iOS 5 beta 8 firmware download for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch will be available this Friday, iPhoneism has learnt. Apple will seed iOS 5 beta 8 to developers later this week on Friday.
Earlier this week, Apple seeded iTunes 10.5 beta 8 for Mac. However no iOS 5 beta 8 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch was seeded to developers. This lead to speculation that the next iOS 5 beta update that Apple would seed to developers might be the GM build, as iOS 5 GM has been seeded to carriers already. Do keep in mind that the GM build of any software is usually identical with the final release of that software. So the new features, like voice assistant, that we'll see in iOS 5 GM for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch will definitely make it to the public version of iOS 5 due for release next month.
Only yesterday we reported that iOS 5 GM will be seeded to assemblers in the next couple of weeks. It looks like the missing puzzle pieces are finally coming together as Apple's assemblers have already starting manufacturing iPhone 5 at full swing. It is likely that iOS 5 will be publicly released at the iPhone 5 release event rumoured to be on October 21st.
As far as beta firmware is concerned, Apple only seeds that to developers registered in the iPhone Developer Program which costs $99 per year. Moreover, for you to run beta firmware on your device, you need to register device UDID with a developers account or you won't be able to run any iOS beta firmware on it. However, walkarounds for installing iOS 5 beta without UDID registration do exist and are widely used by non-developers who get their hands on iOS 5 beta ipsws and want to try out pre-release software, albeit illegally.
iOS 5 beta 8 firmware download which according to the source will be seeded by Apple to developers this Friday is going to be the eight beta ever since iOS 5 beta 1 was seeded at WWDC 2011. We've tried all of them out and with every beta update Apple seems to be ironing out any remaining bug in its most extensive iOS update ever. iOS 5 brings over 250 new features to supported iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. Naturally, those who saw iOS 5 preview at WWDC 2011 can't wait to get their hands on it and if the rumours about an October 21st iPhone 5 release event are true, then iOS 5 will be available for public release quite soon.