@ps61318: But you're not backing up the externally accessed partition via iTunes. It requires backup, but when you access the drive without iTunes, it's a completely different process. If you use the calendar feature, good on you. Why would an average iPod user use the calendar on their iPods when it's a music device? It's a known fact people carry their mobile around a lot more often than not compared to people carrying their iPods. Therefore it is very much more likely someone would use calendar say on their phone, than their iPod.

strang

A recommendation for those of you still having crash issues... as much as it sucks, Apple can't fix everything. duh. But most of the quirks were address in this most recent update. If you're still having issues, you should probably completely restore your iPhone without using your backup. Corrupt software can actually make its way through a restore if you do it from your backup. Try that and see what happens. I'd be willing to say that this appears to be 1.1.4 stable. Finally. Anyways... that's it for me.

[www.cocoatouchapps.com]

piano08man

Finally fixed my bluetooth to 04-BMW ULF module Generation 2. Before it would pair, but no sound.

SuperStretch

@wmchiefs:

Gmail is fine for me.

OGHowie

Don't tell that to my coworkers. They've all complaining about more crashes and fouled-up apps since the update.

Ron-Mexico

"It Fixes Everything"

That's a lie!

My phone still locks up.

Before 2.1 I had ZERO keyboard issues. After 2.1 I have MAJOR keyboard lag. I have to wait 1.x seconds after each keypress before I can press another key.

LAME!!!!

JEmlay

I noticed that everything related to the internet seems to be slower now. Browsing is slower, my RSS reader seems to download much slower. I get hangs while trying to do internet connections.

So, it fixed a bunch of crap, but this new slow down is a major PITA.

rup3t

@kulawhawk: I think "Copy & Paste" would be much more useful.

misterwho

Is anyone else having problems with Gmail since the update? I get an error "The connection to the server imap.gmail.com failed" ever since I updated. I'm not sure if this is b/c of the update or its a problem with google.

wmchiefs

My problems before 2.1:

Crashing apps (mostly games)
Crappy battery life
Keyboard Lag
Contact Lag
SMS Lag

All of those have been fixed and I haven't noticed any new problems. HOORAY

Wait... the iPhone doesn't have copy/paste?
Wait... the iPhone doesn't have copy/paste?
Wait... the iPhone doesn't have copy/paste?
Wait... the iPhone doesn't have copy/paste?
Wait... the iPhone doesn't have copy/paste?
Wait... the iPhone doesn't have copy/paste?
Wait... the iPhone doesn't have copy/paste?
Wait... the iPhone doesn't have copy/paste?
Wait... the iPhone doesn't have copy/paste?
Wait... the iPhone doesn't have copy/paste?

MikeSWelch

@strang: ...and "no one uses the calendar?" Is that really true?? Wow, that's amazing.

...and some poor misguided souls even use the iPod as an external hard drive - especially those who have really big iPods and not so much music. (And please feel free to try and assert that an external hard drive does not need to be backed up - you can try, but you'd be mistaken.)

That was an incredibly uncalled-for sobriquet. You, and your comment, deserve to be disemvowelled.

ps61318

workin great for me (although I never really had problems to begin with)

ALT

wait so the browsing speed is slower... damn, that's one of the main things I was hoping they would improve, but I don't seem to notice it much anyways. That's probably one of the ways they decided to save on battery life.

Sam_Zebian

@OMG! Apple Stinks!: Photos stored on your iPod doesn't require a backup in iTunes. The sync, optimize process takes the same amount of time on an iPhone as it does on a iPod.

strang

everything seems better for me, but I still have been getting crashes in safari. Had about 5 crashes yesterday.

redban

You can put lipstick on a pig...

/RUN!

bpapa9013

Here are my stats from the 2.1 upgrade:

Battery life: WIN -lasts about 20% longer than in version 2.0-

3G speed: FAIL --Yesterday, in NJ I did notice that 3g speeds were twice as fast when downloaded youtube videos. However, today at work where I get 5 bars of 3G and EDGE coverage, I barely an improvement over EDGE speeds. 20 seconds before text appeared on the Gizmodo site, and 50 seconds until the page fully loaded. on Edge, I recorded 23 seconds before text load, and 60 seconds before the page fully loaded. The cache, history, and cookies were cleared before each test.

Crashes: TIE --App store still gets stuck just as often, and sometimes programs won't start up properly, but it doesn't require a reset as it used to in 2.0. Usually I can just hit the home button to go back

Reception: TIE --While I do notice more bars, the 3G speed is very inconsistent. Many time's I've noticed 3g only slightly faster than edge. I might as well just use edge and conserve battery life. Also, I still get dropped calls when walking/driving around an area on 3G. My phone will have 5 bars, then switch to edge (5 bars)....then a few minutes later switch back to 3g (5 bars), all in the course of walking from my brother's desk to his couch in his studio apartment. Each time it switches from 3g to edge (or vice versa) the call is dropped, or the data transfer is interrupted and I have to reload the page/reload the youtube video/etc.

