Apple rolling out new iPhone and iPod Touch devices

This isn't the first time anyone is hearing rumors about a new iPhone in the works. We too had shared the rumors in the past, several times. But this time, the source of the rumors seems to be authentic, if not official.

According to Boy Genius, the latest iPhone OS 3.0 beta launched by Apple contains identifier strings about 6 upcoming devices in the firmware, including two iPhones and two iPods along with two unknown devices.

The rumors seem to be authentic because the evidence was discovered in Apple's own firmware that was recently released to the developers. This raises a lot of questions, with the most important being the fact that if the new devices would make it in time with the official iPhone OS 3.0 launch, which is scheduled for this summer.

According to the hardware strings, there would be two new iPhones, one identified as iPhone 2,1 and iPhone 3,1. As AppleInsider notes, the first generation iPhone is identified as iPhone 1,1 and iPhone 3G has the the numbers 1,2 in the ID. Apple's version scheme suggests that the first number is a major revision while the second number indicates minor changes to the device. This essentially means that iPhone 3G was a minor update to the original iPhone while the new devices would be major design revisions. It isn't clear at the time if there are going to be two simultaneous releases or Apple is only testing two devices, and would release only one among them. Or it may be possible that one is the long rumored iPhone Nano.

As for the iPods, the versions are iPod 2,2 and iPod 3,1, meaning that one of them is a revision to the current iPod Touch 2G and the other is a new design. The remaining devices are currently a mystery, with one called iProd 0,1 and the other only known as iFPGA. These two are pretty much early development prototypes, but what confuses me is that why is Apple planning to launch iPhone OS for FPGAs.

Strong to the tradition, Apple is tight lipped about these new devices right now, but they won't be under wraps for long. We would keep you updated as more information pours, but would like to hear your thoughts on the two new mystery devices via comments