iPhone 2.1 Update, new & undocumented features/fixes screenshots (2.2 now available).

[dmandels]

Icons dont move when updating on the phone

not sure if this is new to 2.1, I have not tried it in a while, i found i completely annoying that I would arrange my icons only to have them messed up when I installed application updates from the phone.

Tried it on 2.1 and the icons stay in the same place.

 

[Jeremy W]

I'm thinking this is another new feature on 2.0/2.1 (I haven't noticed it before)... when typing in a password, the last character typed stays unmasked for a second or so before getting masked.

2.0 had it. The 3G was my first iPhone, so I can't say if it was there in the 1.x software.

 

[Jeremy W]

not sure if this is new to 2.1, I have not tried it in a while, i found i completely annoying that I would arrange my icons only to have them messed up when I installed application updates from the phone.

Tried it on 2.1 and the icons stay in the same place.

This is new to 2.1, but it's been mentioned many times already.

 

[156457]

New Feature

New feature on my iPod Touch 16GB 2.1...

Erase Data after 10 incorrect passcode attempts.

 

[saladiro]

Double tapping (the standard gesture for zooming) didn't work in prior firmware versions in the Mail application. The only way to zoom into content (e.g. a HTML attachment/web page) was to use the 'pinch' method. 2.1 now adds the functionality of double tapping to zoom in the Mail application. (Credit to sibruk).



this does not work for me....is it specific to the mail sent (rich text/ HTLM)

 

[mavis]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (16GB, 2.1 PWNed): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but if you tap on the album cover on the 'Now Playing' screent to display lyrics, and then close the iPod application, when you return it will sti show lyrics. This is new in 2.1. Also, if you go back to the artist/album/song list and choose another song, it will display lyrics immediately, rather than having to tap the screen again.

A minor thing, but convenient.

 

[uiop.]

Quick question, has the iPhone always been able to view Photoshop and Illustrator documents? If not, then this is a new feature. I ask because I emailed myself an Illustrator project that I was working on at school and was able to view the .ai file on my iPhone.

 

[jeb467]

Quick question. If I were to by a 1st gen. iphone, can I update this to 2.1? And there is a way to jailbreak 2.1 yet?

 

[TheSpaz]

Quick question. If I were to by a 1st gen. iphone, can I update this to 2.1? And there is a way to jailbreak 2.1 yet?

Yes and yes.

I think I found a bug in iPod app. If you have the scrubber displayed, you can no longer swipe right to go back to the list.

 

[mcdj]

I think I found a bug in iPod app. If you have the scrubber displayed, you can no longer swipe right to go back to the list.

I never used swipe before 2.1, but it doesn't seem like a bug to me. If you call up the scrubber, the iPhone is expecting you to use the bar, not swipe.

 

[taran420]

i dont know if its posted already, but now u get a message saying that you have lost network connection every time u loose the network.........never had that on 2.0

 

[mavis]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (16GB, 2.1 PWNed): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

Quick question. If I were to by a 1st gen. iphone, can I update this to 2.1? And there is a way to jailbreak 2.1 yet?

Yes and yes.

I think I found a bug in iPod app. If you have the scrubber displayed, you can no longer swipe right to go back to the list.

It's always been like that. The scrubber is expecting up/down input for scrolling lyrics. So L/R does nothing. Since 1.1.3!

 

[hirshnoc]

A new (or rather, taken away feature) in 2.1

The ability to hold down the power button on the top of the phone to shut off the phone has been taken away in 2.1.

Instead, doing so will take you to the 'slide to power off screen' as before. In the past, keeping your finger on this button allowed the user to bypass the screen, however now it seems as though the user must physically slide to power off, or hold both the power and home buttons simultaneously to bypass.

 

[Pattycerts]

When you press the home screen and power button simultaneously it takes a screenshot. When did this get added?

 

[bluedevils]

If you setup call forward, disable it and then re-enable, it will remember the previously enabled number. It is convenient when I always call forward to the house phone. Previously you had to enter the number manually each time you enable it.

 

[TheSpaz]

The ability to hold down the power button on the top of the phone to shut off the phone has been taken away in 2.1.

Instead, doing so will take you to the 'slide to power off screen' as before. In the past, keeping your finger on this button allowed the user to bypass the screen, however now it seems as though the user must physically slide to power off, or hold both the power and home buttons simultaneously to bypass.

I've never held the power button passed the slide to power off screen. I had no idea that was a feature. Oh well, maybe they took it away because people were accidentally holding the power button down and saying... why did my iPhone just turn itself off?

 

[hellomoto4]

When you press the home screen and power button simultaneously it takes a screenshot. When did this get added?

2.0

 

[MacIIsi]

Coming back to the Passcode Lock setting:
with 2.0.2 I could set a “Require Passcode Lock” up to 4 hours, but with 2.1 (5F136) this is now limited to 5 minutes, see screen capture below.
Anyone else experiencing that, would you say it’s a new feature or bug?

