iPhone OS 2.2 due Nov 21?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 15 November 2008 05:38

IT Industry - Market

- Google Street View as noted above, but also the inclusion of transit information for public transport – at least in the US – and directions for walking instead of just driving. Location sharing is also touted as a new feature.

- Google has its own spot on the search bar, rather than only being accessible by the magnifying glass.

- Auto-correction can now be turned on or off, although with auto-correction off, users will need to type more accurately, removing the “trust” that Steve Jobs spoke of when spruiking the keyboard before the original iPhone launched. What would be better is a way to edit, on phone, the auto-correction list – perhaps that will come in the future.

- Emoticons are coming to the iPhone, in the form of Japanese “emoji” icons, of which there are 461 available. The lack of these icons has been touted as one reason why the iPhone hasn’t been as popular in Japan as expected, because of the popularity of using the icons in text messages as is standard on essentially all other phones in the Japanese market.

However given the popularity of emoticons in general, the Japanese emoji icons could now find global popularity among the world’s emoticon-loving iPhone users.

- New languages will be supported, further broadening the iPhone’s appeal to the world market.

- Audiophiles who love to record will be pleased by the rumoured activation of “line-in audio” through the headphone jack.

- Podcast downloading direct to the iPhone, either via 3G, Wi-Fi and presumably 2G as well for older iPhones.

- App Store ‘categories’ will be more “spaced out” for easier access by fingertip, along with new “tell a friend” and “report a problem” buttons for each iPhone application that can be downloaded. Supposedly if an application is deleted, users will get the option of scoring that application which will form part of an application’s rating in the App Store.

We’ll know the truth – and if there are any surprises – on November 21, and if not, then likely soon after.

And while the iPhone Dev Team already claims to have pwned the iPhone OS 2.2 betas distributed to developers, a new round of hacking whatever protections Apple has included this time in the final version will undoubtedly begin post haste, depending on how busy Dev Team members are with the rest of their lives.

What will begin post haste aside from Apple's servers being hammered by downloads worldwide is people screaming for the Dev Team to hurry up with 2.2 pwnification, and the long awaited 3G unlock!