iPhone 2.1 update is out: bug fixes and longer battery life promised

You made it. Three full battery charges and three full days of buggy 2.0.2 firmware later and the 2.1 software is now available for download. Remember, this "big update" comes with Steve's personal promise of "fewer call drops... significantly improved battery life for most customers... fixed a lot of bugs where if you have a lot of apps on the phone you're not going to get some of the crashes we've seen... backing up to iTunes is dramatically faster." We'll see.

P.S. Not that we're expecting any, but if you spot copy and paste or any other unannounced features be sure to let us know.

Update: We're updating right now and we'll let you know if we see anything amazing. Keep us posted in the comments too -- how is it going for you?

[Adam @ Sep 12th 2008 9:07AM]

Applications that are updated now keep their icon in the same location.

[High Ranks make you sterile @ Sep 12th 2008 9:11AM]

Icons in the same location? Alleluia.

Opening and running without a crash? Not so much.

[Mark Anderson @ Sep 12th 2008 9:21AM]

So... is there any other firmware update that makes you install a new version of the update program and has normal bug fixes that gets such extensive coverage.

Hmm... guess not.

[Jakob @ Sep 12th 2008 10:01AM]

Actually that's great, do you really know how annoying it's to relocate 30 applications? Hmm.. I guess not.

[PiperSon @ Sep 12th 2008 10:11AM]

You also now get an indication of how much space your apps are taking up in the iPhone overview screen in iTunes... not sure how useful that is though?

[viewsource @ Sep 12th 2008 10:11AM]

So does this update include the ability to have programs running in the background, ala IM? Wasn't that talked about in this summer's release of the 3G?

[KA @ Sep 12th 2008 11:32AM]

Nope. They talked about a push alert mechanism, not background processes.

[AJC @ Sep 12th 2008 11:40AM]

My 3G emblem looks funny. Anyone else?

[ybd @ Sep 12th 2008 11:44AM]

Seriously, Mark Anderson is right. It's just bug fixes, something you expect from ANY gadget. There's no reason for this to deserve its own news.

...I guess Engadget has to pay for that free iPod Touch 2G they got.

[Roberto Doumet @ Sep 12th 2008 6:20PM]

From my side:

the 3G icon is now blue and switches faster from 3G spots to Edge and viceversa.
The battery for this same time of day seems holding on quite well.
It took a minute to 'reactivate' after install.
No cut and paste, though I think might be easy to implement if Apple just place a scissor icon next to the switch world icon for keyboard language and select and release.

[iPhoner @ Sep 12th 2008 2:21PM]

You can also download the files from this mirror: http://www.iphone-hacks.com/2008/09/12/iphone-21-released/

[zzz @ Sep 12th 2008 9:07AM]

Copy and paste? Yeah, dream on.

[bob cobb @ Sep 12th 2008 9:16AM]

If the iPhone doesnt have copy paste by the time the new htc touch HD comes out Im jumping ship for that phone. I love the web browsing on the iPhone, but I absolutely need this feature and am dying without it

[diogo @ Sep 12th 2008 9:54AM]

Just out of curiosity, have you *tried* browsing the HTC Touch's interface?
It's sloppy, choppy and non-responsive.
Sure it looks pretty, but only when you're not actually doing anything with it.

[cesium @ Sep 12th 2008 10:32AM]

Uhh he's not talking about the Touch

[Jason @ Sep 13th 2008 12:24AM]

Why are people voting him down? Copy and paste is an absolute necessity on any serious computing platform. I can't take the iPhone seriously as an email device until it has this feature. Even prepaid Nokia flip phones can copypasta!

[Andy TGD @ Sep 12th 2008 11:22AM]

I think we'll *all* know about it when copy and paste finally arrives on the iPhone OS. It wont be hidden away in an update - this is one of the few features which would make iPod Touch owners pay *again* for a firmware update. They'll be saving that feature for the next time they feel like shafting Touch owners - I expect January 2009.

[JUSTIN WELSH @ Sep 12th 2008 9:09AM]

I click update and nothing? Is the update available to anyone else?

[Mike @ Sep 12th 2008 9:09AM]

Not showing up for me on their site or iTunes!?!

[devix @ Sep 12th 2008 9:10AM]

Same here (I'm in the UK)

[Russ @ Sep 12th 2008 9:12AM]

Same here... (UK)

[Russ @ Sep 12th 2008 9:14AM]

Correction.... It's here now :o)

[Mike @ Sep 12th 2008 9:15AM]

Same... Just showed up for me too.

[Phil Gilder @ Sep 12th 2008 9:11AM]

some of the new features are really good: repeat text message alerts & data wipe after 10 failed attempts

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Sep 12th 2008 10:53AM]

Sweet! Lack of repeat alerts was one of my biggest annoyances (no, i don't care about copy/paste or MMS).... Or at least it was one of my biggest annoyances until 2.0 made my phone occasionally reminiscent of how laggy Windows Mobile was.

Going to upgrade now..

[William @ Sep 12th 2008 12:37PM]

Yes, but unless I'm missing something, it's only for text messages and not for calendar items, alarms, or e-mails...

