Thoughts on iPhone 3G Firmware 2.1 Update

Hey all!

Today we talk iPhone Firmware 2.1!

As most of you know, the 2.1 firmware came out for the iPhone 3G some time around 6:00am PST on Friday September 12, 2008. I managed to pick it up about 20 minutes later, but due to unforeseen errors during the install, it actually took me over 2 hours to install it. So, during my time installing, I decided to make a step-by-step guide of what to do if and when the update install goes wrong. See below:

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My 9-step Guide on what to do when iTunes @#$%’s up your iPhone 2.1 upgrade:

1.) The update hangs or something goes wrong that you are clearly able to see that something is not right.

2.) Force close iTunes by whatever means you force close applications

3.) The iPhone will go into recovery mode. iTunes loads up again (it will load on its own). You now have to restore the iPhone. Click “Check” at the first prompt, “Check” at the second prompt, and “Restore and Update”.

4.) Let iTunes do its thing. Takes about 7 minutes for the restore.

5.) When you get to the “Set up your iPhone” screen, choose “New iPhone” or “Backup”. I did backup.

6.) iPhone will begin backing up. The iPhone display will change and say “iPhone is activated” with no slide to whatever bars along the bottom and “Restore in Progress” along the top. The iPhone also doesn’t dim. Just stays at full brightness with that cryptic “activated” message.

7.) iPhone will begin restoring from the backup and take a really…long…time. Though I suppose the less actual ‘stuff’ on your iPhone would make for a faster backup.

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Intermission (45 minutes later)

8.) I guess at this time I should mention that if you have not previously synced your iPhone to iTunes in the last 24 hours, your “backup” will be from your last sync. So, sync often. I guess I could have mentioned this as a pre-step to step 1….

9.) So the restore from backup is done and now we move on to a black iPhone screen with the spinning loading progress thing. Push “OK” when prompted. iPhone Reboots. Wait for iPhone to show up in iTunes.

Thankfully, I am now successfully running 2.1 and loving it. The major fixes I was looking for were the Contact List lags and keyboard lags, both of which seem to be fixed thus far.

Below I have detailed a few things I have noticed so far with 2.1:

– Songs have their artists and albums shown in iPod under the song name

– Videos have a circle representing how far into the video you have watched

– Songs list has a search function/letters (like contacts) (Is this new?)

– No keyboard lag, no contact list lag

– SMS Repeat notification tone occurs approximately every 10 minutes if you have not viewed the message or simply acknowledged it

– New 3G and EDGE Symbols

– New GPRS Symbol

– Podcasts in the iPod have been totally reworked (displays how many episodes, length, and date prior to actually listening to it)

Some of the things I have noticed may not be new to 2.1, and some of the things I didn’t mention because they are obvious, such as the Genius stuff, but other than that the above list are of things I have not noticed before.

For those of you who have downloaded 2.1, how are your experiences? Good? Bad? Sound off in the comments below!

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Robert J Perry the 1st
Robert J Perry the 1st
17 years ago

okay, so im not ready to update my iphone (until the windows jailbrake comes out)but its safe to update my itunes right????

Trancen
Trancen
17 years ago

Yes your good to install iTunes 8, I have my 2.0.2 jail broken and i upgraded to itunes 8 and all is good.

Tony
Tony
17 years ago

I didnt see the genius stuff on my iPhone. I have it in iTunes but how would I access it on my iPhone?

Fermont
Fermont
Reply to  Tony
17 years ago

You must sync your iphone with itunes after the upgrade, then you’ll see genius stuff on your iphone.

X1Zero
X1Zero
Reply to  Tony
17 years ago

@Tony,
After the first sync, the Genius option did not show up in my iPhone. However, I ejected the iPhone and re-synced it, and the Genius option showed up.

Give it a shot!

mark
17 years ago

The one thing I really liked about the upgrade was that itunes would backup the iphone MUCH faster! In the past it would get really annoying.

Andrew
Andrew
17 years ago

I would give up jailbreaking for 2.1 any day. It has pretty much zero lag some new features and I’m experiencing MUCH better battery life:D upgrade and you won’t regret it.

