Apple unveils new iPhone 3GS

After weeks of speculations, Apple finally announced the new iPhone 3G S at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference here.

Though it sports the same design as the iPhone 3G, the new iPhone 3GS will feature a host of improvements that users been asking for including copy, cut and paste functions as well as MMS support for sending photos and videos.

“The ‘S’ in the new iPhone stands for speed as we have made some significant improvements to the phone in both hardware and software,” Apple’s senior vice-president of worldwide product marketing Philip Schiller said.

The new iPhone promises improved speed and performance that’s twice as fast as the current iPhone 3G.

“With the new iPhone you can render webpages quicker and launch applications faster,” Schiller said.

The iPhone 3G S will also include the new iPhone OS 3.0 update that will feature improvements such as Spotlight Search, landscape keyboard across multiple applications and the much-wanted copy and paste feature.

“On top of that, the iPhone 3G S will take advantage of the OpenGL 2.0 standard that will allow developers to create stunning looking 3D graphics mobile games for both the iPhone and iPod touch,” he added.

“We have also improved the battery life, so you can now watch more videos, listen to music and browse the Internet,” he said.

Among the new hardware improvements to the phone is a 3-megapixel autofocus camera with video-recording capabilities. The autofocus feature will allow for users to “tap to focus” — touching the display to select an area they wish to focus on.

Users can also record VGA quality videos at 30 frames per second and even perform simple video edits on phone. The video feature also makes it easy to share video clips via e-mail, MMS and YouTube.

Another new feature is voice control, which allows users to control the iPhone by simply speaking to it. Holding down the home button brings up the new voice control interface.

Using this feature, users can say a contact’s name to make a call, play songs and even ask the iPhone what song is being played.

Other features integrated into the new iPhone include a digital compass that works together with the default maps application, built-in support for Nike Plus and hardware encryption for protecting private information.

Apple said the iPhone 3G S will be available in the United States on June 19 at a suggested retail price of US$199 (RM697) for the 16GB model and US$299 (RM1,047) for the 32GB model.

The iPhone 3G S is set to be available here next month. No local pricing was available at press time.