At their WorldWide Developer's Conference on Monday, Apple announced the newest update to their popular iPhone hardware. The update will bring more hardware improvements than straight feature bumps. The smartphone will run, on average, up to 2 times faster, according to Apple. For Web browsing and other tasks, the phone will also offer improved battery life over the original, though Apple hasn't been able to eke out more talk time over AT&T's 3G network.
Can you see me now?
The most asked-about feature on the new phone is the new camera. It gets a 3-megapixel shooter with the all-important auto focus lens. In fact, Apple will adopt the touch focus features that we've enjoyed on other recent high-end cameraphones, such as the HTC Touch Diamond 2. The user simply taps an area of the screen, and the camera focuses on that specific space.
The new camera will also see video recording, a first on the iPhone platform. The camera will record video at VGA resolution up to 30fps, which is a nice start for Apple's first foray into phone camcorders. We wish the onboard camera were more impressive, though. 3-megapixels is at the low end for new cameraphones, and we'd like to see more settings and shooting features, like a panorama mode. Still, Apple promises fully automated camera settings, including an auto macro mode that the company claims will focus on subjects as close as 10cm from the lens.
The new camcorder app will see some basic video editing, but only for trimming video files to size, not for real linear editing. These clipped videos can then be sent as MMS messages, another first for the iPhone platform. MMS messages will appear in the same thread as text messages. Unfortunately, MMS support will be dependent on carrier, and AT&T has yet to solidify plans for multimedia messaging support.
Gimme, gimme more
Apple wasn't too specific about the hardware improvements under the hood, but the phone will be able to browse on faster, 7.2Mbps HSDPA networks. AT&T is expected to start rolling out support for 7.2Mbps HSDPA shortly, and the service is already widely in use abroad. The phone will now have built-in Nike+ support, a feature iPod touch users have enjoyed from the start.
For calling features, the new phone will see some robust Voice Control features added. In addition to speaker independent voice dialing, users will be able to control iTunes and other apps on the phone. In fact, music fans can create a new Genius playlist simply by asking the phone to "Play more songs like this." A simple trick, but paired with the cool interface Apple is demonstrating for the app, it looks like a cool addition we've been asking for.
Same shirt, different day
The new phone will come in higher capacities than the original model, but the exterior design seems unchanged. The new phone enters at the same price point as the original, but $200 now buys you a 16GB model, while $300 gets you a full 32GB. The original iPhone 3G 8GB model will stay on the market, now at a seriously enticing $100 price. The new phone goes on sale, on June 19th. The current iPhone will get its price cut immediately, so the old model should be available today at the lower price.
The iPhone 3.0 update will be available to all iPhone and iPod touch users on June 17th, 2 days before the new hardware is available. iPod touch users will again be asked to pay $10, but all iPhone users will get the update for free, including first-generation iPhone buyers.
Conspicuous absence
A couple of the new iPhone features are dependent on carrier support, and unfortunately these are among the most requested features. Besides MMS messaging, the new iPhone will see some sort of seamless tethering option. No software will be necessary to establish a network connection to use it as either a tethered Bluetooth modem or a USB modem. This would be a great feature, especially considering the faster networking speeds. Unfortunately, in the list of carriers supporting the new feature, AT&T was nowhere to be found. While AT&T has professed some kind of support for MMS "later this summer," no mention was made of AT&T's interest in tethered modem support.
Otherwise, there were no real surprises during the new iPhone launch. There was no video conferencing as rumored, but we never bought that rumor for a number of technical reasons, not to mention a possible lack of consumer interest. We liked the new security features on the iPhone. Besides the Find My iPhone app included in the iPhone OS 3.0 update, the new iPhone gets hardware encryption. So, data is secure, and remote wipes for the device would be instantaneous.
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