As rumored earlier iPhone Firmware 2.2 is now available for download via iTunes to general users, apart from several new features and performance improvements the new update fixes critical security vulnerabilities and is being labeled as a "essential update" by Apple.

The new firmware update brings the following new features:

• Google Street View with public transit and walking directions with handy option to share location via email.
• Mail improvements like better formatting of wide HTML email with resolved issues with scheduled fetching of emails.
• Availability of millions of free podcasts from your device.
• Performance and stability improvements to Safari.
• Handy option to turn text auto-correction on and off from the Keyboard Settings.
• Now pressing the Home button from many Home screen takes you to the first Home screen.
• Decrease in call setup failures and dropped calls.
• Better sound quality of Visual Voicemail messages

Despite strict Apple iPhone Developer NDA agreements, a reader of TUAW leaked screenshots of iPhone Firmware 2.2 Beta 2, the screenshots indicates that the new firmware will support direct downloading of podcasts onto the device.

As of now, you can only sync podcasts on iPhone via iTunes, the new direct downloading support will definitely help users avoid the hassle of manual syncing.