Back before the iPhone, I was using one of GRC.com's long, pseudo-random passwords for my WPA-protected Wi-Fi network. Typing it into iPhone 1.x, even iPhone 2.x was a non-starter, however, so I shrank it down considerably.

Similar security-conscious folks have lamented not only the lack of copy and paste on the iPhone, but especially the lack of "paste-into-password field" to support just those kinds of super-secure strings.

Well, it looks like we might be getting them -- along with the previously discussed copy and paste features, in iPhone 3.0.

Whether this makes it or not into the final release version is something only time will tell (because Apple, of course, isn't saying).

But we want it.

Confession: My iPhone 3G/2.x experience has been relatively painless so far. No dropped calls, almost no 3G issues, very few App crashes, no eternal syncs, etc. While Steve Jobs reportedly said I'm in the norm, along with 98% of other iPhone users, you really wouldn't know that from the intertubes. They're on fire with dissatisfied users, and reader Anon, commenting on a post, points us to a thread on Apple's discussion boards that indicates the dissatisfaction may not be ending any time soon.

The latest problem is with the 2.1 firmware -- technically the 2.1.1 firmware already shipping, apparently, on the new second generation iPod Touch -- and WiFi. Specifically, non-Apple Airport WiFi access points and the WPA security protocol (which should be what everyone is using now, right?)

While some might think this is no big deal, considering the older WEP protocol remains an option, TiPb would remind you that system can be broken in less than a minute these days, rendering it little better than no security at all.

For the record, however, I helped upgrade a 1st gen iPod Touch to 2.1 on Wednesday, and it connected to with no problems whatsoever to a Linksys WiFi router, so this might be one of the increasingly common, more complicated and multi-factor errors Apple's been encountering (like Vista BSODs with iTunes 8...)

On the iPhone side, does this mean we'll be getting 2.1.1 tomorrow as well? And will face similar problems? Or is Apple even now rushing an emergency rebuild of 2.1.1 or even 2.1.2 to finally -- finally -- give the 2%ers some stability?