At 10 am pacific time on Monday Steve Jobs will address a hall full of thousands of eager developers who are waiting to see what Apple will unveil at this years Worldwide Developers Conference.

World of Apple has offered rumour roundups leading up to Apple events for many years but this year we’ve mixed things up a bit. Due to the mass of speculation surrounding the iPhone we believe it is deserving of its own roundup, everything else will follow shortly after.

So, without further ado lets hit it!

Since the launch of the iPhone last year many have been clambering to get their hands of a 3G version, we all knew it was coming as Jobs mentioned it multiple times during 2007 but it appears that the second-generation iPhone may finally be upon us.

UMTS (3G)

3G is the umbrella name for many different technologies. The current iPhone runs on GSM networks and uses GPRS and EDGE to move data over the network.

UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) is effectively the equivalent 3G technology to GSM, the majority of 3G networks around the world use UMTS frequency bands and the iPhone will almost certainly be capable of connecting to them. It should also be noted that UMTS runs alongside GSM most of the time, GSM is far nicer to a devices battery life than UMTS when making phone calls.

But UMTS offers significant advantages over its 2G counterpart, when coupled with W-CDMA technologies speeds of up to 14Mbit/s can be achieved, this of course is very much a best case scenario but very fast speeds can be achieved.

Over the last few months the term HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) has been banded around; HSDPA is an underlying technology of HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) which is a protocol running on top of UMTS. Without getting everybody’s hopes up, HSDPA is capable of offering speeds of 1.8, 3.6, 7.2 and 14.4 Mbit/s. HSPA+ is capable of speeds of 42Mbit/s.

The majority of 3G networks in the world that operate HSDPA have 7.2Mbit/s networks but to receive such high speeds many factors have to be right.

So to conclude, the next-generation iPhone is almost certainly going to feature 3G connectivity and will most likely be able to connect to HSDPA networks opening the door to mobile video-conferencing, IP TV and downloading music on the go.

GPS

Even though the original iPhone featured a very detailed and easy to use Google Maps application it lacked the ability to know where it was. Apple tried to develop location awareness using WiFi and cellular points but it didn’t work too well for many. The best solution to location awareness is a GPS chip.

It has been rumoured heavily that the next-generation iPhone will a GPS chip.

It appears that Apple has been working hard to ensure that the GPS chip is only on when necessary to save battery life, in some of the recent beta versions of the iPhone 2.0 firmware it was shown that the iPhone asks to receive its location, presumably using the GPS chip.

Plastic Casing, Multiple Colours

Over the last two months we’ve seen dodgy photo after dodgy photo after dodgy photo, all purportedly showing the new iPhone.

Across the rumours and photos is one consistency, it’s all about plastic.

A plastic case instead of a metal case is not hard to believe, I am sure that I’m not the only one to notice that my iPhone has no signal when everyone else around me has full signal.

3G is an even more temperamental beast and would certainly benefit from a plastic case.

Although it is likely that the majority of the “leaked” photos are fake it isn’t hard to believe that Apple will adopt both black and white case designs and maybe other colours.

Thin iPhone, Thick iPhone

Of particular interest to those following the iPhone rumours is the inconsistency about how thick the device will be.

Engadget originally reported in April that the iPhone will be slightly thicker than the current iPhone.

But more recently Leander Kahney noted that the iPhone would be 22-percent thinner than the current, or around 2.5mm thinner.

In Apple’s entire history it has never released a revision of a product and made it thicker but with rumours of additional capacity, longer battery life and the use of a plastic case it is hard to say which way the iPhone will go.

Capacity and Price

The original iPhone debuted for $499 for 4GB and $599 for 8GB, this was later slashed by $100 and the 4GB model discontinued. In February 2008 Apple released a 16GB version of the iPhone.

The iPod touch currently comes in capacities of 8GB, 16GB and 32GB while the iPhone only comes in 8GB and 16GB. In February of this year when the 32GB iPod touch was released the unit contained two 16GB chips to make up 32GB, due to space limitations this was thought not to be possible in the iPhone. With the fast pace of technology the chip size for 16GB has probably reduced significantly so the future iPhone line-up is likely to feature 16GB and 32GB models.

The price of the next-generation iPhone has also been debated heavily with many rumours pointing towards heavy subsidising from carriers.

Apple has stated in the past that carriers are free to price the iPhone at there own discretion and this looks set to happen with the 3G iPhone, but many rumours still point to the iPhone having a price tag.

Across many rumours the most consistent price points appear to be $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB.

Notable Tidbits

With the rumours of .Mac being transformed into “MobileMe” it appears that the iPhone is about to gain a lot more integration with the cloud.

Although software based the latest iPhone is likely to be able to wirelessly sync contacts, calendars and photos.

There have been claims that the iPhone will make use of an OLED display. OLED displays offer fantastic benefits to battery consumption due to the lack of backlighting but OLED is still a young technology which is said to have a limited lifespan.

It has also been noted that the iPhone will feature a front-facing camera to facilitate video chats.

What to Expect

So piecing together all this information what can we expect Apple to announce on Monday?

  • 3G capable iPhone (HSDPA)
  • GPS capability
  • 22% thinner than previous incarnation
  • 20% improved battery
  • Front-facing camera for video conferencing
  • 4MP rear camera
  • Available in glossy black and also glossy white
  • 16GB for $199 and 32GB for $299
  • Carrier subsidies may include free upgrades from previous iPhone model and free iPhones to those signing up to higher contracts.
  • Shipping June 30th