iPhone firmware 2.2 with Street View, OTA podcasts arrives

As expected, the latest firmware for the iPhone popped up in iTunes early this morning, bringing with it a number of goodies and bug fixes. Among them: Street View for Google Maps, public transit directions, and over-the-air podcast downloads.

Oh, and one other thing: Apple appears to have fixed nagging problems with iPhone e-mail fetching, a problem that's been bugging me (and many other iPhone users, apparently) for months now.

Firmware 2.2 is available now for both iPhone and iPod Touch users; just sync your device with iTunes and you should be prompted with the update.

So, lets jump to the good stuff, starting with Street View. Just click on a "pinned" location in Google Maps, and you'll see a small icon if Street View is available. Tap it, and the street-view image opens and swivels into landscape view. Just flick left, right, up or down to change the view; a circle in the bottom-right of the screen shows you which direction you're facing on the map. Double-click to zoom in. No "compass view" as on the T-Mobile G1, but still, pretty cool.

Also new for Google Maps: Public transit and walking directions. Once you call up a set of directions, just tap the bus for local transit options, including bus routes, subways, plus estimated travel times (even NYC subway "schedules"—uh, there's a schedule?). Hoofing it? Tap the little walking guy for directions on foot (yes, you can walk the wrong way down a one-way street).

[Note: Gizmodo is reporting that the new Google Map features (including Street View) aren't available for iPod Touch users—sorry, folks.]

Among my favorite 2.2 additions has to be over-the-air podcast downloading (either over Wi-FI or AT&T's cell network). When you're looking at your queue of podcasts, just tap the "Get More Episodes" link and you'll jump to the Wi-Fi iTunes store, where you can check for and download new episodes. Unfortunately, iPhone won't check for new podcasts automatically, but hey—I'l take what I can get.

And my favorite bug fix: POP and IMAP e-mail fetching, which has been wonky for many users (Apple says it's an "isolated" issue, but just try telling that to the users on this support thread) since firmware 2.1 came out in September. Fetching on my iPhone didn't seem to be working at all unless it was plugged into a power source; for the moment, though, my phone is (once again) fetching messages every 15 minutes, right on schedule.

Missing in action: push notification, a feature that would allow Apple's servers to "ping" iPhone apps when background events (such as new IMs) occur. Steve Jobs promised push notification for September; apparently, someone's behind schedule.

Other 2.2 improvements include a tweaked interface for Safari, the option to turn off auto-correction for the keyboard, and various security updates; MacRumors has the whole list right here.

So, what do you think: Happy with the latest update? What features are you still waiting for?