Potentially in line with the iPhone 3.0 firmware update out tomorrow, the added abilities to interact with your friends through your iPhone is really exciting. Ongoing support and developments will be interesting to watch, more so with the developers needing to get contracts and the like in order for Year 2 of the iPhone app.

A few examples: You are able to use your Facebook account to find places to meet your friends using maps on Whrrl. Other options include challenging your friends to play Agency Wars, Binary Game, iBowl, Live Poker and Tap Tap Revenge 2. Other examples include using Facebook Connect with the Urban Spoon application. Once connected, you can see which restaurants your friends have reviewed on the iPhone as you are walking to dinner and share your thoughts afterwards. There will be more Facebook enabled applications available in the near future within the Apple App Store!

[via Facebook]

There is no real indication as to if this is even real or not. Creating a false picture of the iPhone interface to generate hype and traffic is extremely easy to do these days. It seems a bit early for such a firmware version to leak. We believe this to be false.

Hopefully the update contains these push notifications as well as a fix for the huge loss in service. Multiple times a day we are experiencing zero bars and/or complete loss of data service in areas where we have previously seen nothing short of full service. Even this morning as we watched the iPhone completely drop service and regain it again only to not offer any data services.

*Updated*

It appears these rumors have been smashed along with RussianiPhone.ru’s credibility. Here’s to wishful thinking.

[Via RussianiPhone]

There’s also a re-fettled 3G signal strength display, promising more accuracy, and the security option to wipe the iPhone’s data after ten incorrect passcode attempts.  Genius playlist creation has also been added, Apple’s new “intelligent” system that can analyze your tracks and suggest similar music from both your own library and from the iTunes store.

You can download the new firmware by connecting your iPhone, loading iTunes and choosing “Check for update”.  The new firmware will automatically download and install.  We’re downloading it now, let us know how you get on with your own iPhone.

MagicPad came to the App Store as well, giving us a look at what copy and paste could be like if it were native to the iPhone. And if you’re an app developer, you got some seriously good news this week when it was revealed just how profitable app sales can be. 

The iPhone 2.0.1 Firmware update hit iPhones this week as well, and as shown in our side-by-side comparison, gave the phone a considerable speed boost. During the week, Installer 4 was leaked in beta form, but it got an official beta release alongside PwnageTool 2.0.2. 

More countries are getting the iPhone 3G on August 22, plus, we learned that it may be possible to stream your iTunes library over Wi-Fi onto your iPhone in the future, due to a new patent Apple has filed. We also took a look at several apps in the App Store to give you an idea of what’s available, including Dice Bag, Frogger, Cubes Lite, Sudoku Unlimited and Dizzy Bee. 

Finally, you can’t have an iPhone without something stylish to keep it in. The Dapper iPhone Pouch is a unisex slip case that gives off a masculine vibe. JAVOedge’s embossed leather back cover protects the back of your iPhone with textured, feminine designs and ColorWare can customize your iPhone’s back, border and buttons to a color coating of your choice. And that’s all for this week’s news!

Loading up SlashGear on WiFi, iPhone 2.01 finished roughly 2-seconds faster than 2.0.  iPhone OS 2.01 literally obliterated 2.0 beating it by a massive lead of 26-seconds when loading up iPhoneBuzz.com!  If you don’t believe me, watch the side-by-side video below and see it for yourself.  Poking around in the about page of the new firmware, it looks like there’s a new modem firmware.  iPhone OS 2.01′s modem firmware is now 01.48.02 versus 01.45.00 on iPhone OS 2.0.

Other differences include call quality.  On 3G, I’m barely able to maintain a phone call (at home), while 2.01 “seems” to have better reception, allowing me to finish a full conversation with Ewdison.

Another notable improvement includes faster SMS.  By faster, you can say good-bye to the lagging keyboard.  I still need to test out the back-up feature, which everyone on the net is swearing up and down the pole that it’s much faster now.

That’s all for now from me, but feel free to chime in and post your comments should you discover something new.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec63VkJejiI[/youtube]

Update: NetShare still works, you need to delete and reconfigure your profile.  WiFi and Google maps is fixed, no more missed calculation even using without gps signal and assisted.

Initial talk is showing that the main focus of the updates will revolve around the GPS. Specifically, Core Location features are being added that track your direction of movement and rate of speed. It’s not turn-by-turn yet, but it looks to be well on its way. 

No word yet on whether or not 2.1 will address the accelerometer issues, app crashes or random reboots, but it definitely seems like Apple is focused on expanding what’s currently inside the iPhone 3G to its fullest capacity. 

[via The Boy Genius Report]

“We’ve added lots of new features, including 2.0 support, spotlight file indexing of .ipsws, canned websearches, installer custom configuration, custom root partitions and various other things that you’ll see on the release” iPhone Dev Team

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R63lKICiWfg[/youtube]

So far the tool itself is yet to be released.  The Team are saying it’ll be “soon”, although not this weekend, and that the wording in the video should be pretty much ignored since it’s mainly just placeholder text.

