Apple iPhone Gets 3G and Price Cut

MobileMe will be available next month.

Apple today confirmed its worst-kept secrets: a new iPhone that can tap high-speed, 3G data networks. And that it will sell for $200, which is cutting the price in half for its low-end model. Those moves alone will help broaden the already successful phone's appeal.

But what might cause me deep pangs of iPhone lust was the announcement of an online system to bolster the phone's usefulness. MobileMe is the long-overdue overhaul of Apple's .Mac, the $100-a-year collection of E-mail and storage services that seem almost antiquated by today's standards. The new online applications will offer another opportunity to move our lives online. They'll compete with similar online software from Google, Microsoft, and, most recently, Adobe.

The coverage from sites like Engadget and Gizmodo suggest the applications are slick and easy to use, much like their counterparts on a Macintosh computer. Even more intriguing is their promise to keep contacts, E-mail, and calendar synchronized across devices.

Windows users can apparently tap that capability with their desktop applications. But Apple didn't mention if it will eventually support handsets other than the iPhone. We'll be watching anxiously with lust in our hearts.