In November, Apple rolled out the update for the iPhone to version 2.2. I have to admit it has probably been the best update yet, the installation was smooth with no issues cropping up at all.

I held off on writing about this update, so I could get a good feel for it. The battery issues appear to be solved on my first generation iPhone, I have noticed over time that the there is really hardly any battery drain that seemed to plague the phone before that really required you to take extra steps to ensure that applications where completely shutdown.

Having the google street view, is just awesome, yet kind of a novelty. I really don’t know who would use it, I guess if your a tourist walking the streets somewhere it could come in really handy, since you can also get walking directions with it.

For example if you and your significant other got separated you could pin point your location, send an email to the other and generate walking directions so you could reconnect.

I Just Received My BE-1C’s

Wow is all I can say! Now all I need is an adapter to work with the iPhone. You maybe wondering what the Big Ear BE-1C is? It is probably the finest hearing protection product you could own especially if your a motorcycle rider!

I used it briefly with my iPod and what a difference it makes, custom fit to my ears. I’ve used a Bose noise canceling headset for quite some time which works just awesome, yet it is designed to cancel out noise electronically.

Since this custom hearing product is designed for your ears, it is next to impossible to try them until they are made for you.

When I put them on I was amazed at the sound suppression, all the noise, wife, tv etc… gone. Then I plugged in the iPod with the volume turned all most all the way down you could still hear it clearly.

Listening to Harley riders talk about them as the only thing they can put on and listen to while riding I can begin to see what they are talking about.

Now I can see why this product rates 5 Stars with their customer testimonials, they are just that good. I hope to have a full report on them as I get more use out of them in noisy environments soon.

Back in September, I wrote about the battery issues not being resolved with the iPhone 2.1 update. Sometimes you have to admit when your wrong and in this case I maybe wrong.

When I wrote about it I was seeing the same issues as before the iPhone was reporting that it was continuously in operation. I think it is clearly more of proper operation, essentially making a conscious effort to close any application that I opened.

I do this by holding down the home button for about 7 seconds to ensure that the application has quit. I remember reading about this last year but, hey I’m getting older and often don’t remember when and where.

I’ve been watching the battery usage and it is holding up very well now. I really do think that they’ve fixed the problem! I know some individuals probably really do expect miracles out of their iPhone battery but lets be real.

Even though it feels and works like a small hand held computer, you only get a little over 1 hour on a windows computer with a battery that is 5 times the size of the iPhone!

Apple really does give some good advice in maximizing your battery life by turning things off, something I recommended in one of my previous posts, do you really need all the bells and whistles running.

One of the things they recommend is turning off bluetooth. I can see this point if your not using it. Yet I use my bluetooth headset quite often and leave it turned 24/7 along with bluetooth enabled on the iPhone.

I’ve not seen this affect the battery life much at all. With 51 minutes of usage in the last 1 day and 8 hours since full charge it is still at about 90 percent battery capacity. To me that is pretty good.

If you use your iPhone or cell phone quite a bit you probably get tired of most of the bluetooth headsets out there. Just wearing them for a while gets quite uncomfortable.

What you need is a custom made ear piece that is the perfect fit to your ear. I have one and will never go back to a plain old uncomfortable ear piece again.

Big Ear Inc. makes these custom pieces and generally has a local provider in your area. When you couple these to a Jawbone noise canceling headset the communications are just great.

After updating my iPhone to the latest software version 2.1, which by the way went very smooth I might add. I wanted to put some Aperture video podcasts on my iPhone. I wanted to have some great educational videos to occupy my time when I’m out waiting in line somewhere, like the department of motor vehicles.

After Downloading the 15 video’s, when I tried to install them on to the iPhone it would give me an error. The error was “Some of The Videos in your itunes library, including video xxxx, where not copied to the iPhone because it can not be played on the phone.

The Videos where the right format, yet they would not install. iTunes really does not tell you what or how to accomplish this. Once you’ve downloaded the podcasts to iTunes, selecting the file and then selecting from the menu Advanced you can convert them to the correct format for the iPod and iPhone.

So now that you’ve converted them, you try to install them and get the same error, now what?

What I found was while in converts the files the new files are located in the movies section of iTunes.

I guess it just goes to prove that we can have all this wonderful technology, yet if we do not take the time to really understand how it works it just leaves us frustrated.

So if your having trouble syncing Video’s to the iPhone with the error that it cannot be played on the iPhone I hope this post will provide the answer that will work for you.

Todays iPhone 2.1 Update

Is supposed to fix quite a few bugs and add some improvements. The one that was of particular interest to me was the better battery life issue. I had previously written about the Shortened iPhone Battery life issue.

After updating, i did notice an improvement in the download and update of a couple 3rd party applications, they seemed to download and install very quickly, maybe about 1/3 the time then it used to take.

The sad part is the iPhone 2.1 update did not fix the battery issue! After a full charge and one 15 minute phone call, it sat idle for 10.5 hours. When I checked the phone it still indicated that it had been in use for 10 hours and 33 minutes.

I would have to venture to say they still have issues with the battery problem that needs to be fixed. It’s obvious that something is not shutting down and it could be related to a third party application.

So I’m sure we will see a new update coming along soon!

Now for an update, back in August I had written about Shortened iPhone 2.0 Battery Life I commented again on it when it in this post in September as I’m sure you read above. I had expected a new update to come out, yet as this is written in October there has not been one.

