iPhone 2.0 Software Trickles Out, 'Very Good' So Far, Exchange Email A Bit Flaky

Apple's iPhone 2.0 software update won't roll out until next Friday, July 11, when the new iPhone 3G goes on sale. But it's already starting to leak -- a not-quite-finished version, perhaps -- and some iPhone owners are testing it on their older, first-generation phones.

It's "very good" so far, says Spark Capital's Bijan Sabet, who installed the iPhone 2.0 update a few nights ago.

Highlights: Syncing up calendar entries and address book data wirelessly via his Microsoft Exchange server, which he says is "a dream." And he digs the geo-location data the iPhone camera adds.

Lowlights: He had some problems setting it up with sync with Exchange -- a firewall problem. And it's "choked a few times" trying to send emails. "When it does choke it keeps it in the outbox and tries again later," he says. "That has happened a number of times today." Push email on the iPhone seems to drain his battery faster than it does on his BlackBerry, too, he thinks. (Again -- not sure if he has the final version of the iPhone 2.0 software, so Apple might still make some improvements.)

And a tiny bit of disappointing news for those hoping Apple would add one particular last-minute surprise: Still no copy and paste, Sabet confirms. Bummer.

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Photo: Bijan Sabet