iPhone Hysteria II

(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) - 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) - 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 »

(Newser) - You can replace your most over-hyped devices with the tech world's top 10 wallflowers, compiled by PC World . Start with the iPhone: Stop stubbing your fingers on Apple's impractical keyboard interface. Sidekick offers the best QWERTY around. Nintendo Wii is hard to find and offers few good games. Sony PlayStation Portable packs new titles with Skype, online radio, and uploadable movies. More »

(Newser) - Glitches have plagued the new iPhone since its release and AT&T's rivals are gleefully capitalizing on customers' griping, the New York Times reports. It's still unclear whether Apple or the wireless network is to blame, but companies like Verizon aren't letting the opportunity slip by. “A phone is only as good as the network it’s on," crows one Verizon ad. More »

(Newser) - British advertising regulators have banned a commercial claiming iPhones have “access to all the parts of the internet,” citing technological limitations that prevent users from seeing some websites, CNET News reports. iPhones don’t have Flash or Java, and while Apple simply intended to contrast the product with its more restricted mobile-device competitors, authorities say it gave a “misleading impression.” More »

(Newser) - It took Apple one year to sell 6 million first-generation iPhones. By next week, the company will have sold the same number of 3G iPhones—just seven weeks after they went on the market, TechCrunch reports. Complaints about battery life and connection speed haven’t tempered the iPhone’s popularity, and Apple is predicted to sell 40 million in the next year. More »

(Newser) - Poland’s largest mobile provider is refreshingly straightforward about its efforts to boost iPhone sales, Reuters reports. “We have these fake queues at front of 20 stores around the country to drum up interest in the iPhone,” a spokesman for Orange said. The iPhone flew off the shelves in the US, but pricey monthly fees may put a damper on Polish sales. More »