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iPhone 2.1 Firmware Now Available

Reiger said:
Second that. Before the update I would get 3G data speeds of 1.5-2.2 Mbit. Now, on the same location I get consistent dataspeeds of 3.0-3.1 Mbit. Furthermore, there are a lot of people who didn't have any reception before and now they do (I've yet to test this for myself though).
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Reiger

Thanks for posting. I'm blown away by those results your getting in the Netherlands. What I wouldn't do for those 3 mbps speeds. OMG.

And yes I've seen a lot of posts from folks who now have decent 3G (data speeds, independent of number of bars) in places where they've had none before. I'm definitely enthusiastic about the 3G speed improvements on this upgrade

Pete
 
So, a day after installing the 2.1 update, I have to say that the iPhone is much better than before:
  • Applications install very fast. Home Screen location of the application is being remembered when upgrading.
  • Contacts app is faster
  • SMS typing is fast
  • Safari is still very buggy. Lots of crashes, unresponsiveness...No change here...I don't think that Apple will ever fix it..I have filed a bug report 8 months ago and Apple responded to me acknowledging the problems. Nothing has changed since then. Sites that definitely cause problems are: www.spox.com , www.eurosport.de, forums.appleinsider.com , www.tuaw.com . It's really a shame. Apple needs to do sth...
  • Battery life hasn't improved. At least this is what I am seeing for now. I want to totally discharge the battery and the fully charge it before I come to a conclusion here...Today I took my iPhone from the cradle around 8:30am. I used it for 1hour and 45 minutes, surfing the web and listening to a genious playlist I created on the iPhone. The battery fell to 30-40%...3G was on, WiFi on but not connected, location services disabled, brightness auto...
  • 3G signal is for me the same. Maybe it is being displayed more accurately but in my house there are locations where I had no 3G signal and that hasn't changed with 2.1. What I noticed is that in places with 3G signal I get more bars...
 
Okay, so after using the iPhone for a few hours after updating to 2.1, here are the things that I have noticed:

  1. Sound quality during calls is a lot clearer, no more fuzziness.
  2. The keyboard is much more responsive in the SMS application and in Safari.
  3. Safari is more fluid and doesn't lag when multiple pages are opened.
  4. Sounds do not lag behind - for example, prior to the update, pressing the power button would result in the "shutter/off" sound being played up to 3 seconds later; now it plays as soon as I let go of the button and the screen shuts off.
  5. Backup and synchronization times are muchly improved (have gone from 20 minutes down to about 2).
  6. Contacts application does not lag whatsoever.
  7. The user interface overall feels more fluid.
  8. Currently, I have 6 hours of usage and 12 hours and 31 minutes of standby time and have a full battery. Previously, after using the phone for about 4 hours and 10 hours of standby time I would need to recharge.
 
I just looked at my iPhone usage for today:
Standby is 4 hours and 8 minutes
Usage: 2 hours and 6 minutes

The battery is around 20% !!!!
that sucks big time...Please dont tell me my battery is problematic. When disabling 3G I get two days out of the battery...
 
Well, I'm happy. So far so good with 2.1, and long may the updates continue.

I'm thrilled that, for the first time, a mobile phone exists that is, essentially, a computer and that the manufacturer, Apple, continues to develop the operating system for it. Sure, the likes of Nokia do software updates, too, but you're out of your tiny little brain if you think that stacks up at all to what Apple are doing.

Long may the development continue :)
 
Battery 10%
Usage: 2 hours 25 minutes
Stand by: 4 hours 47 minutes...

1,5 hours was internet surfing with 3G on and WiFi on but not connected and listening to music
the rest usage on WiFi, I installed an app and downloaded some rss feeds


Push is on (Mobile Me), WiFi on and connected for 30 mins...
Location Services off

I am not happy!!!
 
I tried alexeismertin's way to downgrade to 2.0.2. But it won't. iTunes 7.7.1, when run from a different (not guest) account, says:

Code: 
The iPhone "iPhone" cannot be used because it requires iTunes version 8.0 or later. Go to www.itunes.com to download the latest version of iTunes.

PS: My iPhone is now locked and on 2.1.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Pacon!
 
PeteLP said:
Totally wrong. But A+ for arrogance. I left a message a few pages ago showing the results of a large number of bandwidth tests using testmyiphone.com right before and right after upgrading to 2.1.

