Aug 19, 2011 07:03 GMT  ·  By

Although there had been strong indication of an impending iOS 5 Beta 6 release on August 18, Apple is yet to serve up the bits to its developer community.

Code found in recent iOS betas from Apple was subject to interpretation earlier this month with several sources claiming that a new beta was set to arrive on August 18.

Not a single registered Apple developer using iOS 5 Beta 5 can confirm this, and August 18 is now (literally) yesterday’s news.

It was noted at the time that Apple had initially planned iOS 5 beta 6 for August 17, but several known issues had reportedly pushed the next iteration to the next day.

Could it be possible that Apple is still evaluating some recently found bugs in the current beta, hoping to patch those holes before a new build is released?

Yes. In fact, this is the most plausible theory available.

It is also being speculated that Apple’s next iOS 5 release might actually be a GM (Golden Master) build.

GM releases are generally (if not always) Apple’s final version of that OS, whether it’s for the iPhone, or for the Macintosh (Mac OS  X).

Still, the Mac maker in Cupertino almost always seeds the GM only a week or two before the final public release of the software, and we’re not so sure Apple plans to hold a special event as early as the first week of September.

Why special event? Well, Apple has already confirmed that iOS 5 and iCloud will be publicly released this fall. We wouldn’t guess the company will call on the world’s high-profile journalists to attend another software-only event.

And if the iPhone 5 is announced this fall, iOS 5 GM is likely to drop around the same time.