14 DAY TRIAL // A reputable source of technology news and rumors claims to have learned that Apple plans an unveiling of the iOS 5 during this year’s edition of the Worldwide Developers Conference, with a public launch slated for sometime in fall.
Although Apple generally reserves spring events for showcasing major new versions of its mobile operating system, the company is said to have pushed the iOS 5 preview for WWDC 2011, with general availability of the software being expected in autumn.
However, that leaves an 'incomplete' iPhone 5 announcement, as Apple is said to plan the launch of its next-generation iPhone pre-installed with a version of the current iOS iteration (4.x).
Whether or not that’s the case this summer, TechCrunch appears confident in reporting the information handed by its two solid sources, noting that iOS 5 will heavily focus on cloud services.
The site speculates that iOS 5 may ship with services that take advantage of the technology, likely referring to the rumored music locker service from Apple, as well as the Media Stream and Find my Friends discoveries from iOS 4.3 betas.
According to the report, at least one of the new cloud services is location based and focuses on finding friends and family members.
As noted above, these details may be dished out at WWDC 2011, and developers are likely to get a preview build to play with, but the final release of the software won’t occur until fall, according to these sources.
When it does launch, though, Apple is also said to be releasing yet another iPad, which goes hand in hand with earlier rumors dished out by TechCrunch, though this is not the least bit confirmed as even likely.
Also at WWDC, Apple is known to be preparing a final preview of the shipping version of Mac OS X Lion.