Apple Insider

Apple seeds fifth iOS 6.1 beta version to developers

By AppleInsider Staff

Saturday, January 26, 2013 @ 12:00 AM

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Apple on Saturday released a fifth iOS 6.1 beta to developers, continuing the testing phase of the company's mobile OS that will bring users a number of features, including enhanced mapping options and Siri-integration, when it launches later this year.



While rumors claimed Apple would soon rollout an iOS 6.1 Golden Master, the beta supplied to developers today is not the finalized version that traditionally heralds an imminent public release.

Apple made the first iOS 6.1 betas available to developers in November of 2012, two months after iDevice users were given access to iOS 6. The version change came with a number of all-new features like the Apple-designed maligned Maps app, built-in Facebook integration, Photo Stream and Passbook, among others.

Past beta iterations revealed that iOS 6.1 will offer an enhanced Map Kit framework that will allow users to search for map-based place names and points of interest with natural language strings. In an example given by a developer with access to the beta, a search for "coffee" returned the location and corresponding information of nearby coffee shops.

Additionally, iOS 6.1 will offer Fandango movie ticket purhcases through Siri and refined iCloud security steps when setting up a new device.

The latest release comes over a month after the fourth iOS 6.1 beta arrived in mid-December alongside fresh developer versions of Apple TV software and Xcode.

Developers can access the fifth iOS 6.1 beta from Apple's developer website.