14 DAY TRIAL // A prominent iPhone hacker has been able to determine the exact expiration date of Apple’s current iOS 5 beta build, indicating that a final release of the software won’t be available until October - precisely when the iPhone 5 is expected to emerge.
The current iOS 5 beta can be downloaded and tested by Apple-registered developers through the company’s website, or over-the-air (OTA) as long as they have the former iOS 5 beta installed.
iPhone hacker and author of jailbreak tool sn0wbreeze, iH8sn0w used Twitter to inform that “iOS 5 beta 6 expires on: Thursday September 29, 2011 @ 8:00:01 PM (Eastern Standard Time).”
Presumably discovered by iH8sn0w while looking around for holes to exploit in the software, the late expiration date could well indicate that Apple has no plans to release an iOS 5 Beta 7 build until September 29, nor a final, GM (Golden Master) build.
However, it is entirely possible that Apple will not keep track of this beta’s expiration date at all, and newer iOS 5 builds for developers may well emerge until then.
There is a good change that the latter theory is more accurate, though it is widely believed that Apple’s next-generation iPhone 5 won’t land until October.
History has shown that Apple prefers to launch major iOS iterations in tandem with the hardware that carries their moniker - in this case, the number five (5).
There is widespread belief among most technology circles that the iPhone 5 launch will be accompanied by the public release of iOS 5.
iCloud will also be part of whatever event Apple has planned for this fall, and Apple would have no reason to break tradition and launch these software products ahead of the actual hardware that leverages them best.