Apple Begins iOS 6.0 Testing

Server log entries identified as coming from Apple’s Cupertino campus in California indicate that iOS 6.0 testing is underway using iPad tablet computers and an unreleased version of WebKit, the layout engine designed to allow iTunes and Apple’s Safari web browser to render web pages.

While looking at iPad user agents coming from Apple's corporate IP block in Cupertino, California, Ars Technica recently discovered that Apple was accessing the Internet from iPads running iOS 6.0. Or so say the web logs highlighted in yellow in the screenshot to the left (click to enlarge).

Looking at the bigger picture, we can see that Apple is testing how the web displays on iPads running iOS 5, iOS 5.0.1 (the current version available to the general population), iOS 5.1 (the beta OS currently being tested by Apple developers worldwide), and, finally, iOS 6.

The iOS 6 test machines also appear to be using a newer version of WebKit - build 535.8.

With the iPad 3 on its way next week, and Apple putting the finishing touches on iOS 5.1 GM builds, we can safely assume that the iOS 6 unveiling will be reserved for the iPhone 5 launch later on this year.

There has been much debate as to whether the next iPhone will be confirmed at the next annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 12) this summer, or later, in fall - just like the iPhone 4S.

Sources quoted by Japanese blog Macotakara, whose reporting on Apple rumors has been somewhat accurate lately, said “[the] next iPhone will be released in September or October.” Moreover, the sources said in February, Apple plans to keep this cycle “for years.”

Apple was already believed to have shifted the iPhone refresh cycle to fall, due to its delayed iPhone refresh last year.

Posted in: Mobile Phone, News, Preview, Software, Tablet