With everyone looking for evidence of the rumoured ‘retina iPad’, we can sometimes find it difficult to separate fact from fiction. From ‘leaked’ parts of the next-generation tablet, to files which can be readily found within iOS itself.
Personally I take all rumours with a pinch of salt unless there’s a tangible piece of evidence. It just so happens, we found some today whilst compiling a list of CFBundleIndentifier and icon name changes within iOS 5.0.1r1 for use when I create a theme for the various Apple devices.
Go grab iFile or your chosen SSH program and head over to /Applications/MobilePhone.app/ and then scroll down until you find Info.plist. Within this .plist file, readily found within the iPod Touch 4, iPad 2, iPhone4/4S, you’ll find a string identifying the NotificationCenter standard icon name for iPad 2 FaceTime (Icon-FaceTime-BB~ipad). A few lines below you’ll also find a string identifying an iPad icon with “@2x” (Icon-FaceTime-BB@2x~ipad).
This is the interesting bit. The “@2x” section defines the icon for a Retina display, not for the standard resolution found on the iPad 2. Check out the screenshots for reference. Unfortunately I haven’t found the retina iPad icon in question but the reference is definitely there.
This could mean that Apple has been testing this next-generation tablet for quite some time, at least since the internal versions of iOS 5.0.1, which also could mean that they should be ready to release quite soon, we hope. Or… it could mean nothing.
