Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming iOS 10 update to developers and public beta testers for testing purposes, two days after seeding the fourth iOS 10.1 beta and more than a month after releasing iOS 10 to the public.
Today's beta appears to be available only for the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus, suggesting it perhaps has the LTE bug fix that was bundled into iOS 10.0.3, released on Monday.
Registered developers can download the iOS 10.1 beta 5 from the Apple Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile is installed. Public beta testers can download the update over-the-air after installing the configuration profile from Apple's beta testing website.
iOS 10.1 introduces a new "Portrait" mode for the iPhone 7 Plus that allows it to use the two built-in cameras to create shallow depth of field portrait photos with blurred backgrounds.
To achieve the blurred look, the image signal processor in the iPhone 7 Plus uses the wide-angle camera to create a depth map, dissecting the different layers of the photo to decide what to blur. It works on people, pets, and objects, but does require good lighting to achieve the proper effect.
The update also likely includes bug fixes and other under-the-hood improvements to address issues that have been uncovered since iOS 10 was released, such as an ongoing CallKit bug that has caused CallKit to function unreliably.
Transit directions have been added in Japan in the iOS 10.1 beta, as was promised by Apple earlier this year. Transit directions will officially launch in the country when iOS 10.1 is released to the public and are available in major cities like Osaka and Tokyo.
iOS 10 has been described by Apple as the "biggest release ever" for iOS users, with features that include a redesigned Lock screen, a Siri SDK to allow third-party apps to integrate with Siri, and a completely overhauled Messages app, a dedicated "Home" app for HomeKit users, new facial and object recognition capabilities in Photos, and more. For more details on iOS 10, make sure to check out our iOS 10 roundup.
