The words on the Apple iPhone website say enough. “Twice as fast. Half the price”. The new iPhone appeals to enterprise use and makes improvements in the older version to make every person need and want one. The 3G iPhone has a new design with a plastic back and can come in either white or black.

3G Speeds

The big major advancement to the iPhone is the 3G network speeds. One of the biggest downfalls of the previous iPhone was its lack of speed and compatibility with networks worldwide. Now the iPhone will be available worldwide taking advantage of 3G network speeds for video streaming, email, using Google maps etc.

GPS

Maps on the iPhone will be more accurate with an in-built GPS. You can use Google maps with the GPS or by triangulating your position using cell-phone towers. You can use it to look at traffic, find nearest places to eat, get directions and it also supports multi-touch (zooming, scrolling).

Enterprise iPhone

The new iPhone will be fully compatible with Microsoft Exchange and MobileMe. Apple is aiming to replace the Blackberry by supporting now the standard in email messaging. It gives mobile users secure access to corporate resources with Cisco IPSec VPN and wireless network services with WPA2 Enterprise and 802.1X authentication.

Features include:

  • Push email
  • Push contacts
  • Push calendar
  • Global Address List (GAL) support
  • Certificates and identities
  • WPA2/802.1X
  • Enforced security policies
  • More VPN protocols
  • Device configuration
  • Remote wipe

iPhone Firmware 2.0

At the conference the new iPhone Firmware 2.0 was announced too. Features included:

- contact searching
- complete iWork document support
- complete Office document support (now includes PowerPoint)
- bulk delete and move for Mail
- save images you receive
- scientific calculator in landscape mode
- parental controls
- language

Sensors

Some new intuitive features of the iPhone are the sensors of the iPhone. Sensors are used to detect if you have the phone placed on your ear for a call to turn off the LCD to save power. The senors also detect ambient light to dim the LCD at night time, and brighter it in sunlight.

Camera

So now I bet your expecting a 10 MP camera to go with the above list of features. But unfortunately Apple have decided not to improve the camera on the iPhone and remain with a 2 MP camera. With mobiles coming out these days with 5 MP and a very good built in flash, its a pity the iPhone doesn’t have a better camera. But the again, do you really want a good camera when you have a phone, iPod, Blackberry, personal organizer all in one?

When and how much?

The iPhone 3G, will be available beginning July 11. ATT&T have released some prices for the iPhone starting price of $199 (8GB) and $299 (16GB) with a two-year contract.