Apple Hits The Slopes for iOS Code Name Inspiration

[Michael Essany]

Ever wonder where the inspiration comes from for the code names used in myriad builds of the company's iOS mobile operating platform? Perhaps if you're an avid skier, the inspiration may be more apparent to you than others.

Developer Steve Troughton-Smith is the man who uncovered the connection between code names and the ski slopes. As it turns out, Apple uses the names of prominent ski resorts across North America for the purpose of identifying its iOS versions. For example, iOS version 5.0 was christened with the code name "Telluride," after the beautiful ski resort in Colorado.

Apple has been up to this trick for some time, it appears, as the iOS code names uncovered to date include the following:

1.0: Alpine
1.1: Little Bear
2.0: Big Bear
2.1: Sugarbowl
2.2: Timberline
3.0: Kirkwood
3.1: Northstar
3.2: Wildcat
4.0: Apex
4.1: Baker
4.2: Jasper
4.3: Durango
5.0: Telluride
5.1: Hoodoo

Now that the developer community has unearthed the ski resort connection, one can only wonder if Apple will continue with this running theme.

Source: Steve Troughton-Smith (Twitter)

[Arceus498]

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[TooSlo]

Slow news day? This has been obvious for quite some time...

[iNT3Rv3NTiONZz]

So THIS IS WHY alpine is the root password! Ive always been intrigued as to why this was

[*T*]

Slow news day? This has been obvious for quite some time...

Every day is a slow news day for MMi, sans 5 or 6 days a year

[Gaijinboy]

No Whistler?

[Chase817]

Why was the SSH root password in 1.1.1 "dottie"?

[mmaboi21]

That's pretty cool, I had no idea. Nice catch messany and of course the person who caught this.