• Multitasking
• App folders
• Printing abilities through a wireless connection
• Wireless music, video and photo streaming to the new Apple TV or AirPlay speakers.
• Game Centre
• Improved Mail organisation and Safari text searches
• More than 30 new keyboard and dictionary enhancements including Hebrew, Arabic and Greek.

Despite claims that Steve Jobs revealed that iOS 4.1 feature, HDR photography would be coming to the iPad in November during a speech on the upcoming software, this news confirms that this probably wasn’t the case. It looks like an iPad with a camera may be a little futher away than we first thought, but at least we have the leaked shot of the Apple tablet testing Facetime to keep us going for now.

Will a software update be enough to keep iPad users away from the calling and camera functionalities of the Samsung Galaxy Tab? Only time will tell.

In case you missed the event and would like to know what the new firmware contains, here is a rundown of what’s new:

• Game Centre

- Send and receive friend requests.
- Invite friends to multiplayer games over the internet.
- Play multiplayer games by auto-matching with other players.
- View leader boards and achievements.
- Discover new games from friends.

• High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos on iPhone 4.
• Support for TV show rentals on iTunes.
• Ability to upload HD videos to YouTube and MobileMe over Wi-Fi on iPhone 4.
• Additional support for AVRCP supported accessories including next and previous track control.
• FaceTime calling directly from favourites.
• Bug fixes including:

- iPhone 4 proximity sensor performance.
- iPhone 3G performance.
- Nike + iPod fixes.
- Bluetooth improvements.

The new Game Centre social networking app will not work on the iPhone 3G, but is fine for the 3GS, the iPhone 4 and every iPod Touch after the 2nd generation model, plus it looks like the flashy new HDR photography tool is limited to iPhone 4 users too.

However, iPhone 3G owners probably won’t care that they don’t have access to Game Centre – it’s what Open Feint has been doing for a while anyway – as they simply want the new firmware to speed their phones up! The good news is that the 3G’s performance running iOS 4.1 has been improved, with Mail, Messages, Contacts and Settings being far more responsive, plus scrolling effects are smoother and the unlock screen now keeps up with your typing!

A word of warning before you head off and update your iPhone, if you have jailbroken it, this will certainly cancel that out.

The slide out QWERTY comes with some decent specs to go with it too:

• 3.7 inch screen
• Android 2.2
• 7 customisable homescreens
• Dedicated panel giving one click access to Google apps including Android Market.
• 4GB internal memory
• Pre-installed 8GB microSD card that can hold up to 32GB.
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Pre-installed Swype and Flash
• 800MHz Snapdragon CPU
• HD video shooting at 720p
• 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus

Putting the obvious disadvantage of the UK not having a 4G network aside, we’re still hoping that the handset will be making it onto UK shores at some point – after all, it has been going around the rumour mill for long enough! Now the G2 has been made official, HTC might bring the Desire Z along to their press event in London next week. There’s no harm in wishful thinking!

Nokia insiders burst that bubble earlier though and revealed that this is not the case to a Swedish website claiming that the N9 has been delayed and Symbian^3 will be the hottest topic on this year’s agenda. However, Nokia’s PR people quashed any reports of a delay stating that the manufacturer “will present a new mobile with MeeGo sometime in 2010.”

If you’re not sure who to believe right now, the first MeeGo convention starts in Dublin on November 15^th so even if we don’t hear anything on the device next week, chances are that the Nokia N9 could be making an appearance in some form then.

Seven months down the line and the Official MeeGo Blog has published the first shots of Meamo and Moblin’s love child in action and true to their word, it looks as if they’ve hit the nail on the head.

MeeGo has got the smartphone basics right, and is shown to be performing a range of tasks including multitasking and screen unlocking. There are two drag and drop unlocking mechanisms and a choice of multi-tasking screens – one being a linear carousel similar to the feature found in the Palm Pre’s webOS and the other being a Maemo 5 inspired grid.

