iPhone

(Newser) - With an eye to newly frugal consumers, Best Buy is offering refurbished iPhone 3Gs for about $50 less than new handsets, Reuters reports. The retailer offers previously owned 8- and 16-gigabyte iPhones (returned in 30 days or less) for $149 and $249, respectively. Best Buy may be trying to undercut Wal-Mart, which started selling the iPhone 3G models last month for $197 and $297, slightly below Best Buy’s price for a new handset. More »

(Newser) - Got that shiny new iPhone 3G for Christmas but don’t want to bail on your non-AT&T service plan? A new application to unlock the iPhone 3G is here, PC World reports. At this point, "even a cat" can get the trick done. Yes, there's always a chance you can mess up your phone, but a close reading of the instructions should keep you safe and open the door to lots of unapproved phone apps. Click on the link for step-by-step help. More »

(Newser) - The New Year is here, and that means it’s time to clean out the cultural wardrobe. Hank Stuever of the Washington Post offers his annual take on things that are so last year, and others sure to be cool in the next 12 months: Out: LOLcats In: “ Garfield Minus Garfield” Out: Dressing like “Mad Men” In: Drinking like “Mad Men” Out: Twittering In: Slow blogging More »

(Newser) - They’ve only been around for a few years, but digital book readers may already be going the way of the Walkman. In increasing numbers, tech savvy bookworms are downloading their favorite titles onto smartphones like the iPhone for a fraction of the cost, BusinessWeek reports. For travelers, “bringing an extra piece of equipment loses some of its value,” said an iPhone convert. More »

(Newser) - The BlackBerry Storm hits the US tomorrow, with the iPhone squarely in its sights. The new smartphone is an interesting mix of traditional BlackBerry and the hugely popular Apple gadget, with a few twists, Walt Mossberg writes for the Wall Street Journal. The keyboard is the Storm's calling card: "The entire glass display is one large button, mounted on a mechanical substructure that allows it to be depressed when pressure is applied." More »

(Newser) - Apple’s new iPhone model is now the top-selling mobile phone among US adults, Macworld reports, having displaced Motorola’s Razr in the third quarter. The Razr had topped the category—which doesn’t take business purchases into account—for 12 consecutive quarters. Apple says it sold 6.8 million iPhones in the quarter, even as the overall market saw a 15% year-to-year drop. More »

(Newser) - Lower-income households are snatching up iPhones at a faster rate than their more financially flush counterparts, reports the Wall Street Journal , potentially attracted by its multiple uses—and single fee. By relying on the “Swiss-Army knife kind of device” to make phone calls, listen to music, and access the Internet, consumers save on the cost of individual gadgets as well as broadband connections. More »

(Newser) - Google's upcoming G1 is the first real rival to the iPhone, but the different gadgets "are likely to attract different types of users," Walt Mossberg writes in the Wall Street Journal . Making phone calls was a lot easier on the G1, which worked great with Google services, Mossberg found in extensive testing. But the long-awaited new toy was a distant runner-up as a multimedia device. More »

(Newser) - Signs are pointing to a Flash plugin coming to the iPhone sometime soon, Jason Kincaid writes on TechCrunch—but he’s of two minds about the benefits of finally getting “the real web” on Apple’s shiny gadget. Flash is absolutely essential for the internet, he writes, but making its processor work harder “is the last thing the iPhone needs with its already-lackluster battery life.” More »