iOS 5 – the next major update for the iPad (and iPhone) operating system – is going to be released to the public on October 12, next Wednesday.

It will be a free update and of course it includes many impressive new features. Today Apple has released the gold master build to developers – this is generally nearly identical to the final public release.

I’ve been running the developer betas on my iPad and iPad 2 for months now, and I can tell you that the latest beta 7 (prior to today’s gold master release) is rock solid and a pleasure to use.

iOS 5 brings features like AirPlay Mirroring (share everything you do on the iPad 2 to an Apple TV wirelessly) and Notification Center (a much slicker way to handle all your push notifications) and lots more to the iPad. Check out my recent post for a rundown of the best iOS 5 features for iPad.