Peacock
Peacock
17 years ago

I was originally scared to jailbreak because last time it lagged/killed the battery. My experience updating to 2.1 went smoothly. Jailbreaking 2.1 has been excellent so far. No lag!

amie
amie
17 years ago

what about genius lists? i think its a great part of the upgrade!
sync your music again to see it… its awesome! it really is quite “smart” 😛

Rob
Rob
17 years ago

What kind of battery life are you getting? I had maybe not even 3 hours on 3g surfing yesterday and 14 hours on Standby . If anything I’d say it’s a decrease. Yes, I know I can turn off this and that to “increase” the battery life. Maybe I should just turn off the Iphone to get better battery life altogether? Safari shutdown on me a number of times already as well. When you turn off location services and then go to Maps it will not tun on anymore just by asking you and pressing OK. You actually have to go into the settings and turn it on. WTF!

LoWd0Wn
LoWd0Wn
17 years ago

I have tried a video podcast and a video movie and don’t see that circle you are talking about to see how far into the video it is.
I still get that line that shows you how far into the movie you are, showing the time watched and time remaining.
Where is this that you are talking about??

X1Zero
X1Zero
Reply to  LoWd0Wn
17 years ago

@LoW,

I went into “Videos” on the iPod and tapped the newly synced video. I paused it after watching about less than half and when backing out, the blue circle was half filled. I would imagine this would indicate the video is half way through.

If this was there before, I never noticed it.

teenwolf
teenwolf
17 years ago

while a song is playing in the iPod tap the sceen to bring up the song progress bar. The genius option will be there. Hope I explained it well enough.

ifokust
ifokust
17 years ago

MUCH improved battery life. Backup time is cut down by more than half for me(45mins to 15mins). The genius stuff is pretty cool too.
I’ve noticed less app freezing etc. I’ve gone ahead and jailbroken my 3G iphone once again so here’s to the future.

IBMguy
IBMguy
17 years ago

I’m having an issue with my location services. Every time I try to find where I am it doesn’t pinpoint me like it has in the past regardless if I’m indoors or out. Has anyone else had this issue?

pascal gehl
pascal gehl
17 years ago

I agree with you on keyboard and contacts speed.
I’m disappointed on battery life, they claim it’s improved, I saw nothing, I still have to charge after 1,5 hours of facebooking, youtubing and emailing.

LoWd0Wn
LoWd0Wn
17 years ago

I see now X1. I was looking for a bigger circle not the blue little dot that shows a new show. Yes as soon as you watch a bit it turns to half the blue circle.
Cool,I missed that.
Thanks

skydivertak
skydivertak
17 years ago

I found that they fixed a problem with podcasts. Now, if you are listening to a series of unheard episodes, it will continue to the next one, rather than stopping after the first one.
Because of this, you can now use the headphone switch to skip forward and backwards through episodes.

magimat
magimat
17 years ago

Hey,

It’s now really related to the topic, but anyone knows how to disable bookmarks sync with itunes? I just erased half of my laptop bookmarks while syncung my iphone! This is the secodn times it happens to me. I know there is this warning and you can say no but it keeps asking everytime I sync, is there a way to disable bookmark syncing once and for all?

By the way, I am asking here because I cant post in the forums, dont knwo why, it says I doesnt have the privileges, weird, my account (magimat) is activated and all, but I can post.

Oh, and since this is a FW 2.1 topic after all, I upgraded this weekend. I started over fresh with a restore noe iphone, since my 2.0.2 was jailbroken and I’m really glad I did. 2.1 feels a lot more stable, battery life itself is worth the upgrade!

Now please, if someone know how to disable this annoying bookmark syncing.. who wants the same bookmarks on iphone an laptop anyway!

Thanks

Peter
Peter
17 years ago

I’ve noticed that after updating, when you enter a phone number in the keypad, the corresponding name in your contacts list doesn’t show up when you dial it. It will show up in your recent calls list, but as for when you’re dialing the number, it just shows the number and not the contact name. Has anyone else been experiencing this?

coop
coop
17 years ago

You’ll find it lurking at the bottom of the info tab in iTunes. It’s listed as “Web Browser”.

magimat
magimat
17 years ago

thanks coop!!

K. C. Lam
K. C. Lam
17 years ago

Firmware 2.1 : Call Forwarding : Remember last number you input, so no need to type my No. every time when I back home.

dave
dave
17 years ago

Generally happy with the upgrade but still waiting for landscape mode for email and SMS as well as copy/paste

jlgervais
jlgervais
17 years ago

Mega crash updating with itunes 8, had to recover 6 times before it finally got it done
those Get a Mac Ads should end with PC asking MAC :

PC : Have you updated your iphone lately ?
MAC : …
PC : Shut the f… up !

