Apple Testing Drivers for New Quad-Core iPhone and iPad Mini?

Apple Testing Drivers for New Quad-Core iPhone and iPad Mini?

As the iPhone evolves each year, progressive processor and graphic updates have become the norm, but a new report from German Mac blog Macerkopf suggests Apple may be working on something a bit more interesting.

According to the report, Apple may be preparing to increase the iPhone’s resolution yet again, and is testing a variety of drivers (14 in total) for dual-core and quad-core iOS devices with display resolutions of 1280×720 and 1440×800, compared the the iPhone’s current resolution of 960×640.

If true, this could mean that Apple may be planning a radically new design for the iPhone in 2012, likely with a larger screen to take advantage of the higher resolution.

It could also indicate that Apple really is working on a 7-inch “iPad Mini,” which would need higher resolution displays in order to keep the same sharpness seen on the current iPhone 4 and 4S displays.

Whether or not this rumor is true (and given that Macerkopf has no established track record, it may well be false), the drivers in question are only in testing, and don’t necessarily reflect anything that Apple is actually planning to release.