Yup, I jumped right in and grabbed the iOS4 updated today to bring my iPhone 4 to iOS4.1. For those that don’t remember, after years of playing with pre-release OS installs on my Newtons and Palms, I now only have final versions on my daily user device (iPhone) and pre-release on my test hardware (Touch). I use my iPhone so much all day, I can’t risk pre-release hickups.
If you missed Steve’s talk, iOS4.1 brings us some features and some bug fixes. Right off, the bug fixes have made me one happy user! Many of us have been having issues with dialing people while using the phone or worse… hanging up on them (mom’s never believe you that it was an accident). The issue has been around the proximity sensor not seeing that you have the phone against your head so turn off the touch screen, thus your ear is taping buttons. This update has successfully fixed that problem for me.
The Bluetooth ‘fixes’ are yet to be seen since I wasn’t having any issues… a report on this to follow.
New features are built in HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos. I have been a huge fan and thus constant user of the app Pro HDR so I will post up a head-to-head review shortly.
Game Center for playing games against others is now built in. Since gaming isn’t a biggie for me, I’ll let someone else on the team here write that review.
Being able to pick someone from your favorites list to FaceTime with will be handy. Like we said when the iPhone 4 was first announced, who really ‘needs’ FaceTime? Well, it seems most anyone who has a friend with a iPhone 4 does as we see more and more usage all the time. Hey, where are the games that use the camera facing the player?
On the video side of enhancements in iOS4.1 – you can now view HD video from MobileMe and YouTube over Wifi. And, lastly, you can now ‘rent’ videos from iTunes. We looked into the ‘rental’ model – you can rent a video that is downloaded to your iPhone, then you have 24 hours to watch it once you start it. Not a bad option for a movie you will only want to watch once and might do so on a plane