Even though the 3GS looks virtually the same as the iPhone 3G, the 3GS ups the ante on the prior generation by increasing application speed, battery life, camera resolution, memory and more. According to Apple’s WWDC keynote announcement today, the faster processor in the 3GS increases launch times of popular apps from 2.1x (launching messaging), to 3.6x (opening an Excel spreadsheet). Of course, performance improvements will vary from application to application.

There’s also support for OpenGL|ES, which should improve graphical performance. And processing speed isn’t the only boost – the iPhone 3GS also supports 7.2Mbps HSDPA wireless connections. In addition to the speed hikes, the 3GS adds several new features not supported on the 3G. Battery life is also improved. Here’s a handy battery comparison chart from the guys over at Gizmodo:

There’s a brand new 3-megapixel camera, complete with auto-focus, auto-exposure, auto-white balance, low light and an auto-macro mode that can capture still images as close as 10cm away.

The camera can also capture video at VGA resolution (yawn) at up to 30fps. There was no mention of digital image stabilization, but the video does take advantage of all the auto adjustment modes that the still camera supports. You can even trim your video shots using a slick on-screen timeline interface.

There’s also a new voice control mode, which lets you not only voice-dial, but select tracks to play in iTunes, open web pages, and control other applications. Hopefully, they’ll open this up to app developers to leverage in their own applications. Also along for the ride is a digital compass, which at first doesn’t sound very exciting, but the addition of a magnetometer to the hardware will enable much greater accuracy in terms of understanding your bearing when in GPS mode – especially on foot.

Of course, the iPhone 3GS takes advantage of all of the features of the iPhone 3.0 OS, including cut-copy-paste, landscape keyboard, app store microtransactions, MMS messaging, stereo Bluetooth and much more.

The iPhone 3GS will be available June 19th in North America and Europe. The 16GB version retails for $199, and the 32GB version is $299, both with a new AT&T 2-year agreement. And if you’re looking for a cheap phone, you can now buy last years iPhone 3G for just $99 bucks. All models are available for pre-order now over on the Apple Store.

Well it’s not like getting $200 back in your pocket, but Apple has announced that they will provide a $100 credit to spend at the Apple Store if you purchased your iPhone prior to the price drop. This assumes you didn’t already manage to eke some sort of deal out of Apple or AT&T already.

Details are still being worked out, but this small gesture should help calm at least some of the ruffled feathers of Apple’s loyal early adopter crowd. (Myself included.)

[Read Steve Jobs' Open Letter to iPhone Customers]

You see, Apple’s invitations for the event is titled “The Beat Goes On”. For weeks, people have been trying to decode what it meant. Was it a reference to the old Sonny & Cher song, was the Beat indicative that Apple had secured the elusive Beatles catalog or was it something else altogether? Well, I’m sorry to disappoint those speculators out there, but it looks like that title could be a reference to an entirely different Lady Madonna than Beatles fans had in mind.

Yep, it turns out that Madonna’s upcoming album (which was recently leaked onto the Web) also happens to be titled “The Beat Goes On.” Methinks I smell more than a small coincidence here. So instead of a huge catalog of classic tracks from John, Paul, George and Ringo, we’ll probably be getting some cheezy new pop songs from the original Material Girl? Only time will tell, but I’m definitely leaning in that direction. If that’s the case, all I can say is “yawn.”

Thank goodness we’ll have some hot new iPods to keep us distracted.

[via MacDailyNews]

The new models’ industrial design is a beautiful combination of aluminum and glass, making them look more like Apple’s gorgeous Cinema displays that past versions of the iMac. All models come with a slot-loading SuperDrive, and a built-in iSight camera too. You’ll also be able to easily upgrade RAM up to 4GB, or up to 1TB of disk.

They’re loaded with just about every connection you could need: USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, and mini-DVI for video. There’s also built in 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless connectivity.

Apple also showed off a cool new keyboard design that includes direct access to media control features and screen brightness/dimming too. The new keyboard measures in at a ridiculously svelte 0.33″ thick, more than 60% slimmer than old models. I’m am a bit concerned about the Chiclet-like ergonomics of the new keys though. There’s an optional Bluetooth wireless version available too (without the numeric keys, though.)

Base configurations of the aluminum iMacs are as follows:

• $1199 configuration: 20-inch widescreen (1680×1050), 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, 250GB SATA Hard Drive, Radeon HD 2400 XT Graphics, 8X SuperDrive
• $1499 configuration: 20-inch widescreen (1680×1050), 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, 320GB SATA Hard Drive, Radeon HD 2600 Pro Graphics, 8X SuperDrive
• $1799 configuration: 24-inch widescreen (1900×1200), 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, 320GB SATA Hard Drive, Radeon HD 2600 Pro Graphics, 8X SuperDrive

All the new iMac models are available immediately, and should be on the Apple Store shortly.

According to this post (UPDATE 1/6/07: this link is no longer active) on The Mercury News, it’s expected that Microsoft will be announcing plans during their upcoming CES keynote speech for the gaming console to act as an IPTV set-top box for high-definition digital television.

So now that Microsoft has 10 million+ Xbox 360’s in living rooms all over the world, they certainly could be the bait for people to adopt upcoming Microsoft IPTV based television services (such as AT&T’s U-Verse service) by offering a single device that can play high quality games, online community, media downloads and storage, and now, stream live television.

[UPDATE 1/6/07: It appears that the original Mercury News story has since been removed, leading me to believe that this information was, in fact an early leak that wasn't supposed to hit the press until after the CES keynote]