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Those of you interested in a 3G or 4G iPad can score $ 100 off the full price, but you’ll have to pony up the monthly costs for a two-year contract with AT&T.

The carrier is selling both new and refurbished versions of the iPad 2 and the third-gen iPad. For example, a new third-gen Wi-Fi + 4G LTE model with 16GB of storage sells for $ 479, down from the regular price of $ 579. A refurbished edition of the same model goes for $ 429. Meanwhile, a new iPad 2 with Wi-Fi + 3G and 64GB of storage will cost you $ 529.

AT&T is focusing on the older iPads as the iPad Mini and iPad 4 are not available through this offer.

Not interested in an iPad? The deal extends to a few other tablets.

You can get a new Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1-inch tablet for $ 399 and a refurbished Galaxy Tab 8.9-inch unit for just $ 249. A couple of Pantech Element tablets and an HTC Jetstream are also up for grabs as part of the deal.

OK, so what about the two-year commitment? AT&T offers you several options.

Current subscribers with an AT&T Mobile Share plan can add a tablet for an extra $ 10 per month. This plan gives you a pool of data — anywhere from 1GB to 20GB — to share among other devices.

Otherwise, you can opt for an AT&T DataConnect plan, which provides 250MB a month for $ 15, 3GB for $ 30, or 5GB for $ 50.

This could be a good deal for people with the Mobile Share plan since it adds just $ 10 a month. Those who’d need to kick in for a DataConnect plan may want to first weigh your options. Both Sprint and Verizon offer contract-free data plans for the iPad and other tablets.

The Nexus 10′s battery is a bit disappointing compared with what the iPad offers.

(Credit: Eric Franklin/CNET)

With all the hoopla about the relative graphics performance of the fourth-generation iPad and the Nexus 10, it’s easy to forget another important performance metric: battery life.

Battery life dictates how long you can actually use the unit before it requires a recharge, so I’d say it’s pretty darn important. So important in fact that it gets its own blog post. Here I pit the last two generations of iPad, the iPad Mini, the Nexus 7, and the Nexus 10 against each other in a take-no-prisoners battery blood bath! Or acid bath I guess.

The results
The results speak for themselves, but if you need further explanation, continue reading after the chart.

How we tested battery life
I evaluated battery life the same way I do for all tablets: by continually running a movie file until the tablet’s battery dies.

I set each tablet to Airplane Mode and adjusted their respective brightnesses to 150 candelas per square meter (cd/m2) or as close to that number as possible. The iPads were running version 6.0.1 of iOS; the Nexus 10 ran Android 4.2, while the Nexus 7 was running Android 4.1.2.

I ran the 720p iTunes iPad version of the recent “Avengers” movie on the iPad and the Google Play version of the same movie on the Nexus 10 and Nexus 7, each movie playing through the tablet’s native default video players.

The final score is an average of two full runs on each tablet, with the two numbers coming within 5 percent of each other.

The iPad continues its tablet-battery-life dominance.

(Credit: Eric Franklin/CNET)

Analysis
The iPad continues its battery life dominance over all other tablets. Not the flagship iPad, but the previous-generation iPad and iPad Mini as well. At 13.1 hours, the latest and greatest iPad lasted longer than any previous tablet.

The two smaller tablets on the list make a strong showing, with the Mini posting an impressive 12.1 hours. Very few Android tablets last over 10 hours, but the Nexus 7 achieved the almost mythical feat with 10.1 hours.

The now 8-months-old-and-busted iPad (third generation) still manages to make an impressive showing with 11.4 hours of life.

Google claimed the Nexus 10 would support 9 hours of video playback on a single charge. In CNET’s test it gets close, but doesn’t quite hit that target, lasting a slightly disappointing 8.4 hours; however, that’s only slightly lower than the 8.5 hours we saw from the Asus Transformer Infinity.

The big takeaway here is just how impressive the iPad Mini’s battery is. Its screen may not be as impressive as the Nexus 7′s, but the extra 2 hours of life the Mini is capable of may make all the difference, depending on your needs.

Keep checking our battery-testing results chart for updates on all tablet battery life.

Now that the iPad line has split into two families, the Mini and the Retina, it might make you wonder where the iPad, as a product, is heading. I’ve wondered it, too, even going back to the days before the Mini. The third-gen Retina Display iPad was such a complete product that it made me curious: where could iPads go next?

As the days go on since reviewing the iPad Mini, I look back and forth between both the “large iPad” and the Mini. I carry both around. I use them around my home and outside. They’re awfully similar in experience, different in size and speed. But I think there’s something else going on. I think iPads, to some degree, are entering a transition.

The iPad Mini = the evolution of the iPad as we know it
The 9.7-inch “large iPad” has looked pretty similar over its first four generations. Even from iPad to iPad 2, the biggest design leap, things looked pretty much the same. The iPad Mini is the single biggest design shift: thinned bezels, a more iPhone/iPod-like design, and a far more portable feel.

If the Mini is the shrunken iPad 2, then next year’s Mini could be the new iPad 3, or 4. Next year, I expect it will get a few extra features (Retina Display) and will become a truly perfect device for e-reading, media viewing, gaming, and apps. It’s the most affordable and the most portable iPad, thus it’ll be the one many people will flock to.

So, where does that leave the larger iPad?

