The lucky guys over at 9to5 Mac seem to have gotten their hands on a beta release of iOS 6, Apple’s latest iteration of its mobile operating system. Within the code of the OS was a lot of information about the type of processor that will power the next iPhone, the iPhone’s codename and more. However, one of the most intriguing parts of the report was thrown in at the end. 9to5 Mac claims that included in iOS 6 is “n entirely new iOS app from Apple.”

Of course, there are really an endless number of possibilities for this mystery app, but I thought it could be fun to try to get inside Scott Forstall’s head and make a guess or two. I’m going to start by eliminating a category all together: social networks. Apple has made two official attempts to get into the social networking game, first with Ping and more recently with Find My Friends. It might be going a bit far to call them failures… but they were failures. I haven’t come across a single person in my personal life or my TiP life that actually uses either Apple-branded social network. So, for Apple’s sake, let’s hope its learned its lesson.

Moving on, there are two types of iOS apps that Apple has out there. There’s the kind like iMovie and Pages that are available for download in the App Store, then there’s the kind that come bundled with iOS like Notes or Voice Memos. Considering this mystery app showed up in the code for iOS 6, I’m assuming it falls into the “bundled into iOS” category.

The last few of these types of apps – Reminders, Newsstand, Game Center – have largely been productivity-based. Apple isn’t going to force any sort of game or content creation application on all iOS users. I’m going to bet that this new Apple app will also, at its core, be designed to make life easier for iOS users. That’s still a fairly broad category, so it’s next important to look at iOS as a whole and think what needs to be made more it-just-works-ier. I’ve come up with three possibilities: a boring one, an interesting one, and an out-of-this-world one.

First, let’s start with the boring one. It seems pretty likely now that the next iPhone will be a 4G devices which is great for speed, but very very bad for data limits. And, considering unlimited 4G data is pretty hard to come by and the issues users with the LTE new iPads ran into, it would make sense for Apple to create an app to monitor data usage. It would be super-simple, have a sleek minimalist design, and even send push notifications when you’re approaching your data limit.

Next, the interesting one. We’ve been hearing a lot about Apple’s new Maps app lately, and apparently a ton of work went into making it awesome. It seems to me that something with so much time and effort put into it wouldn’t just live in one app. I could see Apple utilizing its new mapping service in more than one app, possibly dedicating one to voice-guided directions or, depending on how advanced this new mapping system really is, even a Google-earth like service.

And finally, if Tim Cook decided to go absolutely crazy and announce all of his products at once, this mystery app could just be a tie-in application for the Apple HDTV. Perhaps a specialized remote or a hub for additional content based on what you’re watching. The chances of this are very very slim, but it would still be cool!

So what do you guys think this app will be? Let me know in the comments section below or on twitter!

Via: 9to5 Mac