Since the 3G iPhone hit the shelves, Apple has seen a tremendous amount of feedback from popular media, blogs, and consumers alike. While many loved the new device, a lot of us also hated it for various reasons. I have also chimed in with my own thoughts, good and bad, on my new iPhone and the love/hate relationship I have had with it. Apple seems to have listened, recently promising their iPhone 2.1 software update with plenty of fixes and some new features just for good measure. About 15 minutes ago, I got a notification that the update was available. Wanting to avoid the peak of the download rush, I plugged in and updated right away, getting my iPhone to 2.1 pretty quickly. Here’s what the update claims to include:
iPhone version 2.1 contains many bug fixes and improvements, including the following:
• decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
• significantly improved 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 if you have lots of 3rd 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
The first thing I looked for was better reception, simply because that’s what I find most wrong with my iPhone while in my office. Immediately, I noticed 4 bars and 3G. This is pretty rare for me in my office. While playing in the App Store, I noticed 5 bars. Could this really be? I have had slightly better reception over the last few weeks, with only a couple dropped/missed calls, so it’ll be a little harder to test, but I’m finally confident for the first time about my iPhone purchase.
UPDATE: “improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display” is a big fat FAIL. As soon as I answer a call, it drops back to 2 bars.
So far, I’ve also noticed the increased loading speed of my contacts. The rest will take some time and some playing around, but it’s good to see Apple responding to our concerns.
Now… Apple, How about the SMS system. Can you bring real picture messaging to the iPhone and get rid of this lame system where I have to go to a site with an impossible-to-remember username and password to see my picture message?
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