I am happy for the update, but there are still obvious problems that were not completely resolved.

melikespi

@nutbastard: lol, made my day.

Kaiser-Machead on the Edge

@avconsumer2: Yeah, you can fix reception with software the same way you get better performance out of your graphics card with new drivers. Hardware is only half the picture. Proper use of it is the other half.

Jason Chen

@rotorglow:

the huge security hole has been plugged with a huge security phallus...

nutbastard

Did anyone else notice with text messages if you scroll up into your convo, after a few messages theres an option to load more text messages??

Was that how they fixed the keyboard lag?

Blinklink11

@strang: They store videos and photos too. Lots of videos. And lots of photos. Optimizing photos takes some time - although not as much time as the epochs it takes to sync an iPhone. I keep about 500 photos on my iPod classic simply because I can.

There are more civil ways to offer clarification than calling someone a retard.

OMG! Apple Stinks!

my backups take less then a minute now, before they took close to an hour.
also, programs would take over 5 minutes to install, now its under 30 seconds. and of course the text doesnt lag anymore. pretty great.

september11th

Definitely fixed the backing up/syncing speed.
Seems to have improved my 3G reception overall (I can get it in my house now-before I could only get EDGE (not that it mattered too much, as I have it on Wi-Fi at home))
Haven't noticed a huge increase in battery life-certainly not any worse on that front, however
Seems to be much snappier and responsive, but that could be because I also did a complete restore, and ditched half a dozen apps I found I didn't use.

Overall, it seems to be a nice improvement. Really like the additional information in the iPod app.

dogcow

cut & paste? (Cntl+C or Cntl+V)
cut & paste? (Cntl+C or Cntl+V)
cut & paste? (Cntl+C or Cntl+V)
cut & paste? (Cntl+C or Cntl+V)
cut & paste? (Cntl+C or Cntl+V)

see, it's so simple it should have it's own infomercial like the Magic Shammy!

kulawhawk

Hmmm.. sounds like a great phone.

Sort of like the Zune of the Cellphone world.

Heh Heh heh.

docvb

Mine has actually been much crashier since the update. I had Safari and several third-party apps crash on me this weekend that never had problems before. Battery life and reception weren't really problems for me before, so I can't say anything about that. My backups have significantly improved however, now being 15.

So still a mixed bag for me, definitely not a win.

DrewWorksToo

I want to see Adam Frucci do a white guy dance to celebrate the keyboard lag fix.

MichelleDatsun

Now I love my phone even more.

innout3x3

anyone know how to turn off multiple SMS notification for the same text? don't know if it's a bug or a new annoying feature. good news is that SMS no longer lags when typing.

ny_effect

Fix everything? not quite

Major improvement though.....everything seems faster (2G iphone)

One thing that still bugs me is the lag to open contacts. 2.0.2 made contacts unusable, 2.1 takes about 3 seconds to load, then it works fine. Still room for improvement.

sgt_sm00th

@avconsumer2: Just indicator accuracy :(

I don't think reception improved at all. Seems to handshake better and that's it. Minor tweaks, etc.

To improve reception I think Apple will need to update the hardware.

strang

A firmware upgrade to "fix" reception makes me scratch my head.

avconsumer2

@MichaelScrip: A backup is a backup of all personal data on the iPhone. Sind iPod only stores songs, and nobody uses the calendar feature, there would be no sense to "backup" an iPod now would there?

You sir, are a retard.

strang

Some of my album art got munged after the update :( Shows fine in coverflow but is a black square in the album list now. Seems to only be affecting itunes purchased albums as far as I can tell.

Mulefire

I've seen improvements but two days of battery life? Really?

TideGuy

Next update hopefully brings new features, and not just bug fixes!

strang

So then what you're saying is that Apple fucked up and shipped a buggy product, perpetuating an abusive practice that is not done in any other industry.

OMG! Apple Stinks!

ne. still nothing in my apt and still dropped calls.

eisnein

@Sean Robertson: Son, It wasn't a generalization. I said "Everyone else I'VE Heard from".

If anyone needs to watch the generalizations it's Apple. Surf the "whole" internet..? :P

KLanD

Why does it take 20-40 minutes to backup the iPhone? What is an iPhone backup?

My 8GB iPod Nano take like minute to copy over any new podcasts or songs.

Please tell me what the iPhone is doing for 40 minutes or 8 hours...

MichaelScrip

changed:

2.0.1
if signal strength = 100 show 5 bars

2.1 if signel strength = 20 show 5 bars

jutman

Now if I could only get my phone off "headphone mode" so I didn't have take all my calls over speaker, I'd be happy. :(

Blackti3

Why they did release that piece of hmm.. something in the first place if it had that much problems?

AlAntti

@KLanD: Everyone? Careful with the generalizations there, kid, you'll put your eye out. ;-)

Sean Robertson

Oh yeah. It broke the last.fm app. That's pissed me off a bit too.

