Apple has released iPhone OS 2.1, as promised, with the following, surprisingly detailed release notes:

Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls
Significantly better battery life for most users
Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and
Exchange accounts
Faster installation of 3rd party applications
Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users [...]

We’ve obtained some screenshots of iPod touch OS v2.1.1, which ships on second-generation iPod touch devices, as well as live screenshots of the new Nike+ software.

Some notes on usage from our good friend Raven Zachary:

The new iPod touch ships with iPhone OS 2.1.1 (5F138).
After you activate Nike+iPod from Settings, the application appears on the home [...]

A new feature in iTunes 8 prevents iPhone-only applications from installing on the iPod Touch. One of our staffers, David Martin, was syncing his iPod touch for the first time in iTunes 8 when the following dialog appeared:

Subsequently after viewing the full dialog it was clear that iTunes 8 was not going to install the [...]

Apple has posted a new build of the iPhone software development kit (SDK) to its deveoper website. The new build is intended for applications targeted at the final build of iPhone OS 2.1 for both the iPhone and iPod touch.

Although details on specific build improvements are elusive, a note posted to the site interestingly refers [...]

iTunes 8 includes some significant enhancements for iPhone and iPod Touch owners, but the improvements depend on your device’s OS version. Unfortunately, a number of users are experiencing difficulty applying the iPod touch v2.1 update, which is required for some iTunes 8-related improvements.

In our hands-on testing we found the following, OS-specific enhancements and issues:

For the [...]

During today’s “Let’s Rock” Event in San Francisco, Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated built-in Nike+ capabilities for the iPod touch running iPhone OS 2.1 (due this week for the iPhone and already on Apple’s servers for the iPod touch). However, it appears that this update may only be available for the iPod touch and not [...]

Apple has apparently already pushed the iPhone OS 2.1 update for the iPod touch to its download servers, but the files cannot be downloaded manually because they are “protected assets,” (the iPhone OS 2.1 update for the iPod touch is priced at $9.95 for OS 1.x users).

The iPhone OS 2.1 build for the iPod touch [...]

Apple today announced that iPhone OS 2.1 will make its public debut on Friday. CEO Steve Jobs promises that the update will squash many of the more irritating bugs afflicting the current 2.0.2 release, including dropped calls, slow backups in iTunes, poor battery life and repeated application crashes. In fact, Jobs delivered more detail regarding [...]

Apple has released iTunes 8.0, which requires QuickTime 7.5.5 — also released today — to playback video.

iTunes 8, available here, includes a Genius playlists and sidebar that can create a playlist of songs matching the currently played track and get recommendations for new songs; tiled browsing of media and the ability to download and playback [...]

The first suit seeking class action status was filed on Tuesday by an Alabama woman who alleges that Apple has advertised double the Internet speeds with the iPhone 3G, which, due to a plethora of connection, are impossible to reach.

The complaint was filed on behalf of Jessica Smith of Birmingham, Alabama in the Southern Division [...]