The latest iPhone firmware 2.0 Beta 5 released last week had some hidden new 3G and GPS features. The new firmware has added a preference screen that allows users of the new model to disable the 3G and use EDGE, as using 3G loads data faster, but decreases battery life. The latest firmware also has many GPS references in the code. One of the most interesting references is use of GPS data with camera for putting location metadata into photo files. Though there is no guarantee that Apple will have GPS in the new iPhone, but this is definitely an indication towards it. In 3G-iPhone distribution related news, Apple has reached an agreement with SingTel (Singapore Telecommunications) to distribute the iPhone in Singapore and its partly owned subsidiaries in Australia (Optus), India (Bharti Airtel) and Philippines (Globe Telecom). Vodafone also announced few days back that it would distribute in India and Australia, so both the countries will get multiple carriers supporting iPhone officially.
In another iPhone related news SwitchtoaMac.com had posted a rumor that 3G capable iPhone will be announced in May before WWDC and Apple would instead announce a brand new portable device at WWDC. In contradicting news David Manners posted that Luigi Licciardi, Executive vice president of Telecom Italia Mobile told him “we will be selling an iPhone with 3G capability next month”. Till now everybody is just guessing the 3G-iPhone release date, if you talk to most telecom companies they point to a June release date. But I won’t be surprised if Apple launches the 3G iPhone in May (just to surprise everyone) and announces new portable device at WWDC. We have less then a month before everything is cleared out.