Server logs show Apple testing iPads with iOS 6, possible Retina Displays

Combing through its server logs, Ars Technica found a total of 346 visits from a device running the unique 2,048 by 1,536 pixel resolution. While a resolution in and of itself is not evidence of a device, that size happens to be exactly double the resolution of the current iPad, with four times as many pixels.

Numerous rumors have pointed toward Apple's third-generation iPad sporting a Retina Display that will be a double-resolution screen, at 2,048 by 1,536. Author Jacqui Cheng noted that a search on the Web found there are "very few devices in current use that have this same resolution."

In addition, the site also tracked iPads that were accessing its site from Apple's corporate IP block at its Cupertino, Calif., corporate campus. Some of those iPads were found to be running iOS 6, an unannounced update to Apple's mobile operating system.

"The iPads that appear to be running iOS 6 are also using a slightly newer build of WebKit — The older OSes all show WebKit 534.46 while the ones claiming to be iOS 6 show WebKit build 535.8," Cheng wrote.

There have not been any indications that Apple plans to release a major new version of iOS with the third-generation iPad this month, but the server logs do suggest that Apple is hard at work on the sixth major upgrade to the operating system. Apple has yet to release iOS 5.1, which is still in beta.

Apple is expected to officially unveil its third-generation iPad with a high-resolution Retina Display at a media event next Wednesday in San Francisco. Given Apple's previous release schedules, iOS 6 is likely to be released later this year alongside a new sixth-generation iPhone.