My average 3G performance has gone from 360 kbps to 890 kbps. Thats a factor of 2.5 TIMES BETTER.

Several other posters have found similar improvements. Our experience is that this is much, much more than a cosmetic improvement. But good work on taking a guess and calling it fact.
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In addition, the way it hands off from 3G to EDGE is clearly different. With 2.0, I had never locked on a 3G signal in my home -- it was always 2-3 bars of EDGE. It now holds a 3G lock in my home (2-3 bars), only reverting to EDGE in a few corners of the house. The 3G signal strength may be the same in theory, but at least now the phone actually locks on and uses 3G. 1,800 kbps as well!
 
charltonx said:
I've had five bars on 3G and I can't get Internet, keeps saying the server is not responding, it's fine once I switch wifi on; I think the change in 3G reception after the 2.1 update is just cosmetic, and I hate to say that because I really wanted it to work. Everything else seems a lot more responsive though, no more text lag, quicker installation of apps etc.
Click to expand...

Power off and back on. It'll be fine!! I had the same problem:)
 
shelt said:
In addition, the way it hands off from 3G to EDGE is clearly different. With 2.0, I had never locked on a 3G signal in my home -- it was always 2-3 bars of EDGE. It now holds a 3G lock in my home (2-3 bars), only reverting to EDGE in a few corners of the house. The 3G signal strength may be the same in theory, but at least now the phone actually locks on and uses 3G. 1,800 kbps as well!
Click to expand...

noticing a big difference with 3G reception also, prior to today in my backroom it would sometimes resort to the regular signal. How its at 3G FULL strength, how strange, I wonder what they have done to boost the signal. Hopefully this will improve the sound and connection when others are listening for a greater distance, I was told my signal and sound "warbled" into distortion from around the 20 mile distance, and yet the other person sounded clear as a bell to me. There's clearly been an issue with the receptivity.

wo, just checked web with 3G now, loading as fast as wifi, amazing.
 
did the update last night. Gen 1 phone an all seemed omay only issue so far is in email. Getting big lag now while typing and email. Not sure if a clitch or not but I have rebooted and will keep you posted. Other that that things seem better.
 
charltonx said:
I've had five bars on 3G and I can't get Internet, keeps saying the server is not responding, it's fine once I switch wifi on; I think the change in 3G reception after the 2.1 update is just cosmetic, and I hate to say that because I really wanted it to work. Everything else seems a lot more responsive though, no more text lag, quicker installation of apps etc.
Click to expand...

SoSII said:
Power off and back on. It'll be fine!! I had the same problem:)
Click to expand...


In fact this is only a temp fix. After playing a bit (turning things on and of etc - not sure precisely what I did) and the problem is bacl. Power off and on and all fine again. This is a pain in the ass...

Anyone else seeing this?!?!?!:mad:
 
Battery...

Ok, well it's only one night and all, but...

If I left my iPhone 2.0.x unplugged overnight I would have between 50 and 60% charge left the next morning, even if I used EDGE. After upgrading at about 7 pm last night, I charged it and left it unplugged. It had a 100% charge this morning. I have everything on except push, and I am using 3G (the upgrade turned this on).

My guess is that the changes to the power handing have to do with idle time loading. That is, the phone is not spending as much power as it used to when it's "turned off" in idle mode. This would explain my much better battery life, as well as other reports by heavy users that there is no difference in their battery life.

As others have reported, 3G speeds have dramatically improved. I'm on Fido in Toronto and used to consistently get about 1.1 Mbps using testmyiphone. Now I get over 2 Mbps every single time.

Reception is absolutely better than it was. I now get a full set of 3G bars in my house, whereas I used to get 2 or 3. Before anyone tells me Apple just changed the bars (which I'm sure they did as well), the phone is clearly getting better reception than it used to. Speeds have improved, and my little testing so far suggests that signal reception (or processing?) is working much better than it used to.

To add to this, everything else has improved as well. A syncing run with no content exchange is basically instant now, perhaps 2 to 3 seconds total. The entire phone is faster too; typing lag is completely gone, sounds, animations, everything is clearly faster than it used to be.

The improved battery life will have the greatest effect on my personal usage patterns, but then you add higher speeds and a slew of bug fixes and performance improvements across the board. And its free. There's only one way to put it...

This is one hell of an upgrade.