SPni

@SPni:

Same here. I was just loading a wikipedia page this weekend and it crashed. Lame.

Contacts are a definite win.

Battery life hasn't seemed noticably better for me... tho could be.

One thing that wasn't noted that I appreciate a lot is that when installing an application, it moves back to the location it was previously located. Very nice when you find yourself updating apps a lot.

I still get lags on opening the Notes application and some, but not as much before, on text messages.

Keebler

Doesn't help with 2G signal reception in my office at all. We're right below an AT&T tower apparently, but I've unlocked mine to use T-Mobile and they're reception inside our office is pretty crappy. :-( All else seems good, though, especially the backup speed.

Sean Robertson

Really?? It fixed EVERYTHING?

That's not what I've heard. Giz seems to be the only site that likes the new update. Funny, no?

Everyone else I've heard from is having major issues now that they have 2.1. Everything from 3g not working anymore to incomming txt msgs making the Iphone freeze.

Not to mention still no copy/paste :P

KLanD

I think the data rate point needs more research than just one test at one location, as conditions can cause this one to vary widely. Haven't been able to test the 3g data rate yet, however EVDO actually seems faster (like putting running shoes on a tortoise, but hey when it's all you've got, every little bit counts). The mail app seems to benefit greatly from this when not in wifi range.

lpranal

Did the battery got like magically full?
lol

xsecretfiles3

i was seriously ready to switch back to my blackberry if this update didn't fix my issues...

well, i still have my iphone and haven't run into any issues i was having before, in fact, it's as good as 1.1.4 so far...

now where's my copy and paste, mms, and the push service????

KeithJ

@rackley: Weatherbug is shit no matter if it's on a PC or iPhone.

bestpersonintheunivers

Does 2.1 give improved reception on first gen iPhones?

sneaky

Epic win on all fronts for me, cept 3G stuff (has EDGE).

Seinosuke

The 2.1 software update fixed a lot indeed, especially the really stupid and annoying 'update software in iphone app store bug' which crashed my iphone completely when updating an application...

(a complete restore would be necessary).

3G is also a lot better. and that security thing jesus was talking about is also fixed. And battery life too. I am just wondering if they changed the 3G to a kind of standby mode though... When people call me and my iphone's screen is locked, it doesn't do 3G calling, but when I call people it does (all in the same spot)... And I got a dropped call after talking for 1.5 hours ;)

weee!

Neone

That's nice. Then perhaps the dropped call I got yesterday on 2.1 with *five bars of 3g signal* was just a figment of my imagination.

Also the crashing of WeatherBug about 4x on me within 5 minutes was just imagined too. Never had a problem with it before 2.1.

The only thing I see that 2.1 fixed was the keyboard lag and the incredibly painful loading wait for SMS.

rackley

What about the "huge security hole?"

rotorglow

Safari still crashes loads for me.

Lose

SPni

My Safari is still crashing like crazy. Lose for me. :/

Memo07

Aw the 3G browsing speed is slower? Hopefully they fix that in the future.

daftrok

Wait. 'Most' or 'everything'?

This post bought to you by PedanticsRUs

Drummer_Boy

It didn't fix my email problems. 1st generation iphone, and ever since 2.0, i've had to power off/on before it would fetch my email.

dr88

You should pass this on to the Angry Windows Guy.

takashimiike 7

I have much better reception (not just more bars) and about 50% better battery life.

I am a happy iCamper.

dc-united

I can't leave a comment on this because I don't have an iPhone... Oh wait... I just did...

Still, I don't see a glaring reason on why to get an iPhone with a fat plan yet...

RayLast

They actually fixed the stupid ringer volume bug!

The problem occurred whenever you used the ipod player or made a call...the ringer volume would reset to whatever the ipod volume was at or whatever the call volume was at, so that if you had your ringer on high and your ipod player at medium, after using the ipod player your ringer volume would reset to medium.

I checked it out with both the ipod player at medium volume and making a call on both speakerphone and regular speaker at medium volume. My ringer volume stayed at high!

mrdeeno

Have to wait for someone to call me to see if the dropped-calls are any better, but so far....

Kind of a lose for me. Glad to read (elsewhere, because the Giz didn't see fit to mention it) that the "huge security hole" is fixed, but data speeds are much less consistent for me. Switches between EDGE and 3G much more frequently (with attendant hiccups [and DHCP negotiation?] every time it does).

Signal indicator is much more volatile, even when the phone is just sitting there. Does that mean it's really more accurate or less? Who knows?

New 3G indicator (when the phone can get a 3G connection *cough*) is less obvious than the old reverse-text indicator.

Genius playlists are no less lame on the iPhone than they are on iTunes. Creation of on-go-playlist is still way more cumbersome than in regular iPods.

Not impressed, yet.

rotorglow

If I hear another "Copy and Paste" comment...

Renegade05

All the functionality as far as software crashing and lagging seems to be fixed for me. However, when I have 3G turned on, I still get crazy dropped calls. When I switch to Edge, it seems to work fine without any dropped calls.

