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It's official, the 3G iPhone has been launched.

The highly anticipated device had been expected for months, but Apple only officially confirmed it's existence on June 10th at it's World Wide Developers' Conference.

So what's new?

Well there's new software, which current iPhone user's can enjoy through an update; and updates to the iPhone hardware, which will have techophiles lining up to get their hands on the latest model.

First the new hardware

The new iPhone supports 3G, a faster mobile network designed with high data transfer rates in mind. How much faster? 2.8 times faster than the current iPhone on the Edge network. Jobs also reckons that the iPhone uses 3G at least 36% faster than other Nokia and Palm 3G phones

CEO Steve Jobs said Apple had learnt a lot from it's first iPhone as he revealed that the new one now has black plastic back, firmer metal buttons, a flush headphone jack, better audio quality, a much better battery...

...and yes, new iPhone also supports GPS. This will give users a much more reliable location in the Google Maps application.

The new battery provides 300 hours of standby, 5 hours of 3G talk-time (10 on 2G), 5 to 6 hours of high-speed browsing, 7 hours of video and 24 hours of audio.

The new iPhone will be cheaper than ever, thanks to generous subsidies from mobile carriers. The 8GB version will be just $199 USD and the 16GB will be $299 USD. And one more thing, the 16 Gig version is also available in white.The 3G iPhone is avaliable in 22 countries from July 11th.

Now to the software update, iPhone 2.0.

The update will be free for iPhone owners, but iPod Touch users will be slugged $9.99 USD.

What's new in 2.0?

Users can now search through their contacts, with results updating in realtime as they type. They'll also be able to view iWork and Microsoft Office documents with full support. Emailed images can now be saved to your photo library. The calculator goes scientific when tilted sideways. Parents now have increased control of what can be accessed on their child's iPhone. Finally, since the iPhone is going global, the device now has massively increased international language support, including Asian character support.

The App Store will also arrive in 2.0. We already knew that the iPhone will be opened up to third party applications, in fact tens of thousands of developers have been working on their apps for the past few months.

Steve showed us twelve:

- Sega's tilt controlled 'Super Monkey Ball'

- eBay's native bidding application

- Loopt, a location aware social networking app (the name's a little better than 'Nearby Friends's)

- TypePad, an iPhone blogging app

- AP (Associated Press) gives you news specially tailored for the iPhone with their Mobile News Network

- Enigmo, a special little game that utilizes the iPhone's special features

- Cro-Mag Rally, a racing game which uses the phone itself as a steering wheel

- Band, a great sounding band of instruments in your pocket

- Major League Baseball gives you instant video right after the play

- Two applications designed especially for medical professionals

- Digital Legends has a 3D fantasy game which they say is better on the iPhone than any other mobile gaming device

Some Applications will be free, others will come with a price tag. They'll be available for download when the App Store goes live in early July.

Learn more about this author, Ben Winsor.
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