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Apple iPhone OS 3.0

At this week's World Wide Developer Conference, Apple introduced the iPhone 3G S, its third-generation iPhone, and announced availability for iPhone OS 3.0. While the exterior of the new phone looks identical to that of the iPhone 3G, the real changes are inside. Apple says the "S" stands for speed: The company's benchmarks show that the iPhone 3G S launches messages twice as fast, loads games 2.4 times faster, and opens attachments 3.6 times faster.

Though Apple has indicated that it changed inside components, it hasn't directly confirmed exactly what is responsible for the speed boost. Judging by winks and nods from those in the know, however, we've come to assume that it has both a faster processor and additional memory as compared with the iPhone 3G.

Some performance improvements will be independent of the network, but others won't be--which raises questions about whether you'll see those improvements over your local AT&T connection. Over the last few years, iPhone customers have complained about AT&T's signal coverage across the country, particularly in densely populated areas (remember the South by Southwest meltdown?). The iPhone 3G S will be able to work with AT&T's forthcoming faster HSPA 7.2 technology, but the network upgrade won't start until later this year and won't be finished until 2011.

Other new features include a built-in digital compass application and voice control. The camera jumps from 2 to 3 megapixels, too. Unfortunately, Apple did not throw in a flash, but it gets some pretty nifty features nonetheless; for instance, you can control the focus either by tapping on the screen or by using the autofocus feature. Plus, you get the most exciting--and long-awaited--feature, video recording and editing.

iPhone OS 3.0, which was announced in March, will be released June 17, 2009, at no charge for iPhone users (iPod users must pay $10 for the new OS). Push notification, cut/copy/paste, landscape mode for additional apps, and Spotlight search are just a few of the new features. Unfortunately, neither tethering nor MMS--both enabled by OS 3.0--will be available to United States customers at launch due to some internal issues within AT&T.