, don’t forget the military discount. $799 for the most expensive version drops to $719. I’ll keep my 5 as a backup. I’ll have to figure out something to do with the 4. Whole family already has iPads.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Anyone with a mini *older* than the 5 should upgrade NOW. Since Apple hasn't been updating the Mini very often, it's best to buy one right when it comes out and upgrade every time. It's already been 2.5 years since the Mini 5 was introduced, and the Mini 4 is already 7 year old technology.
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Be that as it may the mini 4 still runs ForeFlight Pro and Jepp plates just fine. Apple and ForeFlight continued to support the mini 1 for a very long time and even when Apple stopped providing new IOS updates it still worked with ForeFlight although new features were unavailable. I always update to the latest as I use mine professionally, but I’m pretty sure the 4 will be good for years to come for those that don’t need the latest and greatest all the time.
 
Captain Bubba said:
Be that as it may the mini 4 still runs ForeFlight Pro and Jepp plates just fine. Apple and ForeFlight continued to support the mini 1 for a very long time and even when Apple stopped providing new IOS updates it still worked with ForeFlight although new features were unavailable. I always update to the latest as I use mine professionally, but I’m pretty sure the 4 will be good for years to come for those that don’t need the latest and greatest all the time.
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I’m using a 4 but I really really want a brighter screen. I’ll wait for a pirep on the 6’s brightness before I take the plunge.
 
Captain Bubba said:
I ordered mine on the first day and it will arrive on the 24th. For veterans, don’t forget the military discount. $799 for the most expensive version drops to $719. I’ll keep my 5 as a backup. I’ll have to figure out something to do with the 4. Whole family already has iPads.
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You might give it to a Charity. Try calling some schools and see if they take them for their computer classes and students. Or….
 
Half Fast said:
I’m using a 4 but I really really want a brighter screen. I’ll wait for a pirep on the 6’s brightness before I take the plunge.
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I have a mini 5 and find the brightness lacking on a sunny day. I often need to take off my sunglasses to read it. I personally would be hesitant to upgrade to the 6 if it's not substantially better...
 
asicer said:
I'm surprised that ipadOS 15 still has planned support for the A8 chips. Support for those chips on the iPhone side was dropped way back in iOS 13.

In any case, the mini4/Air2/iPad5 were the last with 2GB RAM. Those could be dropped on that basis. The mini4 and the Air2 were the last iPads to ship with 16GB flash, but Apple doesn't seem to use that as criteria for iOS/iPadOS support. However the mini4/Air2 are the only iPads with the A8 chip and that could be a reason to be dropped.
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The other thing is security. Anything that can't run a version of the OS that is still actively getting security updates is going to be problematic. Unlike Mac OS, where Apple keeps doing security updates a couple of major versions back, iOS/iPadOS are expected to be kept up to date.

I think people tend to keep iPads longer than iPhones, so that might be why Apple is supporting them longer. iPadOS 15 supports all devices that were supported with iPadOS 13! I wouldn't expect that to continue next year, though, and since the Mini isn't updated as frequently as the others, now is a good time to do the upgrade.

Half Fast said:
I’m using a 4 but I really really want a brighter screen. I’ll wait for a pirep on the 6’s brightness before I take the plunge.
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Good news, both the Mini 5 and Mini 6 are 25% brighter than the 4.
 
obw said:
I have a mini 5 and find the brightness lacking on a sunny day. I often need to take off my sunglasses to read it. I personally would be hesitant to upgrade to the 6 if it's not substantially better...
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Are your sunglasses polarized?
 
So... before I start sending my current mini5 out to the jackals on ebay/CL, has RAM come out with a new ez-roller or similar cradle? I hate the "generic" ones they have for ipads, but I also hate that I've had to replace the cradle for my last 2 ipads, and will be doing so again.

