iPhone firmware 2.0 hands-on
By Ryan Block 
posted Mar 18th 2008 1:07PM
posted Mar 18th 2008 1:07PM
- Exchange is so on! Changes are pushed over the network, but over WiFi it does check-ins, so it's not as instantaneous.
- There's no contact search that we can see, so far. Maybe that only gets turned on if you have thousands of contacts (which we definitely do not).
- There's a new button in the calendar, but we don't know what it is and can't make it do anything.
- The App Store is there, of course, but doesn't do anything yet (except error out that it can't connect).
- Wondering when Apple will make good on its agreement to license Cisco technology? Well, the branded Cisco VPN screen has definitely been added to the VPN settings. We couldn't really test this one, but assume it works as advertised. We don't yet know if it supports SecurID or other hardware token authenticators.
- Parental controls most certainly work. Marvel as we turn off YouTube!
- You can now order your preferred WiFi networks.
- In addition to having a new sideways scientific mode(!), the basic calculator now does commas and has new, useful functions for the math nerds; both the calc and the iTunes icons have changed.
- By far our favorite new feature is multi-select in mail, though. Now when you hit edit you can select as many messages as you want and delete or move them as a group. Friggin' finally. Now where's that two-pane client?
Update: Video after the break!
I actually am so used to the vertical typing keyboard that I have a hard time typing on the horizontal KB.. ymmv of course :)
Hey Ryan,
That button in Calendar which you can't seem to figure out what it does the famous History Eraser Button. DON'T PRESS THAT SHINY RED BUTTON!!!
I think it's actually the "Move Event to Inbox" button, a la RSS feeds in Leopard's Mail app.
MMS- Yeah you're right I don't send them often at all must be like one every 2 months but when I do it's nice and everyone has a MMS capable phone whereas not everyone has an email client set up on their phone, if I see something that I know someone would like MMS fits the bill perfectly. Maybe I just took it for granted all these years but it's a pretty standard feature.
Voice Recording- I didn't mention it but if you are in a rush and need something specific noted like a model number or a room number or something its handy
whoops ignore t his
The new icon in the calendar looks like a to-do list inbox icon to me. Given Mail/iCal now have to-do lists this wouldn't be too much of a stretch.
WTF does "Exchange is so on! Changes are pushed over the network, but over WiFi it does check-ins, so it's not as instantaneous." mean.
Changes are pushed over the network? The cellular network? The Exchange integration is slower if I'm on WiFi? How much slower? How does the Exchange integration compare to Blackberry?
The calculator upgrade was much needed. And now it doesn't look too bad either...
Is there still no to-do list/tasks support? Do those sync down somehow from Exchange? The keynote was pretty vague on that.
I sick of people bitching and moaning about "Apple this, Apple that". Engadget can be biased if they want to, but if you people were smart enough to piece everything together, you would realize that completely Apple-biased. The general consensus is that Vista sucks, Microsoft isn't trying hard enough to be an innovator again, and that Apple's latest products beat most other ones out there. I don't think any of you know the meaning of bias. If they were as biased as you people claim it is, would they post things that could hurt Apple? They wouldn't put up photos of flaming iPod Touches if they were biased. They wouldn't slam Leopard because of its issues, and they wouldn't post ANYTHING that might potentially be good for Microsoft, like the fact that SP1 got released today. Hell, there would be nothing but Apple on here if they were that biased. They give praise to other products, and they can't help it if Apple is doing things right. If people like their iPhones, and Engadget says nice things about it, that doesn't make them biased. And by the way, they assume Cisco VPN works because everything else seems to work okay for a beta, but how in the hell can they really do that much. It supports the protocol, and there really isn't a way that theirs could be better or worse than another (after setup).
one thing i've always been missing about the ipod in iphone is the "group compilations" feature from itunes and former ipod models. any chance 2.0 does that? could you check that for me?
