Today Apple announced iOS 4.1, addressing many bugs (like iPhone 3G performance) as well as bringing new features like HDR photography, HD video upload and TV show rentals. Additionally, Apple previewed iOS 4.2, bringing this and more to the iPad.

Apple’s targeted many bugs in the new iOS 4.1, primarily aiming to fix issues with the proximity sensor, Bluetooth, and the iPhone 3G’s sluggish performance. On top of these fixes, a few new features made it into the mix. Additionally, Apple’s releasing iOS 4.2 which will bring these updates, plus a few extras, to the iPad. Here’s what to expect when it’s released next week:

iOS 4.1

What You Can Expect from iOS 4.1 and the Upcoming iOS 4.2

The iOS 4.1 update focuses on photos, videos, and games, bringing automatic HDR photography, TV show rentals, the new Game Center, and HD Video upload to your iPhone.

• HDR Photos – Creating high dynamic range photos has been a popular photographic technique that combines three exposures to create a single image with a greater amount of detail in the highlights and shadows. Apple’s added HDR photography to the iPhone’s camera in 4.1, letting you create HDR images automatically without any of the hard work in post.

• HD Video Upload Over Wi-Fi – Previously, apps were required to upload HD video from the iPhone. Apple’s made the change in iOS 4.1 to allow HD video uploading over Wi-Fi, removing the annoying cap that required sending your HD video in standard definition.

• TV Show Rentals – TV shows have always been available for purchase in iOS devices, but now you can rent them to save a little money and storage space on your device.

• Game Center – Like the XBOX Live of iOS, Game Center provides APIs for developers but is also a new app on the iPhone (available soon via the App Store). You can play with friends, inviting them with a push notification, or be randomly assigned to other players when your friends aren’t available.

iOS 4.2

What You Can Expect from iOS 4.1 and the Upcoming iOS 4.2

Apple is finally bringing the features of iOS 4 to the iPad. Multitasking, app folders, and other features iPhone users have been enjoying for months will be available in November. iOS 4.2 brings a few new features as well. Here’s what to expect:

• Wireless Printing – While there are a few third-party apps that bring printing functionality to iOS devices, Apple’s building printing functionality into iOS itself. Print Center will live in the multitasking drawer and let you choose printers and manage print jobs wirelessly from your iPad.

• AirPlay – Formerly AirTunes, AirPlay is taking over wireless streaming on iDevices and will let you stream audio, video, and photos over Wi-Fi. Along with the new Apple TV, you’ll also be able to shift streams between your devices so you can, for example, finish watching a TV show or movie on the go.

via Lifehacker.

Although Steve Jobs said it was rude to post ‘intimate’ emails with customers, this one could use some spreading. For those who are stuck with an iPhone 3G running iOS, there is some good news:

The new email came in response to feedback sent by a customer who expressed frustration over the performance of his iPhone 3G, calling it “dog slow” and pointing to problems with system responsiveness when scrolling, zooming, and typing.

I’ve waited patiently through 4.0.1 and 4.0.2, looking for a fix that will make my phone work again. I’ve read the forums that advise me to jailbreak my phone or use some other method so I can downgrade back to a version of iPhone 3, however I’m not prepared to use a method that is not supported by Apple.

Jobs’ response was unsurprisingly terse:

Software update coming soon.

Sent from my iPhone

iOS 4.1 Betas on iPhone 3G devices have shown steady speed improvements, though there are limitations with older hardware. Apple was selling the iPhone 3G up until a few months ago ($99 option) so getting a fix in place is important.

Source – 9 to 5 Mac

The network is expecting customers to pay a full £495 up front for the cheaper, 16GB model of the iPhone 4, or alternatively opting to pay £595 for the more premium 32GB iPhone 4 offering. Now, to put that in to some sort of perspective, you can buy the device direct from Apple for only £4 more than that for either model, so hoping for any real subsidisation would ultimately be all but futile.

