Apple's "iProd" Coming Soon?
August 4, 2009
Ars Technica is reporting that iPhone OS 3.1 beta contains an updated configuration file that references a mysterious device known only as iProd1,1. iProd0,1 was initially discovered sometime in mid-March in an earlier version of the same configuation file in an iPhone OS 3.0 beta release, but it had since disappeared from our minds, at least until today.
The iProd1,1 device has been assigned a new productID of 4762 (versus 4757 of iProd0,1) and assigned a different ConfigurationDescriptor of "standardMuxPTPEthernet." iPhone models also have this designation, and the additional interface identified in the plist for this configuration is "AppleUSBEthernet." The consensus here seems to be that the new device may have gained high-speed networking capabilities—though the iPhone uses the interface to tether to a laptop to share its 3G connection.Since the numerical identifier has gone from 0,1 to 1,1, it is assumed that the rumored product may be approaching a public release. Apple hasn't ever shipped a product with the leading number of the identifier being a zero, since that usually indicates the device is a prototype. These identifiers have been fair indicators of future products in the past. The iPhone2,1 identifier first discovered in January turned out to be the iPhone 3GS. What "iProd" is, however, remains to be seen. Ars Technica speculates that it could be one of many rumored Apple devices, such as a tablet, iPod nano with a camera, or even the legendary iPhone nano. So what do you think "iProd" will turn out to be?