Your bearded beloved and mine, Walt “call me Walt” Mossberg, has spent some time playing with his iPhone post-Apple-update to see what, beyond security tweaks, functionality has been changed.  Turns out there are quite a few minor feature alterations; nothing earth-shattering, but enough to further streamline the iPhone’s already epic usability.

Walt’s particularly pleased with the changes to how the iPhone recognises some iPod accessories; unlike before, where many dock adaptors, in-car charge & audio cables and external speakers would fail to be recognised by the handset, now there are far more ways to enjoy your music (and hopefully make the most of any third-party iPod gadgets you already own). 

Also handy are the tweaks to the email app – you can now choose to forward a copy of all email sent to a BCC address rather than just a CC address, and as Vincent noticed after running the update all your IMAP folders are synchronised rather than just Inbox/Drafts/Sent/Trash.

The cellphone favourites has also been brushed with the update wand, increasing capacity to fifty numbers (from 20); users are also reporting improved WiFi stability, particularly when using public networks.

All in all, while it didn’t bring the expansive functionality update many hoped for (IM client, MMS, etc) it’s a successful polish of the iPhone.

Have you noticed anything new since updating your handset?  Or has a favoured behaviour changed for the worse?  Let us know in the comments.