Apple appears to be testing the next version of its operating system for mobile devices, iOS 6. At least, that’s what device access logs to websites, including Mashable, seem to indicate.
The initial report came from Ars Technica, which says it discovered something unusual in its web logs. The technology site recorded several visits from browsers running on devices that claimed to be running iOS 6. There were also devices that were accessing the site on screens with a resolution of 2,048 x 1,536 — the rumored pixel count of the iPad 3.
Mashable checked its own logs and indeed found a few visits from devices claiming to be running iOS 6. Some claim to be iPhones and others iPads. Checking the IP address info of those visits with an online database revealed they came from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. However, the only machines with 2,048 x 1,536 resolution seen in Mashable‘s logs were running Google Chrome, so they couldn’t be iPads.
Here’s a sample of some of our logs (apparently the Apple testers liked our compilation of the Best Sh*t People Say Videos):
17.202.39.47 – - [24/Feb/2012:14:03:59 -0600] “GET /2012/01/27/best-shit-people-say-videos/ HTTP/1.1″ 200 15974 “http://m.digg.com/newsbar/topnews/15_best_sh_t_people_say_videos” “Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/535.8 (KHTML, like Gecko)”
17.202.39.47 – - [22/Feb/2012:12:38:13 -0600] “GET /2012/01/27/best-shit-people-say-videos/ HTTP/1.1″ 200 15975 “http://m.digg.com/newsbar/topnews/15_best_sh_t_people_say_videos” “Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/535.8 (KHTML, like Gecko)”
The current version of Apple’s mobile software is iOS 5. Apple typically previews new versions of its mobile OS at a developers conference in the spring. Apple reps didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment.
As Ars notes, there’s at least one other product on the market with the so-called “retina” resolution that the iPad 3 is expected to have. But, obviously, nothing runs iOS 6 — unless it’s an Apple employee testing software by browsing the Internet. The most recent version is iOS 5.1, but that’s only been made available to developers.
On Tuesday, Apple sent out invitations to an event on March 7. The company holds upcoming products to the utmost secrecy. Apple almost never reveals product information until it is on the verge of release. It’s a big part of the allure the company’s brand has cultivated, and why Apple rumors have such currency.
Still, it’s impossible for Apple to keep everything it’s doing under wraps. It needs to test its products in real-world environments to ensure that the work properly. That can lead to information being released prematurely, which most notoriously happened when an Apple employee lost a prototype iPhone in a bar in 2010 only to have it fall into the hands of tech blog Gizmodo.
Whereas that was a careless accident, the discovery of retina iPads running iOS 6 is more of a natural consequence. After all, Apple must test its software with the real Internet at some point, and that testing will leave tracks.
Apple isn’t expected to release iOS 6 at Wednesday’s event, but is probably testing it now in advance of a spring unveiling.
What would you like to see in iOS 6? Give Apple some tips in the comments.
Source: Mashable
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