iPhone

As a big Starwood Hotels and iPhone fan, you might think that I would have blogged about the new SPG iPhone app that was released about a month ago already, but there were a few issues with it, that I wanted to see fixed before I reviewed it here.

Those fixes have not appeared yet, but I thought I should continue with my review at this point anyway.

I have used the SPG mobile site from my iPhone for the past couple of years while traveling, mainly to see if there was last minute availability at a previously sold-out hotel, or to check and see if a suite was available before I check in, so I can remind the hotel that I should be upgraded as a Platinum Preferred Guest. When I saw that there was a native iPhone app available from SPG, I went out with excitement to download it right away.

Download and install of the app went quick. At first glance I was pretty impressed, it allowed you to enter your SPG website login info once, and it would be saved for future use if you wished.

• Darren Mak's blog

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.

• Darren Mak's blog