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Surprisingly, Apple has released the iPhone 2.2 firmware tonight shortly after midnight. The latest update is available in iTunes for existing iPhone and iPod touch owners. The update contains:

Enhancements to Maps
- Google Street View
- public transit and walking diretions
- display address of dropped pins
- share location via email
Enhancements to Mail
- resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching of email
- improved formatting of wide HTML email
Improved stability and performance of Safari
Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes application (over Wi-Fi and cellular)
Decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
Improved sound quality of visual voicemail messages
Pressing the Home button from any Home screen takes you to the first Home screen
Preferences to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard settings

The update appears to deliver all of the expected features that we have detailed over the past several weeks. Other new findings include:

- App Store links in Mobile Safari correctly link directly to the App Store.
- Street view does not appear to be in the iPod Touch
- Tech note on downloading Podcasts in iPhone 2.2
- Netshare still works according to one user
- Emoji troubleshooting and Emoji technote for Japanese customers.
- Security changes found in 2.2.
- Transit directions screenshot
- How to invoke Street View on the iPhone

Update: List of new and undocumented 2.2 features

Apple has released an update to iTunes to version 8.0.2. The update is available in your Mac OS X software update.

iTunes 8.0.2 improves stability and performance and provides a number of important bug fixes, including:

- Addresses a quality issue creating MP3s on some computers.
- Fixes a connectivity issue with the iTunes Store when using some Internet proxies with Mac OS X.
- Improves accessibility with VoiceOver.

The update comes just one day ahead of the rumored release of iPhone Firmware 2.2.

MacWorld Sweden caught the attention of iPhone users when they reported that Swedish carrier Telia is planning on bringing Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) to their iPhone users. MMS is a feature that has been long requested by iPhone users and would allow the easy sending of multimedia (photos, video) to your contacts.

Their solution appears that it may be a third party application developed by Swedish developer Mobispine. Mobispine is marketing their MMS application to mobile carriers (such as AT&T) as a solution to provide the service to their end users.

We're confident that operators will find the service easy to use and profitable with an opportunity to expand messaging usage, improve subscriber retention and hopefully increase revenue. The service will also increase customer loyalty and recognition as the brand is displayed on the user's phone. The application is white-labelled and will be branded for each operator and distributed via the App store.

While there have been many MMS-like applications that have appeared in the App Store, this solution appears like it would tie in directly with the carrier, allowing more seamless messaging between mobile phones. Of course, this would also mean that carriers would likely be able to charge a premium for MMS messages.


Mobispine describes their app:

MMS on iPhone enables easy, convenient and cost-effective communication with colleagues, friends and family. Users can easily create a new MMS and attach a picture from an album on the phone or simply take a new snapshot with the camera. The application is integrated with the iPhone's contacts for easy access. Some of the key features for end-users include the ability to easily send and receive messages from iPhone to any phone with a native and intuitive user interface. The application also offers the ability to capture a picture via the iPhone camera or the option to select from existing photos.

Apple will still have to approve the application for inclusion in the App Store, but with the mobile carrier's blessing, it seems likely this app would see approval.

TechRadar.com reports on some preliminary benchmarks on Intel's upcoming Nehalem EP chips which they say will be sold as the Xeon X5560 CPUs in the 1st quarter of 2009. Apple has traditionally used the Xeon processors for the Mac Pro line.

Based on their early benchmarks of dual-processor configurations, TechRadar found that the new Nehalem Xeons at 2.8GHz scored favorably in SPECfp benchmark with a score of 160 as compared to a score of 90 for Intel's current Penryn-based Xeons running at 3.4GHz.

And remember, Nehalem EP's 160 point score is for a pre-production system running at 2.8GHz. Models humming a 3.2GHz tune will be available when the chip launches early next year

The current Mac Pro uses the Xeon ("Harpertown") 5400 series processors in dual-processor configurations. It has been speculated that Apple will be migrating the Mac Pro to these Nehalem Xeon processors which are due in the first quarter of 2009.

German publication Spiegel.de reports an newly announced iPhone vulnerability that can force a (potentially expensive) phone call to be made simply by visiting a webpage in Safari. The vulnerability was to be announced in ComputerBild on Monday but was detailed today in a press release from the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT). A video of the exploit is also available.

SIT reports that they notified Apple of the issue a month ago and that a fix will become available on November 21st through a firmware upgrade.

This seems to confirm an earlier report that we would see iPhone Firmware 2.2 released on that date. The iPhone 2.2 firmware contains a number of small new features we have previously detailed.

