Assuming that everyone reading this has already heard that Apple today announced the new and improved iPhone 3G S, I will only give a brief rundown of the new functionality. Although much the same look as the existing iPhone 3G, the new hardware is faster, the battery lasts longer, has a 3 MegaPixel Autofocus camera with Video support, and built-in GPS with compass among other features. Although this new hardware will be a vast improvement, The iPhone OS 3.0 software that will run on the new device will also be able to be installed on previous versions of the iPhone, and the iPhone Touch will be available June 17th, and will give users many of the cool features that were demonstrated at todays WWDC Keynote Address, such as copy and paste, voice dialing, MMS messaging etc...

During the keynote, Canadian viewers were excited to see that not only would Rogers make the device available on June 19th, but they would also be offering Tethering to use your iPhone as a Modem for your laptop computer immediately as well, unlike AT&T. Many questions remained however in regards to pricing, plans, and if there would be a cost for the new features.

And speaking of data, apparently Rogers will be bringing back a 6GB data plan which was offered when the iPhone 3G originally came out last year (this is the data plan I am on, and even with tethering I have never used more than 1.5 GB per month) starting tomorrow, for a yet to be disclosed amount of time.

Over the past few hours more and more information has been leaking out, especially from Keith McArthur, a Rogers employee who has been answering everyones questions as best he can on twitter, all day long. From Rogers and Keith we have learned that the original iPhone 3G will be available in the 8GB form for $99 on contract, the new 16GB iPhone 3G S will be $199 and a new 32GB model will be $299. Rogers will allow tethering if you have a data plan which allows for 1GB or more of data transfer a month, free of charge through the end of 2009 as listed on the Rogers website, and according to repeated posts to twitter by Keith, "until at least the end of the year" leading me to believe they haven't figured out what they are going to do in regards to tethering just quite yet. Part of this may be because Rogers has always officially told it's customers, "sure go ahead and tether if your phone supports it... data is data".

When asked, Keith said that my $15 Visual Voicemail Value Pack on my account will cost me an additional $5 per month, for a total of $20. This means that MMS will not be a free upgrade, and without a plan could get expensive at the current $0.50 per message pay as you go rate.

The only other thing that has people upset is that even though they want to give Rogers more money, increase their monthly plan costs and sign up for another three year contract, it seems that if you bought the iPhone 3G last July or you have had another phone for less than two years, you likely won't be eligible for the iPhone 3G S at the prices mentioned earlier. Likely they device will cost you somewhere between $399 and $699 however pricing has not yet been officially announced. For myself, my Rogers account page online shows that I will be eligible for an upgrade on July 11, 2009 exactly one year after I purchased my last iPhone. This may be because of the high amount I pay monthly for three phones from Rogers, but we will see if this date holds true.

Whether you like Apple and the iPhone or not, this device will up the ante for every other phone maker out there. Devices such as the HTC Magic or Palm Pre which have just been released, or are soon to be are already lacking in functionality compared to the iPhone. Not to mention the 50,000 apps that are available for the iPhone today, and cool new ones such as the announced today TomTom for iPhone software which will provide turn-by-turn GPS directions.

Look for my iPhone 3G on eBay shortly!

• Darren Mak's blog