In a surprise move, Apple has released it’s next beta version of iOS 5 to developers, the second one to come as a delta update – oddly enough, on a Saturday. Why the odd date? No one knows just why, perhaps they planned for Friday but had to push it back because of last minute fixes. Regardless of the date, what does iOS 5 Beta 5 bring?

Not much is known about it just yet, but one thing we have solid proof of is speech recognition software. Yep, that’s right! Buried deep down in the code of Beta 5 there is software that enables Nuance voice recognition. It’s really very simple. There’s an additional key on the keyboard, shaped like a microphone. Click the button, and your keyboard disappears to reveal an overlay of a microphone as long as you’re talking. When you finish, it enters what it heard into the text field – standard voice recognition.

As this feature hasn’t been announced in any way, we can expect it’s going to be a feature they surprise us with at the launch of the iPhone 5 – whenever that may be. Maybe this points to more surprise features in store? Who knows. Maybe we’ll find something interesting in the next iOS 5 Beta – which, by the way, we might have a tentative date for. Some developers cracked a code – not entirely sure what they mean by that – and claim that the release of Beta 6 will come on Wednesday, August 17th. So we’ll just have to wait and see if they’re right! For those developers out there – have fun with the new beta!