We’ve all been waiting for it. We’ve all seen the rumors. Some of us have even spent loads of time in photoshop doing some mythbusting. Plenty of us have held off on buying a new phone for just this announcement. Well wait no more, fanboys and girls; the new iPhone is here!
Set to be available on June 19th (just two days after 3.0 drops), the 3GS matches up to many speculations we’ve seen over the past few months. For starters, adding the S to the nomenclature stands for speed, because it’s the fastest iPhone ever made at an average of 2X the power (they didn’t release hardware specs). There is, of course, the much needed camera upgrade, lifting your picture-snapping from an abysmal 2 megapixels to an improved 3MP with autofocus and autoexposure. It won’t be replacing your point and shoot anytime soon, but the hardware upgrade was a must, and autoexposure is a great feature for a mobile phone. Simply tap the area on the photo you want exposed and the software adjusts accordingly.
Also included in the update is the much rumored (and nearly confirmed a while back) magnetometer, turning your iPhone into an accurate compass. This one should be a nice little boon for those GPS software developers, giving more accurate turning information. What else will developers do with a compass? At least one mindless “point to this direction” game I’m sure.
As for the things we didn’t fully expect, the 3GS will support 7.2 HSDPA, which is great news as more carriers (including AT&T) update their networks. There is also Nike+ support and voice control for added accessibility and hands-free operation. They’ve also added VoiceOver support that will read what you touch on screen.
Also, instead of releasing multiple new phones, the iPhone 3GS comes in black or white, both at the 16GB ($199) and 32GB ($299) levels, adding up to the 4 phones that were predicted. That rumored $99 device? That’s the new price for the iPhone 3G.
Did they do enough to bring the iPhone up to “real smartphone” speeds? Let us know in the comments.
As good as their word, Apple released OS 3.0 for the iPhone today. You’ll need to have iTunes 8.2 installed for the update, which is free for iPhone owners, $10 for the iPod Touch.
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