We all know that when it comes to pre-release version of iOS there is generally no stone left unturned by those that love ripping through the internals to see what they can find. The latest iOS 7 beta SDK release is no different. This time though a keen eyed developed has spotted that Apple is testing out an enhanced iPad mini and this evidence was discovered deep inside a hidden file in the SDK.
This file lists all the Apple mobile devices that are capable of supporting the latest firmware version which is iOS 7. Additional informaiton found within the iOS 7 firmware seems to backup the existence of three new iPad mini devices and the model numbers given are iPad2,8, iPad2,9 and iPad2,10. For those who prefer internal talk, these are referenced as J75, J76 and J77. The iPad2,8 model is on teh s518950x platform which refers to the current generation A6 processor that can be found in the iPhone 5. The existence of a minature iPad with a bumped up processor spec will definitely bring a smile to plenty of faces.
It is great news that Apple is testion out iPad mini models with faster processing capabilities but the internal files also bring with them some sad news and that is the lack of any reference to higher resolution graphical assesets which indicates that none of these iPad models have retina display. An additional set of files has to be added to apps for retina capable devices all of which are sppended with @2x to allow iOS to differentiate between the different image sizes. These references are missing from the exposed information.
It is worth pointing out, that Apple is consistently testing out different specification of their publicly available product and very few of these actually make it into the hands of the end user. We did have reports early this year that the retina iPad mini wouldn't be made available until 2014 and today's report seems to confirm this.
