Edible Apple

Last week, Apple seeded iPhone OS 3.1 to developers, who were quick to find new data strings in the USB preference file which seem to suggest that Apple has an entirely new product in the works.  The data string makes reference to “iProd0,1” and “iProd1,1”.  MacRumors notes that the first “iProd0,1” reference was spotted a few months ago, but the new “iProd1,1” string suggests that whatever product is being referenced, it’s seen a significant upgrade.

As a quick primer, the above data strings are used internally to refer to various hardware models of iPhones and iPods etc.  Minor hardware upgrades result in the second digit increasing (i.e iPod 1,1 to iPod 1,2) whereas major hardware upgrades result in the first digit increasing, as is the case here (iProd 0,1 to iProd 1,1).

What the iProd actually refers to, though, is anybody’s guess, but with rumors of an Apple tablet picking up steam by the day, we suppose that a tablet is as good a guess as any.  ArsTechnica also raises the notion that it may refer to the rumored camera-enabled iPod Nano, but seeing as how the new model also references Ethernet connectivity, a tablet seems like a more likely candidate.

Either way, with Apple reportedly hosting a special media event sometime in August, things are going to get interesting real soon.

via Ars Technica