iPhone OS version history

• Initial release on iPhone

• Safari security update

• Fixed bugs
  • Items deleted on phone no longer sync back to phone
  • Able to process multi-line addresses in Maps
  • Custom ringtones no longer lost on restore

3A101a

• Initial release on iPod Touch
• iTunes Music Store with home screen icon

3A110a

• This update is also called the iPhone "September '07" update by Apple^[6]
• Louder speakerphone and receiver volume
• Home button double-click shortcut to phone favorites or music controls
• Spacebar double-tap shortcut to intelligently insert period and space (ie: ". ")
• Mail attachments are viewable in portrait and landscape modes
• Stocks and cities in Stocks and Weather can be reordered
• Apple Inc. Bluetooth Headset battery status in the Status Bar
• Support for TV out
• Preferences to turn off EDGE/GPRS when roaming internationally
• New Passcode lock time intervals
• Adjustable alert volume
• New interface for the Calculator application.

• Battery charge level shown in iTunes
• International language & keyboard support
• Patched the TIFF security bug
• Adds custom ringtone field
• Fixed bugs

• This update is commonly called the iPhone "January '08 Update" and January Software Upgrade by Apple ^[7]
• Recent calls contact details now show most recent call times
• Google Maps on iPhone gains the 'Locate Me' feature which can determine the phone's approximate location, using a combination of cellular triangulation and Wi-Fi data from Skyhook Wireless; also adds hybrid map support and the 'Drop Pin' feature.
• Icons on the home screen can be rearranged and placed on multiple home screens (up to nine).
• iTunes gift cards can be redeemed on the iTunes Music Store.
• Movies downloaded through iTunes have chapter support.
• Music has lyrics-support feature
• Web Clips can be added to (and subsequently removed from) the home screen.
• SMS messages can be sent to multiple contacts.
• SMS storage capacity increased from 1,000 to 75,000 messages
• Default Gmail IMAP setup for new accounts (previously was defaulted as POP3).
• Multi-touch keyboard (e.g., simultaneously pressing "Shift" + "a")
• The clock timer now remembers the last used options. (bug fix)
• Incoming SMS messages now prompts the user to "Close" or "Reply" (previously "Ignore" or "Reply"). Pressing either option now marks the message as "seen".
• Labels for contact data can now be deleted.
• Applications on the phone no longer run as root; they run as the user "mobile" instead
• Ability to listen to music through a bluetooth headset by going to the voicemail and choosing "bluetooth" as the audio source no longer works (still works as long as phone is not locked or voicemail screen is active).

• Bug fixes
• SMS scramble order fix
• More carriers names now fit without scrolling - for roaming on other carriers
• The camera's frame rate dramatically improved
• Interface speed improvements

• Security fixes for iPod Touch users who choose not to pay for upgrade to version 2.0

• Initial release on iPhone 3G
• OS Enhancements
  • Certificates and Identities
  • WPA2/802.1X
  • Ability to turn Wi-Fi back on while in Airplane mode
  • Cisco IPsec VPN support
  • Ability to take screen-capture by holding the Sleep/Wake button and pressing Home
  • Ability to save pics from Safari or Mail to Photos^[9]
  • Bonjour service discovery protocol
  • Support for SVG
  • Parental controls
  • App Store (to manage third-party applications) with home screen icon
  • Password letters are momentarily visible while typing
  • Ability to turn Location Services on or off
  • Applications that use Location Services prompt user for confirmation 3 times.
  • Tapping the title bar scrolls to the top in most apps
• Language Support
  • Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Polish, Dutch, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese language interface in iPhone, previously these languages were only in the iPod Touch since 1.1.1^[10]
  • Extra keyboard languages including Chinese and Korean and Russian
  • Support for Traditional and Simplified Chinese handwriting recognition
• Mail/Contacts/Calendars
  • settings grouped
  • Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support
  • Support for Apple's new MobileMe service
  • Mail
    • Push e-mail
    • Ability to select an outgoing email account within Mail application^[11]
    • Support for BCC in Mail application
    • Multiple email delete/move
    • Ability to view MS Office attachments
    • Ability to view iWork attachments, including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote^[12]
  • Contacts
    • Contacts icon on "Home" screen (iPhone only, it was previously on the iPod Touch)
    • Ability to search contacts
    • Global Address List
    • Push contacts
    • Ability to import SIM contacts
  • Calendar
    • Multiple calendars supported in Calendar with color coding (desktop colors only preserved if using Mobile Me)
    • New "Calendar" menu in "Settings"^[13]
    • Push calendar
• Enterprise enhancements
  • Enforced security policies
  • Device configuration
  • Remote wipe
• iPod
  • Video can be shown in either landscape orientation (instead of just landscape left)
  • Videos in playlists & music videos can be shown in portrait or landscape orientation
  • Sound fade-out when exiting a video
• Other Apps
  • Updated calculator with extra features in portrait mode, a scientific calculator in landscape mode and an updated icon.
  • Updated iTunes with a new icon and reordered category icons within iTunes application.
  • Camera now supports Geotagging^[14]
  • YouTube plugin for Safari^[15]

