Apple is widely expected to announce the second generation of the iPhone at the opening of their world wide developer conference on June 9. The new iPhone will offer 3G support; this is not really a secret. The phone is also expected to have assisted GPS. The most exciting part of the announcement for Australians should be that the phone will be made available in Australia very shortly after the 9th. In fact, some Apple retailers may have already been seeded with a demo device.

It looks as though Optus, Telstra, and Vodafone will all be carrying the device in Australia. This should make Australia one of the few countries where all the major carries have the phone. Hopefully this competition will result in generous subsidies

Apple typically likes to wow the crowd with an unexpected secret when they announce something new. If 3G, GPS, and worldwide carriers is all they announce, there will be some disappointment. None of those things is an overly well kept secret. There are a few other rumors going around that caught my eye however. First, a recent patent application for a device which includes: telephone, e-mail, instant messaging, blogging, photo management, digital camera, digital video camera. These are all known to be iPhone applications, but the blogging part of it is interesting. Second, Apple bought me.com (although it currently redirects to the old owner snappville).

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict (with no evidence to back it up except for the above) that me.com will be launched on monday as well, and that it will be a significant upgrade to their current .mac offering. I also think that the new iPhone will be well integrated into me.com as a personal life streaming device. Imagine combining the benefits of Twitter, Flickr, geo-tagging, Seesmic, Blogger, and location based social networking all in one application, and all available from one device. It would be the ultimate ‘follow-me’ application and it would already have the critical mass required to make it mainstream. It might seem a bit far fetched, especially since Apple would be unlikely to go after advertising revenue. Still, with such a strong presence in personal computers, portable devices, and content, a move into the online social world could provide a nice complete solution for the iPhone much like iLife does for the mac.

UPDATE: My prediction was about 1/2 right. The iPhone 3G was announced and will be launched in Australia with Optus & Vodafone. Me.com was also launched as part of an updated .mac product. It is more inward than outward facing, acting as a main repository for contacts, calendars, and addresses. It does allow sharing of photos, but not micro-blogging, videos, or location. Sixapart will release a blogging app and lcoation based information will be provided by a number of apps, including Loopt.