Google Street View, auto-correction prefs in iPhone OS 2.2 beta

Last week AppleInsider reported that the first private beta of iPhone Software 2.2 included a redesigned Safari address bar, as well as a new version of the App Store application with interface tweaks and a new bug report feature.

While those changes are visible to developers testing the software, a post at MacRumors details support for a few other features that have thus far remain inaccessible to developers, as they're not yet fully activated in the betas.

Among them is a preference to turn off the iPhone's text auto-correction. A request for this functionality was recently the subject of an online petition that has since received over 20,000 signatures.

Another feature is support for Google Street View in the iPhone's Maps application. Street View provides 360 degree panoramic views of major cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas using still photographs that have been stitched together. Google and T-Mobile recently highlighted support for Street Views on the G1 — the first Android-based handset due to go on sale later this month.

Separately, and most critically, iPhone Software 2.2 appears to contain the groundwork for emoji icon support. Emoji is a form of Japanese clip art that can be inserted in sentences to spruce up email messages. A lack of emoji support was recently cited by the Wall Street Journal as one of the barriers to adoption faced by the iPhone in Japan.

Apple has offered no indication of when it plans to release iPhone Software version 2.2 and it's unclear whether the aforementioned features will be included in the release or held back for a future update.