It’s June, and in the land of Apple fans, that means it’s time for an iPhone update.
Today at the World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), Apple took the wraps off of a new operating system for the existing phones as well as updating the physical handset itself.
iPhone OS 3.0
The features of OS 3.0 have been known for quite some time due to the iPhone OS 3.0 features announcement that Apple did back in March of this year. All of the features we expected were there such as cut, copy & paste, auto-fill for forms, Spotlight search to look through the entire phone for information and a whole lot more.
One of the most exciting new features had to be “Find My Phone”. If you lose your phone, and you have subscirbed to the service which will be included with MobileMe, you simply go to a web browser and tell it to locate your phone. It will show you on a map where it is and it will also begin emitting an audible beep in case it is in the cushions of your couch. This audible feature will work even if you have the phone in silent mode at the time.
Even more exciting about this is if by some chance the phone is in some place you don’t recognize on the map, you can use a remote kill switch to wipe all of your email and contacts. If you should happen to get the phone back you will simply need to hook the phone up to iTunes to get it running again. A great piece of mind for everyone.
iPhone 3GS
The new version of the wildly popular phone is finall going to be adding the ability to record videos on its 3 megapixel camera. The camera for still photography will have an auto-focus lens that will also have a tap-to-focus that will allow you to tap on the part of the photo you want to focus, and it will automatically do so. It will also be adding the ability to automatically handle exposure, white balance and better low-light sensitivity. If you want to get close to a photo subject, say up to 10cm away, the new camera will also have an auto-macro.
Video recording will also have automatic exposure, white balance and so on. Once you have the videos you will be ale to do corrections on the phone and then email them to a contact, upload them to YouTube or even send them out attached to an MMS.
Other new features will include voice control for all the main functions of the device from making a call to controlling your music, a compass that can help orientate you in the Maps app and a longer battery life.
iPhone Pricing
The new iPhone 3GS will have a 16GB version for $199 and a 32GB version for $299, both of which require a two-year contract with AT&T (prices and carriers vary by country). The most interesting announcement was that the 8 GB iPhone 3G will still be available for $99, almost guaranteeing Apple even deeper penetration into the mobile phone market.
iPhone OS 3.0 & iPhone 3GS Release Dates
Current iPhone users can expect their phones to be updated to the latest OS on June 18th, iPod Touch users will also get it the same day, but at a cost of $5.
The iPhone 3GS will be available on June 19th.
