Apple is expected to announce tomorrow its third generation iPhone — one that will be faster, bigger and allow multi-tasking — like sending a video or song to someone while you are talking on the phone to that person.
And oh yeah, it’ll come with an autofocus camera, too.
The new features to the world’s hottest smart phone — 21.2 million sold through March 28 — will be announced as the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant opens its five-day Worldwide Developers Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
Added features of the iPhone 3.0 include:
.. A 4GB budget version of the phone that could carry a price tag as low as $99.
.. A new chip to better exploit AT&T’s upgraded 3G network
.. Compass capabilities to improve upon its GPS feature.
Apple watchers expect the new iPhone to hit store shelves in late June — and why not. Starting June 27 — the second anniversary of its debut — 86,000 phones a week will be coming off their lease and rivals, from touch-screen BlackBerrys to the new Palm Pre, released last week (see story below) are revving up their marketing engines.
Few predict any real threat to the iPhone dominance.
“A faster CPU [in the iPhone 3.0] will allow apps to run faster and for switching between them to happen more quickly, so the Palm Pre’s multitasking [ability] would be less of a threat,” said Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo.com associate editor.
The WWDC is a confab aimed at getting software developers to create product for the iPhone and other Apple products — and one of the more popular applications may be linked to an Apple patent filing unearthed last week by AppleInsider.com.
The filing is about “mixing media with communications.” Now, like all smart phones, iPhone users talking to a friend about a certain video or song have to hang up the call to send the person the file.
The patent filing is for Apple technology that would allow the song or video to be sent while the call is still connected.