I’ve had this running conversation with another reporter, Kim, who has been agonizing over smart phone choices. Last week, I tried to convince her to give the new Palm Pre a shot (she’s now calling me the “Pre pimp”).

I guess I should be honest and admit that my motivation is purely selfish. I want someone I know to try one out before I consider getting one. I’m willing to experiment with Kim’s dollars.

Well, now it looks like Palm’s new Pre ^[1]will be less than a month old before Apple brings its new toy – a faster version of its popular iPhone – to the market. I’m curious to see how this news affects Kim – and other cell phone users out there.

The iPhone 3G S ^[2]will cost $199 for the 16 gb version and $299 for the 32 gb version – with new contracts with AT&T, of course. The company also said is is lowering the price of the current iPhone to $99. June 19 is the target launch date for the new phone.

I’m thinking the news of the lower-priced iPhone might actually do more to boost the company’s sales than will the news of a newer, faster (but still pretty expensive) phone. We saw something similar earlier this year ^[3] when Blackberry launched a campaign that effectively lowered the price of its popular Curve.

Some thoughts on the new iPhone from Josh Lowensohn at CNET ^[4]:

The 3G S has an updated 3-megapixel camera (up from 2 megapixels) that has autofocus and autoexposure. It can also shoot video that can be edited right on the device in a similar fashion to iMovie. The video it takes is 30 frames per second at 640×480 VGA resolution, bringing it to spec with most point-and-shoot digital cameras.

The 3G S hardware also gets a magnetometer, which will allow the device to tell what direction it’s pointed in. To go along with this, there’s a new compass app that will act just like a normal compass. Users with the 3G S will get additional features in the Google Maps application that show which direction they’re facing.

And from Chris Foresman at ARS Technica: ^[5]

For those that have been waiting on edge for new iPhone hardware, the keynote did not disappoint. Phil Schiller came on stage to announce the iPhone 3G S-with the “S” standing for “speed.” It will have the same physical form factor as the current iPhone 3G, so all the rumors of black bezels and rubber backing weren’t accurate. But most of the rumors of hardware improvements were.

The improved processor (and possible RAM) will speed up most applications as much as two to three times, and will also introduce support for OpenGL ES 2.0, bringing significant improvement to 3D graphics.