(in case this needs explanation:
imagine you have 3 albums on your ipod, e.g.:
1. The Beatles - "White Album"
2. The Strokes - "Is This It"
3. Various Artists - "Some Compilation" feat. 10 Tracks by different artists, incl. Artist 1, Artist 2, Artist 3, ..., Artist 10.
now, with "compilations grouped", ipod will list only 2 artists in the artist list: beatles & strokes. my iphone would currently list 12 artists (beatles, strokes, artist 1-10.). hope that helps;)
since i have a lot of compilations, this would definitely make scrolling the artist list more practical. thanks!
Is push email supported for non-Exchange email servers? I have yet to get a straight answer on this.
Exchange push-email support is obviously only available to Exchange users.
I didn't ask if Exchange push email was supported, I meant push email in general. During the keynote, they listed Push Email as a new feature before every mentioning Activesync and Exchange. And, if you visit Apple's iPhone enterprise site, it says the phone will now feature push email without speficially saying if it requires Exchange to function. (I'm worried because we just finished switching over from a Windows 2003 server to a Mac Leopard server for my all Mac office. If Apple seriously doesn't have push email for it's own products, I'm going to be LIVID.)
ActiveSync is for exchange.
I thought the iPhone already supported push email on Yahoo!? Haven't tried it though.
I wonder if you guys have ever read what a beta version is. You know, those things that aren't 100% complete?
MMS in my opinion is useless when it has an amazing email app. And cut and paste would be nice but I've been using my iPhone fine without it.
Can you set a different reply-to address in Mail like you can in Mail.app yet?
Can it push email via EDGE while you're on WiFi?
The most annoying thing with my iPhone is that, since I leave WiFi on, it always hops on my work WiFi, which needs me to use a browser and go thru an authentication screen, even though my credentials are saved. So I have to open the web browser before I can use other data apps. When I go out for lunch and come back, I have to repeat that. I wish it would just fall back to EDGE once it realizes the WiFi isn't working.
I could just turn off WiFi, but then I'd have to manually switch it on when i want to use it at work and at home.
Why don't you just tell your phone to forget your work network? That way it won't automatically join it.
I like to use it for websurfing. And I wouldn't mind using it for stocks and weather, etc, but of course have to pop open a browser to authenticate first...
I like the fact that you can delete multiple emails? Can you however mark multiple emails as Read/Unread? Also, are you able to sync Exchange Notes and Tasks?
is safari faster? are the "tabs" implemented, so that if you don't access a tab, it doesn't turn white? is there still no way to do a backspace in the calculator?
That was supposedly fixed in 1.1.4
ryan block, can you elaborate on why the icons on the iphone picture shown above are different than on other iphones? my calculator and itunes store icons are different. thnx.
Seriously!?
You take the time and trouble to ask a question but yet you cannot be bothered with reading the dang post?
Idiot...
But then, you did buy an iPhone
I still want flash in Safari.
Too true, too true, The Web is filled with flash and the iPhone can't touch any of it. The iPhone needs flash badly if it is to win anymore hearts. Hopefully this will all be sorted out come June.
I wonder how well it works with exchange polices.
Does it enforce password polices so if you enter it wrong x amount of times it does an wipe? If their device gets wiped, do they lose any songs they have purchased? We will not be installing iTunes on any corporate computer, do they need that to activate?
This is the dealbreaker for us for this round, but I'm guessing they do not support device encryption like WM6 and Exchange 2007.
No device encryption is enough for us to tell users no, but I'm still curious to how it all works. Exchange support or not, a lot of large corp IT shops are not going to want to support a device that requires software installed locally on the machine or the creation of iTunes accounts.
If a device can't be activated with no PC interaction at all, then it won't work. If it's not there yet, maybe it will be soon.
Can you sync music without playlists? Or make video playlists? Or organize videos more that "movie" or "tv show"?
These are problems i have with my ipod touch. Having to shove all other videos under movies doesn't help.
You've been able to manually organize your music since version 1.0.
Things I am reallllly missing with my iPhone, in order:
MMS (I know you can send them/view them over email, but if I am mobile and so is someone else, in order for them to know i sent something and see what I am sending, they need a smart phone at least, and they'd need a data plan and push email [or id need to call them/SMS them to tell them to check their email], and they need to open the email and download the attachment, which may or may not turn out well. I send a MMS message, and as long as they have any POS phone made in the last two years and messaging, it alerts and opens as soon as its received, which is seconds after it's sent.)