Semi fail, so far.

NIGHTSTALKER1234

Yes, major improvements on reception, keyboard lag, syncing for me. However, I am noticing banding on my 3G screen. Rhythmic electronic ripples dancing across the screen. They are too faint to screenshot them, but anyone can see them in person. Notice especially in top/bottom grey areas when surfing in landscape mode. Anyone else?

Mathray

2.1 fixed a lot of things for me. Not perfect but much better. Battery life on standby is much better. Took the phone off the charger at 8 am this morning, battery still completely full at 1:15 pm. I haven't used the phone at all today but it's been on my wifi network all morning, pulling Exchange email, cal, contacts every 30 min, and bluetooth and 3G are on. I'd expect to see a sliver of used battery but not at all.

Contacts lag much improved - it's now zero lag if I use the contacts from the phone menu, and 2-3 seconds of lag if I go through the Contacts app (I have 600 contacts).

No typing lag except the occasional web form (like a forum), but even that is better.

Signal improved at my house and at work.

Less crashing (but I've had a few).

redman042

On firmware 2.0.1 and 2.0.2, after a day or two of use, my apps would no long launch. Everything is working nice now. I'm very happy with this upgrade. Definitely recommended for EVERYONE.

pastrychef

@wmchiefs: i've had that same error message before and after the update.

thatgirlinnewyork

@JEmlay: I see, and what have you done/installed on your phone to make it behave this way?

If you've updated to 2.1, and aren't using some program written poorly for your phone that's eating up cycles, then I'd guess you probably have a hardware issue that needs to be checked out.

So, which is it?

Xavoc

@strang: lol - ah! That makes me scratch my head less.

@Jason Chen: Gotcha. Commented without reading your full theory (with links even). I will now bash my head on my desk many times repeating, "you will read JC's full articles before posting." However, any firmware updates that really significantly (such as two bars to FIVE bars,) improve any technology, will still make me scratch my head. ;) Good article.

avconsumer2

i gots the blues......
i gots the early adopter blues....

im waiting....not mature enough yet

Mish80921

The 2.1 update is a 100% improvement over 2.0.2 on my iPhone G3. No dropped calls since Saturday morning and not a single application crash (I have over 80 loaded).

For Cut and Paster I use "TextGuru" and for MMS (for which I don't really have a need for) there is "Flutter"

Vista: Lipstick on a Pig

paja

Still seeing some lag while typing and hanging when...doing everything else. I haven't noticed any perceptible change to anything except for battery life, which has improved slightly, and the sync time.

Was it worth losing my pwnage for? Not quite, but hell, they'll fix that soon.

Jamez

i love my iPhone again <3

lorettaelaine

Mine crashed on some native apps like email after installing 2.1. I have had some 3rd party crashes as well. Not complaining, just making a statement.

smilleyofais

yeah i have to agree my iphone's overall performance is just leaps and bound better. thank god they fixed the back up issues.

rudez90

(1g/Edge iPhone)
-Reception: seems better, though some random no-Edge times (could be "The Network," of course).
-Battery: a smidge better.
-Mail: still some funky behavior when forwarding attachments, retrieving large HTML messages.
-Safari: some (though less) crashes.
-iPod: sometimes gets stuck in Coverflow.
-Contacts: much faster.
-SMS: still a 5-6 sec lag to load, haven't noticed keyboard lag.

Wishes
-cut/copy/paste
-landscape email reading
-background notification
-less memory leaks when tons of apps are installed
-trial period for (pay) apps
-download podcasts using iTunes WiFi store
-improve mail/sms... heck, just keep on improving the native apps and OS

trendspotter

The update really does fix a lot of stuff, synching takes about 20 seconds now instead of the average 5 minutes that it use to take, i seriously was about to return my new 3G to the AT&T store but now am back in love with it, if your still having problems after the update, just make sure you don't have a Hiphone instead of the real thing, cause my iphone along with my wife phone are both running smooth, before i couldn't even connect to 3G

snitch29

I do not believe that the 3G reception has been improved. The fact that people are seeing "more bars" is due to the fact that Apple changed how many bars display for certain levels of reception. Prior to upgrading to 2.1 I was able to roughly determine what numerical value (while in field test mode) corresponded to number of bars. Post 2.1 those values were skewed. I still see the same numercial value in the same places, but now I see more bars in those places.

Where Apple DID really make an improvement is with the handoff between 3G and Edge. I happen to live a really remote area (it's called the NJ side of the Hudson River facing 105th St) and despite AT&T's coverage maps (which should be standard reading material for children along with Mother Goose) I lose the 3G signal in my home. I used to have to actively turn off the 3G to ensure that I stayed on Edge and didn't lose any calls when my phone tried to grab a sliver of 3G goodness (not that I didn't drop a ton of calls on edge too.) Now I don't have to make the switch...the phone does it for me. I actually completed a 1 hour + call on Sat that started as I walked out of my door, in teh elevator, along the river, under a parking garage, up some stairs, in the gym locker room, on the elliptical and back again...no dropsies. Sof ar only one dropped call since upgrading and it was kind of my fault (blocking the ant by holding my phone between my ear and shoulder.

davebg5

One thing I enjoy is the fact that when I upgrade an app, it will upgrade and STAY IN PLACE!

