The latest rumour going around is that Apple is planning on releasing a smaller version of its iPad, and they're going to call it the iPad Mini. According to Mashable, the Cupertino-based company is facing some stiff competition from the Amazon Kindle Fire and is responding with a junior version of its tablet. The screen size of this rumoured device will be 7.85 inches, which is about 2 inches smaller than the current iPad's 10-inch screen. LG is rumoured to be in talks with Apple about manufacturing these smaller screens. The screen resolution will stay at its current 1024x768 pixels, so apps will not need modification to function on the smaller screen. The device is rumoured to be launched, late next year. Smaller is bigger? This mini version of the iPad goes against what Steve Jobs wanted. Jobs believed that the ideal size for a tablet is 10 inches and that there are 'clear limits on how close you can place things on a touchscreen'. Other rumours on the next iPad are that the device is going to be thicker than the iPad 2. This rumour says that the next iPad will be out in early 2012, though, which means it may not be the same device as the iPad Mini. The other Apple device rumoured to go mini was the iPhone, but for now, those rumours have been put to rest. The iPhone mini was supposed to battle head on with lower-end Android devices.

Aweek back, we covered a news about a report by Accuvant, according to which Chrome was the most secure browser, ahead of Internet Explorer and Firefox. NSS Labs, another security researching and testing firm has put out a report that states that the Accuvant report was paid for by Google and the tests were completed back in July 2011. The report comes out soon after Google’s contract with Mozilla for the search bar in Firefox expired in November. NSS says that the report was biased because there is a possibility that Google influenced the kind of tests that were used to test the three products - Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox. Tests for features in Firefox were not highlighted - frame poisoning is one such example stated. 

Falsely accused, says NSS Labs

NSS Labs monitored an 11-day period, starting from the 22nd of November and went on till the 2nd of December. It noticed that there was an increase in protection against malware from 8 percent to 40 percent. Firefox and Safari saw a drop of 2 percent, in comparison during the same period. NSS Labs has made it clear that their testing and research, which is in progress is independent. There were some key points that NSS Labs emphasised on - the number of updates brought out, means there are issues with the browser. The malware lists and samples were from the public domain and are not the ideal ones to use.