While some of the rumors panned out — the new handset will offer full GPS — other rumors, like the addition of a 32GB model, fizzled.

But even with the long list of basic features that Apple still is denying us (hello, multimedia messaging?), the addition of 3G support is a big win.

If data speeds hold up as Jobs demonstrated (more on that later), the new iPhone really will put the Internet in your pocket.

We also approve of the new price: $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB version, a pleasing price for all but the poor souls who shelled out nearly $600 a year ago.

Design

Though the iPhone 3G is thinner at the edges than its predecessor, the phone measures a hair thicker (0.48 inches versus 0.46 inches) in the gut.

The other measurements are the same except that it weighs just the slightest bit less (4.7 ounces versus 4.8 ounces).

Otherwise, the iPhone 3G shows few cosmetic changes from the front — same display size and resolution, and the single Home button sits just below the screen.

We’re very pleased to see that Apple has done away with the irritating recessed headphone jack, which now is flush so that you’ll be able to use any 3.5mm headphones you like.

But turn over the iPhone 3G, and you’ll see more significant changes.

A black, plastic skin replaces the current silver-aluminum back. The swap may cut the cost, but we worry about its long-term durability. The 8GB model will come in black only, while Apple promises the 16GB version in black and white.

The white model is a bit random — we were expecting something in red — but color is a personal choice.

The camera lens, volume rocker, charger port, speaker, microphone, power button, and display locking switch show no changes. Our News.com colleague got a hands-on with the new device and reports that it feels similar in the hand to the current model, with the exception of the tapered edges.

3G

With support for three 3G bands (850, 1900, 2100) and both UMTS and HSDPA networks, the iPhone 3G is well positioned for using high-speed networks all around the world.

Considering that Apple is promising to bring the device to 70 countries, it had better be.

During his WWDC keynote, Jobs demonstrated Web download speeds between the two iPhones. On the original model, which runs on a 2.5G EDGE network, a photo-heavy Web site loaded in 59 seconds, while the same site loaded in 21 seconds on the new device — impressive, but we take it with a grain of salt for now.

Real-world tests, particularly with a multitude of devices flooding the same network, will be more telling.

GPS

This is one feature that was on our original iPhone wish list. While the current iPhone location services find your position via nearby cell phone towers and satellites, the iPhone 3G uses Assisted GPS supplemented by satellites.

It also offers live tracking so you can monitor your progress as you drive (or walk) along. We’re excited to see this feature as well, as it fills in another gaping hole on the original handset. You’ll also find photo geotagging, and third-party applications with turn-by-turn directions are in the works.

Third-party apps

Speaking of which, the iPhone 3G will indeed support the collection of apps available through the iPhone SDK — no surprise here.

Apple promises to open an apps store in early July (Apple didn’t release an exact date); we’re guessing by July 11. Gaming apps should feature prominently; many will integrate with the phone’s accelerometer.

Enterprise support

Worker bees will be pleased to know that the iPhone 3G will offer support for Microsoft Exchange Server. That will bring push e-mail, contacts and calendar, remote wipe, global contacts access, and auto-discovery.

That’s another welcome change as it puts the iPhone in the hands of a whole new class of corporate users who now will be able to get their work e-mail on the iPhone.

Battery life

Last year Jobs said that Apple had not included 3G in the first iPhone because it would have made too many compromises with the handset’s battery life. But now it appears that Apple has solved that problem.

The iPhone 3G promises a solid 5 hours of 3G talk time, 10 hours of 2G talk time, 5 hours of 3G Internet time, 6 hours of Wi-Fi Internet time, 7 hours of video playback, 24 hours of audio playback, and 12.5 days standby time. The audio and video times are unchanged from the original iPhone.

What else?

Since the latest iPhone will support the 2.0 software, additional new features will show up at launch and beyond, including contacts search, iWork document support, the capability to view PowerPoint attachments, bulk move and delete, a scientific calculator in landscape mode, parental controls, and support for 16 languages.

You’ll also be able to use a graffiti-style application for entering characters in Asian languages.

What’s missing?

Unfortunately, we hoped for an even larger bundle of features in this round. Apple still leaves multimedia messaging out of the mix along with voice dialing and video recording.

We still don’t understand why Apple can’t include these basic features, many found in even the cheapest and simplest cell phones. We were also hoping for a landscape keyboard, the capability to cut and paste, Flash support for the Safari Web browser, expanded memory, and additional Bluetooth profiles.

Apple, you left us hanging in a big way. It’s also disappointing to hear that the dock is now sold separately for $49, but we suppose that helped cut the price. No, you don’t need the dock, but it’s nice to have. Even the power adapter and the SIM card removal tool that now come in the box won’t make up for its loss.

Should you buy it?

If you’re an iPhone fence-sitter, now’s the time. The addition of 3G and GPS, the affordable price tag, and extra features from the iPhone 2.0 software update make the iPhone 3G a worthy prospect.

