There have been many rumors of Apple working on a possible 7.85″ Mini iPad in their lab. Well on  Talk Show podcast, DaringFireball’s John Gruber was able to confirm the existence of the smaller tablet in Apple’s Labs.

When asked by Dan Benjamin about a 7.85″ iPad release, Gruber responded:

Well, I don’t know. What I do know is that they have one in the lab…a 7.85 inch iPad that runs at 1024×768… it’s just like the 9.7″ iPad shrunk down a little bit. Apps wouldn’t need to be recompiled or redesigned to work optimally on it. It’s just the iPad smaller.

Gruber has revealed accurate information in the past regarding Apple products but reminds us that Apple has many prototype products that never get to see the light of day.

The unit would run at 1024 x 768 and wouldn’t require developers to re-code their games. I was skeptical of Apple working on a smaller non-retina iPad, but I believe it’s just something Apple is toying with.

[via macrumors]