14 DAY TRIAL // iPhone 2.2 is to be released on November 21, according to iPhone Hellas, pinned down as reliable by other Mac-driven sources. "The iPhone OS v2.2 will be given in circulation on 21 November '08," an “insider” has allegedly confirmed for the site.
With two betas of the new iPhone OS having made it into developers' hands, several new features can now be confirmed for the new release. One of those is a new look for Safari, with the Google search bar now occupying its own space on the title bar. This was a feature discovered in iPhone v2.2 beta1. Also found in this build was an On / Off toggle to disable the auto-correction, as well as 461 Japanese emoji icons and support for more languages. The Line-in audio is now activated and can be used through the headphone jack.
New features of Maps.app include Google Street View (one of the last findings in iPhone v2.2 beta1), Google Transit information - Routes public transport, Walking directions and location sharing, which made their way into iPhone v2.2 beta2.
The App Store also received an overhaul, with the “Categories” sector now showing the icons of the applications instead of the list, while each page of the application now features a button to “Tell A Friend” or “Report a Problem.” Apple has also added the possibility of scoring the application when the user chooses to delete it from the device, a feature revealed in iPhone v2.2 beta2. The same pre-release version of iPhone OS 2.2 reveals that the company has also added the possibility for direct downloading of podcasts from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store.
That's pretty much what iPhone OS 2.2 is all about, at least so far. With the new software arriving on November 21 (just in time to play with it at the table on Thanksgiving), what other new features are you expecting to make their way into the new firmware?