iPhone 2.1 update is out: bug fixes and longer battery life promised
By Thomas Ricker 
posted September 12th 2008 9:04AM
posted September 12th 2008 9:04AM
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?
How do you use the genius feature in the iPod menu? I noteiced they did some cleaning up of the iPod interface (namely, added Artist-Album) under each track title. Also added different blue icon to the left if a podcast is old/new/not complete (also shows how much time is remaining. CooL!
cant update because its still backing up after half an hour.. ughh
this is freakin ridiculous, why does it take so long? the 1st gen never took this long, maybe like 2-3 minutes, not almost an hour....
Those Nokia internet tablets have copy and paste implementation that could easily be ripped off for the iphone. You hold down the stylus and this circle starts spinning around it. When it completes its cycle a menu appears with cut/copy/paste etc. To select text you simply tap and drag. This could work on the iphone.
impressive... i now have at least 3 bars where i used to only have 1...
EXCEPT IT WON'T PLACE OR RECEIVE CALLS OR SMS... IT WON'T PULL DATA... IT SIMPLY OVERREPRESENTS THE SIGNAL IT HAS
listing on ebay as we speak.
Wow, I was afraid of that- ie they just increased the number of bars being displayed relative to actual signal strength while the reception is in reality no better due to software tweaks.
While it should be considered a legitimate software adjustment *if* it prevents the phone to roll over to Edge prematurely and unnecessarily, if there's nothing baked in that also enhances the reception (yes, ultimately this is AT&T's 3G crap network I know) then it's kind of a sham.
Hence my theory... that while Apple is locked into an unholy marriage with AT&T's pathetic, crap network... maybe they have stealthily decided to give us true rebels (who loathe everything money grubbing utility monopolies stand for) an alternative- VOIP. The 'one more thing' that was not announced early this week :)
Exchange is working much better so far, I have been having really crappy performace since I bought this phone. Contacts much faster.
Not sure if this is new either, but you know that little blue circle that shows next to unseen shows & podcasts? well now they have a "half-circle" that shows for those you haven't finished watching Again, a nice touch, but I dont think a lot of people were waiting for this one.
Yes that is a new feature and it was mentioned yesterday on TUAW I believe.
Facebook, LinkedIn won't launch. "The application "Facebook" cannot be opened". FAIL.
the facebook app is FAIL to begin with....go to facebook.com then add it to the home screen.....much much better
For those of you still bitching about the time it takes to sync; TURN BACKING UP OFF, it's a simple command line that you can run, if you're too lazy to do that but yet post a lengthy rant about how it erks you in the side? well i think you see the point.
Secondly, copy and paste, if it was that important, apple WOULD have implemented it in this release, but all these people that are making noise, are simply just that, making noise, The turnover rate for returns for the iphone because 'There's no copy paste function' is so small, that Apple simply does not care. it's not making them lose money, so stop creating your own headaches and just wait, no phone is perfect, and if you were looking for perfection, i hope you have a lifetime of patience.
Does it break the sim unlock on 2G iphone?
In other words, if i'm not bothered about jailbreak, can i update safely without having to activate or unlock?
TIA
Honestly, they still can't break out copy paste? Noobs
Thought there was supposed to be a GPS update as well?
Yeah copy & paste isnt that important. Ive never needed to use it. Im guessing the vast majority of users will find use for it though. The Only feature I do want is MMS.
Why not just email instead of MMS? It's basically the same thing, right? If course, it would be nice to have an SMS like interface for emails, kind of like gmail does.
I too want MMS above any other feature, sure i know that email is there, and maybe things are different in the states, but in the UK MMS is quite prevalant, all of my friends have camera phones but I can count the number of friends who have email set up on their phone in a push capacity on 1 finger.
YouTube isn't working?? Hmm Sucks for you. Never had issue with it ever. On both Edge and Wi-Fi.
Maybe the content you are trying to view is having issues or YouTube was doing something server side when you tried to view something?
not sure what the deal is. i'm not the only that has ever experienced it, but it seems like all iphones choke on different things. who knows... i just hope the rest of the stuff works better.
You don't have to run a command line to turn back ups off on the iPhone.
Just hit the X button next to the progress bar when it says it's "backing up" and it will skip the process and go right to syncing the iPhone.
What the fuck is so hard about that?
They fixed the Nortel Phone system Voice Mail issue, not allowing to check voicemail with the ** sequence!
copy/paste would be nice for forwarding an sms... instead of typing it all over again...
the thing is that apple is NOT a phone cie and is placing itselfs as a precursor while some basics features are still missing... sthg is really wrong with them
why bluetooth is only limited to calls? why not having a blutetooth protocole to transfer some files one to each other? pictures for instance
why not having a receipt of transmission for sms?
why not using mms?
they can fix bugs and be proud of this ? pff 2.1 should have already been 2.0 period.
It's funny that you mention it, but only 3 of the features of this update are something other than bug fixes. With that said, I'm still pretty happy about this update.
Ever since updating to 2.1, every time I plug my 3G iPhone into my G5 iMac, I get a warning; "incompatible accessory, turn on airport mode?" Real funny, Apple.
Also, anyone that actually supports the absurd backup process (extreme length of time it takes to complete every time), needs to get a clue. Stop being a fan boy and recognize turning off backup is ridiculous when Apple should just fix the problem to begin with. 2.1 shaved maybe 10-15 minutes off of the total backup time. It is still taking way too long. Learn incremental backups, Apple.thx
My backups used to take 5 hours with 78 apps installed. now it takes only 64 seconds...
The "airport" thing always happened to me and I haven't updated to 2.1 yet. I guess my iPhone doesn't like being plugged into the old dock that I have. Even though the dock is old, I can still use it to charge and sync my phone so it's not a big deal.
Btw @ Mike.
78 applications? Seriously? How many of them are actually useful is the question.
I don't think 'shake to shuffle' is in here. At least I can't get it to work.
Yeah from what I've heard shake to shuffle is only on the new nano,kinda sucks dont know whats so wrong about giving it to iphone users.
Don't give up and KEEP shaking
Eventually something will definitely happen- promise!!
Im STILL shaking and nothing is happening, maybe Im doing it wrong.
You're just not shaking hard enough...
Shake with enough force where you start hearing things knock around the insides. It'll definitely work then.
Well, that update just introduced me to a new experience - a Windows Vista blue-screen crash (caused by the usbaapl.sys Apple USB driver) during the update.
Rebooted and had to restore the iPhone, but all back now with 2.1
The main thing i noticed is that my bars went from 2 to the full 5 right of the bat. Pretty neat. I wonder if my 3g coverage will improve also......
But I also noticed that one of the other bugs i have been having, that my updated-on-itunes apps sill won't update the phone and i get an error message.
Fanboys: Copy paste is very useful for everything from copying information between e-mails to copy/pasting URLs into messages and, especially vital to me, receiving multimedia messages from Verizon, etc friends that require username/password to access on AT&T. Sprint would automatically log me in to view the multimedia messages. With AT&T, you have to provide a lengthy, alphanumeric username and password. Really sucks having to go back and forth between browser and text message to provide this just to view a little picture that can't even be saved.
Amen
Yeah I don't understand why it can't auto login to the browser. I guess it's that no background applications running.
Besides the fact there is no reason for those to be so random and long, maybe it's AT&T's version of brainage.
It actually BROKE all my installed apps.
Is shake to shuffle included?
I haven't seen anyone else mention it yet. I updated my wife's phone and everything went well, except her clock is now 8 hours off. When I try to go into the Date and Time settings it crashes and returns to the home screen. I tried to post on the apple forums but it says my account (MobileMe) is disabled from posting on the forums. Even though I've never used the forums before. Any idea's?
BTW - I don't even know how my phone will go yet. I'm attempting to update mine for the second time now... it cant seen to make it pass the back-up process yet.
Ditto. I've heard that it's an issue on machines running Vista... are you running Vista?
Am experiencing the same problem as daniel - can't access the date and time screen from the general menu of the settings icon. Anybody found a fix?
This isn't related to the update, but I just noticed that I'm only getting sound out of the left speaker. If I put my finger over it, I can barely hear anything out of the right speaker. Headphones work ok. I never noticed this before. Is this normal?
edmunny: The right hole is the microphone, iPhone only has a mono speaker.
I don't think I like the new 3G icon yet...rather prefer it in a tiny square.
I dont think shake to shuffle was even announced on anything other than the nano. I havent heard of any reports of it working on the iPhone or iPod touch.
2.1 is way better now, I get 3g everywhere now, and performance is much better also, Thanks apple!!!!
Anyway to do 'Update All' for the 3rd party apps? I havent updated mine cuz the crashing so now I have 18 to update. One at a time sucks balls.
Maybe theres a way to do this in itunes?
Thanks guys!
Yes there is. I believe if you connect it to iTunes in the Application section it will say right next to it the number of updates there are for you 3rd party apps. Go ahead and connect it to see for yourself. Good luck.
I'm assuming 2.1 broke the jailbreak? Hopefully dev team can unlock this one pretty quick since all the bogged down typing and contact list searching is driving me nuts.
Give it a week to see if more reception bars actually means better reception. Now why couldn't this have been added weeks ago? Dont praise them for giving you something they shouldnt have done right at the time of release. Its not asking much to just have decent phone reception on the supposed BEST phone on the market IN 2008.
Since installing I have backed up and it was considerably quicker. The reception is fantastic. I have a first floor apartment where before and after I got my iphone, I had either no service or 1 bar and every call is dropped. Now I get 2 or 3 bars wit no dropped calls and good sound according to the party at the other end of the call. Great job Stevie.... so far.