MacRumors

As promised, Apple has released the iPhone 2.1 firmware through iTunes this morning. The iPhone 2.1 firmware contains the following updates as listed by Apple:

- decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
- significantly improve battery life for most users
- dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
- improve 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 two additional times for incoming text messages
- option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
- Genius playlist creation

The 2.1 firmware is build 5F136 and can be directly downloaded through iTunes. The new firmware also contains a number of security fixes including the well publicized passcode flaw.

Update: Users report that Netshare still works.

Tonight, Microsoft aired the second of a series of new ads featuring Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. The long version of the ad (4m 30s) is embedded above via YouTube and a high quality version is available at Microsoft.com.

The first installment of the ad campaign showed Bill Gates and Seinfeld at a shoe store. The new installment shows Gates and Seinfeld living with "real people".

While we don't plan on getting into a habit of posting news stories for every new Microsoft ad, the original ad story generated a remarkable amount of feedback and interest. Future ads may be reported on our Page 2 which is also linked from the left sidebar.

At the "Let's Rock" media event, Steve Jobs announced that NBC had returned to iTunes after being absent from the online store for almost a year. The removal of NBC shows from iTunes was the result of a very public dispute between the the two companies.

Apple announced in August of 2007 that they would no longer be selling NBC television shows because NBC wanted "double the wholesale price" for each episode. NBC later disputed this claim by saying that they simply wanted flexible pricing. In the end, Apple and NBC were unable to come to an agreement until this week.

After Tuesday's announcement, NBC executives claimed that Apple had conceded to its demands about pricing and packaging shows together. NBC is now offering some catalog titles for $0.99 as well as package deals that could offer customers a bulk discount. Apple's Eddie Cue, however, has since denied that these claims are true. According to Cue, lower prices have always been an option for networks.

"We've never told anyone they can't lower prices," Cue said.

Cue also pointed out that the higher $2.99 price introduced on Tuesday is simply their standard price for High Definition content.

IDG World Expo has announced that registration for Macworld San Francisco 2009 (MWSF) has opened for attendees.

Macworld San Francisco is an annual Apple-focused expo taking place between January 5th-9th, 2009 and at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. Early/discounted registration is available until December 1st.

While no announcements have been made, Steve Jobs traditionally gives the opening Keynote address which will likely take place on the morning of Tuesday, January 6th. MacRumors will be at the expo to provide keynote and ongoing coverage of the event.

At the last Macworld expo, Apple introduced the MacBook Air, iTunes Movie Rentals, iPod Touch Software Update and iPhone Software Update and SDK announcement, and Time Capsule. We'd previously heard that Apple is preparing for Cinema Display updates at this year's Macworld. Other hints have suggested that this year's MWSF will be a more Mac-focused event.

iFixit has posted disassembly photographs of the iPod Nano and iPod Touch. These disassembly photos are common after new products are released and provide readers an interesting view of the internals of the latest Apple products.

Occasionally, however, there's also an interesting find. In this case, iFixit has found that the iPod Touch actually contains an unadvertised Broadcom BCM4325 Bluetooth chip. Apple has not made any mention of Bluetooth support in the new iPod Touch.

What Apple did announce was that it had added Nike+ wireless support in the iPod Touch. According to Apple's FAQ, the Nike+ system uses a "proprietary low-power 2.4 GHz radio protocol" which is specifically said not to be Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

Bluetooth, however, appears to use the same frequency. We're uncertain if a Bluetooth chip can emulate the Nike+ protocol or if there is a separate unidentified Nike+ receiver in the iPod Touch. Regardless, this will certainly trigger speculation about adding Nike+ support in current iPhones and additional uses of the Bluetooth chip in the iPod Touch (such as Bluetooth headsets).

iFixit also let us know that the iPod Touch's headphone jack has five wires coming out of it, while the old iPod Touch only had four. This suggests that the external microphone support is likely true.

Update: The Bluetooth chip is likely being used for the Nike+ support.

Apple's "Let's Rock" media event yesterday refreshed their entire iPod line. When asked about the lack of Mac news in an interview, Jobs pointed out it was a music focused event. Many readers, however, are anxiously awaiting the new notebook revisions that have been rumored.

DaringFireball now claims that Apple will be releasing new notebooks on October 14th according to sources "familiar with Apple's hardware plans." This timeframe fits into recent expectations of a more staggered release, and recent hints to resellers that notebook refreshes would have to wait until October.

While both the MacBook and MacBook Pro are overdue for revisions, the MacBook Air has also been rumored to see imminent updates. Besides new versions of the MacBook Air's custom Intel processor, Apple now has access to upgraded miniature hard drives for use in the slim laptop.

