As the release date for iOS 7 draws ever-closer, Apple fans are clinging to every update they can find on the new operating system. Well, after a much-talked-about beta 5 version of iOS 7, the tech community was taken by surprise when Apple abruptly released a beta 6 edition for developers to fiddle with on Thursday.

"It was rumored earlier today that Beta 6 might be released next week, roughly two weeks after the release of Beta 5; however, the odd timing of this release -- Apple traditionally releases new iOS betas to developers on Monday mornings -- along with its small size, only 13.5MB on an iPhone 5, suggests that it could be some kind of urgent bug fix," reports MacRumors.

The bug fix hypothesis appears to be the most popular theory so far, given the timing of the release. It was originally rumored that beta 6 would roll out sometime next week, but it appears Apple wanted to make sure they fixed an urgent problem with iTunes functionality in the Cloud.

"The 13.5MB iOS 7 beta 6 download comes with a specific fix in mind, designed to address purchases downloading and playing unexpectedly on devices running iOS 7 beta 5 and earlier. This is the second iOS 7 beta download to arrive outside of the previous Monday schedule, and the first to do so late in the day, so it's possible Apple saw fixing this issue as a priority it didn't want to hold over for a bigger update," says Gotta Be Mobile.

Apple is also likely scrambling to hit the rumored release date of Sept. 10 for the iPhone 5S and 5C. The new iOS 7 would be available to developers on the same day and to Apple partners a few days before that. Apple has still yet to confirm those dates, but various sources close to the situation state that they are solid.

So far iOS 7 has been met with a fair amount of praise by the Apple community. People have been impressed with its largely seamless functionality and new look. Major downsides so far have been the color palette (judged by some to be too bright) and the Frequent Locations function, which tracks users' movements unless turned off.