News

Apple surprised everyone when they announced that iOS 4.1 would add High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography capabilities to iPhone cameras. HDR combines two or more photos at different exposures to create an optimal scene. Unfortunately, some iPhone 3GS owners were even more surprised that they would not receive the feature when updating.

Although the iPhone 4 upgraded the rear camera to 5.0 megapixels and added a flash, light sensor and HD video recording, iPhone 3GS owners can still get excellent pictures with the previous 3.0 megapixel model. Already the 5x digital zoom feature (added in iOS 4) works well on the 3GS, and HDR can be a simple download away.

Apple has relaxed restrictions on third-party software used to develop iPhone applications. Flash won't be coming to an iOS device anytime soon, however Adobe Flash Professional CS5 users can now submit apps created with the tool. Adobe has responded to Apple's change in policy by renewing investment in Packager, which converts Flash to iPhone apps.

In a controversial move, Apple had previously shut out third-party application development tools by requiring that all apps be written in C, C++, Objective-C or JavaScript as run by the Apple iPhone OS WebKit engine. Private application programming interfaces (APIs) were banned in the developer agreement.

Apple released the first major update to its iOS 4 operating system today. The iOS 4.1 firmware is available free using iTunes and features several highly anticipated additions to the iPhone and iPod touch. Several important bug fixes are also included in the release (build 8B117).

iPhone 4 owners will be happy that proximity sensor issues experienced under iOS 4 should be improved. Speed and performance issues should also see improvement for those with older iPhone 3G hardware. Bluetooth connectivity problems have also been addressed by iOS 4.1.

Playing games on the iPhone can be fun, but usually it's a solitary experience. Game Center will change that some, with social features and multiplayer gaming. Problem is you're still staring at that little screen by yourself. Enter the Griffin PartyDock. The iPhone plugs right into the dock and now you're talking four-player console gaming on your iPhone.

Four controllers are stored in the dock, which charges the iPhone and provides composite or component video out to your television. Griffin is calling the PartyDock a "media and game dock" for a reason. The unit does more than just play games.

Many iPhone 3G owners have complained of poor performance and other issues after installing iOS 4 on their devices. The new operating system limits features such as multitasking on the older hardware to keep an acceptable level of performance. Unfortunately something went wrong and Apple has been investigating why iOS 4 brought so many iPhone 3G units to a crawl.

Fortunately, the company is poised to release iOS 4.1, a major update that's already in beta 3 with developers. Joel Evans over at ZDNet has confirmed a vast improvement in iPhone 3G performance with the iOS 4.1 firmware update. In fact, he reports that some functions on the iPhone 3G are faster with iOS 4.1 that they were using 3.1.3. This is welcome news for iPhone 3G owners, whose problems were overshadowed by reception issues on the iPhone 4 antenna.