Great so for those Vista users, you will have to wait until the BSOD problem is fixed.

For those who haven't heard, apple made Itunes vista incompatable while the phone is plugged in. They messed up a hardware driver or something. And they blame windows for the error. So here is my question, if hardware drivers are often OS specific, how do they get off blaming windows for their bad writing job?

Sesheron

Here we go, Lets see if 2.0b3 helps my LagPhone. If not, it's off to eBay it goes...

First impression - It makes you DL iTunes 8.0! Grrrrrrrr

Forced upgrade to 8.0: Strike One Apple!

spidermedic

OK ugraded without any issues.

- 1st backup takes a LONG time, longer than pre update (I have 8GB music, 2GB Video, 100 or so Pics and 15 Apps). 2nd took less than a minute, Firmware 1.x speeds.

VERY impressive!

- 3G signal: I have never had more than 2 bars at home. I am currently sitting pretty on 4. Made a call, nice and clear.

So far so good.

- Pass lock flaw is fixed.
- Can now wipe data after 10 incorrect passcode attempts.
- 3G icon is just text, no square.
- Genius feature like iTunes and new iPods.
- Things feel snappier in general (they always do after updating though!)

Need more time to play but so far so good.

I now have 5 bars 3G signal at home. I have never had 5 bars 3G on this phone at home. YAY.

Good work Apple (about time too!)

If things stay stable you can now work on copy/paste... ;-)

Nitesh84

At first i wasn't too impressed with it, three days into it iTunes 8.0 is growing on me, though, I'm still not convinced that Genius is worth its salt (But as predicted it will get better with time, as it gets more data to work with).
I've just installed iPhone update 2.1 and boy i gotta say, Backup time is 4 seconds on my Mac, which used to be in excess of 10 mins. previously and the entire sync (which is 6.4 GB of Music, Apps, Video etc), about a minute. I haven't tested out the claims on the calls....will let you know.

I think Steve Jobs can now leave the work desk and go eat something to make up for all the weight loss.

TheConstantGardner

im trying to update at work... it keeps giving me error messages when its backing up. whenever something interrupts the process (the phones screen turning off, an email being sent to the phone) i get an error. fun times!

im on a windows machine right now (xp). ill try again when i get home (on my mbp). heres hoping!

PaaatrickBabyBoy

@spidermedic: I agree. I am completely unimpressed with iTunes 8

But...

I'm so excited at the prospect of having a phone that doesn't lag, drop calls, and die after 4 hours of use, that I am willing to lose my jailbreak to get it!

ColinHero

"Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display"

I hope that isn't just fancy wording, and the signal issue has really been resolved.

Nitesh84

@Sesheron: I've got Vista Enterprise SP1 on my laptop, and iTunes 8 works just fine when I connect my iPhone 3G.

Bill Clark

Also, I'm running a MacBook (current gen).

MikeRapin

The backup was significantly faster for me. Haven't tested much more... the UI looks a bit faster to me.

MikeRapin

Addendum: No noticeable improvement in back up speed.

I've got an XP box and 1st gen phone

spidermedic

Upgrade went smoothly and so far everything does seem to be much much faster. No lag in contacts, camera, mail, phone as of yet, but I've just started playing with it. Hoping for the best.

No obvious new features. Copy-paste and MMS have still yet to be 'invented' by Jobs and Co.

First impression is that its worth the upgrade in spite of the forced upgrade to itunes 8.0 spyware edition.

spidermedic

@Sesheron: As somoene mentioned in the first iTunes 8 article today when I warned everyone of the Vista bug, the fix is out. You have to uninstall and reinstall from a new download (first time around they appearently included a buggy driver, they've rolled back to the old driver)

Merricat

The Vista-iTunes 8-iPhone BSOD workaround is posted here.

No, I haven't tested it. I'm on a Macbook!

cv

Just finished my 2.1 update but got a 13213 (or there abouts) error that it was unable to complete the sync. Fortunately ejecting and then switching off the iPhone, restarting iTunes 8.0, and reattaching my iPhone seems to have resolved the error (syncing no problem now).

