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Apple Inc's "iPad mini" will attract new customers but the higher-than-expected price will come as a relief to low-cost tablets such as Amazon.com Inc's Kindle, analysts said, in a muted reaction to the new tablet.

When Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) unveiled the Surface tablet in June, it pulled back the curtain on nearly three years of secret development. This Friday, buyers will finally be able to get their hands on the $499 tablet.

The full-sized iPad is like a hardback book. The new iPad Mini is the paperback version many tablet users have been waiting for.

The smaller device will officially be called the iPad Mini and be priced starting at $329, pricey when compared with popular 7-inch tablets like the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7, which start at $199. The iPad Mini will have a screen slightly smaller than 8 inches -- the original iPad has a screen just under 10 inches -- while having the same screen resolution of the larger version.

The rumors surrounding Apple's press event, scheduled for Oct. 23, are deafening. Will the Cupertino-based company announce a smaller iPad? (It had better.) Will the company offer up a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display? (Very likely!) How about an Apple-branded coffee maker? (No.)

Wow, tomorrow’s the big/little day when Apple will hopefully unveil the long-rumored iPad mini. Alongside the smaller tablet it’s speculated that we’ll see a few updates to the Mac lineup and a UI update to the popular iBooks app. What has been quietly whispering in the background is the possibility that Apple would tweak the current full-sized iPad by expanding 4G compatibility and swapping out the old 30-pin dinosaur dock in favor of the new Lightning connector debuted at the iPhone 5 launch event last month.

Apple has lost its appeal against a ruling that cleared rival Samsung of copying its registered designs for tablet computers, in a decision which could end the two firms' legal dispute on the subject across Europe.

Google has just set an Oct. 29 event in New York centered on its Android mobile software. "The playground is open" is all it says, so we are left to figure out what might land on that playground.

Foxconn Technology Group, the world's largest contract electronics maker, has acknowledged hiring teenagers as young as 14 in a Chinese factory, in breach of national law, in a case that raises further questions over its student intern program.

The world's leading chip gear maker ASML is buying U.S. group Cymer for 1.95 billion euros ($2.5 billion) to get control of a light-based technology crucial to making the smaller, smarter chips of the future.