iPhone Update Soups Up Street Smarts, Stabilizes Safari

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has released a new software update for the iPhone, bringing users more than a dozen new features and fixes. Among them is the "I-want-that-too" Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Street View maps feature that was first available on BlackBerry and Java-enabled phones.

"Apple has been releasing major updates to iPhone OS every few months," Raven Zachary, founder of iPhoneDevCamp and a contributing analyst for The 451 Group, told MacNewsWorld. Apple released the previous 2.1 update in September.

"iPhone OS 2.2 includes enhancements to Maps, Mail, App Store, Safari, iTunes, security fixes, and a handful of other issues. As with the 2.1 release before it, this one is highly recommended for iPhone and iPod touch owners. Apple even posted a list of security fixes for this release," Zachary noted.

"While enhancements to the Maps application has been the most reported aspect of this OS update, I think the one that customers will be most pleased with will be stability improvements to Safari. This is the most frequent complaint I hear from iPhone owners these days. It was not uncommon for Safari to crash half a dozen times or more per day with prior versions iPhone OS 2.x," he added.

Map Apps

The Google Street View feature, which is part of the Maps application, now lets users see street level photos of locations or planned destinations. Other enhancements to Maps includes public transit schedules, fares, walking directions and estimated travel times. Also rolled in is the ability to display addresses for dropped pins. Users can now also share locations via e-mail , which includes a Google Maps URL.

Beyond Maps, other new highlights include:

• Over-the-Air Podcasts: Users can download audio and video podcasts via their cellular networks or WiFi -- rather than via a Mac/PC connection. (Cellular networks are limited to less than 10 MB file sizes.)
• Better Browsing: Safari has been updated with a new search-friendly interface, better performance, and more stability.
• Straight Home: The Home button now takes users back to the first Home screen rather than the last visited home screen, which was sometimes confusing for those with multiple screens and many installed apps.
• Better Call Reliability: Apple says 2.2 decreases call set-up failures and dropped calls.
• Bye-Bye Auto-Correction: Users can now turn off auto-correction on the virtual keyboard, which sometimes picks the wrong word in tapped messages.
• Fixes for E-Mail: One fix improves reliability in the scheduled fetching of e-mail, and another improves the formatting of wide HTML e-mail.
• Better Voicemail Sound: Visual Voicemail messages have improved sound quality.
• Security Fixes: Apple has added several security fixes, including patching holes that would let maliciously crafted Web sites crash applications or execute code. See Apple Support Article HT3318 for details.

What's Missing?

While most iPhone users with imaginations have their special wish lists, there are a few common features that remain surprisingly absent.

For instance, users still can't cut and paste on the iPhone, there's no built-in support for MMS (multimedia service) messaging (just short message service text messaging), no video recording, and no push notification solution for background processes.