By Sharla Sikes

After last summer’s furor over the release of the do-it-all gadget of the moment, the iPhone is again all over the news with the release of its new 3G incarnation.

With a new price tag of $199, the 8g version is sure to make some people who stood in line to pay $600 for the first edition very unhappy. The lower price isn’t a result of Steve Jobs’ generosity and love of his fellow man, however; AT&T has subsidized 11 part of the cost of the new iPhone in order to drive sales.

More importantly in the VoIP world even than the new phone and new price is the VoIP application to be released “soon” by iCall.

The application will allow iPhone users to transfer calls from the cellular carrier to WiFi, thus cutting back on the amount of minutes used. It’s still in the beta form, with no availability outside of the company, but iCall does provide a video demonstration on its web site.

iCall is following the Apple software developer kit program, so this application isn’t for “jailbroken” iPhones. That protects AT&T’s profit, a nice exchange for the subsidizing of phone prices.

The iCall, along with other applications, will be distributed through the iPhone App Store, expected to go live in a few weeks.  Some of the other apps include games, lists, music creation, anatomy and baseball, but (many?) more are expected too.

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