Twice as fast. Half the price. That’s the tagline for Apple’s iPhone 3G. The new device will be surfacing a month from tomorrow — on July 11. Pricing will start at $199.

No doubt you’ve already read something — a news article, blog entry or the back of a cereal box — extolling the virtues of this new mobile offering. So I’m going to focus a little bit on 3G and what that brings users, then extol virtues.

3G stands for third generation of mobile phone standards, and the networks that support it are wide area. Think fast and full of capacity. These networks can deliver more services. For the iPhone, that includes faster web surfing, faster email and better video delivery.

These have existed practically forever in Asia, but finally found their way to the United States on a slow boat piloted by Verizon in 2003. (An earlier implementation withered on the vine — or should I say, wire?)

3G phones already exist. The AT&T Tilt 8925 Smartphone, the Nokia N91, the Sony Ericsson K800i are just three examples.

What sets the iPhone apart from these others? It’s not price. The Motorola RAZR V3xx ranges from $39.99 to $99.99 — with a two-year service contract. The Palm Treo 750 SmartPhone, a $500-$600 phone, is only $149.99 with a two-year service plan.

But, as Treo reviewer y2kinfos points out when talking about his or her phone: “…Most of you guys know when u have a PHONE + PDA + CAMERA + BLUETOOTH + WINDOWS MOBILE + UPGRADABLE MEMORY, there is nothing else you would need more apart from GPS…”

Mr. Jobs has delivered the GPS. Plus, the iPhone now supports Exchange, which makes it much more enterprise-friendly. And you get an iPod built in. That’s a sweet package.

But service is still restricted to AT&T. And AT&T’s 3G coverage doesn’t exist in my part of California. In fact, if you look at AT&T’s service coverage viewer, you’ll discover that 3G is mostly a big-city feature in the United States. That means your iPhone will revert to poky old 2G in the byways of Sante Fe, Lubbock, Wichita, Lansing and hundreds of other small and mid-sized communities. It’s like having a really great toy and not being able to get the batteries to run it. Steve, can you hear me now? That’s the problem I want you to solve next, please!

I don’t know about you, but I’d have trouble laying out a few hundred dollars for a WiFi Internet radio. Yet that’s what Sangean is asking for its WFR-20. What exactly does that get you?

According to the product description, this radio offers direct access to 6,000 Internet radio stations in 250 locations from 60 genres. (Maybe it includes my personal favorite, KVMR.org, the community radio station that broadcasts from my little town, Nevada City. If it doesn’t, the company says I can get it added with a request.)

Apparently, you can find your favorite stations and upload them to a My Stations folder on a special website. Once the stations are there, you can play them from the radio. If you don’t have a computer, it works as a stand-alone unit, but the advantage of tying it to your computer is that it can play the music you have stashed on your hard drive. All you need for either set-up is an Internet connection and a wired or wireless router.

It includes a socket for plugging in your iPod or other MP3 player and another socket for a headset.

But we’re talking truly geek in design. It looks like something your great-uncle would crouch in a kitchen chair next to and listen to the ballgame with — except because it comes with a remote control, he can flip stations without sitting up. It comes in a “high-gloss piano-black finish,” includes a “large, easy-to-read line display,” and weighs in at whopping 6.1 pounds.

Didn’t anybody tell these people that Moore’s Law mandates that technology is supposed to get smaller? Aren’t we supposed to be able to fit our devices in our pockets these days?

So what gives? Is it the audio quality that’s spectacular? Is it so bleeding-edge, I’m incapable of appreciating its inner beauty and elegance? Could it be that I don’t listen to enough music that the idea of paying more than 99 cents for a song grieves me? Dear reader, if you can explain the magic and charm of these machines, I’d appreciate an education. Add your comment below.