VentureBeat

There’s smoke, there’s fire, and then there’s a volcano the size of Olympus Mons on Mars erupting and turning the ground into an ocean of burning lava. Such is current state of speculation surrounding the 3G iPhone.

There’s really no point in beating around the bush at this point. The new iPhone is coming on Monday. You know it. I know it. We all know it. If Apple were not to announce it at this point, it would be perhaps the largest letdown in the history of the company. That simply won’t happen.

If you still have any doubts, look no further than some of the rumored 3rd party announcements that are beginning to trickle out as we approach the WWDC. What do a lot of them share in common? They are location-centric. While the current iPhone has location recognition capabilities for its Google Maps application, it is GPS technology that will be needed to be the lifeblood for these apps. The current iPhone does not have GPS. The new one almost certainly will.

We’ve already written about Whrrl, a location-based social network that was the first application to be accepted by Kleiner Perkins’ for the $100 million iFund. Is there really any question that this was built to use GPS?

Yelp is also apparently working on a native iPhone application that will be location-driven, according to CNET. This could be a game-changing app because it will utilize Yelp’s already expansive list of local establishment ratings and reviews and serve them to you automatically based on where you are. The application will be able to do this thanks to GPS.

There will be others as well. Brightkite, Loopt, Plazes, FireEagle — all of these are likely to be important, if not major, players as location technologies become more mainstream. Given the iPhone’s elegant user interface and great usability, it is likely to be the device that will lead the way. It just needs that GPS chip. And it will get it.

Twitter is the current leader in the micro-blogging/micro-messaging sphere, but if it doesn’t act soon to offer some sort of location capabilities, it will get left in the dust. Is anyone going to want to type out their location, when your phone can send it automatically for you? This could be something to watch for in the coming months as Twitter will likely be bogged down trying to fix its architectural problems.

The GPS-enabled iPhone is coming — is your application ready?

For more on location technologies, check out the post by Eric Karr, the vice president of location technologies at Loopt, on TechCrunch.

Social networks built around location are a hot item, and getting hotter.

It’s one thing to have a group of contacts which you can update with words from a mobile device (think the micro-messaging service Twitter). It’s another to be able to quickly update your exact location on a map and have others see it. Add to that the ability to review places (think: Yelp) as well as tag places you would like to go, and you have a general idea of Whrrl, a location-based social network.

Several other services including BrightKite and Yahoo’s FireEagle, are exploring similar usage of location for networks, but with this new round of funding, Whrrl gets an important ally: T-Mobile. Deutsche Telekom’s venture capital arm, T-Mobile Venture Fund led this latest Series B round.

T-Mobile’s support validates the service, said Jeff Holden, chief executive and co-founder of Pelago, Whrrl’s parent. T-Mobile and Indian venture fund Reliance Technology Ventures (RTVL), which also participated in the round, will be important in helping the service expand globally, Holden said.

This location-based network arena will only get hotter as newer technologies and newer phones come into the market. While Google’s Android is still a little ways off, Apple’s 3G iPhone is expected to be just around the corner, and is expected to add GPS technology. Whrrl has already spoken on its blog about its excitement about building a native application for the device with the software development kit (SDK).

Pelago was the first company in venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers‘ portfolio to join Kleiner Perkins’ iFund, the $100 million fund which the firm set up to spur iPhone application development. Kleiner Perkins participated in both Pelago’s Series A round as well as this latest round. Other return investors include Trilogy Equity Partners and Bezos Expeditions. DAG Ventures is a new investor.

Loopt is yet another company doing something similar to whrrl, using GPS to update your friends’ location on a map. Loopt is backed by Kleiner rival, Sequoia.

As more and more phones add GPS capabilities, the ability to update Whrrl will get easier and easier. In fact, a user could use the service to send out updates of their location to friends without having to touch the device.

The Seattle, WA-based Pelago previously raised $7.4 million in 2006. We wrote about Whrrl in November.