Apple iOS 6 Beta Links Reportedly Leaked Ahead Of WWDC 2012, Support For Original iPad, iPod Touch 3G Dropped

Apple iOS 6: Features We Hope To See Unveiled At WWDC 2012 — A workers puts up a banner for an event at Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference in San Francisco, where the company is expected to announce several new product highlights. Courtesy

The countdown has begun for this year's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), and one of the most highly anticipated and likely products to be announced by Apple is the next major release of its mobile operating system - iOS 6.

But just hours before Apple's yearly pilgrimage for developers kicks off Monday, an intriguing post at the Chinese forum WeiPhone made much buzz around the tech world Sunday, claiming to have a full list of links to beta builds of iOS 6 (10A5316k) and Safari 6 Developer Preview for OS X Lion.

Although the links, provided in the forum, are not working currently, they do lead to a page on Apple's official Developer website with the message Your session has expired. If the URLs are altered to reference a different build number, it leads to an Access denied error message, which suggests that there is indeed something unique about the links.

What's even more interesting about the list is that the two iOS devices - the original iPad and the iPod touch 3G - are conspicuous by their absence. The purported links to iOS 6 beta include versions for the second and third generation Apple TVs, the fourth generation iPod touch, the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, and both the third and second generation iPads.

Assuming that the list is accurate and complete as far as iOS 6 beta is concerned, it appears that Apple will not be including support for the original iPad in its next-generation operating system. In addition, Apple appears to be dropping support for the third-generation iPod touch, MacRumors reported.

A possible reason for dropping support for these devices could be the lack of horsepower. But given that the original iPad has better specifications than the iPhone 3GS, which is apparently supported by iOS 6, the device being dropped couldn't be placed on hardware constraints, iMore reported.

If these links are legitimate, a lot of users will probably want a reason as to why the original iPad won't be getting iOS 6, said the report.

As noted by iDownloadBlog, another interesting thing about the links is that they apparently contain both Consumer and Enterprise versions of iOS 6 beta.

This would be the first time Apple has forked its mobile OS specifically for the business sector. And, if true, could spell some serious trouble for RIM's BlackBerry business, said the report.

It is possible that this list could be incomplete and Apple is yet to include a link for the original iPad. With WWDC 2012 starting at 10 a.m. PT on Monday, it won't be a long wait before you get to know for sure.

Below is the full list of links courtesy MacRumors:

Update: WWDC 2012 Keynote Live: Where To Get Live Blog Coverage of Apple's Annual Worldwide Developers Conference

Third-generation iPad

- Consumer: Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi + Cellular (GSM), WiFi + Cellular (CDMA)

- Enterprise: Wi-Fi, WiFi + Cellular (GSM), WiFi + Cellular (CDMA)

iPad 2

- Consumer: Wi-Fi, WiFi + 3G (GSM), WiFi + 3G (CDMA), Revised Wi-Fi

- Enterprise: Wi-Fi, WiFi + 3G (GSM), WiFi + 3G (CDMA), Revised Wi-Fi

iPhone

- Consumer: 4S, 4 (GSM), 4 (CDMA), 3GS

- Enterprise: 4S, 4 (GSM), 4 (CDMA), 3GS

iPod touch