Apple’s release of iOS 5.0.1 is still fresh in our minds, but there’s a chance that 5.0.2 could be nearly ready to drop. A rumor out of Germany suggests that the next iOS release could be here by the end of next week, and also gives us some hints at what we could expect iOS to deliver a little farther down the line.

There’s no denying that there are still a lot of bugs left in iOS 5.0.1. Even though the release attempted to address the battery life issues that had been affecting many users, the improvements just weren’t there for a good number of then. The source behind this rumor claims that fixing that issue has become a top priority, which is why we’re talking about such a rushed release schedule. If all goes to plan, iPhone 4S users could hope to see their phones maintain a charge for 40 hour of standby operation, or 10 hours of use. What we haven’t heard is if iOS 5.0.2 will tackle the other bugs we’ve been talking about, but if it’s really going to arrive in a week’s time, we’d have to doubt it.

Beyond the next few minor updates, Apple is supposedly working on bringing some new Siri functionality to iOS 5.1. The virtual assistant could hope to become a lot more useful, gaining the ability to do things like snap photos, take video, and modify additional phone settings. There will almost certainly be much more to the release, but the new Siri abilities could be the highlight.

Source: Macerkopf (Google translate)

Via: BGR