It’s pretty much a given that Apple is going to show off iOS 5 at their annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June. What’s going to be so special about it and when will it be released for the iPhone and the iPad are two questions we really want to know the answer to, but at least we know that Apple is starting to test iOS 5 before seeding it to developers. That’s right, according to a crash report that was sent to FutureTap, makers of “Where To?”, an augmented reality application that shows you where you can go to grab a cup of coffee or a beer, iOS 5 is being tested in the wild. The crash report in question says that “MKUserLocationBreadCrumb” terminated unexpectedly, and this has 9to5Mac thinking that there are going to be some changes coming to the location APIs in iOS. Does this mean that Apple is going to finally be releasing their own mapping application, a replacement to Google Maps? Doubtful, but it does mean that they’re focusing on making location a core part of an application’s experience.
It’s telling that Apple is only now starting to test iOS 5. This could mean that the rumors we’ve been hearing about the next generation iPhone launching in September might be true, breaking the 4 year pattern that many thought would go on until the end of time. We’re hoping that when said iPhone does launch it’ll be released on both AT&T and Verizon, because having to wait for a CDMA version of the Jesus Phone just so you can actually make calls kind of stinks.
What features are you looking forward to in iOS 5? Here’s what we’re dreaming abou: New multitasking user interface that gets rid of the double tap interaction model, new notification system that isn’t annoying and is actually useful, widget support.