Without any kind of fanfare, or even a spooky little girl to tip us off, Apple snuck the new Retina iPad mini into the online store shortly after midnight PST. No sign of even the store being down as I alluded to earlier. It remains to be seen whether the devices actually hit retail shelves when the stores open later today, but you can certainly order one, with the longest wait times listed as 5-10 days. Currently if you select the Personal Pickup option, it looks like none of the stores have availability, but they may just be because it won’t show until opening hours.
Visually, the new Retina iPad mini is nearly identical to the original mini, but it is both slightly heavier and thicker. The tablet includes a 2048 x 1536 resolution Retina display with the A7 processor and the M7 coprocessor introduced in the iPhone 5s. It comes in the usual, albeit updated, colors of Silver/White and Space Gray/Black. As of 1:45 AM PST, these were the available options and shipping times.
