iOS 5.1 May Bring Facebook Integration

A new discovery in iOS 5.1 beta 3 suggests that Apple is reconsidering to add Facebook integration in the software. References to next-generation hardware were also found.

To be clear, the code strings in question aren’t exactly new. They’ve only resurfaced in the latest iOS beta seeded to developers, according to Electronista.

The ‘iMore’ exploration churns up references to Facebook contact entries. Apple is known to have planned an integration with Facebook around the time iOS 4 was released, but something went wrong during discussions with the social network company and the service never got embedded.

Instead, Apple created Ping and went with Twitter integration.

References to J1 and J2 were also found. These are both codenames that have been linked to the iPad 3, according to the report.