SAN FRANCISCO - Apple delivered up the highly anticipated iPhone 3GS today at their WWDC 2009 event to thunderous yelps, along with professional grade hootin' and hollering from the sold out crowd. Phil Schiller quickly announced the new 3GS feature set in the closing fifteen minutes of the event including 2X faster processing, an extended battery life, 3 megapixel camera, updated 3D graphics, on board video and a digital compass among some of the highlights. Several rumors tempted iPhone fanatics with a new matte finish, a glowing Apple logo, a black bezel frame and a front facing video camera for iChat, all of which failed to materialize this time around.
One of the more obvious thuds heard in the WWDC auditorium was the fact that AT&T will not offer support for iPhone 3.0 MMS until later in the summer, also leaving the highly anticipated iPhone tethering feature announced today by Apple in limbo. AT&T never fails to disappoint when it counts.
iPhone 3GS will go on sale in eight countries on Friday, June 19th for $299 (32GB) and $199 (16GB) US dollars. Apple also launched both the original iPhone and iPhone 3G on a Friday. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the UK are included in the initial launch. Dates given for an iPhone 3GS launch in other countries were July 9th and August 9th. Not sure if anyone noticed that Australia was left off the list which included New Zealand for July 9th.
The wildly popular iPhone OS 3.0 update is set to be released by Apple on Wednesday, June 17th announced as a free update for cult of iPhone users and $9.95 for the red-headed step children with iPod touch devices. Apple also announced an 8GB iPhone 3G model for $99 as many expected.
The entire globe would have rioted had Apple not announced a new iPhone model today, so I'm as giddy as a school girl over that news. The July 17th release rumor was an epic failure that I'm much too happy about. No one wants to wait that long for such a profound upgrade to their beloved iPhone.
The fact that Firewire 800 ports were added to the line of MacBook Pros today, along with a list of slick updates and a price drop is small cheese by comparison to iPhone 3GS. I'm certain their's more significant iPhone news to come before the summer ends.
The truth is out there. I want to believe.
[Click here to watch entire keynote video]
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