Apple iPhone 3G Smartphone with GPS
Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone 3G at the very end of his keynote at the 2008 Worldwide Developers Conference, after the crowd waited patiently while hearing about Apple's new iPhone 2.0 software, a new version of Mac OS X called "Snow Leopard," and the "MobileMe" Internet service which will replace .Mac soon at Me.com.
Third-party developers demoed various iPhone apps, giving the audience a taste of the third party applications which have already been built with the iPhone SDK. Applications in categories including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel will eventually be available at Apple's App Store.
The new iPhone 3G smartphone supports Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE connectivity, and it features built-in GPS. The new iPhone 2.0 software includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, which provides over-the-air push email, contact and calendar syncing. Unfortunately the new 3G iPhone has the same old 2-megapixel camera as the first generation iPhone, but it has a few nice changes like a flush headphone jack, improved audio quality, and better battery life. iPhone 3G is said to deliver 10 hours of talk time on 2G networks and 5 hours using 3G, up to 5 to 6 hours of web browsing, up to 7 hours for video playback and up to 24 hours for audio playback.
Apple is set to release iPhone 3G on July 11. The 16 GB iPhone 3G is priced at $299, and will be available in black or white. The 8GB iPhone 3G, available in black, will cost just $199 with a new two year contract with AT&T in the U.S.
"iPhone 3G gives users ever faster access to the Internet and email over their cellular network with quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA for voice and data connectivity around the world. iPhone 3G supports Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE networks and automatically switches between them to ensure the fastest possible download speeds. The new iPhone 3G also makes it easier to multi-task with simultaneous voice and data communications, so with iPhone 3G you can browse the web, get map directions, or check your email while you are on a call."
iPhone 3G will be available in more than 70 countries later this year, beginning with customer availability in 22 countries—Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US—on July 11.
