Things are starting to heat up a little bit in the iPhone arena. The rumor mills are all active with buzz as to what new features the 3G model of the iPhone will bring.

In all chances I believe that Apple will unveil the 3G version of the iPhone during this years WWDC. But if you can’t wait till June 9th, here are spicy bits for you to feast upon.

Engadget got tipped off that the enterprise beta of the firmware has the "missing" magnifying glass-contact search feature that we saw during the iPhone SDK announcement earlier this year. There is also an inbox-like button that doesn’t seem to do anything. Apparently it shows meeting invites, with an icon badge that shows how many invites have been received.

I’m sure you will all agree on the fact that features in the UI are more obvious than the other newer features that are buried deep inside the iPhone software. The noted iPhone hacker Zibree found references to SGOLD3, a chip that would give the iPhone 3G capabilities. Electronista found a Greek iPhone-unlocking website reveal numerous textual clues about the firmware. Tidbits include "A2DP," which is a Bluetooth profile that allows streaming of CD-quality audio wirelessly, and a Bluetooth remote control. Other capabilities include GPS capabilities, a YouTube plug-in for mobile Safari, and Google411 integration. Pretty Cool eh!

Looks like Apple is also clearly taking concrete steps to prevent the unlocking of iPhones. A new clearly identifiable "BRICKED_AND_SIM_LOCKED_STRING" indicates that the iPhone may one day refuse to work with other carriers no matter what you did to it.. Hardware unlocking would still be possible though.

Features aside, TGDaily seems to believe that we will see the 3G Model in similar price points like the existing models. 8GB one 399$ and 16GB one for 499$. We might as well see a 32GB Model though. There are not going much changes in the way the iPhone operates, and the casing of the iPhone is also expected to slim down a bit.

This is it for now. We will see a lot more happening in the run up to this years WWDC. Things are definitely heating up now, but I’d want the iPhone v2 to come with atleast a 3.2MP camera, and Video recording capabilities. A 2MP camera doesn’t cut it these days does it?

What are your expectations of iPhone take two(as Uncle Steve would say)?

How many iPhone killers have we seen till date? Not many I guess. We could probably count them on one hand. Looks like Nokia is working on the real iPhone killer afterall!

Codename "Tube" this advanced Nokia phone could probably outrun the iPhone is just about every department. Knowing the kind of high end devices Nokia makes, the "Tube" does look like the real iPhone killer.

Based on a new Symbian S60 Touch-enabled users interface, Nokia Tube was presented "in a slide", during the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference held in California. 

The Nokia "Tube" does resemble the iPhone in its looks but expect Nokia to put never before seen multimedia features on it with advanced video capabilities something that the iPhone lacks. A release date hasn’t been mentioned as yet, but it looks like it will come out later this year.

Nothing much is known at the moment about the probable real iPhone killer. Until we get to see the "Tube" in real, enjoy this video teaser.

Via Softpedia and Infoworld