Features of the iPhone Firmware 2.0

20ss1 Whether you decide to update to firmware 2.0 or decide to stay with your jailbroken iPhone….lets go over what features 2.0 will bring.

Apple’s Description: “With the iPhone 2.0 Software Update, your iPhone will do even more. Extend its capabilities with innovative applications you download directly from the new App Store. Get push email, calendar, and contacts from your Microsoft Exchange server at work. And use great new features in Mail, Contacts, and other applications. Free in the next update.”

appstoreAppStore: For me, this will be the best feature of firmware 2.0. Though, if I weren’t purchasing an iPhone 3G (thus forced to update to 2.0) it might not warrant an upgrade…I really like my jailbroke iPhone!

Apple’s Description: “iPhone applications are unlike anything you’ve ever seen on a mobile phone. That’s because they leverage all the groundbreaking technologies in iPhone — like the accelerometer, Multi-Touch, 3D positional sound, and GPS. And they’re only a tap away at the App Store.”




exchangeMicrosoft Exchange ActiveSync: This is a huge feature for people in the business realm. The ability to have push email, calendar and contacts is essential. However, this features does not really apply to “normal” iPhone users.

Apple’s Description: “What makes iPhone a great business phone? Simple. The same features that make it a revolutionary mobile device. With iPhone 2.0 software, iPhone does even more for your enterprise. It supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, delivering push email, calendar, and contacts. And it gives mobile users secure access to corporate resources with Cisco IPSec VPN and wireless network services with WPA2 Enterprise and 802.1X authentication.”

mobilemeMobileMe Support: Where Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync allows for push email, calendar, and contacts for business people, MobileMe provides it for the rest of us! It comes with a 60 day free trial after that it is $99 a year. However, if you are purchasing an iPhone 3G, you can get MobileMe for $69 dollars the day you purchase your new iPhone.

Apple’s Description: “With a MobileMe subscription, all your information stays up to date everywhere. Get push email, calendar, and contacts on your iPhone and any computer. Changes you make on one device are pushed to the MobileMe “cloud,” then back to every device you use. Automatically.”



emailBetter Email Management: I love that 2.0 allows for mass deleting of email. I don’t know how many times I have starting deleting emails only to stop and take a break!! :)

Apple’s Description: “Now it’s even easier to keep your inbox organized. The latest iPhone update adds support for mass email move and delete. So you can delete many messages at once and organize groups of messages by moving them into different mail folders.”





contactContacts Search: Another great feature (though, it should have been available WAY before now). Though, it would be nice if it allowed you to search for numbers as well as names!

Apple’s Description:“Have a lot of names in your address book? Type a name into the new Contacts search field and iPhone shows you matching names. If you use iPhone with Microsoft Exchange, you can even look up contacts in your company’s Global Address List (GAL).”



languageAdditional Languages: Pretty sure I will never use this feature but, for those of you who are multilingual it could be a useful!

Apple’s Description:“iPhone now offers complete language and dictionary support for English (U.S.), English (UK), French (France), French (Canada), German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Korean (no dictionary), Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Russian, and Polish.”



attachmentsMail Attachment Support: Even though I probably will not use this feature a ton, it is still nice to have. I love how easy it is to view email attachments on the iPhone. It is completely unparalleled by any other mobile device…simply beautiful.

Apple’s Description:“iPhone — which already reads more than a dozen file formats — now displays iWork and Microsoft PowerPoint files. Open them in email and view them on your iPhone.”

calculatorScientific Calculator: I actually use the calculator on my iPhone quite a bit. Would I use the scientific calculator, probably not. Do I think it is cool that it turns into a scientific calculator when the iPhone is turned to landscape mode, yes.

Apple’s Description:“The iPhone 2.0 Software Update adds new features to the calculator. Rotate iPhone for a sophisticated scientific calculator with functions for solving complex scientific and mathematic problems.”

Honestly, out of all the new features of firmware 2.0, I would only really use a few on a regular basis; Contact Search (though, I can usually find all my contacts just fine), mass email delete and the AppStore. I obviously would not utilize Microsoft Exchange and as cool as MobileMe is, I don’t know how often I would use it…though, I still need to test it out. I also will not use Additional Languages, Mail Attachment Support and the Scientific Calculator enough to really care about them. Overall, is 2.0 worth loosing your jailbreak over…for me, no. Let me know know in the comments if it is for you.

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Comments

  1. I live in Italy and I own a 2G jailbroken model I was presented with in march (by a friend o’ mine coming from NYC), which I definitely love. But don’t you think it’s kinda ridiculous such an advanced device doesn’t provide copy/paste and real bluetooth features?! I was hoping 2.0 upgrade would fix this but as it seems it’s not.

