Apple announced the upcoming release of iOS 5 at their WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) event in June and have now just released an early beta version of the new operating system to developers – just in time to raise renewed speculations that the iPhone 5 will be released in September. If you listen carefully, you can just make out the squeals of geek delight from behind glowing screens across the globe.

The new OS does a good job of improving intuitive functions that we thought couldn’t get any easier, while throwing in a few industry-changing innovations just for luck. The biggest feature that’s getting everyone really excited is the alleged inclusion of speech-to-text conversion, which is activated by an icon next to the keyboard’s space bar on the iPhone. Which takes us one step closer to Knight Rider’s voice-command car and about 10 steps closer to the rise of the machines, where humans are just accessories in a world of robotic control.

Some of the coolest new features of iOS 5 include:

• iMessage (Apple’s way of taking on Blackberry’s BBM juggernaut, allowing users to send text messages between iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch devices for free)
• Wi-Fi Sync (which means no more hunting or digging for that elusive white cable)
• Rich text email formatting (yes, you can now send emails with bold and italics text like the rest of the world)
• 100% computer free (older versions of iOS always relied on having access to a computer for setup and other functions)
• A camera button on the lock screen (if you use your iPhone to take photos regularly, this is manna from heaven)
• Access to all your content on all your devices through iCloud (including backup and restore functions)
• Another 194 or so features, according to Apple’s count

iOS 5 in action – a developer looks at the beta release

The official Apple iOS 5 rah-rah hey-shoo-wow video