Maury
 
Maury said:
Ok, well it's only one night and all, but...

If I left my iPhone 2.0.x unplugged overnight I would have between 50 and 60% charge left the next morning, even if I used EDGE. After upgrading at about 7 pm last night, I charged it and left it unplugged. It had a 100% charge this morning. I have everything on except push, and I am using 3G (the upgrade turned this on).

My guess is that the changes to the power handing have to do with idle time loading. That is, the phone is not spending as much power as it used to when it's "turned off" in idle mode. This would explain my much better battery life, as well as other reports by heavy users that there is no difference in their battery life.

As others have reported, 3G speeds have dramatically improved. I'm on Fido in Toronto and used to consistently get about 1.1 Mbps using testmyiphone. Now I get over 2 Mbps every single time.

Reception is absolutely better than it was. I now get a full set of 3G bars in my house, whereas I used to get 2 or 3. Before anyone tells me Apple just changed the bars (which I'm sure they did as well), the phone is clearly getting better reception than it used to. Speeds have improved, and my little testing so far suggests that signal reception (or processing?) is working much better than it used to.

To add to this, everything else has improved as well. A syncing run with no content exchange is basically instant now, perhaps 2 to 3 seconds total. The entire phone is faster too; typing lag is completely gone, sounds, animations, everything is clearly faster than it used to be.

The improved battery life will have the greatest effect on my personal usage patterns, but then you add higher speeds and a slew of bug fixes and performance improvements across the board. And its free. There's only one way to put it...

This is one hell of an upgrade.

Maury
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree with you any more, Sir. AWESOME UPDATE! :apple::cool:
 
Of course this update should be free!!! I don't understand people that get excited because the update was free. The new firmware made the iPhone leave the beta phase...2.1 should come on July 11th...
Now we have a nice working revolutionary device that is light years away from the competition..
My only complain is that Safari is very very buggy...Apple knows about that but up until now they haven't been able to fix it...
Battery life also sucks big time...As I said before I haven't noticed an improvement here...I am now charging the iPhone after letting it die. Today it lasted 5,5 hours!!!
 
Quick question regarding Genius. Is it true that the sidebar that recommends music to purchase only shows up in iTunes, and not on the iPhone itself?

Brian
 
Maury said:
This is one hell of an upgrade.

Maury
Click to expand...

I agree that the changes in 2.1 are great. I'm experiencing faster data connections than I was before as well as better call handling. However, I wouldn't necessarily call this an Upgrade. It's an update to a prior version that was riddled with bugs. We finally have the phones and performance that many of us thought we were purchasing 2 months ago.
 
Eddieowns said:
How do i get the Genius to work? I updated and I can't see the option to turn the Genius on...
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yeah I updated mine and therebis no genius icon. And also that all my apps that were free just crash as they try to start up, but the apps that I bought run smoothly.
 
the genius feature just looks like a marketing ploy to sell more songs on itunes

Looks like the rest of the upgrade is excellent though.

It may just be my mind, but I think I'm noticing a bassier sound on the ipod
 
petvas said:
So, a day after installing the 2.1 update, I have to say that the iPhone is much better than before:
  • Safari is still very buggy. Lots of crashes, unresponsiveness...No change here...I don't think that Apple will ever fix it..I have filed a bug report 8 months ago and Apple responded to me acknowledging the problems. Nothing has changed since then. Sites that definitely cause problems are: www.spox.com , www.eurosport.de, forums.appleinsider.com , www.tuaw.com . It's really a shame. Apple needs to do sth...
Click to expand...

My experience going all the way back to 1.0.0 is that Safari is FAR less crashy than it used to be. You can still crash it if you try, particularly by loading very large pages.
 
ishopukisfake said:
the genius feature just looks like a marketing ploy to sell more songs on itunes

Looks like the rest of the upgrade is excellent though.
Click to expand...

The genious feature on the iPhone doesn't have anything to do with buying songs from the iTunes store...

Genious in iTunes 8 makes you buy songs from iTunes, but really is a great feature! I discovered songs I would never buy without Genious. Apple wins but I also get to listen to music I like. It is a win-win situation...
 
3G signal boost

You know, there were rumors that the drivers driving the 3G chip, provided by their manufacturer, were not the best. I would not be surprised if the boost in signal strength / data speed are a result of new drivers driving the 3G chip.
 
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