Jobs offers relief for iOS 4-running iPhone 3Gs

iPhone 3G owners who have installed iOS 4 and regretted it can take heart. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has apparently promised a software update "soon" that may bring the handset back up to speed.

Not only the original iOS 4.0 update but also the subsequent 4.0.1 and 4.0.2 tweaks have failed to run as quickly on the 3G as iOS 3 - then iPhone OS 3 - did, causing consternation among 3G owners who don't need or want to update their hardware.

One of them this weekend emailed Steve about this and received a reply: "Software update coming soon."

iOS 4.1 has already been provided to app developers, so it's likely this is the imminent update Jobs is referring to. Of course, the Apple boss didn't explicitly say the new firmware will fix the 3G's performance problems, but that's a reasonably assumption to make.

The irony is that iOS 4 on the 3G lacks the software's key feature: multi-tasking. So the one element most likely to have caused the old handset to slow down isn't present. ®