Apple products like iPhones and iPads getting jailbroken is nothing new, but sometimes this freedom also leads to interesting discoveries within the digital bowels of these gadgets. Such is the case with a series of buttons within the iPad Music app found on jailbroken iOS 6.1 iPads by 9to5Mac. If these buttons are indicative of the future and not some leftover vestige of a former direction, it looks like some kind of radio functionality will be coming to the iPad.
The buttons feature a prominent antenna tower with a plus sign off to the left. As 9to5Mac notes, this is not unlike the Radio icon that used to be in the sidebar of iTunes. It’s still unclear what their use could be, though.
The obvious direction here for the iPad would be to include some kind of streaming Internet radio service not unlike Spotify or Pandora. This rumor’s been around since late last year at least, and Bloomberg pegged the launch for sometime in the first quarter of 2013, so the stars apparently align.
The files for the buttons also include the word “buy,” so users could potentially be purchasing radio stations to listen to or something like that. It wouldn’t be the first time that Apple’s bucked the current trend in order to go their own way. It could also simply be the buttons to purchase a song off the streaming radio station through iTunes.
Whatever the case may be, we likely won’t have to wait too long to find out.
(via 9to5Mac, image courtesy of 9to5Mac)
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