iPhone Firmware 2.1 is Available

As promised during the Let’s Rock event on Tuesday, Apple has released the firmware 2.1 update for the iPhone.

You can download it from iTunes. Changes include:

Fewer in call set-up failures and fewer dropped calls
Much better battery life
Less third party app crashes
Faster contact list loading
Less time to back up the iPhone
Genius playlist creation
Option to wipe the phone after ten passcode fail attempts.
More reliable email fetching, particularly from Exchange and POP
Better txting performance
More accurate 3G signal display
Repeat alert for smses for two additional times

I’m updating this from my iPhone using the WordPress app, on the bus from NYC-DC.

I definitely am looking forward to plugging the phone into iTunes and updating. Particularly getting faster backups after the 2.1 update.

Slow 3G on the iPhone? It’s not the phone

There are two sets of studies out there that suggest that the slow speeds on the iPhone are not due to the phone itself, but overloaded networks.

Cut & Paste on the Iphone

Some independent developers have come out with a workaround for implementing cut & paste on the iPhone. This isn’t some sort of Apple led – development, so it is a little sketchy and doesn’t work across all apps on the phone. It’s called OpenClip, and is an open source framework that can be implemented by different app makers to allow cut and paste.

Pretty neat huh? Well, thing is, the framework will no longer work in Firmware 2.1 when that comes out.

iPhone 2.0.2 upgrade : Beware

 

davelynne @Flickr

Just an update on the 2.0.2 upgrade… You might want to hold off, as instead of improving the 3G connectivity, it has made it worse for some people. Now, it might not be you… but then, it might be.

 

In further news, Steve Jobs has apparently responded to an email of a distressed customer, reassuring him that an update fixing the constant app crashes will be released sometime in September.

And while many of us are expectantly waiting for the big update that implements push for apps to drop, therefore allowing us to receive IMs even when AIM is closed on the iPhone – this may have faced a setback. Apple has removed that functionality from the latest firmware seeded to developers.

Now, that may not necessarily mean we aren’t seeing the Push functionality in September… but chances are that it may unfortunately be the case.

iPhone Firmware 2.0.2 Released!

Fire up your iTunes, and update your firmware! As per usual, Apple has only included “Bug Fixes” in its description for this 249 MB download, but I have listed some general fixes that have been observed by users, after the break: