Later this week Apple will unveil the highly anticipated iOS 4.1 update, the first major OS 4 update since the initial software roll out.  Included in the update is the hyped Game Center, Apple’s solution for social gaming on their platform which allows iOS users find friends, track achievements, compare high scores and play multiplayer games against opponents.  Essentially Game Center is Apple’s answer to Xbox live, but for portable devices.  With the September 1 iPod event, Apple announced 99 cent HD TV episode rentals and iOS 4.1 will bring those rentals to your pocket.  The new social music network, Ping, is also coming in the iOS 4.1 update along with the ability to upload HD video to YouTube and Mobile Me from the iPhone 4.  Personally, the most enticing feature with the update will be HDR photography.  When enabled, the HDR feature for the iPhone 4 will capture multiple photos at different exposures and merge them into a single photo.  Those familiar with photography might have dabbled with HDR or even experimented using photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop so seeing this feature performed with iPhone 4 hardware should be interesting.

A few key features of iOS 4.1 not included on the Apple website are specifically targeted at iPhone 4 bugs as well as iPhone 3G performance.  First, the proximity sensor bug affecting some iPhone 4 units will be addressed.  Second, the performance or lack thereof with iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G should now be up to snuff.  And last, the bluetooth performance and connectivity affected some iPhone 4 owners will be ironed out.  It would be fair to say that the latter of these iOS 4.1 features could prove to be the most important and that things like Game Center and HDR are inconsequential to the overall usefulness of the device in the business environment.  Whichever the case may be, iOS 4.1 will be released this week (possibly Wednesday) and we’ll have a hands-on to walk you through the changes.