The calendar now reads November 21st and, just as expected, iPhone firmware 2.2 has been released to the masses. Seeing as a pretty good number of developers have had their hands on test versions of 2.2 for sometime now, and as NDAs generally turn to pudding after a few hundred people are in on the secret, we’ve had a pretty good idea of what this release would bring to the table for a while.
For the sake of those who may have missed a day or two, though, we’ll recap: Safari’s address bar/search has been tweaked a bit, apps now request a rating upon deletion, over-the-air podcast downloads (which, oddly, works over 3G, though podcasts downloaded over radio can’t be over a certain size, determined by the carrier), various video and audio quality tweaks, and assorted bug fixes throughout. Oh, and Google Maps has been upgraded to include Street View and directions for public transit and walking – if you have an iPhone rather than an iPod Touch, that is.
According to early reports, 2.2 for the iPod Touch brings everything but the Google Maps upgrade. No one’s quite sure why Touch users are missing out; perhaps Apple came to the conclusion that they would have legally had to charge for the upgrade, as they did when they added the Mail/Maps/Stocks/Notes/Weather applications? Seems a bit absurd, seeing as this is simply an upgrade – but we’ll wait until some sort of official reason before passing judgement.
[Thanks David!]