iPhone 3G S, now with video recording, digital compass
It’s the “most powerful, fastest iPhone we’ve ever made,” says Apple SVP Phil Schiller of the 3G S, now with an upgraded three-megapixel camera, voice commands, and picture messaging—all due on June 19. Also: The 8GB version of the iPhone 3G is now just $99.
The news came during Monday’s keynote of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, and the announcements pretty much fell in line with earlier predictions, including a new digital compass, better battery life, laptop tethering, and MMS—although the latter two won’t be supported on AT&T just yet, news that was followed by a chorus of groans in the audience.
Look for the iPhone 3G S to arrive in stores June 19, two days after iPhone Software update 3.0 (which adds features such as picture messaging, cut-and-paste support, and stereo Bluetooth) arrives on iTunes. Available in both black and white, the 16GB version of the 3G S will sell for $199 (the same initial price as the old 8GB iPhone 3G), while a 32GB model will go for $299. Meanwhile, we’re finally getting a $99 iPhone—the old 8GB 3G, as it turns out.
The iPhone 3G S comes with an impressive set of new features, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the new handset, which looks exactly the same as last year’s iPhone 3G.
iPhone 3G S
The iPhone’s old 2-megapixel camera gets a bump up to three megapixels, at last, along with an auto-focus lens, auto exposure, improved low-light sensitivity, and—here’s the big one—video recording, including on-the-fly touch editing and the ability to send video clips via MMS (more on the iPhone’s picture messaging features in a moment). Still no LED flash, though.
Apple claims that the 3G S runs faster than the iPhone 3G—up to twice as fast, in fact, which means speedier app launching and Web browsing.
In a first for the iPhone, the 3G S will finally be able to make voice-activated calls, as well as play songs and playlists at your command—not bad, although voice commands have long been standard issue on many other existing cell phones.
Poor battery life has been the bane of many an iPhone owner’s existence, but Apple promises that the 3G S will get you three more hours of Web browsing (over Wi-Fi) and six more hours of audio, although talk time on AT&T’s 3G network remains five hours.
Digital compass
Finding your way on Google Maps for iPhone can be a chore if you don’t know what direction you’re facing, but the new 3G S should fix that with it’s new digital compass, which will give you your longitude, latitude, and precise direction (not to mention better controls on games that rely on the iPhone’s accelerometers).
As announced back in March, both the iPhone 3G S and the iPhone 3G will finally support MMS—one of the biggest missing features on the iPhone—via the iPhone Software 3.0 update, due to hit iTunes on June 17. That’s the good news; the bad news is that AT&T won’t support MMS on the iPhone until “later this summer.” Ugh.
Also included in the iPhone Software 3.0 update: Laptop tethering, which will let you share the iPhone’s 3G data connection with your laptop (via USB or Bluetooth) while you’re out and about. Pretty cool … but while tethering will be available for iPhone users on several worldwide carriers, we won’t be able to tether on AT&T, or at least not for now. Double-ugh. Update: I followed up with AT&T on their iPhone tethering plans, and here’s the response I got: “We plan to offer a tethering plan but we don’t have an announcement to make at this time.”
Get ready for direct downloads of TV shows and movie rentals/purchases on the iPhone (perfect for grabbing some videos before boarding a flight), stability and speed enhancements for the mobile version of Safari, and a “Find My iPhone” feature (which tracks down your lost iPhone, provided you’re subscribed to Apple’s MobileMe service).
source: tech.yahoo.com
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