As promised during the Apple Let’s Rock Keynote. The iPhone 2.1 Software Update was made available yesterday.

iPhone 2.1 Software New Features

• option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
• Genius playlist creation

Bug Fixes and Improvements

• decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
• significantly improved battery life for most users
• dramatically reduced time to back-up to iTunes
• improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
• faster installation of 3rd party applications
• fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes if you have lots of 3rd party applications
• improved performance in text messaging
• faster loading and searching of contacts
• improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
• repeat alert up to twp additional times for incoming text messages

Kernel Panic

The first time I tried installing the update I got a major kernel panic, and the black screen wipe of death. Possibly unrelated, but I haven’t had one of those for a long time.