22. May 2022 | 3:33 p.m. | 0 comments
Companies in the USA that develop devices that use wireless technologies (e.g. Wifi or Bluetooth) must do so with the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). register as an independent authority in the USA. This is exactly what Apple has now done for a previously unknown network device running iOS
Apple registers unknown iOS network device
The FCC registry indicates that Apple has registered an unknown network adapter running iOS. The product, codenamed “A2657‘ is simply described as ‘network adapter’. From the FCC documents shows that Apple sent a sample of the device to the authority on January 22, 2022. There are no pictures of the network adapter, there is only a description of the hardware used.
Accordingly, Apple relies on two Gigabit Ethernet ports, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC antennas and a USB-C port for the network adapter. Interestingly, the FCC documents also show that the accessory has 32GB of internal storage and 1.5GB of RAM. A second version of the same product has a Lightning connector instead of USB-C and only 1GB of RAM.
The firmware “19F47” runs on the network adapter. This is an early internal version of iOS 15.5. This should be an indication that the device – just like the Apple Studio Display – has an Apple silicon chip. We will probably not receive any further information for the time being, as Apple has applied for a non-disclosure agreement that is valid until November 2022.