WOO!

dorylomorphs

Crashing and hanging???

Seriously, are you guys discussing iPhone or something else?

I thought that iPhone is robust, reliable, bla bla bla typical Apple product bla bla ... Not like that crappy Windows Mobile bla bla bla ...

hofodude

Why are we not getting a rebate from AT&T? I paid for a month of 3g service that I never got, and apparently it was due to a fixable error.
FWIW, I had almost the exact same results as described here. Add to the win list that Contacts now opens in less than 10 seconds. But it took me almost 3 hours to update to iTunes 8 / iPhone 2.1. The first install of 2.1 failed. And iTunes 8 is useless bloatware.
I am completely sick of updating.

dfl

I just bought my iPhone on Saturday, and didn't do a thing to it before upgrading to 2.1 when i got it home. It hasn't crashed once on me, I have maybe 5 or 6 apps on it now. So far I'm very happy. My syncs are fast, gmail works fine etc.

rawtoast

whoa, the reception is better. i'm impressed. though coming from another carrier to at&t, the reception was already much better than what i used to deal with.

however, i must say... no nike+? verdict: epic fail

sorry, i'm still kinda peeved at the (hopefully temporary) exclusivity of nike+ on itouch 2.0

phrequency

In Houston dealing with this whole Ike thing...finally back up after a couple days being down...battery life through all this was way better than expected (I updated to 2,1 the morning the hurricane hit)...have been texting and emailing like crazy all day and where battery would be completely gone with 2.0.2 it was actually over half full with 2.1...major win in my book...reception has been better, but spotty since the hurricane...wonder if that's a firmware issue or if there are towers down?

Backups are quick...no lag...apps load quick...been a good one...I was almost getting to the point where I hated my phone...now I would actually recommend it...

MacRule36

@OMG! Apple Stinks!: Yes but if the shoe fits then you must wear it....

RETARD!

bud-strange

@OMG! Apple Stinks!: obviously you have never owned any other cell phone.

Let me introduce you to the Razor.

Apple unlike other companies is working very hard to fix the problems and is fixing them. It is tools like yourself that seem to hold Apple to an impossible standard yet ignore others who not only cant even come close to the Apple standard but never fix their products.

You sir are a tool.

bud-strange

Ok my iPhone is still on 2.0.1 (I never updated to 2.0.2 cause I heard about all the problems) and I'm not sure if I want to update now cause all of the issues 2.1 fixes really aren't a problem for me and I don't want to lose 3G browsing speed...

ab3

@arun21: mail working 100% here on imap and pop. Its you sorry.

bud-strange

@JEmlay: it you not the phone.

I have both original and 3g's and 2.1 is a major fix.

If your still having problems look at what your running and doing with the phone? Is it jailbreaked? If so, well then your on your own.

I have done both (jailbreak and not) the stock phone is way more stable then jailbreaked ones.

Also restart your phone occasionally. Running for weeks at a time, yes my phones get a little whacky. A restart makes it all good.

bud-strange

@MichaelScrip: The difference between synching and backing up is this...

The synch just...well...synchs your data (ie. contacts) w/your pc/mac. Thus, you don't lose data if your phone crashes...it's all stored on your pc/mac.

The backup creates an image of your phone so if you have to restore it has an entire image to put back on your phone.

Initially, these sound the same, but they are not. Synching only deals with data. The backup deals with data and settings.

For example, synching will save your email contacts, but not your email settings. So, if you were to retore your phone to factory settings, you could perform a synch and get your contacts, but your email account would not be set up. If you were to restore from a backup, then you would get your contacts AND your email settings would be there.

davebg5

MY mail app keeps crashing!!!!!!

This is ridiculous. I've had to do so many restores. I have not jailbroken my phone at all. Everything worked fine before the 2.1 update.

arun21

@Blackti3: Take your phone to Apple store. The headphone only mode is caused by a broken micro switch in the phone jack (usually caused by too much pressure on a plugged in headset....i broke mine while mowing with headphones on.)

Apple replaced my original Iphone out of warranty at NO CHARGE (it was just over a year old).

Say what you want but no other phone company does that......especially when it is clearly beyond warranty.

Apple for the win!

bud-strange

@rajivgk: I would seriously consider a fresh install of 2.1, back everything up, and restore. Then dl fresh versions of your apps to make everything all tidy.

trendspotter

i continue to have issues with the 3g version. i watched an entire NFL game and my 'synch' was still not completed when the game ended (3+ hours). my apps are all messed up in itunes - having multiple copies of the same app and notices saying that i need to update them (when in fact i had just finished in my previous 4 hour back up/synch).

rajivgk

FWIW, on my 3G with 2.1, my contacts load a LOT faster. I've got 170+ contacts (is that a lot?) and there used to be a significant hang time before I could browse them in either the Contacts or Phone apps.

