The iPhone (slightly) Evolved

I don't care to talk about the piece of the iPhone 2.0 launch that Apple botched. Rubbernecking's way less fun when the problem's already resolved. Plus, even if my phone got bricked for the better part of a day (it did), I can still be grateful for a free software upgrade that offers heady improvements over older versions of said software (I am, and it does).

What I am interested in are the little gems Apple have added to an already brilliant device. Sure, native apps are great. I've played more Reversi this weekend than any human ever should, and I'm super excited about Graffitio, a simple location-aware app that makes smart use of the iPhone's geo-locating capabilities. But for me, the real news is that Apple has left almost all of the iPhone's UI and core functionality untouched, opting instead to implement a handful of fixes and incremental improvements to the 1.x series software.

A Standalone Contacts App

The iPhone's biggest strength has always been the way it incorporates and extends the Mac's Address Book application. Nothing drove the utility of the iPhone home for me like the moment I realized that each type of address data stored on my desktop was, when downloaded to my phone, represented by a separate contextually-aware mode. Tap a contact's email address, the Mail app opens. Tap a website address, Safari appears. Tap a phone number and (logically) a phone conversation is started. Tap a street address, the Map application opens and drops a pin on the location, exposing any Google data via a tasteful link that in turn opens its own Contact-like page.

The problem: the first-gen iPhone OS hid the main contact book inside the phone app. The contact list would reveal itself at appropriate times, but if you wanted to, say, take a quick glance at all the methods available for contacting your mom, you had to first click the Phone icon on your home screen – even if you had no intention of making a call. It's a small detail, but one that proves Apple really gets what sets the iPhone apart.

Multiple Calendars

Meg and I share eight separate calendars synced over our LAN with BusySync and hooked to separate Google calendars out in the cloud. It works well everywhere – except on the old phone. The first-gen iPhone OS synced all calendar data but displayed events as if they all belonged to the same calendar. Any event added to the iPhone calendar were added to a default calendar on the desktop.

iPhone 2.0 introduces true multiple calendar support, complete with color coding and the option to view a single calendar's worth of appointments at a time. In future versions, I'd like to be able to match the colors I've assigned assigned to each calendar on my desktop instead of assigning color codes randomly. Additionally, it'd be nice to view complex calendar sets on the phone – like view "Life" and "Work," but not "Chores."

Password Entry Assistance

If you've ever had to enter the WEP key for your friend's wireless network on your iPhone, you'll know what a gift this is. All hidden password fields – that includes both the system and in Sarari – now display the last character you entered for the briefest of moments. It's just enough long enough to encourage confidence in your keyboarding abilities. My only quibble: the true security nuts should have the option to toggle this function on and off via the system panel.

I have a feeling a number of other details will reveal themselves over the coming weeks. Which ones have I missed?