Vestan_Pance

Original iPhone got 2.1 update this AM, running on Win XP SP3. Everything went fine for me. Apps that would regularly crash (disappear) now seem to work ok, but it's early to know for sure.

iTunes 8 Genius is way cool. I even like how it recommends songs to buy from iTunes (despite flagrant marketing) -- I avoid DRM'd songs, so use the advice to go buy mp3's from some other site, or the CD.

It's hard to say if iPhone battery life is better; it hasn't been long enough :-)

I was hoping for greater control over settings; nothing new or interesting there, as far as I can see.

I was hoping for a better typing experience, especially the suggestions which for me are as often wrong as they are right (which is worse than nothing). At least I should be able to control the method used to accept a selection. I don't think there were any (much needed) improvements on the typing front.

So ... ok, I guess.

tharrison

So far so good. Except, I can just see myself answering a call after taking a nap and wiping everything when I fumble at the passcode. Then again, great feature.

maztec

Better reception, check.
Quicker apps, check.
Multiple pings when you receive a text, check.
Faster backing up, check.

But..

The new update completely broke my exchange enabled calendar. It won't sync, it refuses to let me delete the exchange account, and when I cancel out of what seems to be an endless "deleting account" message it renders the settings app non-functional. A restart is needed to even use it again and once the restart is complete, the process repeats itself.

son of a *****!!!!

Seth S.

Updated an iPhone 3G that has been through 2.0 -> 2.01 -> 2.02 -> 2.1

So far I haven't had any problems like other people are mentioning (Exchange sync etc.).

- MUCH better 3G signal. I don't know if the bars are just showing better signal, but I haven't lost the 3G signal a single time yet in my office which used to be a daily occurrence
- rock solid streaming experience with Pandora and AOL Radio so far, no dropouts
- faster syncs and backups just as promised
- not a single app crash yet, even the extremely crash prone NYTimes app is behaving really nicely

I'm very pleased so far. Time will tell if the battery life is improved as well..

PHeede

Um...
I unplugged my phone this morning and turned on 3G and push but left it sleeping, and in 2 hours 54 minutes the battery was completely drained. So far it didn't extend my battery life, it halved it! Maybe it had a runaway process or maybe I didn't have it fully charged, but it said it was. Hmm. Hopefully this was a fluke, trying again.

In regard to the software, the network is running way speedier. Email downloads quickly and doesn't usually hang on the connecting screen like it used to. Apps install lightning fast and backups (after the first one) take seconds.

I'm in the middle of chicago but somehow have poor 3G reception. It's not just the iphone though, my other 3G phone had poor reception here too for some reason. The iphone would show 1 bar on 3G and 5 bars on edge before the update. Now it consistently shows 2-3 bars and runs decently, though it does revert to edge from time to time. Definitely less dropped calls on initiation though.

Assuming this battery thing was a fluke, I'm generally pleased about the update.

jordan314

Any word about if it fixes Exchange subfolders sync problems?

Brad Isaac

3G reception is unbelievably better. I went from dozens of dropped calls last week to 4-5 bars of 3G after the update. Contacts don't lag like they used to either.

Now if only I could restore my usb driver without an uninstall/install of iTunes. I don't have a shadow copy. Anyone know of a download?

fredtgreco

So is the SMS re-alert an automatic feature, or is it adjustable?

ddb123

Overall, yeah, more stable. Apps have stopped constantly crashing.

I *still* have problems with AppStore saying I have 2 updates and it *refusing* to update them. "Cannot download until you sync" and it still doesn't work when you sync.

Once I deleted the app in both places, I was able to install it from the iphone. But when it didn't get pushed to itunes - it just isn't there. After repeated syncs.

