iPhone 4S Release Date: iOS 5 Tested by Apple Customers

By Elton Jones, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Apple expanded its iOS 5 testing candidates to include the customers who experienced battery issues with Apple's iPhone 4S.

The company handed its iOS 5 operating system to developers, and now they are adding customers who have dealt with the smartphone's battery problems to its program.

The customers selected for Apple's OS testing are selected through an invitation-only customer-seeding program.

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Apple's invitation reads: "Apple invites you to participate in a software seeding project. We have selected you, based on a referral from Apple Care for participation in our program, to assist us in testing an upcoming iOS 5 Software Update. Please follow the directions below to complete the invitation process."

Apple also released a press release concerning its new OS for developers: "The iOS 5.0.1 beta introduces a new way for developers to specify files that should remain on device, even in low storage situations."

Apple Store employees were notified of the battery issues affecting the iPhone 4S, as well.

The company gave a statement to its store workers: "A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. If you are helping one of those customers, follow standard procedure to rule out any hardware issues with the device."

"If no hardware issues are found, let the customer know that Apple has found a few bugs in iOS 5 affecting battery life and Apple will release a software update to address those in a few weeks,” said the statement.

The iOS 5 software update should arrive sometime soon. Until then, support staff was told not to offer customers replacement handsets for battery life issues.

The iOS 5.0.1 software update will come with several improvements and new features.

The current beta version fixes bugs affecting battery life; adds Multitasking Gestures for original iPad; resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud; improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation; and, contains security improvements.