restore to clear out old firmware etc iPhone 3G

there were traces of old stuff (firmware and os stuff I think).
Old versions of the firmware are not kept upon iOS upgrades.
is it possible to do a new phone restore and maintain my old app settings?
No... hence the term new phone
iMac 2.66Ghz, 2.66Ghz MacBook Pro, iPhone 4 Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Templeton Peck wrote:
there were traces of old stuff (firmware and os stuff I think).
Old versions of the firmware are not kept upon iOS upgrades.

is it possible to do a new phone restore and maintain my old app settings?
No... hence the term new phone
OK, I must have remembered the firmware part wrong. The Genius Bar guy said something about traces of stuff from 2008--do you know what that could be? OS stuff?
OK, so with a new phone you cant get restore app data? What do people do if they have the type of app like Milebug that stores data?
Mac Pro 2.66GHz Mac OS X (10.6.3) 5GB ram

You can restore with your backup which will keep your app data or restore as new, i.e. without your backup and it will be factory fresh with the latest OS installed.
HP DV7 Laptop Windows 7 iPhone 3G 8GB 3.1.3

The only traces of stuff from 2008 would be the data included with your iPhones backup.
This link provides the data that is included with your iPhones backup which is updated by iTunes as the first step during the iTunes sync process.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766
When restoring your iPhone with iTunes, it is completely erased first followed by the firmware being re-installed. After the firmware is re-installed you are prompted to restore from your iPhones backup, which is the default selection. The other selection is as a new iPhone or not from your iPhones backup. Either way, the iPhone is completely erased first followed by the firmware being re-installed. Any traces of stuff would be from your iPhones backup only if you restore from the backup.
3rd party app settings and data created and stored by a 3rd party app is included with your iPhones backup. If you restore as a new iPhone or not from your iPhones backup, all 3rd party app settings and data created and stored by a 3rd party app will be lost. Restoring from a backup is all or none - you cant pick and choose which data that is included with the backup is restored and which isnt.
 MacBook Pro 15" Intel Core 2 Duo/2.53GHz/4GB RAM/500GB HD Mac OS X (10.6.4)  iPod w/Video 30GB,  iPhone 4 32GB

paulcb wrote:
You can restore with your backup which will keep your app data or restore as new, i.e. without your backup and it will be factory fresh with the latest OS installed.
What I did was restore as new phone, and then I synced. I got my Contacts and Address book, but not the app data. Just now I right-clicked on the iPhone and am restoring from the latest backup, prior to the new phone restore. Will that last step bring back the old crud that I was trying to get rid of?
Mac Pro 2.66GHz Mac OS X (10.6.3) 5GB ram