Now it's almost (almost!) instantaneous. (However, before 2.1 was released I had started using a free app called "Thumbtacts." I recommend it even now.)

Also, add me to the list of people who have confirmed faster backup/sync times and app installations.

Paul D

For me it's fixed bucket loads..

Battery life up by 50% i'd say. I managed 3 days out of it !!!
Apps crashes none since
GPS / Location Services never worked for me before it's now spot on and quick
SMS / keyboard lag - Totally fixed
Interestingly enough the strange one is that now i can turn Wifi on in airplane mode ! Never knew i could do that before either.

This is a win for me and how it should have been released in the first place.. So a win from me but no pat on the back for Apple as this is what I expected!

LCaller

@strang:> "A backup is a backup of all personal data on the iPhone. --- You sir, are a retard."

No, I'm not.

Personal data? Like your contact list? How long should that take? Apps? Some apps are so small you can purchase them over the air. Why does it take so long to backup with the USB cable?

I guess I'm wondering if there is a difference between backup and syncing? Or does it do a full backup each time you plug your iPhone into the computer?

I don't have an iPhone. So when I heard that an iPhone backup takes 8 hours, it kinda shocked me. Now, it takes 20-40 minutes to backup an iPhone. That still seems like to long.

MichaelScrip

3G speed is an inaccurate test.

Since everyone downloaded and was testing... those servers were likely under a little higher than normal load, which can impact performance. There's also the issue of general network performance.

This is worth retesting a few times over the next week or so. Then average.

digitalgimpus

I have the first gen iPhone and I have to say I have NEVER EVER had a dropped call until I updated to 2.1. I was fairly impressed with the other bug fixes though such as app crashing and updating. I am alos getting less 2G reception than EVER, I am really disappointed that Apple downgrade my service to help out the 3G, but it is the first step segregation. LOL!

Spideyflash

@Xavoc:
Seeing as how I'm on my second phone, why don't you tell me?

What do my installed apps have to do with the Apple keyboard? The keyboard problem did not exist before the update and exsisted after the update. No other changes were made. So it's neither my apps or the hardware. It's 100% firmware.

What exactly was your point? Or did you not notice that 23% in the poll still had app issues?

@bud-strange:
I did not jailbreak my phone and I have already turned it completly off.

JEmlay

My workplace is still a black hole of cell phone reception.

Galley

2.1 cured my iPhone woes.

but for some reason it won't let me change my lock screen wallpaper. It's stuck on the same one regardless of how many times I attempt to change it.

jcrockerman

@bud-strange:

Except that's actually bollocks. Nokia released three firmware update for the N95 in three or so months to improve the device.

Apple aren't doing anything special here, it's just some parts of the tech press are - as usual - all over them doing what every other reputable manufacturer does as a matter of course.

Drummer_Boy

signal drops when i have less than 20 percent to the point to where i have to slide to unlock in order to get texts. for some reason it has also been sending people straight to voicemail.

hesse00

Safari still crashes like a mofo. I found lolcats seems to be a great stress test.

Pages load much slower on 3g. In fact all data transfer on 3g seems much slower now. That leads me to believe they must have sacrificed some data speed to improve the reliability for voice. I'm not sure why that would be the case technically, but that is my hunch.

fjork_duf

Now if only someone would update one of the instant messenger programs for the jailbroken phones. Whats the use of a instant messenger program if I can't leave it running in the background?

The Boy Wonder

*Sigh*

I was in a cab on Saturday. My friend AND the cabbie had 2G iPhones. There was a point where we stopped and what can I say? They had data connections. My 3G was showing plenty of bars, but going nowhere....

b33rl0rd

@strang: No sir, I am a retard. I use my touch as a PDA whilst good 'ol Verizon handles the communication with my 'ches. That means, yes, I use the calendar function on my touch. And *koff koff* mobileme.

As a retard, I hereby confer upon you the title of ass-hat.

mildretard

as far as safari crashing...
once it does, turn the phone off and then back on...it wont happen again....

and i will admit as well.. the fixes made me a happy iphoner too..... the battery life was one of my biggest problems but now much better and i dont need to keep it plugged in if it's not in my ear
bravo

wannacook

@rajivgk: That was happening to me as well BEFORE this update. I went into the "mobile apps" folder inside my iTunes folder and manually deleted all of the older copies of the apps. This seemed to help me a bit. Hope that helps a lil :-)

Still deciding if I want to do this update yet....

ecirtap00

I'm truly VERY sorry for those of you who don't experience any differences. Consider yourself unlucky I guess. :(

What changes I've noticed personally:

1. Installation of Applications went from about a 2-3 minutes (wirelessly) to about 8 seconds.

2. Battery Life is better. I run out of batteries after using my phone all day at work before(playing games and surfing the *unblocked sites* lawl, yeah i know, I'm bad). Now I still have at LEAST 30-40% battery left after use.

