It’s a pretty safe bet that Apple’s next iPhone (and all future iOS devices) will feature a smaller dock connector. There have been plenty of leaks, and the rumor has some very credible backing. There has been some question, however, over the details.
While initial reports suggested that new connector would feature 19 pins, a recent report from iLounge claimed that there would actually only be 8 pins (which makes a lot of sense considering the size of the connector). New information discovered by 9to5Mac in iOS 6 may reveal the real answer, however.
The above string found in the latest iOS 6 beta seems to clearly reference a 9-pin connector. It does make sense, however, that the entire 19-pin rumor was nothing more than a typo – again, especially considering the size of the connector.
The string might also reaffirm that the smaller dock connector could be coming to all future iOS devices:
This reference comes in a part of the operating system that details general hardware features in iOS devices. That mean this new 9-pin connector may not only be implemented into the iPhone. This lines up with iMore‘s report that Apple will update all of its iOS devices in September to support the new connector.
Even though the reference seems clear, 9to5Mac rightly notes that it’s not certain. That string could be referring to something entirely different that we’re not aware of. Even so, I think it’s likely that 9to5Mac has finally pegged the dock connector rumor.
Whatever the truth really is about the smaller dock connector, we’ll likely find out in about a month, on September 12!