Apple iPhone 2.1 software Released

Could this be the end of dropped calls and flaky battery life? Apple have released the v2.1 iPhone firmware, as promised earlier this week, and among the promises are a decrease in call initiation failures and mid-conversation drops, “significantly better battery life”, reduced backup times in iTunes and better email reliability for both POP and Exchange users.

The firmware will also address third-party applications, with faster installation promised together with fewer bugs, hangs and crashes. Native apps also get a tweak, with improved text messaging performance and faster loading and searching of contacts.

The 3G signal strength indicator has been reworked for accuracy, and as an added security feature you can now set the iPhone to wipe all user data if ten incorrect passcode attempts are made. Finally, Genius intelligent playlist creation is introduced.

You can access the v2.1 software by plugging in your iPhone, running iTunes and choosing “Check for update”; it will download (it’s a 237.8mb file) and install automatically. Let us know how you get on with the update in the comments.

Nokia N85 gets official,

Nokia N85 is a quad-band GSM and tri-band UMTS dual slider, inspired by the controversial design of the Nokia N81. It’s also got HSDPA support to improve network data transfer speed even further. Undoubtedly, the most exiting feature about the N85 is the display – a 2.6″ 16M color AMOLED unit of QVGA resolution. There is a built-in accelerometer for automatic rotation of the UI and dedicated gaming keys for improving the N-gage gaming expirience.

The built-in memory of the Nokia N85 is 74MB and there is a microSD card slot to extend that. An 8GB card (the largest currently available on the market) will be included in the retail package. The final multimedia touches to the Nokia N85 are the FM radio and FM transmitter.

Nokia N85 will be available in Copper color in October for an estimated retail price of 450 euro (660 US dollars) before taxes or subsides.