The pricing nightmare doesn’t end there either, with O2’s pair of price plans weighing in at £15 and £25 more expensive than Vodafone’s offerings, for example. However, for that you do get twice as much data allowance, 500mb. Plus, the added benefit of 1GB of BT Openzone WiFi usage to boot.

The other factor on O2’s side of the fence is the fact that they, along with Vodafone, are the only networks to sell the iPhone 4 directly on a PAYG basis. The others: Orange, Three and T-Mobile, vary in their stance on PAYG deals, with T-Mobile saying it is ‘coming soon’ and others offering micro-sim deals for current iPhone owners.

So, while they may be going in to direct competition with Vodafone on the PAYG front, they do hold an apparent advantage in that the iPhone 4, both 16GB and 32GB, is in stock on the O2 site, contrary to anything you will find on the Vodafone site, for now at least.

Source – Zath

The DreamBook ePad L11 is a state of the art device featuring: Social networking – Twitter, Facebook, Flickr etc; Full screen Browsing e-Reader Experience – Provides HD content display without limitation by 1366×768 resolution; Personal Media Station – Music, Photo and Video etc; Motion Gaming Console; GPS (option); Fabric case includes keyboard and battery, which extends battery life and provide an easy means of typing. Other features include Cloud Service, Light & Thin Design, Multi-touch, Enhanced Graphics Performance

ePad L11 HD is targeted to be released by September 2010 at a suggested retail price of AUD699 (equivalent to £399). But if you have no patient to wait or have budget constraint, its sibling, ePad 7/10 from AUD199 (£114) with VIA 8505 processor which is already available now could be a good alternative.

If you’re a Streak owner in the UK (the update image that has been leaked is locked to the UK device running on O2′s network, sorry Americans, you’re out of luck on this one), you’ll probably want to get a little 2.1 action for yourself, as it adds a number of refinements to the device, and make it feel more complete than before.

New Lock Screen and Live Wallpapers

This goes without saying, but just to be thorough, I should probably mention that the Eclair (2.1) update brings with it the all new lock screen, as seen on the Nexus One, and live wallpapers too. The lock screen takes a little getting used to, as you swipe the lock symbol up instead of across when holding the device landscape, but you’ll soon get used to it.

Refined Keyboard

Hallelujah, the numeric keypad has finally been removed! If you’re not a Streak owner, and are slightly confused at this point, allow me to explain… When the Dell Streak was released with Android 1.6, the keyboard had a completely unnecessary numeric keypad to the right of it in landscape mode, making typing completely unnatural and more difficult than it should have been. Now, not only has said numeric keypad been banished to software hell, but it’s joined by the caps lock key too. Good news all round!

New Dialer

The Dialer that shipped with the Android 1.6 version of the Dell Streak somehow felt unfinished. It was bland, lacking features, and it just didn’t look that good. For me, the revamped Dialer is as big a change as the refined keyboard, and makes the Dell Streak feel a lot more polished than it did before. Not only has it got a facelift, thanks to a new theme, but it has managed to pick up a feature or two along the way that make it easier to use.

You can now access your phone dialer, call log, contacts, and favourites all within the same application, so you don’t have to leave the window to see who you need to ring back from that last missed call, or select a contact to ring.

Updated Gallery App

The Gallery was one application that got a major revamp in the jump to Android 2.x, and it looks great on the Dell Streak’s 5 inch display. All the little features are tucked in there, such as the pinch to open a stack of photos, and it adds a lot of value when compared with the gallery on Android 1.6, especially for those users taking lots of photos using the 5 megapixel camera on the back of the device.

How do I get the update?!

The image of the new ROM was originally posted on a somewhat obscure website that took an awful long time to load, however, it’s been mirrored for download here, allowing you to get it a lot quicker! Once downloaded, copy the file to the root of your SD card and rename it “update.pkg”. Then boot the Streak into recovery mode by holding down both the volume keys when powering on, and choose to recover the phone from the file you just put on your micro SD card. Note that your phone will be wiped, so backup anything you want first, and then enjoy Android 2.1 on the Dell Streak!