Prepare your iPhones: Based on findings in visitor data from a news website, Apple is working covertly on a new iOS 17.1.2 upgrade.

MacRumors revealed on Monday that it had observed browser visits from users running iOS 17.1.2, which is not even available to beta testers now. The only logical conclusion, short of an extremely improbable instance of highly skilled spoofing, is that Apple’s internal teams are using public websites to test the future upgrade.

This isn’t the case this time around; the last time this happened (as recently as iOS 17.1.1), Macworld was able to duplicate the data using our own web analytics. No one who is using iOS 17.1.2 has been to Macworld.

Before the official release, Apple offers a beta version for testing when it delivers a significant upgrade for the iPhone, iPad, or Mac. In this manner, anyone who wants to test it out and find any issues can, developers and users alike. This covers both the significant X.X releases, like the upcoming iOS 17.2 beta, and the major yearly X.0 changes, like iOS 17.0 this summer.

It would be realistic to anticipate that the 17.1.2 update will be released to the public in a few days, given that it looks to be in internal testing. This instance is a little different, though, as the majority of Apple’s corporate staff have the week of Thanksgiving off. As a result, this update is probably going to be delayed until the following week. The iOS 16.1.2 of last year was made available on November 30, which is over a week after Thanksgiving, as MacRumors reports. This would position iOS 17.2 for release in the middle of December.

Regarding the update’s actual substance, it is still unknown. X.X.X point updates typically focus more on security patches and bug repairs than on new features; however, we are unsure which ones will be included this time.