14 DAY TRIAL // Developer reports indicate that Apple has begun widespread testing of iOS 5 internally.
The company is reportedly testing various third party applications against iOS 5 on pretty much all iDevices, including iPads, iPod touches, iPhone 4 and even the older iPhone 3GS.
The latter observation means iPhone 3GS may support yet another major update before Apple proceeds to test and release iOS 5.x increments and, eventually, iOS 6, when the handset should become obsolete.
The news stems from developer reports whose crash logs and various other notifications sent to them by iOS devices show that iOS 5 builds are being used to run their apps.
Apple has historically started internal testing of major iOS versions months before the finished build was to be rolled out.
While previous years saw these iOS updates presented in spring and launched to the public in summer, iOS 5 is expected to launch at least in Developer Preview form at WWDC 2011, and may hit the masses in fall alongside the iPhone 5.
Last week, the folks at FutureTap reported that the development studio had received their first iOS 5.0 crash report, signaling that Apple had begun internal testing of the new mobile OS.
“Just received the first iOS 5.0 crash report. MKUserLocationBreadCrumb sounds interesting,” read FutureTap’s tweet.
The crash involved the maps/location functions, leading to speculation that these APIs have been modified in iOS 5. Apple is known to be collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database.
Devices sure to miss out on the iOS 5 update, whenever it’s released, include the original iPhone and iPod touch devices, as well as the second-generation iPod touches and the iPhone 3G.
As noted above, iOS 5 compatible devices may start with iPhone 3GS (making more recent hardware compatible by deduction) but this is not a certainty.
The relatively low specs of the iPhone 3GS may pose various incompatibility issues (including battery life drain), prompting the company to eventually cancel support for the old-gen handset before iOS 5 makes its public debut.