3. Never have dropped calls from the middle bottom floor of my office anymore.

4. I get 4 bars down there instead of 0-1 bars.

5. No crashes at ALL (yet).

6. Weeeeee new 3g and Edge icons?

7. Contact List as well as Settings and other things open up WAY faster with no lag.

8. YESSSS NO MORE TEXTING LAG.... like... EVER

Seriously, THANK YOU APPLE. It should have been like this when it released but I think we all knew there would be some problems.

twomilesfromhome

I'm using the EDGE iPhone, and noticed the improvements in backup time, texting lag and application installation. I THINK reception is better, as I seem to have some bars in places where I usually had NONE, but sometimes that's just the placebo effect. All in all, the texting lag was REALLY getting to me, so I'm glad that got fixed.

Oh, and the security flaw with double-clicking the Home button to get past the lock seems to be fixed...

richard8a

Did anyone notice that in long sms threads it only loads the more recent messages, and now has a button at the top of the thread to "load old messages" is that new? or did i just miss it before? is that how they speed up the sms load times? by just not loading all your messages?

deeepeee

wow i heard someone reference the iphone to windows mobile? I work for Verizon and sell windows based phones all day long and they don't compare. Think about it a Verizon employee carrying AT&T just for the Iphone? they must be doing something better. Windows mobile has memory leaks and crashes all day long. Bill Gates steals peoples ideas all the time you would think he would be better at it by now.

MichelleCoronis

The fix for reception is probably about the algorithm to determine when to switch from 3G to Edge and vice versa. It probably also set to "more bars" for 3G so that it won't switch to edge too easily and this makes the call more stable. On another note, the safari crashes more often (at least for me) even it is not loading a webpage with tons of large pics.

tan4

Battery is just as bad. I was listening to music, a bit of text, a bit of e-mail, changing tracks every now and then for about 4 or 5 hours today, battery was down to 20%...

Hardly brilliant.

Onouris

The only improvement I've seen was that I don't drop as many calls... backups still take forever and day

redvendetta

Another fix is that many other third-party Bluetooth headsets can now listen to voicemail again...any Ety-BLU in my case. This is a key fix that restores functionality that was there prior to 2.0...

ZarebPolyxena

So happy Apple Fixed everything. Ohhh I love my 3G now +)

vgart

If yer backups are taking forever in iTunes make sure your not plugged into a usb hub... Dam them for not making this ting firewire. I loved the firewire of the 1gen ipod.....Apple, are you listening? Firewire 800, please.

willyboy

Funny, it didn't seem to fix the picture message bug I've been having where MMS's from my friends gives me a link instead of the picture...

zenmoused

MUCH better signal here now, backup was definitely faster, and no more keyboard lag! YAY! i was so close to throwing my phone at the wall....

blazedshaggy

To give you a heads up, the Field Test Mode changed with 2.0 :)

ヨシダさん 25

I get Less bars in my apt. then I used to, anyone else notice this? Outside I get 5 bars which is great and I used to get 2 or so inside and now I get service unavailable quite often unless I go about 10 feet out to my deck outside, then it goes up again. weird. other than that seems like basically everything is as advertised.

L.

Faslane66

so far it's working great on my touch. I'm writing this on it right now. Apps load way faster, battery life is up, and zero key lag!!! Seeing as I have a touch, can't comment on the 3g stuff, but wi-fi works great LOL.

Ephemera

having developed many wireless apps myself, I agree to a earlier post. Wipe the iPhone and install clean. Sucks but works.

rjnwheels

Yeah, this is a shill article.

My battery life lasted exactly 12 hours from full charge. BAsically, I charged it, ate dinner, went to sleep, and it was dead by the time I woke up. No phone calls made. Lots of people are having this problem and apparently it is stemming from crashing apps just hanging in the background or mobileme.

My Safari crashes ALL the time. Just try to load digg.com and type in a comment. Mine crashes around 30% of the time doing this.

The reception bars are complete and utter bunk. The reception strength is the same, but now I magically have more bars that make it all better!

I never had dropped calls before; I still haven't. So good for you, Apple, for not messing that one up!

My 3G speeds (from testmyiphone.com) have been HORRIBLE, rarely exceeding .3Mbps. That's bad for EDGE, let alone 3G.

But lo-and-behold, the contacts screen only locks up for a second or so now when I start it up! And I think my keyboard doesn't lag as much, but I can't really tell. Kudos, Apple. Thanks for clearing these two right up for me, two months after release.

Good coverage on the issue, very fair. Not at all biased.

shiftyeyedgoat

Funny that there was such a wide gamut of problems pre 2.1, and no two people appeared to be experiencing exactly the same problem set. For me, it was the inability to use App Store apps for more than a couple of days at a time before they all went south again. I had a pretty good idea as to why, which was confirmed and furthered by an acquaintance and his experiences.