It’s nice to see that Nokia and Intel kept the best original features in tact as Meamo 5’s blurred screen also reappears in the new OS. Multiple iPhone inspired 3 x 4 app launcher screens should prove to be a hit across the smartphone user board too.

MeeGo was originally pegged for a Q2 launch but considering Nokia and Intel’s original hopes for the OS, we’re glad that they’ve taken their time as many are hopeful that the software will give Nokia a much needed boost back up to the smartphone top spot. While we’re not expecting to meet the first rumoured MeeGo handset, the Nokia N9 anytime soon, we might catch a glimpse of the new OS at Nokia World next week.

The Style is shown in three separate clips. One shows it zooming in using its QWERTY keyboard, another demonstrates how the clamshell handset can pick up messages from its external display and a third video gives us a quick overview of the homescreen UI.

There’s no official word on the clamshell QWERTY from RIM at the moment, but based on these demonstration videos, it looks like the BlackBerry Style could be the second OS6 device after the BlackBerry Torch.

Nokia Online will be selling the N8 for £429 SIM free or free from £35 per month. The first Symbian^3 handset will also be available from most major phone retailers from Friday October 1^st.

The Nokia N8 is sure to put the manufacturer back into the smartphone competition with a handset described by Mark Loughran, General Manager at Nokia UK as “a great multitasker” with the “best picture and video capability available on a smartphone.” Just in case you need reminding on what the Nokia N8 has to offer, it sports a 12 megapixel camera, 3.5 inch capacitive touchscreen, HD quality video recording, 3G, Wi-Fi, HDMI out and Bluetooth 3.0.

Will you be getting the Nokia N8 when it’s released?

If you were at the Secret Cinema screening of Lawrence of Arabia, then this trailer is nothing new, but if you missed that very special cinematic experience then we’re able to provide the exclusive Windows Phone 7 advert which played there.

Microsoft and Windows Phone 7 sponsored the event, hence the reason for the trailer, plus it’s important to remember the film that it preceded, as it pays homage to the moment we first meet Omar Sharif’s character in one of the most famous scenes ever committed to film.

For anyone expecting anything more than a homage is going to be rather disappointed, as the only thing it tells us is that ‘a revolution is coming;’ it doesn’t even give us a glimpse of a ‘real’ phone either, at least not one we’re familiar with.

So what’s your take on this? Do you think that Windows Phone 7 will be a revolution? It’ll certainly be good to have Microsoft back in the smartphone game and hopefully they will be playing at the front right from the start.

Nvidia have promised that the chips will provide a 5 x graphics performance and 1080p video processing, which is what Samsung’s newly announced dual core processor, the Orion is said to offer too. The next generation of processors will also help to increase battery life, make web browsing twice as fast with gaming being be 5 times quicker than before too. “Console quality” gaming and 3D phones seem to be on the cards according to LG as well, meaning that we could be seeing 3D handsets before the year is up – never say never!

Tegra 2 chips were originally tipped for tablet use only when they were announced earlier this year, so the fact that they’ve already been developed for smartphones is an exciting prospect. With LG planning to release the Android based Optimus One and Windows Phone 7 handset, Optimus 7 in Q4 of this year, the question now remains if we’ll be seeing a bit of Tegra 2 action in these devices or if the manufacturer will only be adding the processor to Optimus phones that are still in the pipeline. Let the leaks commence!

The Orion is made up of a pair of 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 cores and promises to satisfy your inner geek with the capability of delivering “5 x 3D graphics performance over the previous generation of processors from Samsung,” 1080p video recording and playback at 30 frames per second and embedded GPS. According to Samsung, devices based on the new processor will also be able to drive two screens and an external third screen via a HDMI port.

The future of mobile devices is certainly looking bright, but Samsung aren’t the only company cooking up a technology storm. HTC are rumoured to be adding a dual core processor to the Glacier, and Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chip has similar offerings in terms of performance to the Orion.

The new processor will be available to “select customers” during Q4 with Samsung planning to put it into mass production for the first half of 2011. Considering that LG are planning to release smartphones sporting the Tegra 2 at the end of this year, we’re interested to see which of the two processors will come out on top.