All right boys and girls… It’s time for the big show. For months now, it has been glaringly obvious that Apple would introduce its third-generation handset at WWDC today and sure enough — it’s here. Apple addicts around the world are rejoicing and Apple haters around the world are refining their arguments as to why the iPhone is a non-factor. Love it or hate it, hit the jump to find out how the new iPhone 3G S shapes up.

What we all knew/was rumored:

• Size — The new iPhone 3G S comes with either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, a 100% bump from the 8GB and 16GB iPhone 3G offerings.
• Guts — Many will tell you that the most significant improvements are found within the new iPhone’s guts. We knew A2DP support was coming, a nice addition of course, but Apple also confirmed today that the new iPhone sports a faster processor and a 7.2Mbps HSDPA-compatible radio. Huzzah.
• Camera — The old 2 megapixel sensor has been bumped up to 3.2 megapixels and there’s still no flash. Apple also added auto-focus and geotagging support.
• Video — This little guy is all about video — 30fps video recording, video editing, video sharing… Yay.
• Compass — Know where north is. Yay.
• Battery life — The new kit features 5 hours of 3G talk time and up to 24 hours of music playback — according to Apple at least.
• OS — Tethering is now covered, though we still don’t know how AT&T will handle it, and the Find My iPhone feature we scooped is a done deal (available to MobileMe subscribers only). Oh and turn-by-turn nav is game on… TomTom was on hand at the keynote to demonstrate its iPhone app/accessory combo. 3.0 will be available beginning June 17th — free for iPhone owners, $9.95 for iPod Touch owners.
• Price — As expected, the new iPhone 3G S will ring up at $199 for the 16GB version and $299 for the 32GB version. The current 8GB iPhone 3G will hang around and drop to $99 starting today.

What we didn’t know:

• The 3G S looks exactly like the 3G — no matte rubbery finish, no matching bezel.
• Voice Control is now built in, hi 2002, so you can dial by voice, control iPod playback by voice and so on. We have to admit though, saying “play more songs like this” to initiate the Genius feature is cool.
• Integrated hardware encryption.
• The iPhone 3G S goes on sale June 19th in the US.

In the end, the jump from second to third generation is very reminiscent of the jump from first to second generation; this is more of an upgrade announcement (as we expected) as opposed to a new product launch. The man of the hour is still OS 3.0 if you ask us, and most of its features are backwards compatible. Those of you in love with your current iPhone but looking for a little more oomph will certainly be pleased while those of you holding out for things like a physical keypad, modern camera with flash, etc will have to continue to look elsewhere for another year. Sound off in the comments section and let us know if there will be a new iPhone 3G S in your future.

Two new images have emerged which purportedly show off the front facing camera of the upcoming next-gen iPhone. One simply shows the camera in action presumably taking a self portrait while the other is demoing a video chat. Real or fake? More importantly, and considering pretty much no one has cared about mobile video conferencing over the past few years, is anyone looking forward to this feature? Hit the jump for larger shots.

[Via 9to5Mac]

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In what would truly be a direct and devastating assault on Palm and it’s upcoming Pre handset, Gear Live is reporting the new iPhone Video may launch as soon as this coming Monday following a WWDC announcement. Though this is hardly confirmed for the time being, Gear Live has proven reliable on several occasions in the past. According to the site, the iPhone Video will be available in three sizes — 8GB, 16GB and 32GB — with most of the rumored goodies we’ve been hearing about lately. The iPhone Video will initially be available in limited supply from Apple locations while a second, smaller model will be released at a later point in time. The smaller 4GB model will reportedly not be sold in Apple Stores. Again, a Monday release is just hearsay for the time being but with all of the heat Palm has attracted with the Pre, we wouldn’t be surprised if Apple fast-tracked the launch in an attempt to deal Palm and Sprint a swift death blow right out of the gate.

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