Originally Posted by lugnutz

minecraft is pretty popular here at work with 4 other guys playing it

My kid is big time into it. Took him to Vegas last year for Minecon - he loved it.

there is a minecon? my 13 and 10 years olds would die for that

Originally Posted by SteveT.

Sorry to hear it will need surgery, but at least we live in a time when they can do such things.... Good Luck!!

SteveT

Thanks, yes it is amazing what they can do these days.

Originally Posted by 3Dplank

Good way to look at it. I enjoy building the planes as much as I enjoy (wrecking) flying them

Hahaha.....that is funny. I really like the building side as well. Hopefully I will be able to get some one-handed building done while I recover I have a crashed 51 Slick ready to practice on also with all the spare time I should have.

Trying to also convince the wife that once the cast comes off I will need lots of practice on the sim to build the thumb strength back up again

Need jet white paint. Whats the best??

Edf,sorry about yur thumb. Hope you get 100% function back buddy

My 3dhs vyper bype that I won from the "other place" is supposed to be delivered today!!

Originally Posted by Park_aviator

So... Ipad mini... what do y'all think?

http://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/overview/

I am slightly addicted to apple products. (Admitting is the first step). Price is a little higher than I had hoped. A nice medium between my iPad and the iphone 5. I Like using iPad for surfing and posting, but it's bulky and iPhone is tedious to surf on. (Hope Santa remembers to preorder Friday.). Maybe I should tell his Siri. The quality of the products and apps sharing keeps me wanting more. Just like planes, more is better

Originally Posted by Inverted-I-Fly

there is a minecon? my 13 and 10 years olds would die for that

Was in Vegas last year, in Paris (Disney) this year. My son begged me to take him to Paris. It sold out ridiculously fast. http://minecon.mojang.com

Your kids know about it. Ask them about the Minecon capes that some of the avatars run around with.

Originally Posted by FireyFate

I don't get all the shock at the price of the iPad mini... the only close Android competitor is the Kindle Fire 8.9", which goes for $299 and is crippled with no Google Play access. So the Apple product is $30 more... not so surprising.

Keep an eye on Micro Center (If you have access to one). They sell iPads cheaper than retail. My daughter bought her iPad 2 new for $359. I think they sell the iPad 3 for $459. My guess is that the iPad Mini will follow suit.

Originally Posted by ryan_m

How is the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD not the closest competitors? In processor, screen size, weight, those are the closest ones. And all cheaper. Those are the ones that all the tech sites and magazines are comparing it with. But all that aside the surprise part for me is that I have been following all of the rumor mills about the iPad mini for several months now, and initially they all suggested the price would be around 200-250. Then they began all centering on 250 for the most likely price for a 16gb wifi model. And going upwards from there with the 4g and 32gb models. So when the cheapest one launched at 80 bucks more than virtually every site was predicting, well that was the surprise for me.

They are not the closest competitors because the screen size is not even close. The tablets you mentioned have a 7 inch screen, the iPad mini screen is 7.9. We are talking diagonal, and the iPad aspect ratio means even more screen. That gives the iPad an extra 30% or 9 square inches of screen. And because of the different ratios, the iPad mini is closer to the 8.9" Fire I mentioned than it is to the 7 inchers.

I have a 10.1" Transformer, and using the Galaxy Tab 7 2 I bought my old man for his birthday for web browsing is a totally different experience. That extra 9 square inches of screen will mean a lot to most folks.

Buuuut anyways... Apple products are always quite a bit more money than their closest competitors, and I'm pret-ty sure they will sell a huge number of these things. The Kindle 8.9 I pointed out is probably a better value, but it is a shame Amazon locked it out of Google play.

I have not looked into it, but you can probably just root the kindle if you want google play.

Originally Posted by teookie

I have not looked into it, but you can probably just root the kindle if you want google play.

Yeaaaah that's probably true, but the majority of people who would consider an iPad aren't the type to be rooting tablets.

Originally Posted by FireyFate

Yeaaaah that's probably true, but the majority of people who would consider an iPad aren't the type to be rooting tablets.

What is "rooting"?

Sent from my iPad

Originally Posted by JP9

What is "rooting"?

Sent from my iPad

If you need to ask, you don't want to mess with that...
basically breaking/hacking the original operating system and installing a different operating system onto the device.
I've done it with a Barnes and Noble Nook Color to turn it into a full Android tablet vs. the limited functionality device it ships as.

Originally Posted by ryan_m

If you need to ask, you don't want to mess with that...
basically breaking/hacking the original operating system and installing a different operating system onto the device.
I've done it with a Barnes and Noble Nook Color to turn it into a full Android tablet vs. the limited functionality device it ships as.

Thanks for the insight but I was just sending Firey a little jab