Just interrupted typing this to check my update, which has now completed: My app Store apps are ALL back (including Netshare -- yayyy), and a random sample all started up properly. Now off to bed, and I will see how well it works over the next couple of days....

Mandatory_Field

the screen isn't as bright on 2.1 as it shows on 2.0.2

kurrupt_1

2.1 is definitely a good and worthy upgrade but I still think that there are flaws including: slow text imput, especially for websites that aren't formatted for the iPhone specifically. I also see a problem when you can't multi-task the way I used to do with the 2G iPhone on 1.1.4 firmware. So far, that is my favorite firmware to date minus the app store for 2.1

mr. HiDefinition

I'm late to the party but since no one has mentioned it, I thought I should add that new email push notification from Yahoo! email works reliably once again.

laiten

My 3G and Edge reception has been worse. Bars are more accurate, but while standing outside with full reception on both networks it took 15 retries to make a call. It just continues to hang. I still had a few dropped calls. Otherwise the text message lag is gone, battery life seems fine and a few other quirks gone. I'm in NY, I think its ATT and not Apple at this point.

MaxKane

The phone backs up more quickly than before, but the rest of the fixes are bogus. I dropped the very first call I made after upgrading to 3g. Fortunately, this device is still a usable piece of electronics around the house once I buy a new phone (very soon).

jd_cincy

i didn't have any errors or issues when updating to 2.1, i even did a full restore and set up as a new phone.

while i have seen improvement in apps installation, that's about it. i still have keyboard lag, constant safari crashes, a battery that dies after a couple hours of use and a lot more wifi drops.
while these don't present massive day to day problems with me, it is beyond frustrating to be writing out an email knowing you can't spend more than 30 seconds doing so lest you lose it.

resolutionfusion

I don't use 3g, and this may just be coincidence but after the 2.1 update, I've been getting [call failed] messages pretty frequently. I don't think I ever saw a call failed with previous firmwares (though I did get them all the time on my razr)

phor11

Update is pretty good. Mya major issue was long app install times, talking about 3-4 minutes and now we are down to 30 seconds for most apps it seems. Browser crashes? show me a browser that doesnt crash. I can predict when Safari mobile will crash. '50 HDR pix' link from Digg is something to Digg and look at on your laptop or desktop. Forums also casusing crashes I notice.

steaky

I call BULLSHIT. My iPhone 3G 2.1 has crashed, hung, and froze more since the update than it did during the entire previous version. I'm fed up with it.

cayennecode

To start with, I do IT stuff for a living. One main thing I do is constantly test different handheld devices to find out which is the best for my users (Nokia's, BB's, Q's, Treo, etc). The iPhone is amazing and surpasses any other device out there. I've always been a symbian OS fan on the nokia's and still am, but it still doesn't compare. I updated to 2.1 yesterday and found it to be a huge success. FYI, I've installed 52 3rd party apps from the App Store. I'll list my findings below.

1. My backups were well over an hour. Now it just took me 5 minutes flat!

2. 3G signal strength in office was around 2 bars. Now is a constant 5 bars.

3. I haven't had a dropped call yet.

4. It could take up to 10 minutes to load a very small simple app before and now it's almost instant.

5. I had many crashes installing apps, especially when syncing multiple apps that I got via iTunes. I've had to do a hard reset twice because of it and was actually getting a bit fed up. Now, I just installed 7 updates and 3 new apps all at once and they installed very quick and smooth as silk. I didn't even have to restart the phone to make them work which I've had to do before.

5. Don't know about battery life yet as it's to soon to tell.

6. My 3G browsing hasn't slowed down. It seems the same.

7. I used to have problems occasionaly with emails syncing via Exchange and Yahoo mail (usually after I installed an app). So far it is pushing quicker than ever. Even after doing the above said app installs.

Over all I can not be happier with 2.1. It has fixed all of my major problems and concerns. What a fabulous service pack!!!

kulbriz

This is total speculation, but I wonder if the slower data speeds are intentional so as to reduce load on the 3G network? Crazy, I know.

CarmineDawgschidt

I'm glad the 3G phones are doing well with reception, because my original iPhone is telling me I have no signal at my desk, where I used to get 3 bars...

The Amazing Ant

I'm pretty happy with the direction 2.1 is taking the phone, but I think the most important factor is getting kinda glossed over here - THERE ARE ACTUALLY FREAKIN UPDATES!

Outside of the realm of howardforums and using hacked firmware, this is not somethign that the general public has had with smartphones in the past. I've owned several treos, BBs, and a winmo phone*, and if/when there was an update, it was usually obtained by ripping it from another carrier's website, and very rarey did it help with crashing, reception, or speed, and they never add major features.

I think what apple's doing here is great, and I hope more smartphone makers will take notice.

*other than a BB pearl, I missed way more calls on my other smartphones due to crashes and reception issues than I have on my iphone.

drogers

Did the song lyrics show up while the song was playing before? They do now if they didn't before.

rgspb