It seems that Apple has been doing some role playing recently, and no, the company hasn’t been hosting latex fetish parties. What the folks in Cupurtino, California, have been doing is creating a Palm Pre killer. What? Yes, it seems that the competition has been training with the Special Forces, but that’s OK; Apple has been training with the SF too, along with the Navy SEALS, the Rangers, Pathfinders, and the Airborne. Well, all that might be an exaggeration, but Apple has definitely stepped up to the plate with the iPhone 3G S and offered consumers some of what they’ve been asking for. Also, the Palm Pre shocked many industry insiders by its faster overall experience, but Apple stayed ahead of the curve once again – though it’s only by the skin of the teeth.

About the most disappointing aspect that comes with the iPhone 3G S is the fact that there are no fidelity benefits being passed down to Apple customers, which means no discounts for upgrading to current iPhone customers. While the price of the 3G is dropping to $99, At&T can’t bite the bullet and pass savings on the 3G S to users who are locked into a two-year agreement on the one-year-old 3G.

Undressing the iPhone 3G S

Announced by Phil Schiller on June 8^th at the WWDC keynote address, and scheduled for release on June 19^th, the Apple iPhone 3G S is faster, has a better camera, is capable of video capture, has an extended battery life, and has increased memory capacity. Wow, that’s a lot for a smartphone that many people are suggesting you pass on in order to wait for the fourth-generation installment. But, before I get into the gritty details, I want to mention the cooler feature – voice control. What this means is that you can make calls by speaking to the phone (this is nothing new in cell phone tech), but you can tell the 3G S to play songs by a specific artist; tell it to play more songs of a similar style, which will activate iTunes Genius; or you can ask the phone what’s currently playing and it will tell you.

The iPhone 3G S weighs in at 4.8 ounces and measures 4.5” x 2.4” x 0.48”; it’s offered in white or black shells; comes with either 16GB ($199) or 32GB ($299) of flash storage; a 3-megapixel camera with autofocus, tap to focus, video capture with up to 30 fps, geotagging, and third-party application integration; a 3.5-inch (480 x 320) widescreen multi-touch TFT; Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR; 802.11b/g; and GSM/EDGE. And since everyone is excited about the battery life, Apple’s page claims 12 hours of talk time on 2G, 5 hours on 3G, 300 hours of standby, 5 hours of 3G internet usage and 9 hours on Wi-Fi, and 10 hours of video playback and 30 hours of audio. That’s enough power for a fulfilling road trip.

Oh, and the iPhone 3G S comes with a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating.