[Hands0n]

You may need to update to iTunes 8 before the iPhone update to 2.1. Or you may not :D Either way, although iPod Touch owners have the new 2.1 firmware the iPhone community will have to wait another three days for their latest fix.

The new release supposedly contains software for Bug Fixes, Connectivity and Battery Life.


Alongside the other announcements, Apple announced that the iPhone 2.1 firmware will be released this Friday as a free update. The much anticipated version upgrade will address many of the issues that have been plaguing iPhone users. Changes include:

- Significantly better battery life
- Fewer call drops
- Bug fixes
- Faster backups to iTunes
- No App crashes

The iPhone 2.1 firmware will presumably support the same Genius playlist features described in the new iPod Touches. (Nike+iPod support will be unlikely without a hardware add-on since it uses specialized hardware to communicate with the transmitter.)

No mention of background push notifications were made, however, which were originally planned for a September release.

Source: http://www.macrumors.com/2008/09/09/iphone-2-1-firmware-coming-on-friday-bug-fixes-connectivity-and-battery-life/

We'll see come this Friday then .......

[Ben]

Exciting :D I know what I'll be installing on Friday!

To be fair, Apple have been really good with the update frequency for the iPhone. It's just a shame that the updates to date haven't changed much... other than faff about with the 3G stuff :)

[Hands0n]

I have just upgraded to iTunes 8 from http://www.apple.com/uk/itunes/download/

Now the wait begins :D

The updates to the iPhone firmware, I think, have been entirely necessary to deflect the bad press that the early 2.0 firmware brought upon the device. It is nevertheless interesting to see some folk moaning on Macrumors about there being "yet another update....". Apple can do no right in some eyes :rolleyes:


But you're quite right Ben, Apple do need to start introducing firmware that closes the gaps between the iPhone and much of its competition. In this respect I'm thinking MMS, Video and SMS Forwarding .... at the very least.

[Ben]

Oh my god, people moaning about iPhone updates? Keep them coming, I say! It's so nice to have a mobile device that is constantly evolving!

I mean seriously, I hate 'static' devices. They're so dead. The iPhone is so refreshing! And plugging the iPhone in to the computer is so difficult... I mean, it's not like we have to do it anyway to charge!

[Hands0n]

Yea, its hard to believe that some folk write some of this stuff

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=6196198&postcount=10
http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=6196273&postcount=20
http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=6196274&postcount=21 (this guy's never heard of Agile)
http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=6196294&postcount=24
http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=6196360&postcount=35

And a voice of sanity prevails; http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=6196380&postcount=37 good lad :)

[Ben]

Just finished the Stevenote, all good! :D http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/0809dt4bs89/event/index.html

[Hands0n]

Yea, just watched it myself - t'was okay, fell asleep in places :D

[miffed]

Yea, just watched it myself - t'was okay, fell asleep in places :D

Agreed ! ,was it just me - or did Steve COMPLETELY overdo the "How to make a Genius playist demos ?? - It is ONE BUTTON FFS !! , yet he insisted on demostrating 4,543 times on iTunes , 3,425 on the Nano , and the a further 793 times on the Touch .... all for the same "one click" feature !!!
(^^^ Figures are approximate )

As keynotes go , I found that one to be quite boring - Why the "spore" demo , we have had that when the SDK was released ?

OK if you are in the market for an ipod Nano , or a Touch - but as an iPhone owner it was a bit of a non event , I think we can DEFINATELY rule out anything other than bug fixes in 2.1 = otherwise they'd have been mentioned

[Hands0n]

Here we are, 23 minutes until Friday ....... but I suppose we'll have to wait for the Shermans to wake up first before we get our sticky mitts on the 2.1 update. Bah! I'll be out until late so you lot will have to be the oily adopters ..... curses ;)

[chagle]

Now gone 8am - No update! Pah! :)

[miffed]

Come on !!

Where is it ?

:(

[a_ukboy]

I bet we don't get it till sometime this evening, I'm sure our last update appeared evening time? I bet Apple work on USA time?

[chagle]

.. That's a bit naughty though! - Don't they know who we are! :-)

[Ben]

Totally, I'm itching for this, I almost wish I didn't know it was coming out :D

[chagle]

I keep hitting 'Check for update' in iTunes! Sad maybe huh? I just want to get the lagging when opening contacts - it's worse than ever!

[miffed]

Yay !

Downloading now :) but veeeeeery slowly .... each MB taking around 20 seconds - so at 3mb per minute , for a 237mb download , it should only take .........

.....oh crap ! :(

[miffed]

Blimey ! that took a long time


......... Very cruel ! :rolleyes:

[miffed]

Contacts lag is still there :( - it is better , just a few seconds now , but that is still 2 seconds more than
Genius playlists are present , but no "shake to shuffle" from what I can see

Not a lot different , except a different network status logo

[Bleubean]

ok - can i express my love for Genius!!! Ive used it on the iPhone just there and its great!!!!! its taken soo much stress off the skip button for me !! ha.

At the moment, ive got no lags! *fingers crossed*

[Hands0n]

S'not fair - I was stuck at the office and away from my Mac that I use as home to the iPhone. But no more .... its updating right now. The download didn't take at all long this evening (5:45pm) so I guessing that the world and its uncle have got the download installed already. It took less than five mins to download and start the update process


I'm mostly after the stable 3G, better battery and the handset wipe on 10 fails of the phone lock.

Ben's very quiet tonight :D

[Ben]

I too am separated from my iPhone-home Mac at the moment :(

[Bleubean]

Has the Contacts lag returned and hes topped himself?!

[Hands0n]

I too am separated from my iPhone-home Mac at the moment :(

But its POETS day today. What are you still doing at work?

[Ben]

But its POETS day today. What are you still doing at work?
LoL :P I'm afraid it doesn't apply!

Rest assured I'll be clawing 2.1 down from the cloud just as soon as I get home :D

[Hands0n]

I'm stuck! How odd..... The update has completed, the iPhone re-booted, now it is taking an age backing up to iTunes and stuck on "Waiting to activate" ??? WTF, why does it want to re-activate .....

Scarily enough it took about 5 mins to active, and is now done but still backing up - which was supposed to be quicker, and in fact isn't at all, but a lot slower. Hmmm, it could be the first round that takes this long ....

Watch this space I suppose ...

[miffed]

hmm , my experience was similar - all very automatic though

May try restoring the firmware - then I'll have the option to set up as a new device , which may give a better experience ?

[Bleubean]

Hands0n i got an "iPhone Activated" message display on my iPhone when the new firmware update and backup was finished!

Ive never seen that one before!

I think the iPhone OS is becoming alot more unpredictable ! Some people i know have never had the Contact or SMS lag at all, yet they get almost constant app/Safari crashes. Our settings and installed Apps are 95% the same.

Very strange.

[a_ukboy]

Ok, I've done mine and it all took 2 hours, firstly the phone crashed during upgrade so had to restore then update, now all my contacts have been changed to look like American phone numbers, at least one phone number I've found out do far is completley wrong. Don't know what that's all about?
My 3g signal has greatly improved but suffering now alot of dropped calls and no Internet connection, but we have just had a very heavy thunder storm so hoping that's the reason why.

[Hands0n]

@Bleubean - I was a bit impatient and had somewhere to go so had to abort the backup, which then caused the handset to activate with O2. I think its because the update (as did the last one) was in two parts, the Baseband Modem and the general OS X system. The former must essentially "virginise" the iPhone in network terms. I'm guessing though.

All is well now. The keyboard lag is gone, not evident at all. The Contacts do seem to load quicker, and access to the Search bar is virtually instant.

I cannot testify for the rest - it has not had sufficient time to clog itself up with Cache and other debris that seems to accumulate in the OS as the iPhone is put to practical use. Still, it is all steps in the right direction - I would rather this than new whizz-bang stuff on an iPhone that keeps flaking out at every opportunity.

@a-ukboy - Have you checked that your International settings are still set to UK? Check Settings, General, International.

@ miffed - What do you think, fella? Is this like 1.1.4 again or still adrift? It certainly feels slicker than anything 2.x.x to date.

[a_ukboy]

Yeah thats the first thing i checked matey...

Im reinstalling and seeing if that sorts out my issues, but the one thing i have noticed is a massive increase on my 3g signal, anyone else getting that too..

I will post my findings when i've reinstalled

[Hands0n]

There has been no difference in the signal display other than the icons. The 3G at home is not great, and that persists. But then I wasn't expecting an improvement - Apple cannot fix O2's deficient 3G network in firmware.

Good luck with the re-install, I hope it goes well.

Now I'm retiring the iPhone for the night it is jacked into the Mac Mini and currently backing itself up for the first time (I aborted the post-update backup). Four minutes have passed and the backup gauge is less than 1/3 done. So much for quicker iPhone backups in 2.1 then - they aren't any quicker in my experience (memory use is just on 50% so there isn't that uch to backup).


Edit: 22 minutes to backup the iPhone for the first time after the update. 35 seconds on the next occasion by using the Backup function. This must be performing incremental backups - sensible as long as the series is not disrupted or lost!

[Hands0n]

Oh, and has anyone found the iPhone's Genius playlist creation? Because if its in there I certainly cannot find it


The iPhone 2.1 software update contains many bug fixes and improvements. To get it, connect your iPhone to your computer using iTunes 8 and click Check for Update.

Update includes:

Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls
Significantly better battery life for most users
Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
Faster installation of 3rd party applications
Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications
Improved performance in text messaging
Faster loading and searching of contacts
Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
Genius playlist creation

Source: http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/

[Ben]

Start playing a song, click on the album art and you'll see the genius icon appear near the top of the screen. Only knew that from watching the Stevenote.

[Hands0n]

Aha, and further to that - it will only work if you have turned on Genius in iTunes 8 (which I haven't).