I didn't know about the veteran discount. Sounds like dad needs to buy me an ipad for an early Mikemas gift. :D
 
If memory is a concern with FF, only download charts where you actually fly. If you decide to travel outside your normal areas of flight, download the charts at that time. I have used FF for years and primarily keep only about 7 states current VFR and IFR. Plus, updates load every month very quickly.

murphey said:
WingX NE, NW and SW country VFR and low alt IFR is under 6 gb. FF for only Colorado is almost 21 gb.
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No way that 21gb is correct for only Colorado in FF ! I am using my ipad right now..it only has 32gb. FF with NC, SC, VA, TN, GA, FL, AL with VFR and IFR charts and plates....plus a ton of apps, and books, plus my maintenance manuals, and avionics install manuals for a bunch of Garmin and other radios..only 21.8gb used.
 
I think my mini is a 4, could be a 3 I suppose. Still works OK, does FF just fine. I'll switch when it doesn't, or actually breaks. I give Apple a lot of credit, their stuff really doesn't break all that much. I still have every laptop I even bought, and they all work fine, they're just hopelessly outdated.
 
Doug Reid said:
If memory is a concern with FF, only download charts where you actually fly. If you decide to travel outside your normal areas of flight, download the charts at that time. I have used FF for years and primarily keep only about 7 states current VFR and IFR. Plus, updates load every month very quickly.
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This is an excellent strategy. Select your home state and every state that you fly to every month in Downloads... Then, just use the Pack function to automatically download charts for the flights you take outside of the preselected area.
 
Okay so what's the going rate for a used mini 5 / 256 / cellular gonna be? Am warming up to buy a 6 now that I learned I can mooch on dad's veteran discount :D

...and apple's offer of $225 is not the correct answer :p
 
Doug Reid said:
If memory is a concern with FF, only download charts where you actually fly. If you decide to travel outside your normal areas of flight, download the charts at that time. I have used FF for years and primarily keep only about 7 states current VFR and IFR. Plus, updates load every month very quickly.



No way that 21gb is correct for only Colorado in FF ! I am using my ipad right now..it only has 32gb. FF with NC, SC, VA, TN, GA, FL, AL with VFR and IFR charts and plates....plus a ton of apps, and books, plus my maintenance manuals, and avionics install manuals for a bunch of Garmin and other radios..only 21.8gb used.
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Mini 4 (the backup)- FF: Colorado only with VFR, High Res basemap & terrain, FF Guide doc, 6 tiny checklists (1 page each) and the 2 page Digital Terminal Supplement. FF App is 326.4 MB, the data is 19.78 GN

Mini 5 - FF: AK, AZ, CA, CO, ID, IA, KS, Montana, NE, NV, NM, NY, ND, OK, Oregon, SD, TX, UT, Wisconsin, WY and Ontario.
Taxi & AF/D, Terminal Proc, VFR, VFR Flyway, IFR Lo, Hi res basemap & terrain
FF App: 316.8 MB, data 16.84 MB, 198 MB of docs, 17 plates

Mini 5: WingX - entire US for VFR and low iFR.
App: 56.9 MB, 6.69 GB data

So - I have no clue what is going on or why the difference in size of data used.
 
Murphey, neither do I. I just wanted to give you a heads up that something did not seem right .

Right now I am showing 8.32 gb for storage for FF.
 
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murphey said:
Mini 4 (the backup)- FF: Colorado only with VFR, High Res basemap & terrain, FF Guide doc, 6 tiny checklists (1 page each) and the 2 page Digital Terminal Supplement. FF App is 326.4 MB, the data is 19.78 GN

Mini 5 - FF: AK, AZ, CA, CO, ID, IA, KS, Montana, NE, NV, NM, NY, ND, OK, Oregon, SD, TX, UT, Wisconsin, WY and Ontario.
Taxi & AF/D, Terminal Proc, VFR, VFR Flyway, IFR Lo, Hi res basemap & terrain
FF App: 316.8 MB, data 16.84 MB, 198 MB of docs, 17 plates

