According to BGR, Apple is planning to release the eighth (8) beta version of its upcoming iOS 5 software update to registered developers this Friday, September 16, 2011. The release will come 16 days after iOS 5 beta 7 was seeded for developer testing. It's unclear exactly what iOS 5 beta 8 will include, but at this stage of development, we expect only bug fixes. 

In addition, the report claims that Apple will be releasing the gold master (or "GM") seed of iOS 5 to developers "on or around" September 23. Gold master builds are usually the final version of an update unless a critical bug is found in the release. Moving on, carriers are apparently being asked to approve iOS 5 by October 5. This means that no major issues are found with the software update and the release can go on as scheduled.

iOS 5 includes several new features and improvements to Apple's iOS mobile platform, including: Notification Center, iMessage, Newsstand, Reminders, system-level Twitter integration, and improvements to the Camera app.