The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has started “mass production of a new tablet computer smaller than the current iPad”.

Apple Inc.’s Asian component suppliers have started mass production of a new tablet computer smaller than the current iPad, people with knowledge of the situation said, as the Silicon Valley company tries to stay competitive against rivals such as Google Inc. GOOG -0.63% and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -0.56% that are offering smaller, less-expensive alternatives to the iPad.

They got this information from two sources who also said the smaller tablet will have a 7.85-inch liquid-crystal display with a lower resolution compared with the latest iPad model that came out in March. » Apple Has Begun Mass Production Of The iPad Mini

Ukrainianiphone.com claims they got pictures of the “upcoming” iPad mini and posted them on their website. They say that they got the parts from a source who visited the factory in Asia. In the pictures you see the plastic spacer bars, which Apple has traditionally used for 3G and 4G radio equipment, an Audio jack at the bottom and the nano SIM tray that. After the break more pictures of the LCD display and the outer case. » Photos Of “iPad Mini” Parts Showing Rear Shell & Front Panel

Earlier today we wrote that Foxconn in Brazil has begun production on the forthcoming “iPad mini”. Now a report from Philip Elmer-DeWitt noted that Apple could be sending out invitations to the launch event for the iPad mini on October 10. Philip did say that it is a “rumor we have no reason to believe”, but the source is an major Apple investor. » Apple Media Event Invitations For “iPad Mini” Going Out October 10 [Rumor]

According to a source of the Japanese blog Macotakara, Foxconn in Brazil has begun production on the forthcoming “iPad mini”. “According to my source, iPad mini was started production in Brazilian factory. I don’t have information if it has been produced in Chinese factory, yet.” Their source also said that the iPad Mini units in Brazil lack a small hole near the top center of the device’s rear shell, which some had speculated was for a microphone. » iPad Mini Production Underway In Brazil

We have seen iPad mini mockups before, but in those pictures they showed it next to existing devices like the full-size iPad or iPhone for comparison. Now new pictures showed up on Nowhereelse.fr showing the best view yet of how the device will look in the user’s hand. » New Photos Of ‘iPad Mini’ Physical Mockup

Michael Rou got his hands on both a pre-production iPhone 5 case and a pre-production iPad mini case and posted comparison photos on Flickr. The iPhone 5 and iPad mini cases you see in the picture above are based on leaked specs coming out of Foxconn factories. » iPad, iPad Mini, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 “Cases” Compared

Marco Arment “the developer of Instapaper” spotted two new iPad device codes in his logs that he believes represents the long rumored “iPad mini”. Macrumors explains “The new identifiers found were “iPad2,5” and “iPad2,6”. As Arment notes, the iPad2,1 through iPad 2,3 designations are known to represent the iPad 2’s WiFi, GSM and CDMA models. The iPad2,4 represents a die-shrunk/cheaper version of the iPad 2 that was released alongside the 3rd generation iPad. Finally, the 3rd Generation iPad carries a designation of iPad3,x“. Which means, “iPad2,5” and “iPad2,6” are new device codes and can possible be the “iPad mini”. » Possible ‘iPad Mini’ Spotted In iOS App Developer Logs