If you wanted an iPhone, but the price is your specific buzz-kill, Apple’s come $100 closer to making your iPhone bliss a reality.

Apple today posted refurbished iPhones on the online Apple Store in the Special Deals section. The iPhones are $399 for 4GB and $499 for 8GB representing a $100 savings over buying non-refurb. Like every other Apple refurb, they carry Apple’s 1-year warranty.

What are you waiting for? Go forth and join the cult.

Flickr user Travis Gohr posts pictures of his injuries after using his iPhone on a treadmill. Basically, the short version is his iPhone fell off of the treadmill, he watched it and ended up flying backwards off the treadmill causing what I would describe as a nasty scratch right above his spine. Here’s the sequence of events that led to Gohr’s injury:

Step 1. Purchase an iPhone. I’d recommend the more valuable one as that will make you more willing to risk life for it.

Step 2. Gain access to a treadmill.

Step 3. Use said iPhone while using treadmill.

Step 4. When your iPhone magically slides off the stand, hits the treadmill and rockets off behind you, make SURE to follow it’s trajectory with your head, not just your eyes.

Step 5. If you’ve completed step 4 correctly you should now be facing sideways on the treadmill instead of forward. Your head should also be cranked completely around behind you. The position of your body will lead to you being completely off balance. Let the treadmill do the rest.

Step 6. Your feet should fly out from under you and if your head is still facing backwards you should land flat on your back on the treadmill. It will then proceed to rocket you backwards.

Step 7. This is of UTMOST importance. You will only stay airborne for a quick second and when you come down, the back of the treadmill will strike somewhere on your body. Make SURE it hits you DIRECTLY in the spine.

Step 8. You should now have a broken spine. If not, repeat. Or, you might just end up blogging about how you ended up with a wicked pressure burst on your back.

One word… Ouch.

Thank you to our good friend Megan for the tip.

I’ve considered going naked, but after the initial feeling of liberation you quickly realize you should probably put your iPhone in a case of some sort.  What did you think I was talking about?

When I bought my iPhone second-hand (with two days of use on the clock), it came from the original purchaser with an Incase Molded Rubber Protective Sleeve.  I liked it at first.  It doesn’t add bulk, it gives the iPhone a nice grippy texture, and it’s not bad looking.  The rubberized exterior is probably pretty good at handling some of the shock that your iPhone encounters on a daily basis.  That said, there are two fatal flaws with the Incase Rubber Sleeve.

First off, it allows some dirt/pocket link/other abrasive material to slip down along the edge.  This has resulted in a number of iPhones that now sport scratched chrome bezels… including mine.  Incase blames this on Apple… Apple blames it on Incase.  I think if your “protective sleeve” causes damage — no matter whether the chrome trim is “inferior” or not — it’s not much of a protective sleeve.  Bad, Incase, bad!

However, the first problem can be mitigated by religiously removing and cleaning the case often.  That brings me to the second problem: removal of the case more than five or so times and it starts to stretch.  After that, it goes downhill fast until you have a fitted rubber case that fits looser than Calista Flockhart’s sweat pants.  Mines so saggy it doesn’t even stay on that well anymore.

I’ll be calling Incase and seeing what they have to say about what’s obviously a flawed product.

I’ve since replaced the rubber with a form-hugging clear plastic case from Power Support they dub the Crystal Jacket.  It’s a bit pricey at the standard iPhone case price of $30, but it’s a very well-put-together product.  It comes with the case (front and back pieces), a nice belt clip, and a screen protector (I’d already installed a Power Support screen shield, so this was just a spare for me).  The case has a couple of benefits I didn’t even think of when I picked it out to replace my Incase: it covers the face of the iPhone a bit on the top and bottom (no ear prints!) and it slides in and out of my pocket a lot smoother than the grippy rubber on the Incase.  Of course, the Crystal Jacket set allows unimpeded access to all iPhone controls and you can even hook up the charge/sync cable with the case still on.  It does not allow the phone to sit in the dock, however.

As the iPhone hype continues, it’s worth noting that while the latest must have gadget arguably combines more features in a user intuitive package than any previous generation device, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it performs those tasks better than other devices.

Choosing just the right mobile device comes down to choosing exactly what features you’ll use the most. For a phone meant just for good old voice talking, obviously the less complicated the better.

And those with photography always on their mind would probably appreciate having a top-notch camera feature set built in to the phone, even if it means skimping on other techie features. Granted, no cell phone is ever going to replace the pro photo gear, but even having decent point and shoot snapshot capability with a real lens and a flash would be a plus.

Here are 3 camera phones that out shoot the iPhone in an instant:

Nokia N95

This Nokia has a great set of photo features, including:

• 5 megapixel sensor
• Carl Zeiss lens
• Built in WiFi for uploading pictures

Sony Ericsson K790a

You can’t go wrong with this CNET Editors’ Choice featuring:

• 3.2 megapixels
• Powerful Xenon flash
• Image stabilization technology

LG enV VX9900

While not quite as competitive in the megapixel department, this camera phone is still praised for its photo quality. Worth taking a look anyway.

