Now we know that REI sells paddle accessories. Hopefully for kayaking.

Apple released firmware 2.2 Friday upon an unsuspecting public. Okay, we were totally expecting the update and the features it brought with it.

For the most part the latest update, while not Earth shattering, is another reason why the iPhone has been stealing market share from more experienced smart phone makers. What follows is what the Mac|Life staff thinks of the latest update.

Google Maps with street view has the best transition animation of any app on the iPhone right now. You zoom from an overhead shot to a view of the street in question. We found ourselves enacting Street View for the sole purpose of this animation. Once in Street View, the pictures of the street load quicker than we expected with Wi-Fi and 3G. Edge, well Edge is Edge, it's serviceable. We have heard from users that figuring out how to use Google Street View on the iPhone can be confusing. For those folks, we have a handy video tutorial below.

Street View sounds great until iPod touch users realize they've been left out of the Street View party. iPod touch users weren't charged for this latest update, but they also got the short end of the stick. We're puzzled at the decision to keep Street View off the iPod touch. It makes sense considering the iPod touch has integrated Nike+. You want to know where you're running right?

The ability to disable auto-correction is nice for those who have mastered the onscreen keyboard. Some users have remarked that typing seems to respond quicker with auto-correction off.  We didn't notice a marked difference.

The new menu bar in Safari saves us exactly one tap. Which in the grand scheme of things could lead to hours of gained tapping that could be used to learn a foreign language, start a correspondence with a stranger in a far-away land, or we could play more Line Rider. The menu bar makes Safari seem busier than it needs to be, but it follows the look of desktop browsers.

The App Store app categories face lift is nice. We do wonder how long an app will be utilized to signify a category and how does an app qualify for the coveted spot.  

Podcast on the go is great for podcast enthusiasts. Hopefully in the next update we'll be able to download TV shows and music videos while on the go. Also, the podcasts are now arranged with the latest episode on the bottom, so when one is finished and it skips to the next in the list, it's skipping to a LATER episode and not an earlier one. That used to bug the heck out of us.

Google Map walking and public transit are helpful for urbanites looking to get around without a car. Some of the transit recommendations seemed to take us out of our way, but we still ended up where we needed to be. For added fun we decided to see how long it would take to walk from the Mac|Life compound to Mammoth Lakes for some snowboarding. Turns out it's going to take us four days to get there if we walked for 16 hours a day at a brisk four miles an hour. It also had us walking along a few roads that are closed for the winter. In town walking directions are much better. Like Street View, iPod touch owners are missing the walking and transit information.Why does Google and Apple hate iPod touch owners?

Because Emoji is huge in Japan, only Japan got the enhanced test messaging which is a huge bummer for us. Maybe we can start one of those online petitions to get it over here in the United States.

The app rating feature that allows you to rate an app as you're deleting it is sure to create a slew of bad ratings. Usually you delete an app because it sucks. How often do you delete an app you actually use?

Tapping on the Home Button to return to the main Home screen is a feature we never knew we needed. This is especially helpful if you keep the Camera app on the main Home Screen and you need to take a quick pic of your friend's hat fashioned from bar coasters.

The staff member whose email suffered from the lack of real fetch email service has noticed that his work emails are syncing much quicker with his desktop machine. His MobileMe email still suffers from the 15 minute delay noted by Apple. We've also noticed that dropped calls have become less of a problem since the update.

Barring the mysterious omission of Street View and transit/walking info from Google Map from the iPod touch, we're happy with the new update and the features it has brought to our devices. Although, still no copy and paste.