• Release Focusing on speed and bug fixes within the Operating System
• Performance and Stability of Contacts and Calendar applications dramatically improved
• Performance while flipping to landscape mode in Safari improved
• Performance in Mail app improved
• Release improves application crash rates
• Keyboard responsiveness improved

• Bug fixes
• Improved communication with 3G networks^[16]
• Transition from music list to Cover Flow has changed^[17]
• Tilt to left from landscape no longer switch to portrait when watching video, fixes 2.0 bug
• The "Update All" button in the App Store's update tab has been removed

5F137 (iPod Touch)

September 12, 2008 (iPhone 1st and 2nd Gen)

• Free for iPod Touch users, who have upgraded to iPhone OS 2.0.
• Companion Changes in/with iTunes 8 for this release
  • Now displays how much information is taken by up applications installed on your iPhone.^[18]
  • Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes^[19]
  • Does not remove all media after restore
  • Faster firmware installation and data sync
  • Application updates downloaded from iTunes have new finder naming convention
• Bug Fixes and Performance Enhancements
  • Security fix to prevent from bypassing the double home button exploit
  • Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications
  • Faster installation and updating of 3rd party applications
  • Updating applications keeps their icons in place on the home screen.
  • Improvements to Mail stability
  • Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
  • Faster loading and searching of contacts
  • Auto-correct now appears above the text instead of below (fixing a usability problem people were having where auto-correct would appear above the first row of keys).
  • Smoother browsing in Safari, particularly when scrolling up/down on a web page
  • Significantly better battery life for most users ^[19]
  • Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls^[19]
  • Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display.
  • Some Bluetooth headsets which didn't originally work with visual voicemail on previous firmware versions have been reported to be working on 2.1.^{[citation needed]}
  • The 12/24 hour clock which has been available in previous versions is now usable to UK iPhone users.^{[citation needed]}
  • Auto rebooting once the Apple Boot logo dims fixes the "ALoD" issue.^{[citation needed]}
  • Third-party application settings are loaded after loading the main Settings.^{[citation needed]}
  • With the UK English keyboard setting, when entering URLs, holding down the '.com' button would bring up shortcuts to other TLDs, but for some reason it would drop '.net' to make room for '.co.uk'. 2.1 adds '.net' for the UK English keyboard.^{[citation needed]}
  • Apple have fixed the grammar in the App Store when all apps up to date. Prior to 2.1, the update page would display the text "All Apps Are Up-To-Date." (hyphenated with a period). The update page now displays the text "All Apps Are Up to Date".^{[citation needed]}
  • Double tapping (the standard gesture for zooming) didn't work in prior firmware versions in the Mail application. The only way to zoom into content (e.g. a HTML attachment/web page) was to use the 'pinch' method. 2.1 now adds the functionality of double tapping to zoom in the Mail application.^{[citation needed]}
  • Calculator bug fixed affecting calculations involving Pi.^[18]
• New OS features
  • Triple-click on the control button of headphones now jumps music to previous track played.
  • SMS app can alert up to two additional times if you don’t acknowledge an incoming text message. (will play the alert sound/vibrate again after a period of time as if a new message just came in).^[18]
  • When receiving a text message, it used to display "Sender - Text Message" when the message preview was off, e.g. "Pete - Text Message". After updating to 2.1, it now just displays "New Text Message".^{[citation needed]}
  • Update Supporting Languages
  • Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts. (After 5 attempts, the device will disable itself for 1 minute. After the 6th attempt, it will disable itself for 5 minutes. In the 10th attempt, it will wipe all data.)^[18]
  • 3G, EDGE, and GPRS indicators changed.^[18]
  • The camera can now be turned off within the restrictions page.^[18]
  • When taking a screen-shot of your phone, there is now the camera shutter noise
  • Pause apps by clicking the icon while it downloads/installs^{[citation needed]}
  • Updated apps now keep their original position in the Home Screen.^{[citation needed]}
  • iPod volume/application volume setting is now independent of the phone ringer volume setting.^{[citation needed]}
  • iPhone never gets locked when placed in dock and play music.
• New Application features
  • Genius playlist creation
  • More information provided within iPod Music lists (artist and album are now shown below song title when selecting music in addition to remaining time on podcasts)
  • More information is provided for audiobooks, such as displaying time left in active audiobook.^[18]
  • New podcasts & videos had "filled" blue bubbles next to them to indicate that they were new, but with 2.1, if you have "half-played" a podcast or video, it will include a half filled blue bubble.^[18]
  • Sound from iPod now "fade out" if you start syncing device with iTunes.^[20]
  • Options to load & display earlier text message in a conversation.^{[citation needed]}
  • EXIF data information now remains on photos/pictures when emailed from your iPhone. Sites such as Flickr are now able to show geotag and other information.^{[citation needed]}
  • When location services is switched off in the Settings menu, the Maps application reminds you to manually turn it back on from the Settings menu when using GPS. Originally, you would have the option to turn it on when the notification appeared.^{[citation needed]}
  • Bookmarked home screen apps open in full screen.^[21]
• Only available in the iPod Touch
  • Settings for individual speaker sounds. Sounds can no longer be turned off en mass. All sounds must be turned off individually to mute sounds.
  • New speaker sound when sending mail.

