Everyone expects Steve Jobs to show the new iPhone during the Apple World wide developer conference during his keynote speech.

So far there have been several leaks from Apple suppliers and from the infamous lost iPhone leaving less unveiled surprises for this model than prior versions. It looks like it’ll improve many of the disappointments of the 3GS (lack of camera flash, short battery life possibly, higher resolution camera) and there are probably some software changes that’ll add some wow.

Sadly it’ll still be on AT&T in the USA making the iPhone still cool but sometimes incapable of making and receiving calls.  However the jailbreaks for the phone have allowed owners to take it to other GSM networks and opened up a huge list of additional features such as multi-tasking. Apple has not sat idly by and jailbreaking the iPhone has become progressively more difficult as it closes the doors used to unlock the phone.

The new iPhone is going to face the same battles and possibly already incorporates additional anti-jailbreaking security but now AT&T has added an additional hurtle with the bump in early termination. AT&T’s early termination fee was $175 but last month thye raised it to $325 and cut the rate they discounted it as you worked you way through your contract terms. So if you really want the new iPhone and when the jailbreak is available you’ll have to pay AT&T $325 to get out of your contract on top of the AT&T activation fee, ~$75 first month service and the approximately $200 purchase price for the phone. That’s $600!!

AT&T needs the iPhone and knows that people are only joining its service for the phone. That means they will go to extreme lengths to lock you into contracts. They’ve also removed the unlimited data from the contract hoping no-one notices. Admittedly they set the limit at 2GB per month which is pretty high, for now, but when will they raise this limit as more multi-media such as video conferencing get added to the phone? This seems to be the start of the tiered pricing for data that we’ve heard rumors of.

If you really can’t live without the new iPhone but can’t face AT&T you can rush out on opening day and buy it, then cancel your contract after 30 days to keep the phone. It looks like the jailbreak will be available by then and you’ll be able to go to another carrier, but by then it’ll have cost you $600.

I recommend giving it a while to see if the new features are really cool and useful or if really the improvement is just software and earlier iPhones are as cool when upgraded to the new iPhone operating system. There are already many 3rd party cases which offer extender batteries and integrated LED flash for the Camera as well as plug-in LED camera flash gizmos that fix two of the main iPhone complaints. New software and these hardware additions will take some of the wow out of the new iPhone.