Exchange
3G
horizontal typing for email and SMS
VPN
Voice recording
Please, someone here explained how this was done. I have been working with the dev team on this jailbreak and now they all think that I leaked it to you guys. Please say something so they know I didn't leak this to you guys. Please.
What about logging into 802.1X networks?
You can stream radio just fine on the Non 3G iphone... there's several apps out there already for that in the homebrew community..
I have one on my phone and it works perfectly on the edge network
Is Engadget "Apple Fan-Boys" or are you all "Apple Haters"? Wow.
Whiners.
Thanks for the info Engadget!
I think they should change the stocks icon to a sharply declining line on the graph...
WOW, how about staying on topic guys. And why do people bother to come here and read only to slam Engadget for their efforts? What's the poing, you don't like it then YOU invest your time on a blog and se what YOU can pull off!!! Un-appreciative A-Holes.
Anyway, I wonder if the "scientific sideways" mode will be a new property of the iPhone in itself and allow horizontal modes on other apps, such as iPod in horizontal mode, but with controls available on the same scree, such as the option to shuffle songs..? Or Am I missing something here and we already have that?
Faslane
What's the poing indeed.
@Joppa, are you really that stupid to not figure out it's a typo, should say point. Don't be a smart ass, no one will like you.
WOW, how about staying on topic guys. And why do people bother to come here and read only to slam Engadget for their efforts? What's the poing, you don't like it then YOU invest your time on a blog and se what YOU can pull off!!! Un-appreciative A-Holes.
Anyway, I wonder if the "scientific sideways" mode will be a new property of the iPhone in itself and allow horizontal modes on other apps, such as iPod in horizontal mode, but with controls available on the same scree, such as the option to shuffle songs..? Or Am I missing something here and we already have that?
Faslane
does the push email only work with Exchange and Yahoo! still? Also is there a smaller interval to check emails than every 15 minutes?
go engadget!
That mysterious new button in the calendar is for notifications. At least that's what that same icon does in iCal. You guys couldn't get it to work because you didn't have any notifications.
Does 2.0 solve the SMTP issue when you're not using one of the preprogrammed mail providers (Yahoo, Gmail)? This is the problem where you have to switch SMTP providers when moving from EDGE to wifi, or the other way around.
Also, is there horizontal viewing and typing in email?
I understand that most other smartphones have more capabilities (WM6 & Blackberry esp), but none of those have a UI which is as easy to navigate. My two year old can do basic things on my iPhone. He can't to much of anything on my wife's Treo. Are smartphones made for 2yr olds? No. But think of how the new Enterprise apps could make some of those tech challenged people possibly more efficient.
Does anyone else think that OS 1.2 for iPhone will be released as the same time as iPhone 2.0? Besides 3G and better Bluetooth what other hardware items would be built into the new model? (hopefully a non-recessed headphone jack)
Wait, they still don't have the Clear Error Function on the calculator?
Geezah... They can't even get the simple things right...
And for the record, I do use the calculator time to time on the iTouch, but I don't like the fact that it lacks a CE button... Grumble...
I thought this was the iPhone 2.0 update? why does the version say 1.2 in the picture?
There has been a lot of confusion on this. Steve Jobs said that it would be firmware "version 2.0" it is now apparent that it is actually 1.2.0. Just like 1.0 was updated to 1.1 for the first major update (adding the iTunes application), it will be updated to 1.2 for the second major update.
- Still no Copy/Paste functionality?
- Still no Notes syncing with my machine?
- Still no animated gif support in Safari?
- Still no Flash Support?
- Still cannot customize background?
- Still cannot assign custom icons to web clip? (Unless it's your own site)
- Still no update on the dock to mach OSX Leopard.
- Still no 3G to make all these soon to come apps work smoothly over the network.
I didn't know it was officially released. Apple hasn't announced ANY consumer features of the 2.0 firmware by the way. You guys need to keep that in mind.