Apple’s iOS 7 Beta 5 is now available to developers who have the pre-release software installed on their devices, about a week after it released the 4th beta of the mobile OS. The software is likely approaching its final, stable launch state, as Apple has committed to a wide public launch of iOS 7 this fall.
The last couple of updates have been about ironing out some of the bugs around the major overhaul, including performance improvements, and with Beta 5 a new design for the iOS lock screen, since originally arrows indicating where to swipe to pull down notifications, and visual cues about what to do to unlock the device proved confusing to some users. That’s one of the most dramatic surface changes to Apple’s mobile OS we’ve seen during a beta testing period, indicating that Apple is paying close attention to user feedback as it prepares its first major visual refresh of iOS to date.
Aside from the icons changed in Settings pictured in the screenshot supplied to us above and some other visual tweaks, this release appears to contain a number of bug fixes, which is often the case as we start to near a more final version of shipping software. According to release notes provided by a tipster, fixes include addressing a problem around iPhone 4 devices not being able to download App Store content, as well as adding Voice Memos to the types of content restored when restoring from an iCloud backup. Also new is the ability to turn off Control Center within apps, which should help with accidentally calling it up when playing games and using other software that requires a lot of swiping up from the bottom.
Don’t be surprised if we see still more weekly releases of new betas, possibly propelling this to the most iterated upon major release of Apple’s mobile OS to date. This is no small change to iOS, and a lot of refinement is to be expected before it makes its way to consumer devices.