Many iPhone 3G owners have complained of poor performance and other issues after installing iOS 4 on their devices. The new operating system limits features such as multitasking on the older hardware to keep an acceptable level of performance. Unfortunately something went wrong and Apple has been investigating why iOS 4 brought so many iPhone 3G units to a crawl.

Fortunately, the company is poised to release iOS 4.1, a major update that's already in beta 3 with developers. Joel Evans over at ZDNet has confirmed a vast improvement in iPhone 3G performance with the iOS 4.1 firmware update. In fact, he reports that some functions on the iPhone 3G are faster with iOS 4.1 that they were using 3.1.3. This is welcome news for iPhone 3G owners, whose problems were overshadowed by reception issues on the iPhone 4 antenna.

The latest version of Google Mobile for the iPhone features some great improvements, including push notification functionality. The mobile Google app (now at 0.6.0.4416) now features an icon badge with the number of unread emails on your linked Gmail accounts. Push notifications that pop up on your home screen can be sent when a calendar event is about to take place on your Google calendar schedule.

Mophie and Intuit have entered the iPhone credit card transaction game with the Complete Card Solution for iPhone. Mophie, known for its iPhone battery pack cases, developed an iPhone 3G/3GS case that includes a magnetic card reader built in. When the card is swiped, data is encrypted before it uploads to the iPhone to be processed by the Intuit GoPayment 3.0 app.

Mophie is working on an iPhone 4 version of the device. In the meantime, Square features a portable card reader that plugs into the headphone jack of any iPhone or iPad. The two competing payment systems have different costs, with Square being completely free to set up. Complete Card Solution is $179 for the card reader unit and requires a $12.95 monthly subscription.

Anyone waiting around for an iOS 4.0.2 jailbreak will be waiting around for a long time if the iPhone Dev-Team has anything to say about the matter. Now that Apple has released a fix for the PDF exploit so cleverly used in JailbreakMe 2.0, the iPhone Dev-Team plans to wait it out until iOS 4.1 firmware launches to jailbreak again.

According to the development team, even though Apple is now shipping iPhones with firmware 4.0.2, which can't be jailbroken with JailbreakMe, releasing an interim solution before iOS 4.1 hits the streets would be a waste of time. iPhone 4.0.2 and iPad firmware 3.2.2 was released for the sole purpose of shutting down JailbreakMe, and protecting users from the PDF security hole that is bound to spawn malicious programs soon.

The wait is finally over for Netflix subscribers interested in streaming video on their iPhones. The highly anticipated Netflix app version 1.1.0 went live in iTunes and can be downloaded for free. Netflix subscribers now have access to their Instant Queue and can watch movies using a Wi-Fi or cellular data connection.

Movies that are interrupted can be continued on the iPhone later or on other devices such as an iPad or a computer. The new iOS app is a universal app, meaning it also works on the Apple iPad. Netflix includes high-speed scrubbing controls and switches between full letterbox format and a zoomed video view which fills more of the iPhone screen.

Chinese news source Caixin reports that China Unicom will indeed offer the iPhone 4 for sale on September 16. This is Apple's second iPhone release in China in under a year. October of 2009 saw the launch of a special iPhone 3GS model that shipped without Wi-Fi functionality due to Chinese regulations. The iPhone 4 slated for China Unicom's network this fall is said to have Wi-Fi.

Grey market iPhones are popular in China, with millions of units in operation. China Unicom allows users with any iPhone that supports its network to purchase data plans. The lack of Wi-Fi and high prices may have kept iPhone 3GS sales lower than expected. iPhones imported from other countries can sell for half the price.

According to an email from Steve Jobs himself, the latest and greatest iOS firmware version 4.1 will be publicly released soon. Already in beta 3, many features and bug fixes have been revealed by developers and are on their way to iPhone users across the planet. Apple has some finishing touches to add to the firmware before release, which is expected in September.

In the meantime, here's a rundown of what's coming in the iOS 4.1 update. First of all, iPhone 3G users will be happy to hear that iOS 4.1 will improve performance on their devices. Many have complained about sluggish performance and other issues after installing iOS 4.0 on this model iPhone. Subsequent fixes iOS 4.0.1 and 4.0.2 have failed to address the issues.

Rumors have surfaced online that Apple and its partner AT&T Wireless have ceased to offer the iPhone 4 without a two-year service contract. Speculation on the issue has blamed the policy change on everything from an impending Verizon iPhone to AT&T greed. These reports would be informative except for one thing, the rumor is not true.

Both AT&T and Apple offer the iPhone 4 without a contract at no-commitment pricing. However, these deals are not available online. AT&T representatives have verified that the iPhone 4 can be purchased without a contract in person, from either an AT&T Wireless retail store or an Apple Store. To have an iPhone purchased online and shipped to your residence or place of business, a two-year contract is required.

According to Oprah Magazine, StumbleUpon is not only the most addictive website ever, it's also the "greatest thing ever invented." Well now you can have all this on your iPhone with the StumbleUpon app. The app will look familiar if you're one of StumbleUpon's almost 11 million members.

With an embedded browser, the StumbleUpon toolbar has thumbs up and thumbs down buttons along with a home button and random stumble option. In order to use the app you must have a registered account with StumbleUpon. What sets the iPhone app apart from the desktop version is a focus on mobile-web specific features and content.

Vimeo has expanded its embedded video offerings to include iOS optimized HTML5. The video sharing site first launched iPhone-compatible viewing earlier this year with a limited selection of content. Although selections have been greatly expanded with the Universal Player, there are still videos that require a Vimeo Plus account to view on a mobile device.

Vimeo is even offering a Javascript snippet to help automate the embed code updates for those who have posted content on their web sites. The Universal Player has been under development for some time, and Vimeo plans to add support for more players as needed.