iOS 6 Removes References to Unreleased Hardware

Speaking to journalists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at this year’s All Things D conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook said his company was "doubling down" on secrecy. He wasn’t kidding.

People privy to the contents of iOS 6 betas have confirmed that Cupertino is removing all references to unreleased hardware, preventing speculators from spreading rumors about iPad minis and iPhone nanos.

Hidden code inside iOS has often churned up reliable information regarding Apple’s plans with the iDevice lineup each year. No more. Starting with iOS 6, Apple is no longer including visible code that hints at prototype testing, according to TUAW.

The USBDeviceConfiguration.plist file that usually hid this type of information is reportedly still there. And Apple is also known to be using decoy references to unreleased hardware, to throw off rumorists.