#18 Apple iPad Mini

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

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#1. Samsung v. Apple
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#8. Foxconn charged with poor working conditions
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#17. Cracks show at Apple in the post-Jobs era
#18. Apple iPad Mini
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#23. Virtual assistants for mobile devices
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#48. Sergey Brin
#49. Huawei accused of harboring international spies
#50. Social media makes money
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#53. Chromebook gets real
#54. Gangnam Style breaks YouTube record
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#56. Concierge economy takes off
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#58. Nokia Lumia family
#59. Elon Musk of SpaceX
#60. Home automation
#61. Flashback malware hits Macs
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#64. Thorsten Heins takes over at RIM
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#66. Companies choose 'glamor' launches over trade shows
#67. Lytro camera
#68. iPad with Retina Display
#69. Nate Silver
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#77. Curation becomes a form of expression
#78. Kim Dotcom
#79. Felix Baumgartner goes supersonic
#80. Nokia 808 PureView
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#84. Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13
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#94. Women make advances in technology
#95. Gesture controls grow up
#96. Julian Assange
#97. John McAfee blogs on the run
#98. Scott Thompson
#99. IPv6
#100. James Cameron's deep-sea dive
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Tablets seem to have gotten smaller at the tail end of 2012, between the latest Nook and Kindle Fire 7-inchers, the Google Nexus 7, and most importantly, the iPad Mini. The shaved-down device lacks the larger iPad's Retina Display, but that's practically its only limitation, managing to cram in dual cameras and optional high-speed wireless LTE. Its higher price of $329 is relative: Apple's tiny tablet is expensive compared with many $199 tablets, but it's a bargain compared with the $499 price of the larger iPad.

The iPad Mini also shows how smaller tablets need not be feature-stripped -- as we head to 2013, the era of the Tiny Tablet might be the norm. Packed with great battery life and a razor-thin design, the iPad Mini could redefine where tablets are used and by whom.

For more on this story, see our full review of the iPad Mini.

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