Sneak peek at the iPhone 2.0 OS

I can't tell you how we got a hold of a first-generation iPhone loaded with version 2.0 of the iPhone operating system. What I can tell you is that if I do reveal this information, homicidal ninjas will come to my house and kill my family. Nevertheless, we do have one -- and we were able to take a look inside and find a few minute yet interesting changes. Here's a preview of some of the ways in which iPhone 2.0 differs from iPhone 1.0.

iPhone 2.0, of course, is the operating system that will come preinstalled on iPhone 3G models when those start shipping on Friday, July 11. iPhone 2.0 will also be available as a free software upgrade to people who have first-generation iPhones.

In the photo of the iPhone home screen, above, you'll notice at least two differences from the first-generation OS: there's a new Contacts application (on the old phone, contacts were accessible only via the "Phone" icon), and the long-awaited App Store is there (that's where you'll buy new iPhone-native software and games).

And now, to the details.

Photo Geotagging

We noticed the camera gave us this message as soon as we snapped a picture. The fact that the camera wants to know your position is a clear indication that it would like to add geographic metadata to your photos, using GPS (on iPhone 3G) and WiFi/cell-tower triangulation (on all iPhones) to figure out where in the world you are and encode that into your pictures.

Location Services

Also new in the settings section is the ability to switch location-based services on and off. If you're paranoid about your new iPhone applications snooping on your location and reporting that data to some secret data center in the sky, this would be the switch you'd want to set to "off."

Contacts Search

The Contacts application now features a long-awaited search function. No more scrolling through endless menus: You can just type the first few letters of a name and the list narrows down to matching entries as you enter each letter. The search applies to fields that aren't visible, too, so you can search on company names, for instance.

Here, we entered the search term "Wired" and Chris Anderson, the magazine's editor in chief, popped up in the search results. Amy Winehouse popped up when we typed in "trainwreck."


Push E-Mail

One way in which the first-generation iPhone has failed to measure up to the demands of Crackberry-using, "always on" info-junkies is that it lacks "push" e-mail. No more: Now, in addition to having the iPhone check for e-mail every 15, 30 or 60 minutes (as you can do with the current model), iPhone 2.0 also supports push e-mail. That means messages will be delivered to your phone as soon as they're received by the mail server.

If you want to set an annoying "you've got mail!" chime to ring every time a message comes in, that setting is still under Sounds

Source: http://current.com/items/89084830_sneak_peek_at_the_iphone_2_0_os