Unlike the previous iPhone, which we liked and recommended with reservations, we’re much happier with what this new handset has to offer.

iPhone 3G isn’t perfect, but there’s a lot to like here and we approach the device with much anticipation. We’ll update this page with a full, rated review once we get our hands on the hardware.

Article By cNet

Nintendo is banking on “Wii Fit” to further broaden the appeal of its Wii gaming console, which has already become a smash hit due to its motion-sensing controller and simple, easy-to-learn games.

“There has been fitness software before, but with the positioning of it, the marketing might behind it and the product itself, it’s the biggest health product for a video game system I’ve ever seen,” said IDC analyst Billy Pidgeon.

“Wii Fit” is the latest major title Nintendo has launched this year, one that is aimed most clearly at a nontraditional audience of mothers and older customers who are uninterested in established franchises like “Mario” and “Pokemon.”

The game, which costs $90 and comes with a shoulder-width “balance board” that senses shifts in posture, should also help Nintendo address concerns over the tendency of Wii owners to buy fewer games than owners of Microsoft Corp‘s (MSFT.O) Xbox 360 and Sony Corp‘s (6758.T) PlayStation 3.

“The secret weapon of the Wii is getting more people within the household to play. Each one of those people is going to buy fewer games than the hard-core gamer would, but it adds up,” Pidgeon said.

Pidgeon and other analysts said they expect sales of “Wii Fit” to be limited only by how many units Nintendo can make, with some estimating that up to 30 percent of the nearly 10 million Wii owners in the United States will buy the product in the next few weeks.

In a sign of strong demand, the Web site of retail giant Wal-Mart (WMT.N) said it had sold out of its pre-order allocation of “Wii Fit,” and Amazon.com (AMZN.O) said it was out of stock as well.

While Microsoft and Sony have focused on high-definition, ultra-realistic games, Nintendo surprised the industry with the low-cost, low-tech Wii. In April, Nintendo sold more than 700,000 Wii machines in the United States, nearly double that of the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined.

“Wii Fit is easy for anyone to try and is yet another example of how Nintendo continues to expand the world of video games to new audiences,” Cammie Dunaway, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Nintendo of America, said in a statement.

“Wii Fit” offers more than 40 activities in four categories including aerobics, strength training, balance and yoga. It tracks users’ Body Mass Index and weight, charting their progress and offering fitness tips.

It is the latest creation of Nintendo’s legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who came up with many of the company’s smash hits, from “Donkey Kong” to “Nintendogs.”

Nintendo has already sold 2 million copies of “Wii Fit” in Japan and it has recently been released in Europe.

Not everyone has been enamored with the product. Video game news and reviews Web site GameSpot said the title was hamstrung by shortcomings.

“Wii Fit’s included exercises do have the potential to positively impact your health, but thanks to its lack of exercise options, poor support for multiplayer, and shallow health advice, this title isn’t a gaming fitness revolution,” GameSpot said.

Nintendo is initially selling “Wii Fit” only at its New York store, with the product available at other retailers by Wednesday.

Microvision, a Washington company that holds over 115 patents, is developing the technology to make projector phones a reality. The company already has produced a pico projector, a pocket-sized device that can be used to display video, photos or presentations almost anywhere – from walls to pieces of paper to someone’s shirt. Microvision displayed a prototype of the invention at the CTIA Wireless industry show recently, and they expect to have it on the market later this year. By significantly reducing projector size, the pico projector allows people to watch movies without a TV or display business presentations while sitting at a restaurant. The projector connects to a variety of different devices, including computers, gaming consoles and iPods, and its picture quality is reported to be very sharp – even when projected at fairly large sizes.

Unlike a standard projector, the pico projector shines red, green and blue lasers on a rapidly moving, 1-millimeter square mirror. This process creates rows of pixels so quickly that an image is formed, which is then projected to the user. The new technology used to power the pico projector requires no fans or vents (which are what make standard projectors so large and bulky). Microvision estimates their first pico projector will have a battery life of about two-and-a-half hours, and will cost between $300 and $400. While the pico projector could easily become a hot gadget in the business world, it’s the prospect of embedding the technology into cell phones that really has commercial potential.

Microvision is still tweaking the technology, but it fully expects to create a projector small enough to be incorporated into cell phones and other portable media devices (like iPods) within the next year. But Microvision is not alone. A number of other companies also are developing pico projector technology – including 3M, Texas Instruments and Alcatel-Lucent. While mobile devices that play video and display images have become a hot commodity, the small screens on these devices have been a limiting factor (the idea of watching a movie on a tiny cell-phone screen isn’t really appealing). But the prospect of being able to project a movie from a cell phone onto a six-foot screen, or even the back of a bus seat, could be a big draw. Whether it’s teenagers displaying photos for groups of friends or businesspeople referencing charts in an instant, the technology would have across-the-board market appeal. And it’s not limited to cell phones either – projectors eventually could be embedded in laptops, digital cameras, gaming systems, and even eyeglasses.