[dzhiurgis @ Sep 12th 2008 9:11AM]

Download link:
http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPhone/061-5202.20080909.gkbEj/iPhone1,1_2.1_5F136_Restore.ipsw

[Edgar @ Sep 12th 2008 9:14AM]

is this link for the old iPhone or the iPhone 3G ??

[dzhiurgis @ Sep 12th 2008 9:20AM]

I think old (iphone 1.1)
Here's for the 3G: http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPhone/061-5198.20080909.K3294/iPhone1,2_2.1_5F136_Restore.ipsw

you can check it yourself at http://phobos.apple.com/version.xml

[iomatic @ Sep 12th 2008 1:54PM]

@dzhiurgis: thanks! this helps those of us behind a corporate firewall that blocks streaming media, iTunes store, etc. Basically anything that's not helpful to The Man.

[Shan @ Sep 12th 2008 1:25PM]

To work out if firmware is for the old iPhone or the new 3G model simply look at the firmware file name. After the word "iPhone" at the front of the file, the next 2 numbers are important. "1,1" in the file name denotes the original iPhone, whilst "1,2" denotes the 3G firmware. The numbers that then following the first two will be the firmware version eg. 2.1 etc.

[Aquify @ Sep 12th 2008 9:17AM]

What people seem to miss with the whole copy paste thing, there is no system, nor can i see one, of selecting text. The system is not built for it, nor can i see how copy / paste would be implemented. Why do you need it it anyway, i get along fine without it.

[happy_penguin @ Sep 12th 2008 9:22AM]

C/P button, touch, drag, release, C/P button, touch to paste or C/P button again to cancel.

[Piratbyran @ Sep 12th 2008 9:25AM]

Still damn hard to use.

[RCook @ Sep 12th 2008 9:29AM]

I'll give you a reason, WEP/WAP keys that are insanely long. You try typing a flippin 64 character key with no mistakes twice.

[brent @ Sep 12th 2008 9:39AM]

I think they should implement Copy by requiring one to touch the screen in four places to create a square. Then if that is done for a second a menu appears with the Copy command. Then after you paste you can edit out anything that is copied that you don't need.

[Piratbyran @ Sep 12th 2008 9:41AM]

Nice security having your wpa keys in an email, but anyway thats not the point. It would be balls to implement, and frankly, i don't think apple intends too. There is no need for them to stuff around, it would take quite a bit to do i would imagine.

Also, as pointed out, it is rather a lengthy thing to do, you wouldn't want to be copying more than a few words at a time.

[happy_penguin @ Sep 12th 2008 9:53AM]

You're right pyrat. Better off not having copy/paste because we're all too stupid to figure out how to use it. After all, Steve does know what's best for us.

[RadicalxEdward @ Sep 12th 2008 10:13AM]

Actually the system is fine for selecting text. The same way you move the blinky curser thing around to add text in. you click and hold and then the magnifying glass thing pops up. what's wrong with using that.
have copy/cut/paste buttons on top of the keyboard,

click copy
magnifying glass pops up.
with one finger move to beginning of text
put down second finger
scroll to end of text
release

then to paste just put the courser where you want it and click paste.

[tlewsadder @ Sep 12th 2008 11:21AM]

in regards to Aquify, have you seen the app Magic Pad. It has copy paste built into it. it works pretty well.

[KA @ Sep 12th 2008 11:58AM]

@happy_penguin,

So... where's that copy/paste button? Putting it on the keyboard is fine for the 20% of cases where you actually have the keyboard open, but most cases where you need a clipboard are when you have text in non-interactive, read-only format which you need to enter somewhere else. Where would the copy/paste button be then?
The obvious answer would be the menu bar, but at twenty pixels (3 mm) high it's not the easiest place to touch. However, it can be done - but not without destroying the tapping-the-menu-bar-scrolls-to-the-top paradigm.

For a much better analasys, see http://daringfireball.net/2007/08/clipboard_and_arrows#fnr2-2007-08-09

[happy_penguin @ Sep 12th 2008 12:47PM]

KA

I would the C/P button on the bar at the bottom of the screen. It looks to me as though there is plenty of space to add a button or two. But even if I'm wrong that's hardly the point, is it? It's an idea and I'm sure other people have ideas. Some ideas have been posted. Someone explain to me WHY there can be no copy/paste. If you can't do that you have little room to criticize ideas.

[Alex @ Sep 12th 2008 9:12AM]

Same here I checked the website at 9AM since people were saying that will be a likely release time and I see the website showing 2.1 but when I got to Itunes 8 and 2.0.2 is the latest update. I think they are releasing the actual software in stages through the day for different areas. I'm in Indiana.

[Jones @ Sep 12th 2008 9:19AM]

That's not my fault.

[JKW-Atlanta @ Sep 15th 2008 12:47PM]

I downloaded the 2.1 Upgrade this morning now the GPS doesn't work.

[Andrew Hosler @ Sep 12th 2008 9:13AM]

Up Now on Itunes

[Felix @ Sep 12th 2008 9:12AM]

Downloading now

[Raiquan @ Sep 12th 2008 9:13AM]

Im downloading it right now. Will report back

[ewellnitz @ Sep 12th 2008 9:14AM]

I'm able to download it from iTunes just fine.

[Mike @ Sep 12th 2008 9:18AM]

It wasn't showing up for me, and I restarted iTunes and then it came up - 237.8 MB