back to article Apple has 7.85in 'iPad Mini' in its labs

Well-connected Apple blogger John Gruber reckons Cupertino's other tablet company - the iPad guys, not the ones working on Amazon's Kindle - are indeed messing around with 7.85in iPad prototypes. "They have one in the lab," he says, "that runs at 1024 x 768 and its just like the 9.7in iPad shrunk down. It's just the iPad, …

COMMENTS

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  1. Is it me?

    Hmmmm

    So that'll be an extra £100 for the compact size will it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hmmmm

      No, that would be stupid.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hmmmm

      Now the others will be back to playing catch up.

      1. Darryl
        Gimp

        Re: Now the others will be back to playing catch up.

        Yeah, they'll be all like "Apple has a 7" tablet! We'd better start making one too!" Then they'll remember that they've been making one for a couple years already.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Now the others will be back to playing catch up.

          No they'll just be saying 'sh*t now our products look bargain basement'

  2. James 51

    rather to expand the premium range

    I thought apple was all premium?

  3. Anonymous Coward 15
    Joke

    iPad Mini

    For those lighter-flow months.

  4. Chris 171
    Mushroom

    ipad is too big & wrist bendingly heavy already.

    So a smaller one doesnt surprise me, meh all the same.

    Mines the one with a Tablet S in the pocket.

    1. Wyrdness
      FAIL

      Re: ipad is too big & wrist bendingly heavy already.

      My 3 year old can manage the size and weight of an iPad quite happily. You must have very weak wrists.

      1. Chris 171

        Re: ipad is too big & wrist bendingly heavy already.

        Really? And it's not on a rest / stand for 99% of the time?

        Ergonomic disaster when hand holding any tab for more than a few mins imo.

        Think of the children....

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: ipad is too big & wrist bendingly heavy already.

      This rumoured size shrink doesn't address the main issue, this will still be too big because of Apple's antiquated aspect ratio.

      The current crop of 7 inch wide screen tablets fit quite nicely into a coat pocket, this new iPad won't because it will be too wide.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Antiquated aspect ratio?

        Why do you think the aspect ratio of a tablet should match that of e.g. your TV?

        Since I use my iPad mostly for reading e-books and web pages, it makes sense for it to have an aspect ratio closer to that of a book. I just took a random sample of books off my shelf and checked, and most of them were closer to the iPad's ratio than that of a widescreen TV.

        In fact, sometimes I get annoyed that the text on a web page is so wide that it makes the print too small in portrait mode on my iPad, so I switch to landscape and am annoyed that I can see so few lines of text. Having a 16:9 aspect ratio would make this annoyance MUCH worse.

        1. M Gale

          Re: Antiquated aspect ratio?

          Aspect ratio closer to that of a book?

          You ever held a Galaxy Tab 7? It's an airport-size book tablet. Absolutely perfect size and aspect for a paperback, why is it so awful in a tablet?

          On what planet is a paperback page closer to 4:3 than 16:9, or do all your books come with wooden pages and pop-up animals inside?

  5. Glenn Amspaugh
    Coat

    Of course they do

    Apple has a pretty large R&D budget and it's not like they work on a single form device and assume it'll work. They probably have iPad type devices all the way from 4" screens up to the Pear Pad size. <http://victorious.wikia.com/wiki/File:RobbiePearPad.jpg>

    Mine's the one with multiple sized pockets.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Fragmentation disaster

    Apple software is already more fragmented than Android (which was designed from the outset to be used on different devices, different sizes and different resolutions).

    1. Antidisestablishmentarianist
      Trollface

      Re: Fragmentation disaster

      Sorry to interrupt the good time you're having, but please read the article this time.

    2. Silverburn
      Facepalm

      Re: Fragmentation disaster

      Ha, ha I get it.

      Wait..you didn't mean it as a joke? Oh dear...

    3. RichyS
      Stop

      Re: Fragmentation disaster

      Dear Barry Shitforbrains,

      Do you ever have anything worthwhile to say?

      Love and kisses,

      The Internet

  7. PoiuyTerry

    Ahh, that must be the iPhone 5.

    I literally can not wait.

  8. esque

    So will that be one more thing where Apple/Steve Jobs once said 'nobody needs that, we'll never do that' that's now taken back?

    Well, I have an 8" XGA resolution Android tablet for a while now, so I don't need to hold my breath...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Jobs can't ever be wrong?

      I love how Apple haters cling desperately to any of Jobs's inconsistencies or incorrect predictions or mistakes, as if that proves ... what? That nobody should use Apple products?

      Show me the non-Apple industry leader that always gets everything right. Ballmer?

  9. Gio Ciampa
    Pint

    Where's Florian?

    Well done! El Reg finally found someone else to quote! ;^D

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This will sell and sell...

    ...thanks to slack-jawed drooling fanbois like me.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This will sell and sell...

      After experience with my first and new iPad I am sooo excited I will buy two.

      They will make the competition look............

      Second rate.

  11. Paul Wells

    Does no one rememember the iPod?

    If you want a small iPad just get an iPod Touch.

    1. Silverburn

      Re: Does no one rememember the iPod?

      Maybe that's what this'll be marketed as - a touch pro, rather than an iPad mini.

      If its even made. It's all still just speculation guys, remember...

  12. admiraljkb
    Joke

    I'm thinking the product name should be ...

    iPAD Lite

    Then the LTE edition would be:

    iPAD Lite LTE

    yeah yeah, I know.

  13. andreas koch
    Meh

    oooooh, a new Apple product

    Ooooooh

    yes, oooooooh

    please when can I queue up?

    Soon, please! Apple! Apple!

    yawn.

    1. the-it-slayer
      Pint

      Re: oooooh, a new Apple product

      Yawn at your yawning.

      Oh wait, sorry, that was infectious.

      Beers please!

  14. ItsNotMe
    Coat

    Over Steve's dead body will Apple make a small tablet...

    ...oh wait...

  15. Christian Berger

    Now with New Hat

    Just like the new Malibu Stacy.

  16. Rob Moir

    "In the lab"

    Companies have all kinds of things in "the lab". Any company that produces any product, any hardware or software, will have several prototypes on the go at once.

    Doesn't mean they'll all become actual shipping products. Doesn't mean they won't either. But the idea that Apple have prototype iPads "in the lab" isn't really news, is it? Next you'll run an article on how Microsoft have "pre-beta" versions of "Windows 9" in their labs or that Apple have iOS 6 or a version of OSX after Mountain Lion in R&D.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The seven-incher (fnarr) might surprise you

    I've just had to get an ICS tablet for professional reasons, despite being no big fan of Android, and £119 bought me a CloudNine NeuroPad2 from Amazon, a seven-incher with ICS pre-loaded. And (I admit) to my complete surprise, seven inches seems a very nice form factor to me; browsing, Office etc all work pleasantly. The device even fits in my inside jacket pocket (due to thinness) - kinda like having a Psion on me again. Bit of a surprise really.

  18. Gil Grissum
    Pint

    If they do it...

    Due to the inerds matching the existing iPad 2, the only change is the casing and the screen. Shouldn't cost them much to shrink those to seven inch size. Then they get rid of all iPad 2 stock while claiming a new form factor for existing technology. Would've bought into that if I didn't already have an iPad 2. Existing iPad and iPad 2 owners have no reason to buy one but those who still don't have a Tablet may want the 7" form factor.

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