During his annual Macworld keynote last week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced a series of iPhone software updates highlighted by a redesigned Maps application enabling users to triangulate their position via nearby WiFi base stations or cellular towers. The new hybrid map view combines map view and satellite view featuring major street names overlaid on satellite imagery.

Apple also introduced Web Clips (customizable home screen icons that take iPhone users directly to favorite websites) as well as SMS updates enabling users to text the same message to multiple recipients. The iPhone is also optimized for Apple's new iTunes Movie Rentals service, also announced last week. According to Jobs, the iPhone has sold four million units to date. "iPhone doesn't stand still--we're making it better and better all the time," he said in a prepared statement.

iPhone’s new software update also adds the ability to send the same SMS text message to multiple people, and iPhone saves a history of your text messages, so with one tap you can send a new message to the same group.

With Apple's new iTunes Movie Rentals, movie fans can rent movies on their computer, easily and quickly transfer them to their iPhone, and watch them anywhere on iPhone's gorgeous 3.5 inch screen. Users can also now navigate forward or backward through their movies by chapters, select alternate language tracks and view subtitles, if available.

The iPhone software update 1.1.3 is available immediately for free via iTunes 7.5 or later for all existing iPhone customers in the US, UK, Germany and France. New iPhone products shipping from the factory will include the software update and existing iPhone customers will automatically get the update for free when they sync their iPhone with iTunes. [FierceWireless]