• Initial Release on iPod Touch 2nd Generation
• Nike+ Support^[22]

5G77a (iPod Touch 2nd Gen.)

• Free Update for 1st Gen. iPod Touch owners that upgraded to iPhone OS 2.0.
• Enhancements to Maps (iPhone Only).
  • Google Street View
  • Public transit and walking directions
  • Display address of dropped pins
  • Share location via email
  • Cache of recent locations
• Enhancements to Mail
  • Emoji for SoftBank users in Japan.^[24]
  • Resolve isolated issues with scheduled fetching of email
  • Improved formatting of wide HTML email
• App Store changes
  • "Categories" section has been altered to display icons instead of a list.^[25]
  • Individual applications pages now have 'Tell A Friend' and 'Report A Problem' buttons.^[25]
  • In an app's description, multiple screen shots can now be viewed, instead of just one.
  • "Update All" button added to "Updates" section.
  • Option added to rate an application that is about to be deleted.^[26]
  • Improved touch response when purchasing or downloading an application.
  • Application icons display the install progress "in place" while updating, rather than on the last position of the page.
• Safari Enhancements
  • Improved stability and performance of Safari
  • Layout changes for the address bar in Safari^[27]
• iPod Player changes
  • The edit/clear icons on the on-the-go playlist have been changed.
  • Podcasts now are being shown in catalogs.
  • You can not delete audiobooks anymore through the device.
  • Audiobooks without artwork, are now shown with a book icon and not with a note icon.
• Contacts Improvements
  • Phone numbers now display correctly e.g. 1111 2222 (In 2.1, this would have been shown as 1 111222 2).
• Other Enhancements
  • Podcasts are now available for download or stream in the iTunes application (over Wi-Fi and cellular networks)
  • Decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
  • Improved sound quality of visual voicemail messages
  • Visual voicemail unavailability is shown in a screen instead of voicemail button not working
  • Improved performance overall, especially noticeable in Notes and Camera applications.
  • Pressing the Home button from any Home screen takes you to the first Home screen.
  • Preference to turn on/off keyboard auto-correction
  • New languages are supported.
  • Shows Update/Restore progress when update using iTunes
  • Security improvement^[28]
  • Developers can pipe video out to an external device.
  • Better shift-key behavior
  • Automatic WebClip icon change
  • Locked screen screenshots
  • Ability to record from devices connected through the dock port^[29]
  • Some minor bugfixes and improvements.
    • Picker sounds are now controlled by the keyboard sound settings^{[citation needed]}
• Macworld OTA updates
  • iTunes now works over EDGE and 3G networks and no longer requires a Wi-Fi network
• iPod Touch 2nd Generation Only
  • Line-in audio has been enabled through the headphone jack.
  • Add the Remote button to control other devices (Like Apple TV, ...) on the Nike + iPod menu.

5H11a (iPod Touch 2nd Gen.)

• Improved general stability of Safari
• Fixed issue where some images saved from Mail do not display correctly in the Camera Roll
• Updates Baseband
• iPod Touch Only
  • Fixed issue that caused some Apple Lossless (ALAC) audio files to skip during playback
• iTunes 8.1
  • Fixes calendar color syncing issue (Mac Only)
• Renders iPhone Unlock (Yellowsn0w) ineffective by upgrading baseband

• Cut, Copy, Paste added
  • Tap and hold for select/select all menu (Copy menu in photos)
  • Double tap for Cut/Copy/Paste menu
    • Two point dragable selection handles displayed to better make a selection
  • Undo by shaking
  • In photos options menu select the copy button to select multiple photos to copy

• Maps
  • Features that iPhone users got in 2.2 have been added for the iPod Touch (such as Google Street View, Public transit and walking directions, Display address of dropped pin, Share location via email, and Cache of recent locations.)
• YouTube
  • Can now log into account
    • View subscriptions, Favorites, MyVideos, History, and Playlists
    • Comment on videos, Rate videos