I tried everything I knew how to do (including wiping out the mobile applications folder). Ended up having to delete all apps and install from itunes. Which then pushes to the iphone. sigh.

welchb

WOW. Big difference for me too. One thing I didn't see anyone mention is that typing lag seems to be gone. I noticed a tiny bit of lag for a second when I hit compose and immediately started typing but outside of that it's been lag free.

I also notice a much better signal and WAY better sync times. The first time I sync'd it was so fast that I was shocked.

suprfli

Just updated with Vista on my work machine with no problems - seems to move quicker throughout. I'll sync with my mbp at home when I get there...

nokdeez

None of the much expected feature enhancements, just basic fixes. Lets see how the claims of faster backup, better battery life, less crashes and improved 3G hold up.

arungupta

I had to unpwn mine because I couldn't wait. It seems like lag is gone for good, just had a little lag when launching contacts for the first time, but since then its been rock solid. 3G appears in text. Backups are amazingly fast, first one took like a minute, bit more, after that they last half a minute or so. Don't know about battery life, haven't had enough time. Signal if full, though I've always had full signal in my house and office, I live in Colombia so it's impressive the quality of signal I get. The only real problem I have is that the update killed the last.fm app, it's dead, and I hope there's an update for the app soon.

madark

I was happy to find that it fixed the problem with double-tapping the album artwork and being unable to perform the same action to get back. The feature is still broken in CoverFlow, but it's a start. They really did fix a ton of bugs. I've got a touch, but the issue probably affected iPhone users as well, in which case this update has been long in coming. All is now good.

Styyl

I'd like to point out that 2.1 has been Jailbroken!
A guy named jfb392 from over at ipodtouchfans.com created new bundles for the Quickpwn software made by the iphone dev team and ZombieKiller figured out how to make them work.
There are many tutorials, here are some links:
[www.ipodtouchfans.com]
[atechkid.blogspot.com]
[www.ipodtouchfans.com]
Happy jailbreaking! :D

Laser1030

One day of use and I'll toss this in: BATTERY LIFE with 3G much IMPROVED! I had turned off the 3G altogether. After 24 hours and normal use, I still have a quarter bar. Not quite as good as my old EDGE iPhone, but good enough for me to take advantage of the $30 data premium. And yes, the 3G is much more responsive, apps load faster, backups take seconds, SMS is speedy. Props to Apple for addressing the glaring challenges that made me want to return this thing (something I'd have done if I hadn't given my girlfriend my EDGE iPhone). Happy day for iPhoners...

maltese

One day of use and I have found two problems:

1) Two iPhones, sharing the same iTunes account (and library); the second one got the 2.1 update but reports that Genius needs to be enabled in iTunes, which it is. Genius works fine in iTunes and on the first iPhone I upgraded.

2) The New York Times app, which has been far from stable in the past and would crash regularly and just go away now seems to create a hard hang; I needed to reset the iPhone. If this is what they mean by apps crashing less, I prefer the former modality.

Sigh.

tharrison

so far so good it's a lot more responsive. Though Safari still exits on some sites most noticebly facebook full site. Just hope facebook update their app soon.

bigfoot780

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. 2.1 is not yet pwned. [blog.iphone-dev.org]

roddickremixed

I have a lot of Apps on mine, and it took a long time to backup before the update. Speed is much greater and they fixed an issue that I had with the DTMF tones and the ** for my voice mail system at work.
Looks good so far!

cwolfe1950

Just an update, I haven't had the 2 hour battery problem again and in general it has gotten better battery life than before the 2.1 update.

Safari has crashed once or twice and I still get a typing lag in Safari and SMS, but it's not as big of an issue to me as it is to some people.

My 3G reception still sucks in my apartment and in parts of Chicago, including dropped calls, but I think it's AT&T not the iphone.

jordan314

@welchb

So I'm not the only one!! I've got 5 "updates" just sitting there... iPhone refuses to update them - tells me my computer will. Computer gives me vague errors.

I have a feeling that restoring my iPhone to factory settings will clear the issue, but gosh, that's just annoying and will be a colossal waste of time I think.

schlizzag