Apple Reveals Secret Codenames For iOS – And You Thought “Ice Cream Sandwich” Was Daft!

Apple developer Steve Troughton-Smith hopped onto social site Twitter this week to reveal some of the never-before-heard codenames for the tech giant’s iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch operating software, iOS.

We all know Google goes gaga with its dessert-themed Android OS monikers such as Eclair, Gingerbread and most recently Ice Cream Sandwich which made its debut with Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus. But unlike its California neighbour Apple chooses not to make the cringeworthy pre-release names well known to the public, opting to stick with the familiar and simplistic numbering system. After recently receiving iOS 5, we now know why some of those names haven’t lived on to accompany the software they nurtured.

For example, some previous mobile operating software codenames used internally by Apple have been “Alpine” (iOS 1), “Little Bear” (iOS 1.1), “Big Bear” (iOS 2), “Wild Cat” (iOS 3.2), “Jasper” (iOS 2.4) and most recently “Telluride” (iOS 5). The in-progress future incarnation may be the daftest yet – iOS 5.1 is to be nickname “Hoodoo”. If you really know your geography, you may recognize these titles as the names of popular ski and mountain resorts. We certainly didn’t!

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