While no projector phones have been officially announced yet, there’s a good chance most major cellular companies will have them at least in production by 2009.

by Shad Connelly – Shad Connelly currently oversees all editorial responsibilities for InventHelp’s Invention and Technology News (http://news.inventhelp.com). He received a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (with an English major/Journalism minor) and a master’s degree in Professional Writing from Carnegie Mellon University.

YouTube: The best way to guard against an unexpected and inappropriate video from appearing on YouTube on your computer is to set up an account and then set up a favorites list. Of course, that means you’ll have to spend time going through videos to make sure they are all appropriate for your kids to see, then you can direct them to those videos.

The iPhone is so popular and still such a novelty that if someone’s got one nearby, a kid will want to give it a spin and, undoubtedly, check out the limited selection of YouTube videos available. Now, you can’t access your YouTube account on your iPhone, but you can set up a similar favorites list of videos.

You can let your kids watch those videos, but not go searching for others on their own. Easier said than done, I know. And this may not work well with older kids, but it will at least keep young ones entertained without seeing something you don’t want them to see.

PSP and PS3: Friends of mine bought their 5^th grade daughter a PSP this year, then were surprised when she showed them she could surf the web on it for homework information. The PSP and the Playstation 3 have similar tools for setting controls, so the menu options are alike.

You need a pin number to start the Internet browser function on both. Once you’re in, there are no controls to filter the browsers’ content, so it’s either on or off. Chatting with friends and gamers over the Internet is either on or off, too. There is no way to limit chat to a few people.

For DVD movies, there is a rating system from 1 to 8, with 1 being a G rating and 8 being anything goes. The rating system for video games runs from 1 to 11, with young kid to teen games ranging from about 1 to 5. You’ll have to test which ratings work for your family. Here’s a good step-by-step guide from Crave, and some more info from the Sony Playstation Network.

Nintendo DS Lite: Yes, kids can browse the Internet with this handheld gaming device, too. The good news is, Nintendo offers content filtering via Astaro—just follow these instructions. But note that even though Nintendo says the service blocks more than 60 million web sites with inappropriate content, it cannot promise to block all web sites that you wouldn’t want your kids to see.

Wii: Again, parental controls are available on the Wii menu to block access to an Internet browser, which allows you to surf the web but not download content because the Wii has no hard drive. And again, the browser is either on or off. No filters for using it as there are on a computer. Parents can set controls on games based on ESRB age-appropriate ratings, and kids who want to play an M-rated game need a pin number to do so. WhatTheyPlay.com has a good rundown in this 10 Things Parents Need to Know about Nintendo Wi-Fi on the Wii.

Xbox: Microsoft added a video game timer to the Xbox 360 to go with other parental controls already available. Check them out on this Xbox Family Settings page.

Even if you choose to put some of these controls in place, remember to check in with your kids to see what they are doing and where they are going on all of these fun devices, which double as powerful tools and portals to the web in young hands.

San Francisco – Acknowledging that conditions of Apple’s iPhone SDK agreement may impede Sun’s plan to put a JVM (Java Virtual Machine) on the iPhone, a Sun official held out an olive branch this week to Apple.

The JVM would enable Java applications to run on the iPhone. But blog and forum posts have been written that questioned whether Sun could follow through on the plan, Sun said. Sun’s Eric Klein, vice president of Java marketing, said in a statement released this week that Sun wants to talk to Apple if there are conditions blocking Sun’s intentions.

“Our announcement was based on our excitement to build a JVM for the iPhone and the iTouch (iPod touch) as well as our assessment of Apple’s publicly available information on the SDK and related business terms,” Klein said. “If there are clauses in the iPhone beta SDK license agreement that potentially limit third-party application distribution, then these are items that we want to have a positive discussion with Apple about.

“Sun and Apple have an ongoing relationship around Java SE (Standard Edition) on Mac OS X, and we look forward to further discussions with Apple about a JVM for iPhone and iTouch. Sun definitely plans to deliver a JVM for iPhone and iTouch if at all possible,” Klein said.

Apple’s iPhone SDK agreement seemingly would not allow something like a JVM on the phone, said consultant Christopher Allen, founder of iPhoneWebDev, an online resource for iPhone application developers.

“If you go by the agreement that you agree to in order to get the SDK and to be able to put [an application] on the iPhone, you’re not allowed to have downloadable executables,” Allen said. “Basically, they don’t want people to go around their process of vetting code in applications by allowing something else to load code in.”

As of Friday afternoon, no discussions on the matter had yet taken place between Apple and Sun, a Sun representative acknowledged. Apple did not respond to several inquiries about the issue by InfoWorld.

Sun announced its intentions a week ago. Previously, Apple has not been receptive to having Java on the popular device.

Under Sun’s porting plan, developers could use their existing Java tools to build applications to run on the iPhone and iTouch.