  2. No, 2.0 is not for me at the moment. My 1.14 Jailbroke iPhone does everything I need and more. Its the single best piece of hardware/software I’ve ever invested in. Until 2.0 is anything like it, I’ll be staying 1.14.

  3. You say that mobileme costs 99$ monthly after the 60 days trial.
    At apple.com/mobileme it says “One-year subscription
    $99”.
    99$ monthly would be extremely expensive…

  4. Brooke did u buy ur new 3G iphone or not yet ?!?
    i think u would better let Douglas to buy it and u wait until its broken :P

  5. we are getting our iphone tommorrow here in belgium, as the law forbid to sell with a contract, they will be all UNLOCKED for about 600€ (16gb) and 500€ (8gb) but we can just use them with any of our three providers, not bad, myself i ave a NY 8gb one, and maybe change it for a white 16gb (legel one) i’ll see, i am on the list at the apple store for one. We are the only country where this law is put on Gregory (gmlens@telenet.be)

  6. johnclifton says

    How can I prevent itunes from automatically upgrading me to 2.0. I have yet to go use iTunes and sync my phone today because of my lack of this knowledge.

    • iTunes will tell you that there is an update to firmware 2.0…it will then give you the option to upgrade or not to upgrade. You can choose not to upgrade. Just make sure you choose the right option! :)

  7. i have an itouch, if i upgrade to 2.0 will i automatically get the app store or will i need to pay for it?

  8. I’m looking to buy an version 1 iPhone on eBay (for the cheaper monthly $) and most of them are jailbroken.

    If I get one of those and try to update it to 2.0, is it going to brick the phone or is that a thing of the past?

    Thank you.

  9. Yah i think im going to stay away from 2.0 for now. My 1.1.4 jailbroke iphone is a thing of beauty. I have no problem syncing my calendar, contacts, etc from Outlook when i am at work. I can dl plenty of games off Installer, FOR FREE. Plus there are so many other things in Installer that 2.0 doesnt even have! (streaming Sirius for example)

    I would suggest to the jailbroker 1.4 community to hold off until we know that 2.0 can be jailbroken and all our fav 3rd party apps will be available on that software..

  10. tonyc311 says

    Hmmm…Well I am going to buy a 16Gig iPhone 3G on Friday. However, I am still going to use my 1.1.4 16Gig iPhone with all of its sweet apps, etc. Now I am sure that after at least a week or 2 that the iPhone 3G will be jailbroken. This is an opinion of course. Meanwhile, I will be carrying 2 iPhones on me LOL. Rediculous I know. But I love my current jailbroken 1.1.4 phone. I will simply use my 1.1.4 as a Wifi kick ass iPod Touch. And use my iPhone 3G as a phone. Once I find out it is jailbreakable I will switch over. Of course we will all still have to wait and see if all the sweet Installer Apps will be updated for 2.0.

    I think the App Store will be a nice addition. But I still hope that Installer and Cydia will still be an option as well. Let’s not forget that App Store Apps will not work or run in the background thanks to Apple. However, Installer and Cydia downloaded Apps WILL run in the background (I hope). I remember reading somewhere that the iPhone 3G stays in constant contact with Apple. Was that to check that there is no App running in the background? Or for something else?

  11. Thanks for all the great info!
    Sticking with 1.4.4 for now though.

  12. One feature I really care about:

    Video Playlists. Are these in the new firmware? I never understood why these got stripped out from the original firmware.

  13. All I really want is the option to text or email in landscape mode

  14. fark2345 says

    haha i think 2.0 is full of crap.
    not much diff compared to 1.1.4.
    dont u guys agree?
    some of the new features are not even useful to MOST of us i must say.
    lol

  15. Is the actual springboard app in the store or an app like MIM, because for me, that makes my iPhone different. If I can’t customize, then the jailbreak will stay.

  16. So, I guess, I should wait as well to upgrade mine to 2.0 huh… Any of you know how to change the icons on homescreen?? I’m not talking about the themes tho…

    • There is no way to change the icons on the homescreen other than by using the Customize or Summerboard apps within Installer on a jailbroken device that I know of. As far as firmware 2.0 is concerned- I think I’ll give it a try- I can always go back to a jailbroken 1.1.4 if I don’t like it, but I trust Apple has something interesting in store for us..

  17. u can ssh to iphone and go to /applications/app and enter in the app you want to change the icon, then put the icon as icon.png and replace the original….

    Good luck

  18. blahblah9 says

    I upgraded and lost all my apps but i like the new 2.0 much better. Even with just the free apps availible i use my iphone much more. The gaming capabilities are extrodanary and dont compare to the installer games.

  19. blahblah9 says

    something weird i noticed i have a contacts icon on my iphone.

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