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iphones identify as such, but it looks like this ipad identifies itself as a mac. &nbsp;<br />
<br />
whatismybrowser indicates that an ipad should identify itself as such early on in the ident string. &nbsp;The ident being supplied by the ipad does not resemble those listed by whatismybrowser. &nbsp;Possibly a browser spoofing plugin in the ipad's browser?<br />
<br />
<a href="https://developers.whatismybrowser.com/useragents/explore/operating_platform/ipad/" rel="ugc">https://developers.whatismybrowser.com/useragents/explore/operating_platform/ipad/</a><br />
<br />
<i>e.g.,</i> Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 12_4_5 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/12.1.2 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1
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This occurs because you're using an Apple Browser which leverages the WebKit libraries...<br />
_______<br />
<br />
Every browser + many other software tools provide a HTTP_USER_AGENT which should always be treated as bogus.<br />
<br />
All Apple browsers (not devices) return an AppleWebKit user agent string + can also return other strings... depending on the purpose of the tool.<br />
<br />
If you run PhantomJS on a Linux or Windows machine, you'll still see HTTP_USER_AGENT containing AppleWebKit, because PhantomJS uses the WebKit libraries.<br />
<br />
The way to think about this is the HTTP_USER_AGENT provides a hint of the browser running on the other end, not anything about the device hardware.<br />
<br />
Also be sure your treat HTTP_USER_AGENT as a hint, because this string is trivial to forge.
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On my iPad, doing exactly the same thing, it says: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS_12_4_5 like Mac OS X), AppleWebKit/605.1.15 etc.<br />
<br />
My simple minded read of this is that the iPad returning a Mac designation has an older version of the Mac OS (10 something instead of 12 something).<br />
<br />
Is there any way of detecting the device?<br />
<br />
Thanks
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Business Owner / Chief Developer

Richard Korts

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OK, so there is no way to detect the device in php.<br />
<br />
Correct?<br />
<br />
Thanks
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did you not see the different version numbers after webkit/<br />
<br />
<br />
This problem is over a year old, Apple knew about it in the beta stage and ignored it.
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As David says, the user-agent string is not something to be safely relied upon for anything important.<br />
<br />
If there is some critical issue that requires knowing when an ipad is on the requesting end, you could profile the display and look at the installed fonts -- but it seems like a lot of work to prevent somebody from seeing a display which was not intended to be seen on a tiny screen. &nbsp;<i>Caveat lector</i> is a more practical policy there.
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David Johnson,<br />
<br />
I get your point, assuming it &quot;sticks&quot;. 'll try the webkit number ID, see where that goes.
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<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
I have a php program that uses $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'<wbr />] to determine the device type.<br />
<br />
A user claims they are using an iPad, they get the attached (I just echoed the result of $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'<wbr />] on the server).<br />
<br />
Why does this occur?<br />
<a href="https://filedb.experts-exchange.com/incoming/2020/04_w17/1450668/ipad_says_mac.jpg" target="_blank" class="file-inline" title="ipad_says_mac.jpg (57 KB)"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512"><path d="M67.508 468.467c-58.005-58.013-58.016-151.92 0-209.943l225.011-225.04c44.643-44.645 117.279-44.645 161.92 0 44.743 44.749 44.753 117.186 0 161.944l-189.465 189.49c-31.41 31.413-82.518 31.412-113.926.001-31.479-31.482-31.49-82.453 0-113.944L311.51 110.491c4.687-4.687 12.286-4.687 16.972 0l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.685 12.283 0 16.969L184.983 304.917c-12.724 12.724-12.73 33.328 0 46.058 12.696 12.697 33.356 12.699 46.054-.001l189.465-189.489c25.987-25.989 25.994-68.06.001-94.056-25.931-25.934-68.119-25.932-94.049 0l-225.01 225.039c-39.249 39.252-39.258 102.795-.001 142.057 39.285 39.29 102.885 39.287 142.162-.028A739446.174 739446.174 0 0 1 439.497 238.49c4.686-4.687 12.282-4.684 16.969.004l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.689 12.279.004 16.965a755654.128 755654.128 0 0 0-195.881 195.996c-58.034 58.092-152.004 58.093-210.048.041z"/></svg>ipad_says_mac.jpg</a>
</div>
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ipad_says_mac.jpg

I have a php program that uses $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] to determine the device type.

A user claims they are using an iPad, they get the attached (I just echoed the result of $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] on the server).

Why does this occur?

iPad device registers as Mac

iPad is an iOS-based line of tablet computers built around the device's multi-touch screen, including a virtual keyboard. The iPad includes built-in Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity on select models. An iPad can shoot video, take photos, play music, and perform Internet functions such as web-browsing and emailing. Other functions – games, reference, GPS navigation, social networking, etc. – can be enabled by downloading and installing apps.

iPad

PHP is a widely-used server-side scripting language especially suited for web development, powering tens of millions of sites from Facebook to personal WordPress blogs. PHP is often paired with the MySQL relational database, but includes support for most other mainstream databases. By utilizing different Server APIs, PHP can work on many different web servers as a server-side scripting language.