The lowdown on the new iPhone 2.0

I was listening to the Apple WWDC event’s iPhone announcements live on ustream, following the excellent live blogging on Engadget, and also keeping up with the lively micro blogging commentary. The announcement everyone was waiting for took ages to come, but eventually it came. There was nothing majorly earth shattering, actually. Most of the new iPhone 2.0 features had been speculated by blogs and media ad nauseam months before, including GPS and the cheaper price. Here is a summary of the main iPhone 2.0 features:

• The new iPhone is eventually being rolled out to more than 70 countries this year, as opposed to just the (official) six for the original iPhone. 22 countries will get it very soon.
• It will be 3G and will have GPS… but does this mean it will feature HSDPA? Why was there no mention of HSDPA? Or is 3G a blanket term for HSDPA in this case? Am I missing something here?
• iPhone 3G will sell for only $199 (8GB) up to $399 for the macdaddy version, and this will apply all around the world.
• The iPhone 3G is allegedly 36% faster than the nokia N95 and Treo 750. I’m sure we’ll be seeing some hasty PR from these companies later on tomorrow.
• The phone has thinner edges, a full plastic back, and a flush headphone jack. There appears to be no front-facing camera. The 16GB version is white in colour.

Above is a world map showing country distribution of the iPhone 2.0, including even … Madagascar. Note that South Africa is one of the red countries, confirming earlier speculation about the SA iPhone launch on July 20 (apparently a Sunday?), or thereabouts.

Hands on review of new iPhone @ Gizmodo