• Phone
  • Recent Calls now shows more details (call length, etc)
  • Ability to change/set "own number" (my number) in the SIM Card. Will be displayed in the Contacts list and iTunes, as well as possibly used for MMS identification

• Camera and Photos
  • Camera now has a thumbnail of the previous photo captured. The thumbnail also acts as a shortcut to "Camera Roll" allowing for view/delete of photos without exiting the camera app
  • Photos options menu changed (New UI, added copy button)
    • Can now delete multiple photos

• AppStore
  • Installs new apps from the second home page on. You can still move the apps to the first home page manually
  • Screenshot browsing method has changed

• SMS application renamed to Messages
  • MMS functionality (for iPhone 3G) including sending vCards, pictures, audio files and Google Maps locations.
  • Forwarding individual messages
  • Deleting individual messages

• Mail, Contacts, Calendars, MobileMe
  • MobileMe now has a "Find My iPhone" option (use is unknown)
  • CalDAV Calendar support
  • LDAP Contacts support
  • iCal Subscription support
  • “Load Remote Image” option for mail, to prevent spam
  • Mail several photos in the same message

• Safari
  • Better support for Internet standards and now scores a 97/100 in the Acid3 test.
  • Renders JavaScript from 3 to 16 times faster depending on circumstances.
  • New features in Settings such as AutoFill, and Anti phishing
  • Pressing and holding a link gives three options: Open, Open in New Page and Copy.
  • View subscriptions

• iPod
  • Shake to shuffle songs in iPod App
  • Scrubbing through tracks can now be done at a variable rate
  • (When bluetooth is enabled and a paired audio device is present) Audio output menu added to "Now Playing" screen and Home button iPod controls.
  • Podcasts
    • More details shown: time remaining, etc)
    • Can be played at ½x, 1x, 2x speed
    • 30 second rewind button
    • Can be emailed

• Improved language support.^[30]
  • Added new language support such as Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, Portuguese, Thai and more
  • Foreign language keyboards extended to cover additional characters

• New Developer APIs
  • Push notifications for 3rd party applications
  • Bluetooth services (iPod touch 1G excluded) including A2DP (not for first generation iPhone), LDAP, P2P, and Bonjour
  • New APIs in the Maps application allow developers to build it in to software
  • Developers can now use CoreLocation to make Turn by Turn applications
  • API support for serial I/O through the Dock Connector
  • 3rd party apps now have access to iPod music library
  • Support for outbound audio and video streaming
  • In-app additional payment API for paid applications
    • Sign in with iTunes account
    • Buy service subscriptions or app add-ons

• Spotlight added
  • reportedly saves its last search results and offers options for excluding applications from searches, though it's unclear if these two findings are new to beta 3.
  • Partial search for mail, iPod, contacts, events, and apps

• iTunes Sync
  • Notes syncing
  • Backups can now be encrypted and passworded
  • Voice memoes syncing (audio files added to a "Voice Memoes" playlist)

• Other
  • Device automatically connects and authenticate to Wi-Fi hotspots which require username and password (e.g. Starbucks, McDonalds)
  • Locate Me for the iPod Touch more accurate.
  • Restrictions have been updated and now block “Current Location” and allows setting what content is appropriate for iPod music/videos/TV shows and apps.
  • 11 home screen pages instead of 9. Now can store 180 apps.^[31]
  • Speed optimizations during keyboard input and use of the included App Store application^{[citation needed]}.
  • Tethering over USB and Bluetooth available, on selected carriers
  • Bluetooth unlock for iPod touch 2G^[32]
  • iTunes account creation on device^[33]
  • New Voice Memo Application
  • Stopwatch now shows both the total running time and the current lap time in the upper part of the clock app
  • Landscape typing mode for all 1st party apps
  • Force quit an application by holding the home button for 10 seconds no longer works.

• iPhone SDK 3.0
  • Arriving in tandem with iPhone Software 3.0 beta 3 was a similarly labeled beta of iPhone SDK 3.0 carrying build number 9M2728. Among the changes included with the new build is an updated beta of the Xcode IDE that showcases a new Overview toolbar and a "completely revamped" assistant interface for creating new projects, targets and files.
  • Meanwhile, updates to Interface Builder introduce new drag-and-drop capabilities for repairing objects and reordering files in document outline view, as well as a new string table interface that simplifies the process of making textual changes across multiple documents.
  • Apple did warn developers that an issue with beta 3 of iPhone Software 3.0 will prevent them from running iPhone apps that have been compiled for earlier version of the iPhone software, but said it hopes to resolve the issue with the release of the next beta.