Remember my iPhone macro lens? If not, here is how I made it and here is a video demonstration of it in action. My solution to the iPhone’s lacking built-in lens did what I wanted it to do, but it wasn’t a very elegant solution.

The team at Griffin Technology, the company that churns out the best accessories for Apple products, has recently released an iPhone 3G case that has a built-in macro lens.

The case looks amazingly simple and the lens itself seems to do just what it says it will, all without getting in the way.  When, and if, I upgrade to an iPhone 3G – this would be the first accessory I buy for it.

Source: Griffin Technology: Clarifi.

He sums up his thoughts of the lower-cost iPhone 3G, and the iPhone SDK, this way:

“The physical phone is not the story. A year from now, the iPhone 3G will be replaced by another new model. The platform is the story. Platforms have staying power, and, once entrenched, are very hard to displace.”

Again, many of you might be thinking that this is obvious.  But don’t be surprised if some of the “journalists” out there completely miss the point with today’s announcements.  I can just hear the “Apple was afraid it wouldn’t sell enough iPhones so they lowered the price” headlines hitting the presses right now.

Source: Daring Fireball: Twice as Fast, Half the Price.

Here are some highlights from Ryan’s notes.

• Bandwidth tests confirmed about an 2x speed-increase.
• You can disable 3G (presumably to preserve battery life).
• Wifi is 802.11b/g but not N.
• Geotagging photos is possible. (hooray!)
• The dock is now sold separately. Docks from first-gen iPhones can not be used.
• You can use any 3.5mm headphone!

Source: iPhone 3G hands-on.

Today I find myself in the same state as I was yesterday, still wishing.

Apple’s Keynote did, in fact, reassure me that I will be able to check off a few items on my list, however. It looks like we’ll get a search in the contacts application.  Twitterrific on the iPhone, has been confirmed by Apple, in a round-about sort of way (see screenshot).  And games!  Apple made it a point to show that games run very well on the iPhone.

Although not confirmed, we can assume that we’ll get a few of the applications that I wanted on the iPhone through third party applications within the first few months of the App Store launching.

All-in-all I’m happy with everything that Apple announced today.  The iPhone 3G seems like a very welcomed update to the current iPhone, and at a price point no one can sneeze at.  Mobile Me will be huge for Apple and .Mac has needed an update for a very long time.  And of course all of the iPhone software updates and third party applications are going to be a game-changer in the mobile market.

You probably know what I’m going to say next.  I wish Steve said “One more thing”.  But he didn’t.  If he did, I would have wanted to see a new Macbook Pro.  I am not sure how long I can hold out before picking one up.