In preparation for its scheduled fall release date, iOS 5 has been made available to mobile software developers in several beta versions this summer. According to a Thursday article by AppAdvice’s Jared Erondu, the sixth beta version of iOS 5 is slated to arrive next Thursday, August 18.

“According to a change in an iOS file spotted by iCloudil.com, Apple has set Thursday, August 18 as the release date for iOS 5 beta 6,” Erondu writes. “It turns out that the file is remotely changeable by Apple, and the dates seem to be targets because the original date in the file was a day earlier (Aug. 17).”

iOS 5 beta 5 was released earlier this month, and just like all of the previous beta updates, was quickly jailbroken. The final verison of iOS is expected to make its debut alongside Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5, which is expected to arrive in September or October.

“However, many people believe this is just be another iTunes ‘check for update’ date. After all, iTunes usually does this weekly and a week from today is… you guessed it, August 18. Regardless, we should be seeing the next update to the iOS beta soon and with that we edge closer to the official release of the iPhone 5. What fixes or additions the beta update will bring isn’t clear at the moment,” Erondu continues.