Earlier this week, IBM announced its plans to buy Transitive, a small cross-platform virtualization company.

MacRumors readers will remember the company for providing the technology behind Rosetta, Apple's PowerPC emulator for Mac OS X. Rosetta played a major role in allowing Apple to transition from PowerPC to Intel architectures and remains a part of Mac OS X. Apple's need for Rosetta, of course, has lessened over the years as the switch to Intel has progressed.

It's not clear if this will affect Apple's ongoing license for Transitive technologies.

Apple has released a new update for the Apple TV tonight. Apple TV owners can download the new updates by accessing the "Update Software" menu option in their Apple TV's settings.

Apple lists the new features and fixes found in 2.3:

- Music can be streamed via AirTunes to Airport Express speakers or other Apple TVs in your house.
- Apple TV can now learn other remote controls and use them in addition to the Apple Remote.
- Playlists in iTunes that contain Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, and Music Videos can now be seen on Apple TV.
- Support for volume control in Music.

Apple last released an update to the Apple TV in October which incorporated a number of new iTunes 8.0 features including the Genius playlist features.

Update: Boxee users should not upgrade at this time.

CNet confirms some earlier rumors that Apple is in ongoing negotiations with the major music studios to offer more DRM (copy protection) free music in iTunes. Earlier rumors had suggested that Sony BMG had already agreed but CNet was unable to confirm this.

A year after iTunes began offering music without copy protection software from EMI, Apple is in discussions with the other three top recording companies about acquiring DRM-free songs, according to two music industry sources.

Apple first started selling DRM Free tracks known as iTunes Plus in May, 2007.

Despite Apple's willingness to sell DRM-free music, the other major record labels have withheld this ability from the company in an effort to reduce iTunes' marketshare in digital music downloads. The biggest beneficiary appears to be Amazon who currently offers DRM-free digital downloads from all four major music studios.

CNet warns that talks have been on and off for months so there is no guarantee that they will be able to come to a deal.

Macworld reports from the SuperComputing 08 conference which is taking place in Austin, Texas this week. The Khronos group was present to celebrate the launch of the upcoming OpenCL specification which Apple is planning to implement in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. OpenCL is a new programming interface (API) to allow developers to take advantage of parallel computing across graphics processing units (GPUs) and multi-core CPUs.

While few details were revealed, Khronos' president Neil Trevett explained how quickly the OpenCL specification had come together.

"If you go to some other larger standards bodies, it's quite normal for a standard to take five years or more," Trevett said. "That's quite commonplace. You actually have to really push to get it down to eighteen months. Our record was 12 months, up to now; we've done this one in six [OpenCL]."

The speed at which they completed the specification was due to Apple's tight schedule to allow it to ship with Snow Leopard. The specification is now being reviewed by lawyers for the next 30 days to make sure no intellectual property has been breached. The specification will presumably be complete once it passes this 30 day inspection.

Trevett was very optimistic about the prospects of OpenCL specifically implemented in Snow Leopard:

"If Apple ends up following through on the plans they stated on building this specification into Snow Leopard, I think you could see opportunity for imaging applications vendors, video application vendors to tap into the goodness of GPU hardware," Trevett said. "Everyone has a supercomputer locked away in their Mac, but it's hard to get at it. And OpenCL will unlock the potential of that supercomputer."

He also acknowledged that OpenCL would work from the cell phones to high end computers, leaving open the possibility that we could see OpenCL implemented in future iPhones.

Apple's Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) is expected to ship in 2009 with recent hints suggesting the first quarter of 2009.

DigiTimes reports that Apple is amongst the vendors who are awaiting the release of three new low-power desktop CPUs due in January from Intel.

Intel will launch the Core 2 Quad Q8200s (2.33GHz/4MB L2), Core 2 Quad Q9400s (2.66GHz/6MB L2) and Core 2 Quad Q9550s (2.83GHz/12MB L2) with prices at US$245, US$320 and US$369, respectively in thousand-unit tray quantities. These CPUs will have the same specifications as standard CPUs with the same model number, but will see their TDP drop from 95W to 65W.

Apple is reported to have decided to launch products based on these CPUs. The most obvious destination for the new chips is Apple's iMac line which has been rumored for revision.

While the iMac's processor speeds would not increase with the use these chips, it would increase the number of CPU cores from two to four. Of note, Apple has historically used Intel's Mobile processors in the iMac and Mac Mini.