Apple. They’re rich for good reason. They know people want something that looks stylish and is easy to use. That’s why, with the iPhone, they were able to get away with leaving out so much. None of these were necessities, but they were features that phones older than the iPhone had. MMS, voice control and video were luxuries that for some reason or another, Apple just couldn’t provide. And now they can.

The new iPhone 3.0 firmware was officially announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference, though it didn’t provide much of anything we hadn’t already known. Voice recorder, MMS (which won’t be available until late summer), video, turn-by-turn GPS, accessory control. Sadly, the surprises that make me excited for conferences like this just weren’t there. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for 3.0 and will be excited to download it when QuickPWN makes it available, but until then, I can rest happily knowing that I’m not missing out on much.

The one feature I’m mostly interested in is the new “Find My Phone” app that will basically let me find my phone if I lose it or in a more pessimistic view, someone stole it. I can erase the data, lock the phone and see a map location of where it’s located all from the comfort of my own home. Granted, I don’t know how this works if A. someone else reformats it before me, and B. the battery dies. This is more of a lost situation rather than theft unfortunately.

The latest iPhone, titled 3GS (the ‘S’ is for speed), is something I could be a little jealous about. The innards are improving battery life by 20%-30%, cutting the speed of application launches in half, and of course, are offering the 7.2 Mbps HSDPA. The current iPhone 3G only does about 2.4/3.6 Mbps which makes tethering a little bit of a pain in comparison. New, as in new for iPhone, features include a 3 megapixel camera that auto-focuses and auto-balances and allows video recording, which I suppose is something I won’t miss. It’s a nice feature to have but I don’t use the camera that often anyhow.  There’s voice command which sadly won’t make it to the older models for some strange reason. The addition of a digital compass though is nice, for the rare days when I’m lost in the woods without a sun or street signs to guide me. Unfortunately, no news of a rumored redesign, which just proves that rumors are rumors.

Overall, the new iPhone is a nice upgrade, but thankfully not a must-have upgrade. Though the 32Gb size sounds INCREDIBLY nice, I’m happy that I can wait until next year when my contract runs out in hopes that by then, we’ll be getting a new iPhone with double the speed, space, and a slick redesign that’ll make it worth my money.

Oh, and they’ve also announced Snow Leapord for $29. Microsoft should take notice. Just sayin’.