The third-gen iPad with Logitech’s keyboard case. Close in spirit to the Surface.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Large iPad: Vanguard of new tech, MacBook Air apparent
I currently recommend the fourth-gen iPad over the Mini as the best-in-class iPad for its performance and its wonderful display, but the gap between it and the Mini is smaller than you’d think. The iPod and iPod Mini had a difference, and it was storage capacity. Currently, the large and small iPads are different mainly in processor and screen quality. Those are important aspects, but ones that not every user will care about or appreciate (in the laptop landscape, it’s like the difference between ultrabooks and Netbooks).

We can pick obvious ideas for the next iPad, like a quad-core processor and increased storage. Beyond that, I’m not sure what comes next…except for the iPad to make another leap into being a laptop-alternative mobile computer.

What about using the large iPad as the place where iOS and Mac OS X meet? I’ve wondered about this junction for years, and while iOS and OS X have gotten closer in many ways, I think the time will come where the iPad can take another big step.

Let’s face it: the iPad’s already made many of those steps, spiritually. I use a keyboard with mine regularly. Many people blog from them or use them as redefined PCs.

The Surface: New expectations for tablets?

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

The Surface and Windows 8 are paving the way for fusion and convertible devices. While some of these design concepts may click with users, many others will undoubtedly fail. Maybe that paves the way for Apple to develop its own hybrid in a few years. Add a keyboard and trackpad, and Mac cross-compatibility to the iPad, and it could be a tweener device.

Microsoft’s Surface and Windows 8 tablets show the way for a true hybrid. The Surface ads, as my wife reminded me, are compelling. The attaching of the keyboard to use anywhere, the laptop-meets-tablet sexiness.

The iPad already comes close to being a true computer replacement, but it’s not quite there yet. The iPad has keyboards (I’ve reviewed most of them), but they’re generally just typing accessories. They lack trackpads. You can’t control the iPad like you can a regular laptop.

Frankly, Apple doesn’t need to be as aggressive as Microsoft. The iPad is a huge success. The App Store dominates. iOS is a massive platform. For all these reasons, Apple is taking a road of continuing current success, building more similar devices. The time for change simply hasn’t arrived.

Will it ever happen with Apple? I don’t think that time comes next year, or even the year after that. There will be a time, though, when iOS and OS X need to combine. Windows 8 is a harbinger of the future. Microsoft doesn’t have an app platform, hence Windows 8. Apple needs to simply bring both of its platforms and operating systems together, because iOS is becoming, in many ways, much larger than a mobile platform. It’s becoming Apple’s primary software landscape.

Mac OS X is already up to 10.8. What comes when we hit 11? I’ve always sensed it would be the moment where both of Apple’s operating systems fused into one iOS-meets-OS X universe.

Desktop iMacs are getting thinner. So are MacBooks. Both feel, in terms of design, closer to the iPad’s spirit. It’s not a big leap to imagine grafting a keyboard onto an iPad. It could be the ultimate touch-screen Mac. Maybe it becomes an iPad when undocked, a MacBook Air when docked. Maybe it can pop onto a desk and become a mini-iMac, shades of the old PowerBook Duo.

I don’t know if this is what Apple envisions, but I can’t imagine the iPad continuing on a separate path from Macs forever. Either OS X eventually gives way, or both environments evolve. On a larger iPad, it seems like these worlds could finally meet once processors take another big leap forward and cloud services continue to improve.

If and when that happens, the large iPad is poised to be lynchpin to a Surface-like device for Apple. First, Apple needs to jump back into the keyboard-accessory landscape. Second, iOS needs to support a more Mac-like environment. There are likely to be other surprises, too.

For the immediate future, the iPad looks like it’s very happy staying the course with two lines of attractive products. After that, I hope the iPad and iOS become as aggressively forward-looking as I’d like them to be. Right now, the future experimentation belongs to Microsoft. The stability belongs to Apple.

The iPad Mini.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

The iPad Mini has been in consumers’ hands for only a few days, but we already have a better idea of what’s in Apple’s new tablet and how much it costs to make.

A teardown of the device conducted by IHS concluded that the base 16GB Wi-Fi model, which Apple sells for $ 329, costs about $ 188 to build, according to an All Things D report. The 32GB and 64GB models cost an additional $ 90 and $ 162 to build, respectively, the firm found.

In addition to the cost of materials, the teardown also revealed the identities of some of the device’s component suppliers. LG Display and AU Optronics supplied the 7.9-inch touch-sensitive display components, which cost about $ 80, or about 43 percent of the device’s total bill of materials.

Because Apple has tapped LGD and AUO instead of Samsung for its display panels, the market for panels is expected to be tight initially, said Richard Shim, an analyst at NPD DisplaySearch. The problem, he said, lies with AUO.

“The problem is that AUO is a new supplier, and they’re not able to get to the volumes that Apple needs,” Shim wrote in a blog post late last month. “So, essentially, there’s just one supplier,”

A teardown conducted by iFixit after the device went on sale Friday found that Samsung remains the manufacturer of Apple’s A5 processor, despite the companies’ acrimonious relationship. iFixit also confirmed that the new tablet sports stereo speakers.

IHS’ teardown also revealed that South Korean chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor supplied the flash memory, while Japan’s Elpida manufactured the system memory, which amounted to about $ 15.50 of the materials cost.

Cirrus Logic provided an audio chip, while STMicroelectronics manufactured the accelerometer, which senses physical position changes of the device. However, the identity of the camera manufacturer was not discernible.