According to MacRumors, developers have received the second version of the 2.2 firmware beta. The first 2.2 beta included elements of Google Street View, as we reported then, and this 2nd beta fully enables this feature.

Street View on the iPhone will make its mapping capabilities very similar to those of the new T-Mobile G1. Street View enables a realistic view of your current location in Google Maps, and also includes a compass function that automatically adjusts the view as you move around on the G1. Street view is currently available on Google Maps online (pictured below), and iPhoneYap has pictures of how it will look on the iPhone in the 2.2 firmware.

 

As you may recall, the first 2.2 firmware beta also included 461 Japanese emoji, small graphic images frequently used by the Japanese in text communication, as well as a setting to turn of auto-correction for text entry. A screenshot released by a developer at the time showed that this collection included the standard smiley face emoticons common on many other cell phones. What we’re not clear on is if these emoji will be enabled with all language settings on the iPhone, or if they will only work when Japanese is the default language set.

 

 

There’s still no word on the release date of the 2.2 firmware, and no information on the push notification service Apple previously promised. In this area, they are well behind schedule since the push notification service was promised for September, and October is now almost over. Without the push notification service, instant messaging, and other apps that need some way to provide updates when they’re not running, are still not fully functional.