Apple iPad Mini Event: Blog Recap

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Apple (AAPL) unveiled its iPad Mini on Tuesday, wielding the smaller-screened device as a cudgel in its battle with tablet rivals Amazon (AMZN), Samsung and Barnes & Noble (BKS) .

With a 7.9-inch display, the new iPad is both smaller and lighter than Apple's previous iPad offerings. Other features of the gadget include an A5 chip, a front-facing Face Time HD camera and a 5-megapixel iSight camera on the back.

"Others have tried to make tablets smaller than the iPad, and they have failed miserably," declared Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, who handled most of the presentation.

The company's CEO, Tim Cook, was also in attendance, telling the audience of journalists and analysts that the company recently sold its 100 millionth iPad.

Apple also launched its next-generation iPad on Tuesday, which Schiller described as "a powerhouse." Like the third-generation iPad, the fourth-generation tablet offers a 9.7-inch display, but, unlike the earlier version, contains an A6X chip and a FaceTime HD camera. The device also offers twice the Wi-Fi performance of the previous iPad models, as well as support for additional LTE carriers worldwide, according to Apple.

Other announcements on Tuesday included a new iMac, an updated Mac mini and a 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Check out TheStreet's live-blog recap above for full details of Apple's launch event.