MINI APPLE COMING SOON

Apple 'to unveil the iPad mini on October 23'

Apple's new iPad mini is less that two weeks away - if rumours are to believed.

The company will unveil the gadget on October 23, the AllThingsD website has suggested.

An apparent silence from Apple had left many wondering if the company still planned to debut a smaller iPad

Others had speculated that production delays may have forced it to postpone the device’s unveiling until later in the year.

The new iPad 'mini' as it might look next to the new iPhone 5 and the current iPad 2

But it appears that neither is the case.

As AllThingsD reported in August, Apple will hold a special event this month, at which it will showcase a new, smaller iPad.

People familiar with Apple’s plans told the website that the company will unveil the so-called 'iPad mini' on October 23 at an invitation-only event.

The date happens to be just three days before Microsoft’s new Surface tablet is due to hit the shops.

It has been suggested the launch event will take place at Apple’s Town Hall Auditorium, where it has debuted a number of products there in the past - OS X Lion, a next-generation MacBook Air and the iPhone 4S.

The unveiling of the iPhone 5 and the 2012 iPod line was held at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, leaving people to believe that this launch will be a smaller affair.

Sources say the iPad’s smaller sibling will feature a 7.85-inch liquid-crystal display and a Lightning connector, according to AllThingsD.

A leaked picture purported to show the iPad Mini implies there is no rear camera on the portable device

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was apparently set against a smaller iPad, but apparently relented in the months before his death last year, according to emails discussed in the ongoing Apple vs Samsung patent dispute.