Rumor: 7.85-Inch iPad Mini Enters Production

Make way for the iPad Mini: Apple's smaller tablet has entered mass production in Asia, according to a report at the Wall Street Journal. The new iPad's display will be 7.85 inches diagonally, slightly larger than the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD. It will probably be slightly more expensive than those tablets too; we're betting $300 to $350.

The WSJ reports that the iPad Mini will have a lower resolution than the most recent iPad's 9.7" display, which makes perfect sense, though we'd be surprised if Apple gave it a non-Retina screen just to keep costs low.

Will Apple announce its down-sized tablet this month, in lieu of its customary October music event? And if it does, will you buy one? Let us know in the comments.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

iSorry - A History of Apple's Apologies

Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a public apology for Apple's new Maps app today, stating that the company "fell short" of "the same incredibly high standard" its customers expect it to meet.

This isn't Apple's first apology and probably won't be its last, but it may be its most satisfying.

It's not hard to see why a consumer-electronics company wouldn't want to admit its mistakes too definitively; beyond the risk of class action suits, it can be bad for a company's reputation. Because, the fact is, apologies make for news. (Yes, we realize we're complicit in this.)

But historically, Apple's apologies (we came up with ten) have often left something to be desired. Coupled with the sometimes unreasonable expectations it encourages in its customers, Apple's understandable restraint in acknowledging problems might come off as smug or prevaricating. Still, what's more repellant than an insincere apology?

Here's our account of Apple's reluctant admissions that even Apple makes mistakes over the last five years, complete with background info and a bit of kindergarten-culture commentary.

Sorry You Paid So Much for Your iPhone. (Sept 2007)

This is actually Apple's first on-record public apology we could find. Two months after the original iPhone was released, it got a pretty major price-drop: $200 across the board. The 8GB iPhone went from $599 to $399. Understandably, anybody who'd bought the iPhone when it first launched (or, worse, the day before it got a price drop) felt cheated.

Did Apple give them their $200 back? iDon'tThinkSo. But it did offer them $100 in store credit. And Steve Jobs actually said "We apologize for disappointing some of you." And Apple's price drops since have been more predictable.Of course, Jobs' apology came after three lengthy paragraphs explaining why dropping the iPhone's price was the right decision - that a bigger user-base would be better for everyone with an iPhone, and that "if you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you'll never buy any technology product."

And he was right about both those things. But he didn't acknowledge that what bothered folks was the capricious nature of the price-drop. There's a reason the rhythmic life cycle of iPhone models (and prices) is foreseeable these days.

Source: Apple

Sorry (And Sorry Again) MobileMe Is Broken. (July 2008)

The precursor to iCloud (and successor to .Mac) had a bumpy launch, with server problems, a broken webapp and other bugs. And because advertised MobileMe's cloud syncing as "push", users were disappointed to find that their computers would only sync every 15 minutes.

Apple's response in this case was refreshingly sincere: "we are going to stop using the word ‘push’ until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too. [And] we want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge."

Not bad! Of course, that apology came in an email...

Source: Wired

Sorry About Baby Shaker. (Apr 2009)

The same week the App Store saw its billionth download, Apple pulled an app that had users quiet a crying baby by, well, shaking their phones.

The app was discovered by a Shaken Baby Syndrome advocacy group, but by the time they'd organized a protest and alerted the media, Apple had already pulled the app and issued its biggest apology yet:

"This app is deeply offensive and should not have been approved for distribution on the App Store. We sincerely apologize for this mistake."

But Patrick Donohue, founder of the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, wasn't satisfied. Citing Apple's refusal to release its criteria for App Store gatekeeping, he said Apple's statement was "directed at the media to kill the story. This is the most cynical apology I have ever seen."

Source: Information Week

Sorry the iPhone 4 Is Our Hottest Phone Ever. (June 2010)

Check out Apple's bragpology after high pre-order demand for the iPhone 4 crashed its site:

"Yesterday Apple … took pre-orders for more than 600,000 iPhone 4s. It was the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day and … many of our order and approval systems malfunctioned. Many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration. We apologize to everyone who encountered difficulties, and hope that they will try again."

Source: Apple

Sorry You're Holding Your iPhone 4 Wrong. (July 2010)

Remember Antennagate, when just touching part of an iPhone 4's aluminum side might drop a call? Apple didn't apologize for this one at first, recommending that iPhone 4 owners "avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases," and calling the problem "a fact of life for every wireless phone."

When people still insisted the issue was way worse on the iPhone 4 than any phone they'd ever used, Apple released a second statement, explaining that the "dramatic drop in bars" was caused by phones falsely displaying more bars than the signal strength called for. "The formula we [have used] to calculate how many bars … to display is totally wrong," Apple told the press, before explaining that the problem would be "fixed" by a software update that made the first three bars bigger and easier to see.