I don’t use my phone every 4 minutes and I find it incredibly annoying to have to enter a passcode after just 10 or 20 minutes… when 1 hour or 4 hours did a good job at locking the phone after I was away for too long.

I actually phoned Apple Support for that, and they could only give me the following (mis)information: “the limit to 5 minutes has always been the same for all software versions 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2 and 2.1” which is obviously a lie since I used the 4 hours setting on 2.0.2…

Still on the subject of Passcode Lock:
once I’ve enabled Passcode Lock by setting a passcode, I can’t disable it anymore… again see screen capture below: there's no option in 2.1, whereas I'm sure there was one in 2.0.2.
Anyone knows how to overcome that?

Oh, and I can’t control the “Erase Data” on/off either, the switch is just greyed out… unless I'm missing a control from iTunes?

FWIW, under 2.0.1 I could set the passcode lock to 1 hour and 4 hours; When I updated to 2.0.2, my highest setting was limited to 15 minutes. I have had Exchange push configured from day 1.

With 2.1, my Erase Data is grayed out as well. Also limited to 8 tries and not 10 as reported and illustrated elsewhere...

 

[hirshnoc]

I've never held the power button passed the slide to power off screen. I had no idea that was a feature. Oh well, maybe they took it away because people were accidentally holding the power button down and saying... why did my iPhone just turn itself off?

Yeah, honestly, I thought it was pretty convenient myself. Especially in the car. You just hold down one button and you were done. Now, if you want to bypass the screen, you have to hold down 2 buttons. Not quite sure why they took that away. On most cell phones, hold down the power button just turns the phone off completely. It was nice.

 

[alphadog00]

individual volume controls

I have only seen the iPod volume mentioned, but there is more:

Individual volume controls are maintained for:

1. Ringer
2. Speaker
3. Earpiece
4. BT headset

In the past, the rocker controlled a master volume, so turning it down, always had the effect of turning down the ringer volume... very annoying to turn down the speaker (internal or external) on a call, and then find out later the ringer was volume was down too.

Also, a related bug was that you could go to the ringer slider, set it all the way up, go elsewhere and adjust the rocker and the ringer slider would not refresh. It looked like it was set independently, but if you left it again and came back, it would jump to match the rocker.

 

[bmwpowere36m3]

I have only seen the iPod volume mentioned, but there is more:

Individual volume controls are maintained for:

1. Ringer
2. Speaker
3. Earpiece
4. BT headset

In the past, the rocker controlled a master volume, so turning it down, always had the effect of turning down the ringer volume... very annoying to turn down the speaker (internal or external) on a call, and then find out later the ringer was volume was down too.

Also, a related bug was that you could go to the ringer slider, set it all the way up, go elsewhere and adjust the rocker and the ringer slider would not refresh. It looked like it was set independently, but if you left it again and came back, it would jump to match the rocker.

That's not really a new feature, 2.0.2 had independent headset, ringer, speaker, iPod controls... I've noted this in a vid I put up. I know there was much dicussion over it, but I think people were just getting confused by the settings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thk5AqwX48Y

 

[alphadog00]

That's not really a new feature, 2.0.2 had independent headset, ringer, speaker, iPod controls... I've noted this in a vid I put up. I know there was much dicussion over it, but I think people were just getting confused by the settings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thk5AqwX48Y

Well chalk this up to other idiosyncrasies that seem to allow variance between phones as my phone would not allow for different volume levels until 2.1; so for me this is a welcome change.

I would still love to see AM/PM on my lock screen, but sadly I can't seem to get this to work. Maybe the next update will fix me.... my phone just likes to be slow adopter of new features.

 

[steveapp]

Nope, you're right, you have to enable the password lock. You can set it for four hours, so that you would only have to unlock it once a day (presumably). Then you can set the privacy feature on SMS.

Sorry, that wont work for me - must be missing something else - i enabled the passcode - sent myself a text and up it appears - so tried it again with the phone off and still appears - don't know what im doing wrong but will have a bit more of a fiddle and see what happens

 

[bmwpowere36m3]

I also don't have the AM/PM on the lockscreen, I did a clean install of 2.1. However my phone is jailbroken... however I'm happy I don't have those huge icons.

 

[Magic-wand]

Quick question, has the iPhone always been able to view Photoshop and Illustrator documents? If not, then this is a new feature. I ask because I emailed myself an Illustrator project that I was working on at school and was able to view the .ai file on my iPhone.

Chances are that your illustrator file was saved with a pdf option on. Basically that feature allows any illustrator file to be opened by any pdf reader like Acrobat or Preview and even the MacOS finder and Quicklook, which is used by iPhone to view files attachments (word, pdf, excell, jpg...etc)