X

Apple releases second beta of iOS 6.1 to developers

Out yesterday the second beta of the new OS adds new features and fixes some bugs over the first beta.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
Lance Whitney

Registered Apple developers can now grab the second beta of iOS 6.1.

Released yesterday, Beta 2 comes about two weeks after the first and offers the usual bug fixes along with some improvements.

The new build lets app developers take advantage of Apple's maps service, so that users can search for specific places based on a simple term. As one example, cited by AppleInsider, people could search for the word "coffee" to find names, locations, and other details of local coffee bars.

iOS 6.1 will include a better explanation of Passbook for users who don't quite understand what the digital wallet does or how it works. The second beta also includes new rules to prod developers into supplying boarding passes with a date and location.

The full release notes for the software development kit for Beta 2 can be found on the Web courtesy of blog site iDownloadBlog.

Registered developers can download the latest iOS 6.1 beta by logging into Apple's Developer Web site.