Apple did remind customers that they had 30 days to return their iPhone if they didn't like it, but the statement maintained that "the iPhone 4's wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped," and its guidelines for technical support staff still instructed, "We ARE NOT appeasing customers with free bumpers – DON'T promise a free bumper to customers."

Source: Engadget, Apple, Gizmodo

Sorry Our Last Apology Sucked. (July 2010)

Thought Antennagate was over? So did Apple, but customers and the media had other plans.

While Apple never recalled the iPhone 4 or admitted to a design flaw, it did eventually offer some customers a free bumper case, and the phone's antenna design was eventually quietly revised to fix it.

Siri: "Sorry My Servers Are Down." (Nov 2011)

In early November last year, early adopter of the iPhone 4S experienced Siri outages. Her servers may have been down, but Siri still had the manners to say, "Sorry I am having trouble connecting to the network."

Sorry Siri's Pro-Life. (Dec 2011)

If you lived in New York and asked Siri for directions to the nearest abortion clinic, it would have told you last December that she couldn't find any. If you lived in DC, Siri would have taken you to an anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy center".

When Nancy Keenan of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League brought the issue to Apple's attention, Tim Cook responded personally:

"While [Siri] can find a lot, it doesn't always find what you want. These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone, it simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better and we will in the coming weeks."

Calling it a "glitch" isn't exactly an apology, but if that's all it was, maybe an apology wasn't warranted.

Source: Business Insider

Sorry the Galaxy Tab Isn't Cool Enough to Be an iPad Knockoff. (Coming Soon)

Back in July, Apple lost an infringement case against Samsung in the UK. In his ruling, Judge Birss said the Galaxy Tabs "are not as cool" as the iPad.

But he also ordered Apple to print a public apology to Samsung for accusing it of design theft. Apple has a stay on this order until the appeal is heard in October, so check back soon to find out just how awesome Apple's next apology is.

Source: Bloomberg

What do you want to see your favorite (or least favorite) electronics company apologize for? Let us know in the comments.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

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Watch The New Paranormal Activity 4 Trailer

Check out the brand new second trailer for Paranormal Activity 4, opening in theaters October 19:

Via Apple iTunes.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Would You Like an Adapter with That?

At Apple's announcement earlier this week they unveiled a wealth of new accessories to go with their new products. But while some are great additions, others are downright annoying. Here's the scoop on the new accessories:

THE GOOD:

EarPods with remote and mic ($29)

We haven't had a chance to blast Passion Pit through these little guys yet, but we're optimistic about Apple's updated earbuds, which will ship with all the new iPhones and iPods.

They were certainly in need of a re-design. Even if you somehow managed to keep the things from falling out, they blasted sound right at your concha (the bowl-shaped part of your outer ear behind the ear canal), which actually amplifies the sound away from your ears and toward the people on the bus around you. The new EarPods, for which Apple took design cues from high-end earbud makers like Bose and Shure, direct sound to the parts of your ear that can actually hear them.

And - another boon of being designed to fit in your ears - they might not fall out so much.

iPod Touch loops (2/$9)

Even if you wouldn't worry about dropping it while you take pictures or play accelerometer-based games, the 5th-gen iPod Touch's attachable lanyard is awesome. Here's why: if you leave it on all the time, you'll never have to cram your whole hand into your pocket to pull the device out; just tug it out by the lanyard. (Have you seen someone in skinny jeans try to pull an iPhone out of their pocket sitting down?) The loop attaches near the bottom of the device (where the headphone jack is) so this little trick will work even when you've got your headphones plugged in.

Apple's selling them in packs of two, because who are we kidding: we'll lose these little things like crazy.

THE BAD:

5W USB power adapter ($19)

One un-announced update to Apple's iDevice line: the classic white, cube-shaped wall-to-USB adapter. As far as we can tell, this new version is 100% identical to the old one; it's just $10 cheaper. Of course, that's still $19 for an accessory that probably costs $3 to make. Whatever you do, just don't order the $29 version by mistake; for some reason it's still showing up in the store.

THE ANNOYING:

Lighting to 30-pin adapter ($29) and adapter-cable ($39)

We get it, Apple. You love your proprietary hardware. We'll admit those reversible "Lightning" cables are a step up from your 30-pin silliness; heck, they're maybe even better than micro-USB. But thirty (or forty) bucks for this tiny converter? Come on!

Forget that our old iPhone docks won't actually work as docks with the lightning-port. Pricing the converters like this straight-up punishes any customer who doesn't throw out their old accessories and buy new ones whenever they buy a new phone, all the while masquerading as a concession for those of us who'd rather not.

Will you buy any of these direct from Apple or wait for 3rd-party alternatives? Let us know in the comments.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com