Thanks to the guys over at Appleiifone.com, I’ve had the chance to test and evaluate the upcoming iPhone update which is expected to arrive in the next few months. Whilst the version I tested is still in BETA and not all the features are not yet available, I feel that I’ve had enough hands on time with it to present to you a review of what is there, comments on what’s to come and what it all means to us, the every day gamer. So whether you’re rocking an iPhone or iPod Touch, you should check out the full review after the break. See you on the other side….

Peer to Peer Connectivity

What makes a good game? Well, by today’s standards, most big games feature some sort of multiplayer. Up until now, the only decent game to feature local multiplayer on the iPhone has been Tap Tap Revenge, but you were only limited to half the screen each and to be fair, I suck at it. The 3.0 software brings us the ability to play games over a local WIFI network against our closest friends (and soon to be enemies). Whilst I haven’t been able to play any games using this feature (for a start they’re all still in development), one can only imagine the amount of fun you could get up to with P2P Connectivity.

In-App Transactions

Ok, so I may have already tackled this subject in my first , but that doesn’t mean we can’t have another look at what will be a big feature in the new OS for gamers.  The new SDK allows for developers to implement microtransactions in their apps so that users can get extra content for a small (or large) fee. For gamers, this would mean bonus maps and levels, downloaded over the air, straight to the phone, with a payment made using your iTunes account. While this may seem like a good idea on paper, this could remove something that we have taken for granted for almost a year now. A few games come to mind were the developers have been releasing downloadable content and free extras months after initial release. An example of this would be [opens itunes store] which had a major update a few months ago and introduced multiple new levels, free of charge. I’m not saying that this is a bad feature, I’m just giving you all a bit of food for thought.

Accessories

There are many iPhone and iPod touch accessories out there, but most of them are either first party Apple products or have no real special feature, eg.  a set of headphones with a mic or a docking station. With the new SDK, Apple has given developers and manufacturers to ability to produce custom applications and have them work on third party accessories. Now I haven’t personally had chance to play with anything like this, but there is a place in my heart for the first company that produces a games cradle that features actual buttons. That way, I have the choice between using virtual, on-screen buttons and physical buttons.

Multimedia Messages

…Or as I like to call it the ultimate bragging tool. Picture the scene, you and a friend are battling it out for the highest score on a game, lets say… [opens iTunes store]. You pull off an awesome move and your high score goes through the roof. Sure, you could send them an SMS or an E-mail to brag about it, but why not take a screenshot of it but holding down the sleep and home buttons until it flashes (this was available on previous iPhone OS versions), then once you’re done playing, go into your camera roll and send them the screenshot. Talk about embarrassing. I did this to a friend of mine just the other day, it soon shut them up. The only problem with this feature is that I had to activate MMS on my carrier (O2) but the process was quite straight forward and didn’t require a degree in quantum physics to pull off.

Extra Home Screen Spaces

In the latest BETA (yes there has been 2, the initial one and a second which added a bit more polish) Apple has added extra home screens, bringing the total up to 11. If my maths is correct, that means that your iPhone or iPod Touch can now hold up to 180 apps. That’s a lot of games…

Spotlight Search

So now you have all these games, how are you going to effectively navigate the home screens to get to your favourite ones? Well, Apple has thought of that too. If you swipe to the left of the first home screen, you be presented a search bar and keyboard. You simply start typing in the name and before you know it, your desired app will show up in a simple menu. You don’t even have to press the search button, but I suppose you could do if you have OCD or something. And it’s not just apps Spotlight searches for. It also looks for contacts, messages and even songs on your iPod, although in my experience, songs tend to take a few extra seconds to load up. I don’t know whether this will be cleared up before the final release or if this is due to it searching through a database of the 1600+ tracks on my phone and can’t be sped up anymore.

So there you have it, all the big feature of the upcoming OS update for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Like I said at the start, We haven’t got an exact release date to look forward to, but expect it to be available in the next month or so. The update will be free to all iPhone users and will cost $10 for iPod Touch owners. Is it worth it? well for an iPhone user, definitely. iPod Touch users might want to sleep on it for a week before making a final decision. Especially when considering that some of the other BIG feature of this OS which I didn’t mention, such as cut and paste, won’t really be used by an iPod Touch user who can’t send messages. On the flip-side, if you’re a gamer, and if you’re reading this, the chances of that being true are quite high, then the temptation of Peer to Peer gaming might be just to great to resist.