The new 120GB iPod Classic shares the same single-platter hard drive form factor that is also used in the MacBook Air. Prior to the availability of the 120GB part, the MacBook Air had been limited to a maximum hard drive size of 80GB. The MacBook Air should now be able to accommodate the higher 120GB hard drive size.

Apple introduced the new iPod Touch yesterday which contained a couple of minor hardware tweaks over the previous model. Most notably, this included a built-in speaker and volume control buttons which were both absent on the 1st generation iPod Touch.

One item we failed to report, however, was that Apple appears to have also added external microphone support (with an accessory) into the iPod Touch as well. Apple introduced two new earphones accessories yesterday: Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic and In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic.

The microphone feature of the headsets was advertised as allowing you to record voice memos on the new iPod Nano, but Apple's product page indicates that the Mic also works with the iPod Classic as well as the new iPod Touch:

The remote and mic are supported only by iPod nano (4th generation), iPod classic (120GB), and iPod touch (2nd generation). Audio is supported by all iPod models.

Adding convenient microphone support into the iPod Touch opens up the possibility of Voice Over IP (VOIP) applications such as Skype which would allow you to make telephone calls from your iPod Touch over Wi-Fi networks. Apple has said that they would not restrict Wi-Fi VOIP applications as long as they did not run over the iPhone's cellular networks.

The microphones portion of the headsets will not work with the 1st generation iPod Touch. The new headset's audio and skip/next button reportedly work on the iPhone, but the volume controls do not.

There remains the possibility that this is a misprint on Apple's website and the iPod Touch does not support the microphone portion of the headset.

Apple's iPod Touch 2.1 firmware appears to be consistently available now. While the iPod Touch 2.1 firmware seemed to be available shortly after yesterday's keynote, many users had some difficulty in installing the update early on. The official list of changes include:

- Genius playlist creation
- dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
- improved email reliability, notable 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
- faster loading and searching of contacts
- other bug fixes

Forum users have been compiling a list of other changes they have found. Some of these are said to include:

- Faster App updates and installation
- When viewing songs it says Artist And Album underneath the Song title.
- Podcast has more descriptive information
- Can now selectively mute certain sound effects (new mail, key taps)
- More responsive
- Much faster backups

The iPod Touch 2.1 firmware is available for free via iTunes for existing 2.0 customers. iPod Touch owners still running 1.0 software can purchase the software for $9.95.

Apple also announced the 2.1 firmware will be released for the iPhone this Friday. The features are generally expected to be the same for the iPhone update. Nike+ support, however, is notably absent for the first generation iPod Touch and iPhone users due to the lack of proper hardware support at this time.

A few times a year, MacRumors partners with MacUpdate to promote their Mac application bundle deal. Their latest bundle delivers up to 10 Mac applications for $49.99 (a $621.65 value if all purchased separately) including:

- HookUp ($20.00) - access, stream and download iTunes libraries in remote networks.
- Alarm Clock Pro ($19.95) - programmable "alarm clock" that can trigger SMS, email, audio, video, and more
- Periscope ($39.95) - use your iSight to monitor a room for motion, send images remotely
- Devon Agent ($49.95) - improve search results
- Mellel ($49.00)- word processor aimed at writers, scholars, technical writing and multilingual word processing.
- Norrkross Movie ($59.00) - edit video in multiple layered tracks, use a green screen
- Bookends ($99.00) - bibliography/reference and information management system
- MacJournal ($34.95) - create a personal journal to record your thoughts and ideas
- Contactizer Pro ($119.90) - contact management system
- LightZone ($129.95) - photo editing software with "smart" visual edits, batch functionality

This bundle sale is almost over and expires on Wednesday night (September 10th) Friday night (September 12th). All applications have been "unlocked" so all purchasers of the bundle will receive all 10 applications for the $49.99 price.

MacRumors is a promotional partner with MacUpdate. Bundle sales through these links benefit MacRumors financially, and provide a way for readers to directly support this site.

Update: Due to technical difficulties, the sale has been extended 48 hours.

Apple has posted a QuickTime stream for today's "Let's Rock" media event.

Please see our previous news stories for full coverage of the announcements:

- Odds and Ends: New Shuffles, In-Ear Headphones, First Impressions, and More
- 2nd Generation iPod Touch: 2.1 Firmware, Speaker, Thinner
- iPhone 2.1 Firmware Coming on Friday: Bug Fixes, Connectivity and Battery Life
- 4th Generation iPod Nano: Accelerometer, Genius, Colors, Taller
- iTunes 8: HD TV Shows, Grid View, Genius Playlists, NBC

Update: Downloadable podcast now available: iTunes Link