Apples Game Center goes live

Apple has released the iOS 4.1 firmware upgrade for iPhone owners giving them access to Game Center.

The Xbox Live-rivalling service allows users to invite friends to play games together, track and unlock achievements as well as compare high scores on the leader boards.

So far reception for Game Center has been mixed. The service is incompatible with the iPhone 3G but will work on 3GS and 4 models.

Apple is also releasing iOS 4.2 in November giving the iPad tablet device hundreds of new applications including Game Center.

The iPhone social gaming hub will also go head-to-head with Microsoft’s mobile operating system Windows Phone 7 which launches next month.