Mini 5: WingX - entire US for VFR and low iFR.
App: 56.9 MB, 6.69 GB data

So - I have no clue what is going on or why the difference in size of data used.
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Hi Res Basemap and terrain. That's a lot of detailed data, for the entire country.
 
schmookeeg said:
Okay so what's the going rate for a used mini 5 / 256 / cellular gonna be? Am warming up to buy a 6 now that I learned I can mooch on dad's veteran discount :D

...and apple's offer of $225 is not the correct answer :p
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I usually go to Gazelle first to lock in an offer. Then list on eBay with the Gazelle offer as the reserve price. eBay selling prices have always exceeded Gazelle’s offers.
 
FastEddieB said:
I usually go to Gazelle first to lock in an offer. Then list on eBay with the Gazelle offer as the reserve price. eBay selling prices have always exceeded Gazelle’s offers.
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Weird strategy there... 6 bucks less than Apple's offer. I assume this is pandering to the "Nuts to you, Tim Apple!" set. Which I might be part of. :D

upload_2021-9-17_10-15-50.png

Looks like eBay is somewhere ~400 ... now I need to weigh the hassle factor of meeting randos and scammers, or just making a backup tablet / iOS test device :)
 
FastEddieB said:
I usually go to Gazelle first to lock in an offer. Then list on eBay with the Gazelle offer as the reserve price. eBay selling prices have always exceeded Gazelle’s offers.
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Do you adjust for eBay selling fees, credit card fees and shipping/packing costs?
 
Related to the discussion....Can I move the SIM card in my 4 to the 6 if I get the GPS version?
 
steingar said:
I think my mini is a 4, could be a 3 I suppose. Still works OK, does FF just fine. I'll switch when it doesn't, or actually breaks. I give Apple a lot of credit, their stuff really doesn't break all that much. I still have every laptop I even bought, and they all work fine, they're just hopelessly outdated.
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My original 1984 mac still boots up! I’ve got an 8600 packed away, that one still boots up, too. Turned an older mini into a settop to run DVDs and youtube videos on the big projection screen.
 
asicer said:
Do you adjust for eBay selling fees, credit card fees and shipping/packing costs?
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Yes. I still came out ahead, though simply trading it in or shipping to Gazelle would be a lot less effort.

As an aside, carriers are offering really terrific trade-in deals on previous model iPhones. My wife could essentially upgrade from her XR to an iPhone 13 Pro for free (with extended AT&T contract). She may upgrade to a 13 Pro Max with add'l storage for very small installment payment (less than $15/month).
 
luvflyin said:
I’ve always got these for my phones and pads. https://mygoflight.com/products/arm...MIqK2Nh7SD8wIVkzytBh2xfQQFEAAYASAAEgJVcfD_BwE
Apple didn’t have anti glare screens. I hated the reflections. ArmorGlas works great. I see the the mini 6 has anti reflective coating. It says this:

Antireflective coating
1.8% reflectivity
500 nits brightness

I don’t know what those numbers mean. I hope to get a Pirep from anyone who gets one about glare/reflections. Especially from those who have used ArmorGlas. Thanks in advance.
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They’re making it sound like the Mini 6 is brighter than the 5. The mini 5 and 6 are both 500 Nits.

I’ll be upgrading to the mini 6 for the 5G capability and faster processor.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
obw said:
I have a mini 5 and find the brightness lacking on a sunny day. I often need to take off my sunglasses to read it. I personally would be hesitant to upgrade to the 6 if it's not substantially better...
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The mini 5 and 6 are both 500 Nits


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
FastEddieB said:
I think the Mini is the perfect size for a cockpit
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100%

I don't understand how people fit those giant full size lunch tray iPads in the cockpit in a comfortable manner.. the mini is perfect and not too dissimilar from the old school approach plates Rolodex

Mine is a whopping 5 years old now but still going strong. This will be great for potential upgrade
 
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