[miffed]

Handson , I feel it still seems to have lost the fluidness of 1.1.4 - I know this sounds really petty , but if I go to the contacts menu on 1.1.4 ,I am immedietely able to scroll , as fast as I am able to move my finger off the contacts button and onto the contacts list , it is ready to scroll - whereas 2.1 still seems to need 1-2 seconds of thinkng time before it will let me scroll

Of course this 1-2 seconds is barely noticeable unless compared directly with the older firmaware , so it is probably acceptable for most.

Another interesting thing , is Safari , I had a little "head to head" race , over Wi-fi - and the 2G appeared to be racing ahead of the 3G in terms of progress bar activity - but then I noticed the 3G had actually loaded pretty much all the page by about halfway on the progress bar ,whereas the 2G's showed the progress bar at 4/5 complete - but with lots of page still to load

One thing is for sure , Now I have had time to get used to the 3G screen , it definately seems MUCH better than the 2G - funny how your perception changes with familiarity !

The 2G is still great IMO , as Nelson Mandella would agree

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0keKN9CsTpI

[chagle]

I must admit I just love how quick iTunes backups up the iPhone now..

"Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages"

I assume you can't change the interval between alerts. This is automatic I assume? Anyone figured it out..?

I don't I would consider going back to a 'normal' phone now after having a beast like the iPhone! Strange how you get attached to this little thing.

[Hands0n]

@chagle - the SMS alerts are set at 5 mins for the second one and 15 mins for the third (it may be 10 mins, I read it somewhere in yesterday's frenzy). It is not currently user configurable.

I like the feature. It reminds me of the old 3G LG Uxxxx that bleeped endlessly each few mins after an SMS had arrived. Too often I miss the initial alert and don't see the SMS for hours afterwards.

[chagle]

With my previous Moto / Samsung - All had the 'remind' feature. I had to buy some software for the N73 called RemindME - But it's handy if you don't realise if you've got a text message. Shame you still can't use your own text message tone!

[gorilla]

I've updated from my jailbroken firmware. One thing I have noticed is that, under the jailbreak, I had set my battery meter to display numbers, and 2.1 still displays this, despite being a supposedly clean install. All of my other features from the jailbreak have disappeared, so is this something you can do on original firmware?

I think I get a better 3g reception, but it's so hard to tell. One minute I'll have 3 bars of 3g and I'll try surfing, only for it to magically shoot up to full reception, only for the 3g symbol to be replaced with the 'E' moments later. I also amuse myself by just sitting and watching the 'E' and the '3G' replace each other, while watching the numeric battery counter drain at the same time. Needless to say, I've switched 3G off.

2.1 does seem to have fixed a few things, but I still find it quite sluggish, almost S60 slow. For example, when opening the SMS app, it takes maybe 5 seconds to open. In comparison, safari opens instantly.

Still, if this is a move in the right direction, then keep them coming.

[Ben]

My battery is still full from doing the update on Friday evening! :o

SMS and Contacts are faster, everything else seems... fine.

[Bleubean]

The SMS lag hasn't returned to my handset yet after almost 2 days like the previous update. But entering text on a webpage is a bit .... fragile!

It's managing to type fine but I get the feeling if I go too fast it will go apesh@t on me!!

The iPhone OS seems alot more fluid with 2.1 although I have noticed a few areas of the phone where it seems they've remove the transition animations between certain screens!


It's a good update so far tho!!!

[Ben]

My battery is STILL full :S

[chagle]

Only problem I still have is the contact lag! It's not instant like I would like it to be.. but I love all the other features!

[Ben]

Ok, my battery finally died earlier today :( 2.1 appears not to have given my iPhone eternal life, just a stuck battery indicator - which is now unstuck.

Oh well.

Everything else is good, though :) No crashes or dropped calls so far. Typing in boxes on web pages still isn't great though.

[gorilla]

anyone else having major crashes in safari?

The phone itself works well, but I've had several hangs when using safari. The latest one was on yahoo's new site. I have to completely reboot the phone.

Other than that 2.1 has made the iPhone a lot better.

[Ben]

Oh dear :( No, I find Safari much better now. Still not perfect, but the best so far on v2. I'm on it atm! :D

[gorilla]

One thing I have noticed is that, under the jailbreak, I had set my battery meter to display numbers, and 2.1 still displays this, despite being a supposedly clean install.

Apparently, if you tap the battery icon it will change to numbers and vice versa, is this true? I know it works on mine, but as it's jailbroken, I'm not sure if all 2.X.X have this 'feature'.

[Hands0n]

It does not work on the standard iPhone 2.1 firmware ....

[gorilla]

It does not work on the standard iPhone 2.1 firmware ....

That's weird. When I updated to 2.1 it was all official, no jailbreaking and it worked.

Makes me wonder how the update process works, or does the restore remember jailbreak settings?

[Hands0n]

or does the restore remember jailbreak settings?

*Blinks* :confused: I dunno