“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.
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.
