What's New With The iPhone 3G?

For all you mobile maniacs out there, here’s the scoop - the 3G Apple iPhone or the iPhone 3G as it’s being called, has now been officially launched. The reports I have, all seem to state that the attendees at Steve Jobs’ Keynote speech were somewhat thrilled and relieved that the speculation and rumour mongering of what the new iPhone would look like and would incorporate was now put to rest.

Without further ado let me clue you in on some of the more relevant features that make up the new and improved iPhone 3G.

Design

First off, Apple has refurbished the design a bit and the iPhone 3G is now slimmer than the last model. They’ve also added a new color to the line up – White - but that’s only available with the 16GB model. The other models will now have a glossy black rear casing, and I’m tempted to wonder, why go with a finger print magnet? The earphone socket has also been adjusted to accommodate normal 3.5mm pins, so users can simply plug in any headphone of their choice. Instead of a simple flat back it now also tapers a bit to give it a sleeker look and feel. Everything else design-wise hasn’t changed too much. Considering the fact that the new handset supports 3G and Video calling, there still doesn’t seem to be a secondary camera located in front.

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Features

Not only is the new iPhone 3G going to be faster than the previous model it’s also going to have a better battery life, which according to Apple would be 5 hours of talk time. One of the few rumors I’m happy to say are true, is the fact that the new iPhone 3G is going to be equipped with an integrated GPS unit along with a few other location-based services to help enhance that feature especially with Google Maps live tracking and photo Geotagging.

Some of the ‘bugs’ that have been fixed include an option for deleting emails in bulk, a new Contact Search Feature for looking up names in the address book and complete support for viewing Microsoft as well as iWork documents. It will also have a new scientific calculator. But the best part with the handset, at least for business users, is the total enterprise support that the iPhone 3G comes with. Besides that, it will also support Push e-mail, Push contacts, Push calendar, Auto-discovery of Exchange servers, Global address lookup, and a Remote Wipe security feature.

The iPhone 3G will also have TypePad, a native blogging application for the iPhone, so bloggers can easily upload images and content. Associated Press will also have a native iPhone application - the ‘Mobile News Network’. It will allow users to watch news videos as well as upload images to AP. The AppStore will now be stocked with fresh new games including Sega’s Monkey Ball, 3D racing games etc. available for download but would cost about $9.99 per game. The latest iPhone 2.0 SDK will launch in July. It will be free for iPhone users and will cost $10 for iPod Touch users.

Sadly, there still seem to be a few things that Apple missed out with the update or perhaps may incorporate as native in the next update. A major one being the Bluetooth radio, which has still not been updated to support an A2DP profile.

But without dwelling on that sentiment, I’m sure most of us are on pins and needles to find out what the iPhone 3G will be worth on the shelves here in India and when it would arrive because we do know that Airtel is bringing it to us.

So stay tuned for more on that front. Just for your knowledge, the iPhone 3G 8GB will sell for $199 and the iPhone 3G 16GB for $299, which is quite a drop in pricing, so we can definitely hope for the best.