New iPhone spurs market for refurbished phones

Here's another Examiner post I wrote about how the popularity of the new iPhone has given a boost to the market for refurbished iPhones and other smartphones. It includes mention of a friend of mine, Tara Sims (right, with me in photo below), who bought the 3GS and didn't just throw her BlackBerry in the back of a drawer, but gave it to charity.
Elsewhere, at least one company pays people for their old iPhones and refurbishes them. RapidRepair, in Michigan, was flooded with requests from new 3GS owners to buy their first and second generation iPhones from them for up to $200.

Latest posts to Examiner.com

It's been another busy week for me at Examiner.com.

I went off my gadgets beat for this story on Two Journalists Held in North Korea (right) as I attended a vigil in their honor in San Francisco. I added a slide show of photos I took at the event.

Then I wrote about The Wonderful World of (Gadget) Color about how product designers are using bright colors to distinguish their new gadgets from the basic and boring black and grey of previous models.

Back on the Bluetooth beat, after a couple of stories about Santa Cruz-based Plantronics, I got to try out the new Jawbone Prime (left) from competitor Aliph for a few days.

As part of my continuing coverage of new smartphone introductions, I revisited the Palm Pre for a story on how its sales have exceeded expectations.

AT&T Mobility made some news this week by announcing it's going to start selling netbooks to small business customers who can use the carrier's wireless broadband service.

And lastly, I noted the passing of Michael Jackson in a post noting how social media, on gadgets like smartphones and laptops, spread the word of his death.

Busy day on the tech beat

Monday June 22 was a busy day for me on the tech beat with three posts:

Here's a post about a guy who takes brand new tech devices, like the iPhone 3GS, and tears them apart to see what's inside. "OMG! My new iPhone! In pieces!"

For the first time since he went on medical leave in January, Steve Jobs was quoted in an Apple news release, this time about opening weekend box office for the iPhone 3GS. "Steve Jobs back on the job?"

Kudos are in order to the people at the New York Times with a timely report about the culture of secrecy at Apple.

Also, Monday, another entrant in the smartphone wars: "T-Mobile's myTouch 3G smartphone revealed."

My coverage of the iPhone 3G S launch

Like a lot of other tech journalists, I was drawn Friday morning to my friendly local neighborhood Apple store to witness the launch of the new iPhone 3G S. Here's the story I posted on Examiner.com: "New Apple iPhone goes on sale."

An Apple employee demos the iPhone 3G S
to customers at Apple's Valley Fair Mall Store.

Also, word came out today in the Wall Street Journal that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had a liver transplant. I can't link to the story because WSJ is password-protected, but here's the San Jose Mercury News report on the WSJ story.

My continuing coverage of Pre v. iPhone

In my continuing coverage of the Palm Pre and Apple iPhone, I wrote a story for ITWorld.com titled Palm Pre playing catch-up in apps race.

It's hard out there for an iPhoner

A report on some problems, more like irritants, for iPhone fans.
From Examiner.com.

And another Examiner post, this one on one of the cool apps to be available on the Apple iPhone 3.0 OS and the coming iPhone 3G S: "Find My iPhone."

Apple iPhone 3G S, the S is for SPEED!

Just two days after the Pre launch, Apple introduced the new iPhone 3G S. What's worse, for Palm, is Apple lowered the price of the existing Palm 3G to $99, half of what the Pre goes for after rebate. But they're on different carriers. I wrote about the new iPhone for ITWorld.com and then wrote a separate post on Examiner.com about one of the nifty apps on iPhone, Find My iPhone.


I've also written additional stories for ITWorld, including this from JavaOne about an RFID company called Touchatag and another JavaOne story about the proliferation of app stores.