Once again we ask, is this the Apple iPad mini?

As we start the beginning of a new work week, once again we are greeted with pictures of what is claimed to be the Apple iPad mini. Looking at the device sitting on top of the current iPad, you can see the difference in size between the two. Another difference is the two rear speakers on the iPad mini compared to the one on the larger model. Additionally, the Apple iPad mini uses the new digital lightning connector.

Of course, this could simply be a mockup of the 7.85 inch tablet that is rumored to be less than a week away from being officially announced withj speculation falling on October 17th. After all, plenty of those mockups of the Apple iPhone 5 were photographed and not one was the real thing. However, and this is important, most of the mockups turned out to bepretty darn close to the real thing and we're thinking that the same could be happening again with the Apple iPad mini.

Apple could be pricing the mini version of its tablet at a price to compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and the 8GB variant of the Google Nexus 7, both priced at $199. Screen protectors are on sale for the unannounced device at Zagg.com. And in case you're interested, the pictures come from the Twitter account of Sonny Dickson

source: SonnyDickson, via BusinessInsider, Mashable