Soon to be a part of our lives – the Apple iPhone 3G S holds the promise of speedier performance, and – we hold our breath – a longer battery life. The previous edition – the Apple iPhone 3G, while a fantastically sophisticated iPhone offering, was a little short of the battery oomph necessary to keep it going all day – barely a day’s use, if you were lucky.

With “speed” as the new watch-word, it will be nice to see if the 3G S comes up to scratch. As always in the IT and phone world, software features run way ahead of the physical capabilities of the hardware itself, and that is what Apple is trying to address with their new upgrade.

We still see the same features as the older 3G version offered – Cut, Copy and Paste, MMS and a landscape keyboard which is very handy and much easier to use than the vertical type – but then Apple has always been into ergonomics, right from the day they brought out their first personal computer.

Then, too, the new 3G S has Voice Memos and Spotlight Search, and a camera – and there the paths of the two iPhone designs part ways:

Whereas the old version 3G had a 2-Megapixel camera with no auto-focus, the 3G S now sports a 3-Megapixel camera, with autofocus capability. Let’s hope that it’s fast – there is nothing worse than trying to take an action shot of your loved ones and then find the moment has disappeared into the wild blue due to a slow autofocus on your phone’s camera.

Then there comes the Improved Performance – a new processor which supports 7.2Mbps HSDPA for speedier Web browsing. This should make loading faster, and with a storage capacity of either 16GB or 32GB, if the 3G S meets expectations we are in for pleasant surfing. With updated 3-D graphics facilities – users are in for a gaming experience we have only dreamed about – the 3G S is up to twice as fast as the 3G.

If you are inclined to follow the Highway Code, the Apple iPhone 3G S provides total hands-free operation . Voice Control allows you to verbally ask for a call to a name on your contact list, or select music on your iPhone, recognising composer and song name.

In line with the voice control, the Apple 3G S offers features to improve accessibility to those who are visually impaired. This includes a VoiceOver screen reader, a zoom feature, and white on black display option. For those with hearing impairment there is the Mono Audio facility.

With a built in digital compass, you will always know where you are headed. This could be particularly useful in situations such as hill walking, especially for the direction-confused map-reader, as the 3G S will rotate the map to suit the direction in which you are facing.

With Tethered Internet capability (share with Mac Notebook or PC laptop 4), video and voice recording and plenty of apps in the Apps Store to choose from, the Apple iPhone 3G S seems to offer a good package for its rather pricy tag – costing a hefty £275 (average price), time will tell whether users of the 3G will feel the upgrade is worth while.

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