If you must, you can finally get your hands on an iPad mini as the newly shrunken tablet is now available at the Apple store starting today. As seen here, people lined up Friday to purchase the new doohickey outside the Chestnut Street Apple store in San Francisco. But lines and hype over products care of the Cupertino-based company might be dwindling. As the Mercury News points out, "a half-hour before the Palo Alto store opened its doors, about 35 customers had lined up, a sign perhaps that Apple fanboys and fangirls are growing weary of hyped product launches and the long lines that have in the past come with them."

Sure. That, and the fact that it's just an iPad. More often than not our pad gets lonely since it sits unused on our desk. Surprising since we like Apple products. However, we pretty much only use our iPad to watch TV in bed or to play the occasional game of Temple Runner. It never became the play and work magic device we had hoped it would be. Maybe because we already spend 12+ hours a day attached to a computer. (We're far more excited about the $250 [!] Chromebook that, if it's ever in stock again anywhere, we eagerly awaiting to get our paws on since we pretty much live in the Google cloud.) Perhaps we find the iPad, though undeniably gorgeous, a tad too twee. ( a recent shakeup at Apple might take care of the company's frustrating adorability problem.) Anyway, go and get your iPad mini if the mood should strike.

Also queued up today? People in dire need of food, gas, and public transportation due to devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. But devastation or not, New Yorkers also want the iPad mini as well.