iPhone 2.2 Hits! – Was it worth the Wait?

Posted on November 22nd, 2008. Written by Arron.

After Thursday night’s release of iTunes 8.0.2, and after much speculation of release dates, Apple, yesterday did in fact release software version 2.2 for the iPhone and iPod touch. A few weeks back we gave you a brief overview of what was then expected of the software update, but the question is Does it live up to the hype? …

Does it ever? – Well, the short answer is no, and this time isn’t any different. Although some features were greatly needed, others are not available in all locations and some (not surprisingly) are DEVICE specific. Lets take a look at what was added initially:

• Enhancements to Maps

Google Street View
Public transit and walking directions
Display address of dropped pins
Share location via email

• Enhancements to Mail

Resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching of email
Improved formatting of wide HTML email

• Improved stability and performance of Safari

• Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes application (over Wi-Fi and cellular)

• Decrease in call set-up failures and call drops

• Improved sound quality of visual voicemail messages

• Pressing the Home button from any Home screen takes you to the first Home screen

• Preferences to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard settings

So the first thing to note is, Google Street view is not available in all locations. If it doesn’t work on your PC or Mac, it’s not going to work on your iPhone either. What’s even worse is Apple are not throwing any of Google’s Street View love over to iPod touch users.

Yep, Street view is iPhone-only, which kinda rocks for me and other iPhone users alike, if only it was supported in my area -_-.

How to use Google Street view:

1. Drop a Pin on a street
2. Touch the little Orange guy in the circle

If the little Orange guy (in the circle) is not lit, your outta luck! Google Street view is not yet available in your area.

Maps also saw the addition of a feature (apparently wide-requested). maps now has the ability to display a estimated address in the bubble provided byt the current pin.

Next up, is Mail. Now although I don’t use Mail as much as I should, I can definitely see improvement of the formatting of wide HTML e-mail.

Safari! – We all know that it crashes due to lack of RAM to support two processes at one time, however since updating to 2.2, I can honestly say Safari is no longer crashing. Now whether I’m just experiencing a thing called ‘The Apple Time Bomb’ I’m not sure – this being a feature that works for a set amount of time, then seems to slip back into it’s previous ways. I know the keyboard lag did this on 2.1 – perfect for 24 hours, then *boom* – as Steve would say. Also new in Safari? – a split address bar. Instead of having to tap twice to get to Google search, it now shares the top address bar. I have to wonder though, was this decision Apple’s, or is Google paying through their nose to have the word ‘Google’ visible each time mobile Safari is launched?

Next up – Auto Correct On/Off! – No longer will you type ‘lol’ and it will be replaced with ‘LOL’. Just turn it off, and enjoy full typing freedom. To turn Auto Correction off:

General > Keyboard > Auto Correction

Another new feature of 2.2 is something I don’t think any of us actually thought we needed. If your on the 3rd homescreen, clicking the ‘Home Button’ now flies you back to the first home-screen. pretty neat feature if you ask me!

The big news in 2.2 though is the ability to download Podcasts from the Wifi iTunes Music Store. Not only can you now download podcast over WIFI, but for the first time ever, you can now download audio content over 3G and Edge! – a test to finally bring music downloads to Edge and 3G next year’s Macworld? – I hope so.

The App Store also got a little overhaul in 2.2, bring with it searchable categories such as ‘Top Paid’ ‘Top Free’ and ‘By Release Date’. At a first glance, many users didn’t notice the change, but found you have to select a category from the categories tab in order to take advantage of these sub categories. With Apple pulling these sub search categories from the physical iTunes Music Store just a few weeks ago, many of us needed them to compensate, and they have – albeit, a bit late.

The ‘Delete to Rate’ feature I found pointless has also made the cut into 2.2. Now when you decide to delete an application off your device, iPhone OS will ask you to rate it from 1-5 stars. My argument being, if you’ve decided to delete the application, you obviously don’t like it, and therefore your rating is always going to be low – Where is the logic?

Finally, the linking system between Mobile Safari, Mail and the App Store, through the Phobos server has been fixed. I previously noted this linking system had collapsed in 2.1.

Overall, 2.2 is a respectable update, and after using it I can say there is definitely a noticeable performance boost, however the original wants are still on the table, including; Copy and paste, MMS and the hugely requested Push Notification Service, Apple promised to us for the end of September.
We still wait …

The update costs £5.99 for iPod touch users updating from 1.X. For owners of 2.0, the update is compeltely free of charge. 2.2 is an optional update.