Chels
Chels
17 years ago

you people are the Sh*t..
i have been trying to jailbreak my phone for 3 days
now and i even lost everything in my phone including
all my numbers and photos..
but im just happy that i finally got it thanks to you! (:

Robert J Perry the 1st
Robert J Perry the 1st
17 years ago

okay, so im not ready to update my iphone (until the windows jailbrake comes out)but its safe to update my itunes right????

Robert J Perry the 1st
Robert J Perry the 1st
17 years ago

okay, so im not ready to update my iphone (until the windows jailbrake comes out)but its safe to update my itunes right????

Robert J Perry the 1st
Robert J Perry the 1st
17 years ago

okay, so im not ready to update my iphone (until the windows jailbrake comes out)but its safe to update my itunes right????

Robert J Perry the 1st
Robert J Perry the 1st
17 years ago

okay, so im not ready to update my iphone (until the windows jailbrake comes out)but its safe to update my itunes right????

Trancen
Trancen
17 years ago

Yes your good to install iTunes 8, I have my 2.0.2 jail broken and i upgraded to itunes 8 and all is good.

Trancen
Trancen
17 years ago

Yes your good to install iTunes 8, I have my 2.0.2 jail broken and i upgraded to itunes 8 and all is good.

Trancen
Trancen
17 years ago

Yes your good to install iTunes 8, I have my 2.0.2 jail broken and i upgraded to itunes 8 and all is good.

Tony
Tony
17 years ago

I didnt see the genius stuff on my iPhone. I have it in iTunes but how would I access it on my iPhone?

Tony
Tony
17 years ago

I didnt see the genius stuff on my iPhone. I have it in iTunes but how would I access it on my iPhone?

Tony
Tony
17 years ago

I didnt see the genius stuff on my iPhone. I have it in iTunes but how would I access it on my iPhone?

Tony
Tony
17 years ago

I didnt see the genius stuff on my iPhone. I have it in iTunes but how would I access it on my iPhone?

mark
17 years ago

The one thing I really liked about the upgrade was that itunes would backup the iphone MUCH faster! In the past it would get really annoying.

mark
17 years ago

The one thing I really liked about the upgrade was that itunes would backup the iphone MUCH faster! In the past it would get really annoying.

mark
17 years ago

The one thing I really liked about the upgrade was that itunes would backup the iphone MUCH faster! In the past it would get really annoying.

mark
17 years ago

The one thing I really liked about the upgrade was that itunes would backup the iphone MUCH faster! In the past it would get really annoying.

Andrew
Andrew
17 years ago

I would give up jailbreaking for 2.1 any day. It has pretty much zero lag some new features and I’m experiencing MUCH better battery life:D upgrade and you won’t regret it.

Andrew
Andrew
17 years ago

I would give up jailbreaking for 2.1 any day. It has pretty much zero lag some new features and I’m experiencing MUCH better battery life:D upgrade and you won’t regret it.

Andrew
Andrew
17 years ago

I would give up jailbreaking for 2.1 any day. It has pretty much zero lag some new features and I’m experiencing MUCH better battery life:D upgrade and you won’t regret it.

Andrew
Andrew
17 years ago

I would give up jailbreaking for 2.1 any day. It has pretty much zero lag some new features and I’m experiencing MUCH better battery life:D upgrade and you won’t regret it.

Fermont
Fermont
17 years ago

You must sync your iphone with itunes after the upgrade, then you’ll see genius stuff on your iphone.

Fermont
Fermont
17 years ago

You must sync your iphone with itunes after the upgrade, then you’ll see genius stuff on your iphone.

Fermont
Fermont
17 years ago

You must sync your iphone with itunes after the upgrade, then you’ll see genius stuff on your iphone.

Fermont
Fermont
17 years ago

You must sync your iphone with itunes after the upgrade, then you’ll see genius stuff on your iphone.

Peacock
Peacock
17 years ago

I was originally scared to jailbreak because last time it lagged/killed the battery. My experience updating to 2.1 went smoothly. Jailbreaking 2.1 has been excellent so far. No lag!

Peacock
Peacock
17 years ago

I was originally scared to jailbreak because last time it lagged/killed the battery. My experience updating to 2.1 went smoothly. Jailbreaking 2.1 has been excellent so far. No lag!

Peacock
Peacock
17 years ago

I was originally scared to jailbreak because last time it lagged/killed the battery. My experience updating to 2.1 went smoothly. Jailbreaking 2.1 has been excellent so far. No lag!

Peacock
Peacock
17 years ago

I was originally scared to jailbreak because last time it lagged/killed the battery. My experience updating to 2.1 went smoothly. Jailbreaking 2.1 has been excellent so far. No lag!

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