Apple Makes it Difficult To Identify Future iOS Devices With Fake References in iOS 5.1 Beta

When Apple releases a new iOS software update, one of the most interesting things to do was to go through the configuration files to find out references to future iOS devices.

Unfortunately, 9 to 5 Mac reports that in iOS 5.1 beta 2 that was seeded to developers few hours back, Apple has started adding dozens of new fake references to future iOS devices such as "iPhone11,3", "iPad11,1", "iPod11,1", and "AppleTV10,3" in the USBDeviceConfiguration.plist file in an attempt to make it difficult for bloggers to identify upcoming iOS devices. In fact, it looks like Apple added the new fake entries in iOS 5.1 beta 1.

9 to 5 Mac reports:

the amusing new file Apple put in iOS 5.1 beta 2 which includes a lot of silly references to devices that don’t exist.  This isn’t entirely new – Apple had done this to another file in iOS 5.1B1.

However, as iOS hacker and developer, chpwn points out, unaltered listings are still visible in other locations.

PS: people that know what they're doing can still find proof of unreleased devices in a few certain places (not all refs are on-device)

We're quite sure that Apple will add these new fake references in those locations as well in future iOS software updates.