iOS 5 Beta 5

Apple iOS developers have been busy all summer working on the newest update to the iDevice software and it appears what could be the last beta version of iOS 5 has arrived. On Saturday, Apple released iOS 5 beta 5 with a variety of tweaks and changes for developers to work out before the iPhone 5 is released in September or October.

One of the big questions with iOS 5 is whether or not voice-powered functions from Nuance will be added before the new iPhone ships. So far, there has been nothing in the iOS 5 SDK that would lead developers to believe that it might be coming. The fixes and new functions in beta 5 do nothing to dispel that. 9to5 Mac has screen shots that it believes show voice-powered functions are on the way.

Yet, there are a several new facets of beta 5 that developers will want to keep an eye on in the home stretch.