iPhone 2.1 Update First Impressions
By Mike Kirkland
I am not getting too excited at the moment as it is still early days, but I think Apple may have delivered on their promise.
I applied the 2.1 update on Friday afternoon and made sure that my iPhone 3G had a full battery charge before removing from the dock. I have been testing all of the applications since and here are some of my early findings:
3G- New icon just shows 3G or a dot, depending on whether you are in a 3G signal area. I am now receiving a full 3G signal in certain areas of my house whereas before I was only getting 1 or 2 bars at best. On launching Safari the 3G signal is steady rather than dropping out. Browsing speed is more like you see in the adverts!
Performance – Everything appears to be much quicker, with no noticeable lag. This is especially true with the Contacts application which used to stutter before.
Apps – I never experienced the App lockout problem until I downloaded the latest update for Brain Tuner prior to 2.1 update. 2.1 seems to have fixed this problem, so hopefully this works for everybody else as well. Downloading Apps from the store and installing is a much quicker process. I also like the way if you update an App it retains it’s original position, rather than moving back to the home screen.
SMS – Never had a problem with this, but it does seem more responsive. The additional notifications for unread messages is a good feature. Do not go looking for this setting like I did, as it is automatic!
External Speaker – My speaker volume appears to have trebled. I can now hear the iPhone ringing in another room. I have even had to turn the volume down a few clicks as it is was too loud. Has anybody else found this?
Battery Life – Still to early to comment, but I am on a 35% charge with 3 hours usage and 20 hours standby.
Genius – I love this on iTunes 8, but not sure whether this feature will be that useful on an 8GB iPhone due to the lack of song capacity!
Dropped Calls – None as yet, but I do not get many calls at the weekend. I will update this blog later in the week with my findings.
Please post your experiences of the 2.1 update here.
