The new iPhone is here and it looks slick and has some nice new features!

• See the iphone specification

Rumours are continuing around the new iPhone being released by Apple... waiting to hear for some concrete evidence...

Related links:

• BBC Article on Gizmodo

With the recent launch of the ipad, Apple have released their new update for the iPhone operating system. It will include items such as folder structures, background functioning apps and much more.

I'm still waiting to hear if a new iPhone is being released in the near future...

Related link:

• BBC article on the iPhone software update

Everyone's talking about it so I may as well too! The iPad look sexy and I think will do the job very well. Although I'm a little confused on how I would personally use it, I think we've just potentially seen an evolution in portable computer technology.

Apple seemed to have a few problems last night due to the mass amount of people trying to download the new software update for the iPhone. I was one of the lucky ones to get in early and had a good test run.

I have to say that I'm a bit in limbo on my thoughts on the update - partly impressed, partly disappointed. There were a few features that I thought were missing from the original 2 generations of the iPhone such as the Sat Nav opportunities, copy and paste, forward contact, and more functionality that varied in size and spec. Some of these have been dealt with, others have not.

For example,  I was very impressed by the full iPhone search facility. Especially useful as the song/artist/album name sometimes gets mixed up in iTunes and emails can be tough to search, so I could see a real benefit with this. The implementation was good, although placing it infront of the first screen did seem like a bolt on, but I can overlook that due to the way it works. 

The copy and paste seems to work really well and is quite intuitive to get to grips with, and the ease of forwarding a contact is very simple - however, there is still no option to send via text message.

Despite some nice features (and I was maybe naive to think this), but I was expecting the voice control and video software to be included in this update... this was a big disappointment for me. I was also unsure why there was so much time invested into the Voice memo as there are free apps available that do this, and I have to say, do it better than the standard one supplied by Apple.

There are a few functions I am yet to see such as the YouTube sign in, etc but as with all iPhone features, I'm sure that I will cross this in time. Nevertheless, I would recommend the download despite a couple of bugs in layout as all in all, I think it it is a good step forward. Whether I can see the benefit in the iPhone 3GS yet remains to be seen, but if I decide to upgrade I will be sure to keep you posted.

The ability to swordfight using the accelerometer on the iPhone is either genius or madness. Let's face it, the boys of us who dreamed of the ultimate lightsaber fighting game on the Wii is actually pretty excited by the concept. How well does it work? I'll be honest I haven't tried it yet as it is only a 2 player game (which could be a pain if there is no one around with an iPhone or the game itself).

Check it out though:

For 59p you can't really complain too much, but does it have what it takes to start a new revolution in advanced gaming?

iSamurai: Two-Player Sword Fight includes the following features:

• Two-player interactive Wi-Fi game using two iPhones or iPod Touches
• Single-player game with four levels of difficulty
• Tutorial featuring animations of the different attacks
• Training “Dojo” where the player can practice the different iSamurai moves
• Art of War quotes from legendary warriors 

With the large release of the new iPhone being launched in the US and UK next Friday, there has been much debate over whether this release is "groundbreaking" enough? Is this just the consumer expectations being too high and Apple being a victim of their own success? The only thing I think that we should have expected from Apple is to manage our expectations better before the release.

The gradual improvements being made by Apple, (which by any other commerical business is a sensible approach) can only be positive learnings to go into the future groundbreaking designs that we expect and love from Apple.

Related links:

• BBC news on the iPhone 3GS release

Cooliris, the ridiculously sexy way to browse images online, has launched an app for the iphone that allows users to browse their iphone images and post them to social media networks such as Twitter.

Cooliris makes browsing images online enjoyable and I am looking forward to seeing how it transfers onto a handheld device. I must admit, the iphone's existing way to browse images is fairly robust, so Iam intrigued to see how this can compare. Will this take user interface to the next level or will it be a case of going one step too far and be counter productive for a positive user experience.

It took me a while to get into Twitter, but with interfaces that are so fun to use and making interaction so simple, it is difficult not to start embracing these new platforms. With the applications like this, and Apple releasing the new software for the iphone (V3.0) this summer, it is only going to put UI even more at the forefront of new technology. September is going to be an exciting time for innovative design.

Related links:

• Apple 
• Twitter