To the OP, you should definitely return your phone. You don't want this upgrade. Furthermore, you should write a letter to Steve explaining why you are returning it and tell them to make sure he gets it.
Is there really a phone function? I'm not really sure how most use their iPhone but I hardly ever use the phone. I think I have used 1 minute of regular talk time this period. More mob-mob minutes but not much else--and the iPhone is my only phone.
Both of your solutions require actually looking at the phone. Pushing the Home button does not. And I'm sure that time will prove that Apple can come up with another way to make it happen.
well, since the phone multi-tasks, couldn't you double tap then tap the phone icon in the multitask dock to get there from the app? Hopefully this'll work for you until some other solution is brought in an update.
For voice recognition, I need to be *really* careful with my pronunciation. (British English.)
Sometimes, on iOS 3.x, when I ask "What Time Is It?", iPhone tries to call one of my contacts! 😱 But, to be fair, iOS 4 seems to be better at recognition.