iPad mini
Spoot: Spotted Early keeps iPad mini in one place: 3 stories so far. The section currently leads with “The iPad Mini Sheds Weight, Gains OLED and a Whole New Reason to Stare”, “Amazon's October sale nibbles Apple prices without asking if you really need a new iPad”, and “Apple's own code just whispered three new gadgets before the year ends”. The new iPad mini is thinner, lighter, faster, and has an OLED display that makes everything you do on it feel like you're holding the good light. Spoot: Spotted Early New things, caught while they're still new and a little weird. Spoot finds fresh gadgets, clever inventions, crowdfunding campaigns,… The list below is every iPad mini story on Spoot: Spotted Early, newest first.
The iPad Mini Sheds Weight, Gains OLED and a Whole New Reason to Stare
The new iPad mini is thinner, lighter, faster, and has an OLED display that makes everything you do on it feel like you're holding the good light. Apple shed some serious weight from this thing, and the screen upgrade alone is a reason to stare at it for longer than you probably should. It's a small device that now asks bigger questions about how much you actually need a full-sized tablet. I'm genuinely curious whether this becomes the daily carry that quietly replaces everything else in your bag. For another kind of pocketable utility at a very different price point, our piece on the Gerber Suspension NXT multi-tool covers a tool that costs less than lunch.
Amazon's October sale nibbles Apple prices without asking if you really need a new iPad
Amazon's October Big Deal Days are nibbling Apple prices, and the M5 MacBook Air at $1,099 is the thing I keep tab open on. Double the base storage, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, it's the spec-sheet razor clam that makes the $200 discount feel like a win instead of a trap. But the 15-inch version also lands at $1,299, and that's where my focus drifts. If your sights are set beyond Cupertino, the main roundup has 100+ deals and we're chasing price matches as they appear. Some of this is Prime-only, but other retailers are biting back. Meanwhile, over at our AirPods Pro 3 coverage, I dug into why $179 is the number that actually matters this week. Stay spooty.
Apple's own code just whispered three new gadgets before the year ends
Apple's code just whispered three new gadgets before the year ends, and honestly, that's the kind of gossip we live for. MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris dug up images and details pointing to a refreshed HomePod mini, an iPad mini 8, and an Apple TV 4K, all expected after this month's iPhone 18 Pro and folding iPhone Duo debut. The HomePod mini 2 reportedly keeps the original's shape from late 2020, which is fine, but I'm side-eyeing the color situation. The current model pops in orange, yellow, and blue; if the leak's images suggest a muted palette, that's a quiet downgrade for a speaker that made brightness its personality. We'll see what ships.