Sorry y'all. (Photo: News.au)

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the meeting when Tim Cook decided a product he'd overseen was terrible enough to warrant a public apology. The (faux?) humility, the palpable disappointment.

In a letter published to the Apple website and addressed to customers, Mr. Cook apologized for the frustration that the widely-panned Apple maps has caused.

However, tech journalists everywhere are still waiting for an apology from Mr. Cook for having such a boring story dominate the news cycle, as well as giving Google a reason to act ever more smug.

In the letter, Mr. Cook wrote:

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

Mr. Cook said the team is working furiously to improve maps, but suggested alternatives while they're working on them. This has to be the first time an Apple CEO has recommended using a competitor's product. "While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app," he wrote. Awkward.

Meanwhile, Mr. Cook has yet to address iOS 6's reported wifi issues, which have left some customers unable to connect to networks. The Verge pointed us to a long thread on the Apple help forums where many users lament their newly upgrade device's inability to get wifi. No word on when that will get fixed.

Hear that? It's the rattling ghost of Steve Jobs preparing to haunt Mr. Cook forever.