iPhone 3GS

Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone OS back in April, and it got a new name recently at the WWDC conference. Called iOS 4, this update brings lots of changes to the iPhone you know and love. Available to download for free on your iPhone 3G, 3GS, and iPhone 4 this Summer, iOS4 comes with a staggering number of new features — over 100. iPhone fans should be especially pleased with all the new organizational and productivity enhancements that come along with the update, and iPad users can look forward to diving in this Fall.

We covered a few of the new updates during the initial OS announcement earlier this Spring, but here, a few other notables that you may find surprising.

• 5X digital zoom — Get closer to the action with the iOS 4's 5X digital zoom.
• Multitasking —Ahh, multitasking. Run more than one app at a time with this new feature! Play Pandora while you text, or keep up on your Words With Friends game while you surf your reader.

To see even more features of the iOS 4, just keep reading.

Had your heart set on getting your own white iPhone 4 on Thursday morning? Although no one has been able to crack the case of the missing white iPhone, you still have a few options — wait until the white iPhone 4 hits the market sometime "later this Summer," or suck it up and buy a different model phone. Good news is, there are a few awesome alternatives that can satisfy your color preference, and your need for a new gadget at the same time — you just have to know where to look. Best part? You probably won't have to call in sick to work and sleep on the sidewalk to get your hands on one.

• BlackBerry Bold 9000 ($200) — A favorite of celebrities and business-types alike, the BlackBerry Bold 9000 is sleek, stylish and is a tried-and-true smartphone from the inside out. A crisp and clear VGA backlit LCD screen shows over 65,000 colors, comes with a 2MP camera, and syncs up with your Windows Media Player or iTunes for easy transfer of your favorite jams.
• HTC EVO 4G ($200) — The iPhone 4's biggest competition just got a little more colorful. The white HTC EVO 4G will be sold exclusively at Best Buy starting on July 11, but you can place your pre-order now.

Check out the rest of my picks after the jump

We took a tour of some of the new features that iOS 4 has to offer recently, and you'll get to discover even more soon — Apple is releasing iOS 4 for iPhone 3G, 3GS, as well as second-, and third-generation iPod Touch users today!

What will you need to do before getting into all the new, free OS action? First, update to iTunes 9.2 to get your Mac or PC ready for all the new features, then sync up your iPhone, and download as soon as it's available (by connecting your device to iTunes, and clicking "Check For Updates"). We'll be rounding up some of the new features once we update our iPhones, so stay tuned!

Update: It's here and ready to download!

After reading a post about AT&T offering early upgrades to iPhone 3GS customers, I decided to check my account for any offers. Sure enough, I was offered an early upgrade on my iPhone 3G.

How did I discover this? All I did was call *639# from my iPhone (upgrade eligibility number through AT&T), and got this text that offered me an early upgrade with a new two-year contract, waiving an $18 upgrade fee. My contract is up in July, but other 3G and 3GS customers have reported that AT&T has moved up their upgrade eligibility dates by four months or more. Could this be an attempt by AT&T to retain iPhone users before they lose exclusivity to another carrier later this year? Couple this new offer with the recent rise in ETF fees, and you can bet the farm that AT&T's two-year customers will likely stay put.

As if we needed another sign that the fourth generation iPhone is on its way, Wal-Mart is reportedly clearing out its iPhone 3GS stock and cutting the price tag by $100. Normally selling in the big box store for $197, Wal-Mart will be unloading a 16GB iPhone 3GS beginning tomorrow for a mere $97.

The price cut comes just after the announcement that Steve Jobs will be the keynote speaker at WWDC on June 7. As usual, the phones will require activation and a contract through AT&T, which some of you aren't too pleased with.

Update: The $97 iPhone 3GS is currently available for purchase on Wal-Mart's website.

At the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend, CNN's Ed Henry coaxed the first lady to send her first tweet from his iPhone. Surrounded by stars and political luminaries, Michelle Obama declared that she was excited to see Jay Leno take the stage, but according to Henry, she had a bit of trouble typing on the keyless touchscreen of the iPhone.

She said:

Here at dinner this is officially my first Tweet. i am looking forward to some good laughs from the potus and jay

Although it wasn't sent from her own Twitter account (she's yet to sign up), I'm hoping this exercise in social media will convince Michelle Obama to hop on the Twitter train like the president and other members of the White House staff have already done!

Source

Surprise, surprise (but not really!) — your favorite new cell phone of 2009 is the iPhone 3GS, which took 46 percent of the vote. The 3GS follows in its predecessor's footsteps; last year's favorite cell phone was the iPhone 3G.

I'm obviously in agreement on this one, given my undying, often professed love for my iPhone. What's not to love? No matter what you're looking for, there's most definitely an app for that. And even amid complaints of spotty service from AT&T and reports that heavy data users may be charged more monthly, this gadget managed to blow away the rest of the competition.

It'll be interesting to see how the Droid (and other phones that may come) stack up in 2010!