Here’s why Beta 5 may be the final iOS 8 build seeded to devs ahead of Gold Master

iOS 8 (Health, teaser 001)

Yesterday’s release of OS X Yosemite Developer Preview 6 with an additional five gorgeous wallpapers and a bunch of refinements has left many eagle-eyed watchers scratching their head over the fact that the assumed iOS 8 Beta 6 wouldn’t materialize.

Indeed, fast-forward nearly twenty-four hours later and Beta 6 is still nowhere to be seen. Such an anticlimactic turn of events probably means that iOS 8 Beta 5, which was released a fortnight ago, is the final beta build seeded to developers ahead of the so-called Gold Mater release…

BGR editor Jonathan Geller writes:

We previously reported that Apple was scheduled to release a new version of iOS 8 to developers and testing partners, the sixth in the release schedule, and we have learned that Apple has in fact done so.

With the September 9 iPhone 6 announcement approaching fast, Apple has decided against seeding Beta 6 to developers, Geller explains.

Apple is requiring all carriers to finish testing iOS 8 by September 5, but already nagging issues arose.

“One of our sources separately tells us that this build was in fact rejected earlier today because of an issue where YouTube did not work in Safari,” wrote the author.

BGR is not the most credible of sources and Geller has been wrong on multiple occasions lately, but he remains very accurate when it comes to covering carrier-related news and rumors.

He also provided the following release notes detailing the changes in iOS 8 Beta 6 distributed to carriers:

OTA Software Update Paths
Carrier Builds
Not Available
User Builds
Not Available

Issues fixed since Seed 5

Baseband & Telephony

  • Fixed an issue where incorrect pop up message was displayed when SIM was removed
  • Fixed an issue where clicking on cancel button turned LTE on
  • Fixed an issue where excessive registration was tried with dual IMSI SIM

Continuity

  • Fixed an occasional mail continuity failure from OS X to iOS
  • Fixed an issue causing continuity to fail after opening control center

FaceTime

  • Fixed an occasional problem where MT call connection quality would be incorrectly treated as “poor”

GameCenter

  • Fixed an issue where the active photo cannot be deleted

iCloud

  • Fixed a problem where document sync would sometimes consume excessive cellular data

iTunes Store

  • URLs for the store app are no longer broken in received mail
  • Fixed a problem with excessive prompts to sign in to the iTunes Store

Keyboard

  • Fixed an intermittent issue keyword shifting when rotating the screen
  • Fixed an issue where the emoji keyboard was unusable on Safari

Mail

  • Notes are no longer duplicated when opened through Gmail
  • Fixed an issue where after withdrawing a draft with attachments, browsing to another message resulted in the attachments getting lost
  • Fixed an issue where forwarding an email without a photo attachment still sends a photo
  • Fixed an issue when forwarding an email with an attached photo just brought up the original message without a photo
  • Fixed an issue where email could be deleted from the lock screen without prompting for a passcode

Maps

  • Fixed a problem where maps would sometimes consume excessive cellular data

Messages

  • Added support for SMS relay opt-in prompt
  • Fixed issue that caused devices to receive SMS via relay for unselected aliases
  • Fixed failures sending current location via MMS
  • Fixed an issue where messages partially overlap Chinese keyboards
  • Fixed an issue where changing a group name didn’t propagate to other devices until a message is sent

Phone

  • Fixed an issue where an incoming call was being relayed back to originating phone
  • Fixed an issue where options on declining a call didn’t work with call relay

Photos

  • Fixed an issue where edited photos did not display properly after restoring from backup
  • Improved full screen photo sharing
  • Set default to keep all photos on device for users with 5GB iCloud space
  • Fixed an issue where a user could not select multiple photos and upload to Facebook via Safari

Push Notifications

  • Improved push connection management upon account logout with multiple associated devices
  • Fixed a problem where Exchange push notifications would stop after responding to an invitation from the lock screen
  • Fixed an issue where a user does not receive a notification for incoming messages when the banner for the previous one is pulled down

Springboard

  • Fixed an issue unlocking an iPhone while on an active call
  • Fixed an issue where the keyboard would sometimes become unresponsive when the screen is locked

Visual Voicemail

  • Fixed an issue where Voicemail could not be played under certain error conditions
  • Fixed an issue where Phone App hanged when tried to check Voicemail

Interestingly enough, the article mentioned as a side-note that Apple will launch two new iPhones in September, one called ‘iPhone 6’ and the other ostensibly named ‘iPhone 6L’.

In case you’ve been wondering, a Gold Master release should sport basically the same code — barring any unforseen circumstances — like the final version set to be released for public consumption in September.