iPhone 3.0 release date – June 17, iPhone 3Gs details released

Apple announced at WWDC 2009 that the iPhone 3.0 software will be available to current iPhone users on June 17th.  At the same event Apple announced that the iPhone 3GS will be available for purchase June 19th, 2009 in 16GB and 32 GB models for $199 and $299 respectively.  They also reduced the price of the 8GB 3G to $99.

While none of this is unexpected, it’s nice to have a real release date.  Apple announced more final features of the 3.0 software, here are some highlights (full description here).

• Copy and Paste text – When you double tap text, you will get a dialog box to cut/copy.  Double tap again to get a paste bubble.  Works with Photos too.
• Spotlight for search – Now you will be able to search across all the information on your device.  What took them so long to add this?  This really should have been a day one feature.
• Landscape Keyboard – Will work in mail, notes, safari, SMS
• MMS – Big swing and a miss here – AT&T isn’t ready for the release, so this feature will not be ready until late summer.
• Improved Calendar – Support for CalDAV is added.  This is BIG.  CalDAV is what Google and Yahoo use, so this is a big win for Gmail users.  In addition to CalDAV, you can now create meetings – another why wasn’t this done before.
• Internet Tethering – Another HUGE swing and a miss by AT&T.  This will not be available in the US.  Please AT&T, get your network in order.  Your clients, who pay you a lot of money, demand this.
• Sync Notes – You can now sync notes from your phone back to your PC via iTunes.  Another about time, Apple.  I’d like to see an OTA sync for this to Exchange though, that would be useful.  Syncing via iTunes is ok, but not all that helpful.
• Automatic Wi-Fi login – This will (may) really help.  Now when I go to Starbucks I won’t have to login to their hotspot every time.  In theory.  I’m skeptical about this one, but I’m hopeful.

There are other features that seem fun like Shake to Shuffle,  improved iTunes store, voice memos etc.  Overall it seems like a LOT of new software, I hope it all works as advertised.

iPhone 3GS features

See more here.  There are a bunch of new features that look cool, but I’m not sure I’ll shell out $199 (or $299) for them.  The main improvements are:

• Speed – Apple claims that “everything you do on iPhone 3G S is up to 2x faster and more responsive than iPhone 3G”.  Call me Skippy Skeptical, but I’ll believe it when I see it, thank you.  If true, this is compelling.
• Video – You can shoot VGA in portrait or landscape mode, edit start and end points, then share it via email, post to MobileMe or YouTube.  Of course, you can also save the video to your PC when you sync.  I like the idea here – I use my iPhone camera way more than I thought I would, so I imagine that the video feature would be just as useful.  That said, in a corporate environment, cameras are problematic on enterprise devices.
• Improved Camera – 3 MegaPixels, Auto-focus and a tap to focus feature.  Very neat improvements.
• Digital compass – I like this a lot, but it doesn’t look like they’ve improved the turn by turn directions at all.  I’d like it to function more like a “real” GPS in that if you deviate from your route it will auto correct to get you back on the right path.

All in all I’m excited about the 3.0 software and intrigued by the new hardware, I’m just not willing to shell out $199 for it yet.  Now if my current device happens to fall in a puddle…

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