The latest firmware update released by Apple may have improved security and additional features, but some iPhone owners are having problems. Reports from users of Apple’s support forum show a big problem with the iPhone OS 3.1 update on iPhone 3G.

Users are killing the brick phones, and iPhones that go down several times, require a hard reboot. Keep the dream and the start button does not always work, however. Some users feel the need to downgrade to iTunes 8 and Firmware 3.0.1 to solve the problems.

Other problems arise include battery life much shorter, and suddenly pod casts are listed in random order instead of threads sorted by date.

Original iPhone and iPhone 3G business users report more problems. Neither the encryption device officially supports Exchange, in contrast with 3GS. Apple does not really enforce encryption policies on an iPhone until the iPhone OS 3.1 units.

In other words, Apple is finally in accordance with encryption standards change in 2007, and people without a 3GS iPhone are out of luck. That is, unless your IT administrators change policy disable encryption.