In October I wrote one again about the iPhone Battery Issues with version 2.1, read the post for more details.

Second iPhone Software update in August

Apple updated the software, once again this month to address the issues individuals where having with the newest 3G iPhone. Personally I’ve not had a problem with either the 2.01 or 2.02 update to my first generation phone.

I still hold the belief that it’s not a phone but in reality the first true handheld computer. It just so happens to have a phone built into it and now has GPS capability as well.

With any new cutting edge technology there always be issues. Yet it is refreshing to see Apple work so quickly to address these problems, I’m sure there software and hardware engineers are working around the clock.

One of the things I like about Apple, is their customer service. The really do go out of the way to ensure that you are satisfied with their products and services, this is rare in companies these days.

Just yesterday I received an email about the MobileMe service. The email was letting me know that on top of the one month free extension of MobliMe service, I would be receiving another free 60 days extension.

Now that is what I call standing behind your services.

Now it is time to test the battery life again with the new software update. Earlier this month I blogged about the Shortened iPhone 2.0 Battery Life, time to check and see if either the 2.01 or 2.02 update as corrected the issues, that came with the iPhone 2.0 update.

Well I’ve made it a full year with the iPhone, and I don’t have any regrets. While many negative news stories and articles have been written, the two that we have in our household have worked flawlessly.

It seems with everything electronic there will always be glitches and I’m no doubt sure that many have individuals have faced challenges.

It seems that many of the complaints have been, when individuals installed unapproved software or hacked into system. While I can understand how people will want to do that, why try to break something that isn’t really broken.

Still I think the ease of use, and the integration with Apples computers are a huge plus in my book. While there are still a few things I’d like it to do, I know one day someone will write the software for it.

One of my first concerns, was the battery life, since you cannot simply swap out the battery with another one. So far my battery seems to have just as much life left in it as when it was new.

When the first update came out, the iPhone 2.0 update there where many individuals that had difficulties. One thing that I did notice was the iPhones shortened battery life, yet that was cured by turning of things I really did not need active.

When the update to iPhone 2.01 came out, I was expecting issues to arise yet the update was even easier then the first, just as it should be.

Over all, with all the new applications coming out, this phone is really coming into it’s own. I know that there a many out there that would like to see this phone fail.

With each new addition of the iPhone, it continues to raise the bar. The other manufactures are forced to compete, so overall we are all the better for it.

The one question is it really worth it to upgrade to a 3G iPhone. With the price what it is, it really was tempting. The con’s to upgrading are, the current phones work great. AT&T’s cancellation fee’s and new service fee’s just did not make it worthwhile.

Before we get started about the battery life on the iPhone I really wanted to point out how much I do like the new updated software on the 1st generation iPhone.

All the new applications that are found in the iTunes store are great and of course some will have bugs I’m sure. Now the phone is really coming into its own.

Having the ability to blog to either Typepad or WordPress is great, yet I still prefer to do it from a laptop or desktop using programs like Marsedit for MacJournal.

Still having the ability to take a photo and send it to your blog while your on the road is great. After the update to iPhone’s 2.0 software, I noticed after a few days that the battery life was dropping of faster then normal.

Now my phone is a year old so of course, my first thoughts turned to I’d soon need a battery replacement. Yet further checking, found that the phones usage had gone way up. At first I didn’t think anything about it after all who really tracks how much time they’ve spent on the phone?

So I started testing, used the phone for approximately one hour. Used the normal command to ensure that all applications where closed. I came back to the phone about 7 hours later and found that it indicated it had been in use for approximately 4.7 hours.

Well this is of course going to drain the battery if it’s in use but which application was causing the issue. The first step that I took was to look at the email.

Now with the new push feature in the iPhone 2.0 software update, the question is do I really need this application to be checking my email at certain intervals?

I don’t so I turned this application off, after all when I want to check my email it’s as simple as selecting the application.

The next thing I turned off was the location services, after all as a ex-navigtor to I really need it to tell me where I am? If I do just a few flicks of the finger and I can have it back on.

After performing this action, it all returned to normal. 16 plus hours of standby and only 14 minutes of usage. The battery life appears to almost returned to normal.

Now while this maybe a glitch in the software which I’m sure will be correct in a future update, for now practice conservation and turn off what you don’t need.

Wow look at all the news articles hitting the air waves. Software problems bug Apple’s iphone. Well what did you expect when millions of users rush to install an update. Couple this with an untold number of new iphone users all hitting the servers at the same time, there is bound to be issues.

One of the best thing I’ve found about using apple equipment is the support area. When I updated my iPhone this morning of course I ran into the exact same issues that where happening to everyone else.

A quick hope over to the support center, and 15 minutes later the installation was complete. While ten’s of thousands will spend hours in communication with customer support, when if they had just a little initave first look to see if there was a solution online.

I mean really come on, yesterday the chastised Phil Gramm for his comment that we are in a mental recession, that we’ve become a nation of whinners!

That is exactly what we see everyday, people refuse to take matters into their own hands and solve the problems that face them, just like this little iPhone issue!

The internet has made it so that information with a fix for a multitude of issues is generally available within minutes to hours, if you take the time to do a little research on your own. Give it a try you might find fixing your own problems a little exicting and addictive.