iPhone 3GS Feature Roundup

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In case you were hiding under a rock all week, Apple announced a new iPhone Monday at WWDC. It’s called the iPhone 3GS and according to Phil Schiller, Apple CIO, the “S” stands for speed.

“It’s the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet. What’s inside is entirely new. It’s a REALLY fast iPhone. Everything you do will have incredible speedups.”

Besides being fast, what else does both the new iPhone 3Gs and its 3.0 operating system have to offer? Let’s take a look at some of the new features and functionality in the new iPhone 3GS:

iPhone 3.0 OS:

• MMS – Unfortunately MMS won’t be available on AT&T right away. Americans will have to wait til late Summer. The rest of the world gets it right away. Why is MMS so hard for AT&T to figure out?
• Cut, Copy and Paste – Really? WTF. Why did “copy and paste” have to wait until version 3.0?
• In App Purchases, allowing developers sell content and services from within their apps
• Peer to Peer Connectivity, particularly useful for multi-player game apps
• Email Push Notification
• A new Map Kit framework integrating mobile Google Maps
• iPod Library Access allowing users tap into their music, podcast or audio book libraries from third party apps
• The ability to search your iPhone
• Read and compose email and text messages in landscape orientation
• Find My iPhone – Did you lose your iPhone? Did you leave it at a restaurant, a friend’s house, or maybe in a taxi? The Find My iPhone service will show you exactly where your iPhone is on a map. You can even make your phone emit a sound (even in Silent mode) to help you find it. You can also display a message on its screen like “$50 reward” or even remotely wipe the phone’s data if you think it’s lost for good.
• Direct TV and Movie Downloads
• Turn-by-Navigation – GPS manufacturers like Tom Tom are producing navigation software for the iPhone. They are also planning on selling dashboard mounting kits with the app. Very smart.

The iPhone 3.0 software will be available on June 17th. It’s free for iPhone users and $9.99 if you have an iPod Touch.

iPhone 3GS:

• Video Camera – 3MP camera with 30 FPS video recording and editing capabilities. Upload by Email or to YouTube or MobileMe from the device.
• Voice commands – You can now use your voice to place calls or play songs. For example, “Call methodshop.com” or “Play a song by David Hasselhoff.”
• Built-in Digital Compass
• Colors – Black or White
• $199 (16GB version) and $299 (32GB version) from 19th June.

Apple also reduced the cost of the original 8GB iPhone 3G to only $99.