We just saw what iOS6 has to reveal about Apple’s plans for supporting hardware with new screen resolutions. There are even more secrets buried in all those lines of code, and another one seems to throw a little support towards the redesigned, smaller dock connector we’ve been hearing about.

The idea of a smaller connector has been an ongoing rumor for some time now, but while earlier reports focused on a 19-pin design, some of the more recent discussion has focused on something even smaller still, with 16 or even just 8 pins. None of that lines-up exactly with what we’re learning today, but it’s still consistent with the idea of a smaller port.

Once again, those guys at 9to5 Mac were poking through the iOS 6 beta releases when they found references to something called “9pin”. It appears to be a hardware feature, and there are hooks in the OS for reporting whether or not the device running the software has such 9pin support.

As with those observations about the ability of iOS 6 to adapt to new screen resolutions, this is a far cry from confirmation of the rumors we’ve heard, and we likely won’t know what’s truly the case until Apple makes its product announcement next month. Maybe Apple was thinking about a 9 pin connector, but ended up going with 8. Maybe it will try something different altogether. All we know is that iOS 6 has been including this “9pin” string since Apple released the first beta.