Seventh and final iOS 7 Beta could land today

iOS 7 (multiple iPhones, flat 002)

The seventh and final beta of Apple’s forthcoming iOS 7 mobile operating system could be seeded to developers later today, BGR reported Monday morning. Though the tech blog has a fairly accurate track record in terms of iOS 7 beta dates, it’s worth pointing out BGR last week said Apple would release iOS 7 Beta 6 this week.

Just a few hours following that prediction Apple spoiled BGR’s party be seeding iOS 7 Beta 6 to developers. Here’s to hoping the final iOS 7 beta lands today. Otherwise, this could be the last time I write about BGR’s predictions…

According to BGR, iOS 7 Beta 7 should drop around 1pm ET / 10am PT.

“We can confirm the build number is much higher than the previous beta,” the site wrote and reiterated this would be the final beta before the Gold Master build gets released on September 10, in time for Apple’s forthcoming media event which should see the iPhone 5S/5C announcements.

Gold Master refers to a final version of software that’s ready for release to manufacturing. It’s essentially the same build as the version that comes factory preloaded on latest devices.

While Apple is expected to release iOS 7 Gold Master to developers on September 10, its own employees and carrier partners will have a chance to test the software five days early, starting with September 5. If history is an indication, iOS 7 will became available for public consumption in time for the new iOS device hardware availability.

There should have been six iOS 7 betas apparently, but as Apple last week rushed out the sixth beta due to an emergency fix for iTunes in the Cloud issues, the originally planned Beta 6 has now become a Beta 7.

iOS 7 (iPhone 5, flat, white, homescreen)

“Apple had actually planned on sticking to its regular release schedule with a different update called beta 6 today,” the blog wrote. I engaged with article author Zach Epstein on Twitter to challenge him on last week’s blunder and he acknowledged the same sources “nailed every release other than this obvious anomaly”.

Don’t expect any major new features in the seventh beta: late betas have been mostly about bug fixes and under-the-hood tweaks, which is usually a tell-tale sign that the software is being optimized and readied for prime time.