Apple will release its 2.1 firmware for the iPhone Friday and iPod touch today. Steve Jobs touted the update today, saying it fixes many bugs, allows for faster backups, drops fewer calls, and more. For those of us with iPhone issues--we've had them all--he had us at "hello."

The update will be free for iPhone owners and ships with the new iPod touch. It's also a free upgrade for iPod touch owners who are using the 2.0 update, but it will cost $9.95 to update an older version.