If you didn't find much to gasp at during the iPhone OS 3.0 section of Monday's keynote presentation at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, that's understandable. Much of what was showed off were features that we saw trotted out back at March's iPhone special event where Apple initially introduced the software update.

That said, we did get a glimpse at a few brand new iPhone capabilities as well as a more detailed look at some of the features that were only hinted at three months ago. Let's take a look at what's coming to our iPhone when the update drops on June 17.

The co-founders of Last.fm have quit the CBS-owned company.

CEO Felix Miller, COO Martin Stiksel and CIO Richard Jones confirmed they were leaving in a blog post yesterday. The trio will stay on as consultants at the firm until September.

“We are actively looking to hire a new leadership team which will definitely consist of more than one person,” he said, according to the Daily Telegraph.

O2 has already confirmed that the 16GB and 32GB iPhone 3G S models will cost pay-as-you-go customers a whopping £440.40 ($711.12/€510.37) and £538.30 ($853.05/€612.24), respectively.

However, internet tethering – a killer 3G S feature allowing the phone to be used like am HSDPA modem – won’t be available to PAYG customers. The bolt-on will only be offered to contract customers, priced at either £14.68 per month for a 3GB maximum data transfer allowance, or £29.36 per month for 10GB.

O2's HSDPA network provides 3.6Mb/s downloads across the carrier's 3G network. The faster, 7.2Mb/s speed is being rolled out, initially in major cities.

Call merging and visual voicemail are also not available to PAYG customers, O2 confirmed.

O2’s monthly contact costs vary wildly, so we’ve included the operator’s breakdown below. But if you’re looking to save a few pennies and grab the 16GB 3G S for free then you’ll have to sign up for a £73.41 per month contract for 18 months. The 32GB model’s free for the same monthly cost, but based on a lengthier, two-year agreement.

Click for larger view

It’s also worth noting that although O2’s now canned the 16GB iPhone 3G, you can still buy the 8GB model for the operator’s original PAYG price of £342.50 ($553.04/€396.91). The table above shows the contract prices, again unchanged.

Contracts for business customers vary widely too. For example, you can get the 32GB 3G S for £175.19 ($282.88/€203.02) on O2’s Small Business Frequent User tariff.

Apple’s iPhone 3G S small print also contains some finer points you should be aware of because, despite version 3.0 of the OS set to launch on 17 June, many of the coolest features required hardware only included in the 3G S.

For example, even if you upgrade your existing 8GB 3G to the new operating system, you still won’t get the compass, the voice control app, the video capture capable camera or the “improved performance” afforded by the 3G S' faster chippery.

Internet tethering will not be available to owners of the 8GB iPhone.

But many other iPhone 3.0 features - MMS, copy and paste, voice memos and the landscape keyboard in the messaging apps - will work on the old handset, and on new ones, whether they're PAYG or contract handsets.

So, the moral of the story is that if you’re looking to get the 3G S, you must be flush with cash, think carefully about contract or PAYG options and – most importantly – drop Register Hardware about your thoughts on the new device.

The iPhone 3G S will be available from O2 on 19 June. Apple's other UK iPhone partner, Carphone Warehouse, will start taking advance orders tomorrow. ®

Update

O2 has since told Register Hardware that existing customers on monthly contracts will be able to upgrade to the iPhone 3G S by “buying out” of their contracts. The cost of this is calculated on a case-by-case basis, but you’ll then have to pick from the standard list of monthly 3G S contract options (shown above) before the operator will ship you the device.

There has been mixed reaction to Apple's announcement of a speedier new iPhone and moves to cut the price of the year old 3G model in the US.

News of the updated iPhone 3GS handset was made at the company's annual developers conference in San Francisco.

Apple said improvements in the iPhone 3GS made common tasks, such as launching applications, much faster.

But veteran tech journalist Steven Levy of Wired Magazine said: "It's not a game changer."

Rumours of an update to the iPhone have been circulating prior to the start of Apple's World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC).