Some have questioned the need for Pwnage now that Apple have released the App Store and made the iPhone available in many more countries.  The increased tweaking tools, such as predefined websearches and custom root partitions, are obviously a move by the Team to keep the tool relevant.  True, casual users probably won’t need to use it, but those looking to get the most out of Apple’s “21st Century Newton” should start biting their nails in anticipation now.

[via Engadget]

The firmware is fresh off the server, and the details about it are few. What we do know right now is that the new SDK requires developers to register an application ID, suggesting that they are tightening things up in anticipation of the launch, which is rumored to be soon. Application IDs are required for provisioning now, all previous provisioning is now longer valid.

Another interesting thing is you must be running OSX 10.5.3, which was just released this morning. It is odd that Apple would cut off the still large amount of users running Tiger, or 10.4. The new updates release notes were uploaded to Apple’s site earlier, and can be viewed now. Apple also removed six demo applications from the SDK package.

[Via TUAW]

The promise came about a month late, but it is finally here now. Not only is it here, but it packs a large number of improvements over the beta that we saw last month. The software is totally free, and allows you to take control of your device. Features that it has allows you to load custom ROMs and change out the boot logo etc.

The new version of the tool is available now. You can get it from WinPwn.com. The software does have the potential to brick your device, so please if you do not know what you are doing, read up on the tool, or just avoid using it.

[Via iPhone Alley]

The latest build of the SDK is much smaller than previous builds. It weighs in at only 1.08GB. It has been suggested the reason is that lots of redundant code was removed. There has been some changes to the API as well. Namely the address book API, and the Embedded Apple Graphic Library. These changes suggest that applications will need to be re written to take advantage of the new libraries.

There is some evidence that suggests that push email will be in the 2.0 firmware. The latest build, revealed a toggle on/off option for a setting named “Use Push Mail”. You can also still opt to have your iPhone fetch your mail at a predefined interval. It is not known all the services that will be able to be pushed, one though is Yahoo! Mail.

[Via iPhone Hacks]

A new feature was unlocked for the iPhone this week, the ability to record videos. DreamCatcher has brought their recording application to the iPhone. The feature is much sought after in iPhone circles. DreamCatcher is not bringing this service to the iPhone for nothing though, and is going to be charging $20 for the application.

iPhone developers were treated to a pleasant surprise, when the iPhone SDK beta 4 was released earlier in the week. The new SDK brings OpenGL ES functionality to the included iPhone emulator, which was a much requested improvement asked of Apple by the developers. Apple also took the opportunity to release a new build of the 2.0 firmware beta, called build 5A258f.

This week we also found out that not only can can images be saved from Safari with the new firmware, but so can images sent through email. The feature was discovered right here on iPhone Buzz by Vincent. It works in much the same way as saving images from safari, you hold your finger over an image in the email for a moment, and then you are presented with an option to save the image.

Finally, after much speculation it turned out that the supposed black 3G iPhone photo well-circulated during the past few weeks is, in fact, simply a case for the current handset.  Still, apparent confirmation (as if anything is ever confirmed until Steve Jobs announces it to be the case!) of the upcoming device having 3G, GPS and more should make up for any photograph disappointment.

Just as in Safari, it is very simple to save and store images from an email attachment to your iPhone. You hold your finger over the image for a few seconds, and a menu will come up and offer you some options for saving the image. The image is saved in your camera roll. More and more, the iPhone 2.0 firmware is appearing to make the iPhone a very formidable opponent to Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices.

Once again, iPhone Buzz has gotten you the story on the new iPhone firmware 2.0 to you first. If you want to be the first to know when a new feature drops, keep checking back. You will know when we do.

Across the seas, we saw some interesting news as well. The iPhone saw a £100($196) drop in price. This is supposedly in preparation of the 3G iPhone. In India, the it was revealed the iPhone is coming to India on Vodafone. While we are talking about foreign lands, we gave you tips on how to take your iPhone with you when you travel abroad

In software news, we saw the release of several promising applications for the iPhone. Including the First VoIP application for the iPhone, Fring. Another sweet applications we saw was Feeds, an RSS reader for the iPhone, that syncs with Google Reader. Windows users had something to get excited over, as the Pwnage Tool for Windows was released in beta form.

As for iPhone accessories, we got a first look at the Mophie Juice Pack. Mophie claims it can increase battery life on the iPhone by up to 250 additional standby hours.

The new firmware not only adds this feature, but makes it almost too easy to use. All you have to do is hold your finger on the image for a few seconds, and the shown dialog will appear giving you the choice to save the image, or to to go to the image URL. The image will be saved in an album on the iPhone so you can sync up later and retrieve it.

There are tons of things this could be useful for. Saving new images to set as backgrounds. Maybe saving a picture of of MySpace, the possibilities are endless. Again, this is directly from Safari, no iTunes, no third party application, it is all in Safari.

[Via iPhone OS 2.0 Beta 3 (5A240d) – First look - iPhone Buzz]

As with the existing app, only YouTube content is supported and only if it’s been encoded in the H.264 format.  The hope now is that Apple – or third-party developers, though the terms of the SDK agreement currently don’t allow direct interaction with mobile Safari – will bring out a range of plugins that will enable more internet functionality.  Considering all the publicity Apple have courted recently over the popularity of the iPhone for getting online when mobile, it would seem a strange decision not to further enhance the experience.