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As well as the black, plastic back it has a flush headphone jack, solid metal buttons and the same 3.5in display as before, while the audio quality has been improved.

The 3G performance is a huge improvement over the previous model's EDGE - now close, said Jobs, to Wi-Fi speeds and considerably faster than

Talk time on 3G is five hours - "an industry-leading amount of time", Jobs said - and battery life has been improved across the board. 2G talk time is up to eight to 10 hours, for example, while video will play for seven hours, music for 24.

GPS also makes its debut - supporting many of the location based features that developers are building into applications. Such as Google Maps, which can now track your movements.

The new phone will be available in 70 countries over the coming months.

"Next time you're in Malta and you need an iPhone 3G, it'll be there for you," said Jobs.

And it will be much cheaper than the six million phones Apple has sold to date.

The 8GB model is $199, $200 less than before. There is a white 16GB model for $299. Both will go on sale in 22 countries on 11 July. UK prices have yet to be confirmed.