When it was finally unveiled more than an hour and a half into the keynote speech, few were surprised.

"We have been trained to think that when one more thing comes out it is going to rock our world and that didn't happen," said Mr Levy.

Ernest Doku of comparison site Omio was more effusive.

Is it earth shattering compared to what was there before? No. Van Baker, Gartner analyst

"Majorly cool has just become mass market," he said "Essentially the 3GS is a refinement of the existing device so not all worlds will be rocked but as usual with Apple there are some big reasons to be excited.

"Features like data encryption, improved data speeds and increased battery life will attract users. With faster web browsing and the ability to record and upload video to YouTube, the 3GS will get more people using their mobiles to go online than ever before.

"It's the must have multi-media device," said Mr Doku.

The .htaccess files (Hypertext Access file) is a very powerful configuration tool on Apache web server. The Apache web server has a number of configuration options that are available to the server administrator. The .htaccess is a simple ASCII text file placed in your website root directory. You can create and edit an .htaccess file using a text editor like notepad.

The C901 Green Heart model features an electronic in-phone manual to replace the standard paper version, saving more than 90 per cent in paper, while the phone casing is made from a minimum of 50 per cent recycled plastics.

It also has an optimised display light sensor that uses less energy, and is covered with a waterborne paint that lowers exposure to volatile organic compounds.

The phone will also include the Walk Mate application, which will let users compare the steps they take to the equivalent journey by car.

The Naite model will feature many of the same innovations as the Green Heart, and will also come to market with the EP300 Green Heart low-power charger.

It will feature a carbon footprint calculator to show how much CO2 a user is saving by walking instead of travelling by car.

Here are some tips for using a MacBook or MacBook Pro with an external monitor. They range from the painfully obvious (for brand new Mac users) to one I actually just learned yesterday.

1. When you connect an external monitor to your MacBook (or PowerBook, for that matter), you can combine your MacBook's LCD and your external monitor to create one big monitor. That means when your mouse pointer goes off the edge of one, it will appear on the other. Open the Displays Preference Pane to configure the resolution and orientation of the two monitors. This type of configuration works well when you want to keep your main work on your larger external display, but still keep things like IM, iTunes, and email constantly visible on the smaller laptop LCD.
2. Some windows act like they don't want to be dragged on to your external monitor. If a windows is being stubborn, try dragging it up to the menu bar, and keep dragging, even if stays stuck below the menu bar. Sometimes once you have dragged it far enough that it has room to render the entire window, it will jump to the other monitor (Terminal used to have this problem, but Apple fixed it some time ago). If that doesn't work, try dragging it from a corner of your monitor. My Adium contact list doesn't seem to want to live on my external monitor, but I can coerce it up there by dragging up from either corner.
3. When your laptop is open, you can't switch to using the full resolution of an external monitor. I have no idea why, but it's a fact of life for MacBook users. You can use both displays in "extended" mode, or you can mirror your MacBook's display (which most likely doesn't use the full resolution of your external monitor), but you can't switch to using only the external monitor. Very strange.
4. If you close your laptop, you can actually get the full resolution of your external display. Put your MacBook to sleep, connect your external display and an external monitor, and wake the computer up by pressing any key. You will have full use of your external display while your laptop is closed.
5. If you really want to have your MacBook open while only using an external display, after following the procedure above, you can open your MacBook, and it's screen will remain off, which means you can still use the MacBook's keyboard and trackpad. Why you can't get into this mode using F7, I have no idea. This is a good technique for allowing some heat to dissipate while still using an external display so the lid of your MacBook doesn't melt or warp.
6. You can boot your computer using just an external display. Just connect your external display, open the lid, hit the power button, and close the lid again immediately.
7. In order to output only to an external monitor, you have to have the power cable connected. I tried for several minutes yesterday to get my MacBook to wake up with an external keyboard and monitor before unpacking my AC adapter from my backpack, and it wouldn't work. It took me a while to make the connection (no pun intended), but I eventually discovered that with the power cable attached, everything works as expected.