• 2 megapixel camera
• Blue reducing auto focus
• Built in Flash

Also, if you’re seriously considering a new device, you might consider waiting for the recently rumored Samsung SGH-G800 5 megapixel cameraphone. And we all know that iPhone will get even better with the second generation.

Today, it seems like nearly everyone is second guessing the success of the whole iPhone hype machine. Granted the gadget is for the most part exactly what it was cracked up to be. But still, analysts are trying to find a way to claim iPhone activations weren’t exactly quite what they had initially expected. Just more hype if you ask me.

So, just to be different as the hype machine grinds away, let’s take a look at the famous gadget from a different perspective. Here are 5 things the iPhone should be able to do but can’t (yet)…

Stash Even More Goodies.

I’m talking about a cavernous 200 gigabyte storage system, not the puny 4 or 8 gigabyte options available now. Yes, I know 200 GBs are totally unrealistic, but for all the hype, why not make the options at least little more intriguing. Wait… you say you don’t want to lug around a 2 pound device? Alright, all I’m really asking for is something that pushes the limits.

Manage a Few More Megapixels.

2.0 megapixels of digital photography power on the iPhone is okay. Actually, compared to other smartphones, it’s downright excellent. But why not a 5 megapixel sensor? Or even 3? The technology for either of those should be nearly as affordable as what the iPhone currently uses. And while they’re at it, they might as well add some better optics and a real flash. For a device that’s supposed to do it all, it has a long way to go in the digital picture department.

Control Stuff Remotely.

I want my iPhone to remotely control my television and stereo. After all, it’s always in my hand or at least by my side anyways, even as I veg out on the couch. Why not offer universal remote control functionality? Shouldn’t be too difficult. After all, my five year old PDA could do it just fine.

Play With Other Networks.

Understandably, it’s hard to launch an innovation of technology so quickly across multiple platforms. But hopefully the iPhone will soon be compatible with other faster networks than AT&T’s EDGE. Come on, open up the pipes and let the thing shine!

Gracefully Give More Guidance.

I love the Google Maps integration with the iPhone. This is one of the best mashups in quite some time. Simple. Smart. Brilliant. Whatever. But I still want GPS. Full on navigation capabilities via the Google Maps would just be great. If nothing else, at least let me buy an external Bluetooth GPS receiver to add the ability to position me globally.

An early-adopting Flickr user has posted unboxing pics of the Apple Bluetooth Headset that’s been recently released.

From the pics, it appears the Apple headset is about the same size as my Plantronics, but it’s charger is integrated with the iPhone. The travel charger cable is a beautiful thing and appears to use Apple MagSafe technology to keep the headset in the charging slot. Very nice.

Other highlights are the on-iPhone display of charge status for the headset when they’re docked together and the dock itself, which is a perfect way to keep both the iPhone and the headset charged up.

I’ve already made the rounds to my local Apple stores and none are in stock here, so we’ll have to wait a while longer for the TechBandito review and to see if it works better than the Aliph Jawbone.

If you’re looking for wallpaper to grace the unlock screen of your iPhone, here are a few good spots:

• ThemeMyPhone.com
• Flickr (search for “iphone wallpaper”)
• Digital Blasphemy
• FreeIphoneWallpapers.com (lots of Ads, but some decent stuff here)
• IconFactory

A potential flaw in the iPhone….yikes! If you are using Yahoo Mail, you may want to take notice. When the iPhone grabs email from the Yahoo servers, it may not be a secure connection, leaving your information vulnerable. Here is the quote from Wired:

“…if you’re checking Yahoo! Mail over a public WiFi connection, anyone could conceivably tap in to the exchange, grab your sign-in data and have full access to your account. ”

This is extremely scary…my advice: Get a $8 a year domain name and use a POP email address. Much cooler than john1203920389@yahoo.com anyways.

via Wired

It sucks.

I wish I had better news to report, because the darn thing seems so promising. It offers military technology (supposedly). Maybe this military technology is the reason we can’t win the war in Iraq, because 10 out of the 10 people I talked to using this beast, only two said the sound quality was “passable” and the rest had varying levels of “I can’t understand what the h-e-double-hockey-sticks you’re trying to say”.

The noise reduction doesn’t work and the Jawbone actually has the distinction of being the noisiest Bluetooth headset I’ve ever tested (and I’ve tested a few in my day). It picks up wind noise better than my voice, to be honest. The demonstration on their site where the dude talks clearly while in a crowded, noisy room is either fake or my particular Jawbone is afflicted with noise retardation.

If the headset doesn’t work very well for… well, being a headset… it had better look good and be comfortable. The Jawbone is very good looking, if not a big on the hugemongous side, but it is in no way comfortable. It flops around on your head like you tied a freshly-caught trout to your ear. It’s heavy. I couldn’t find an earhook that didn’t feel like I was wearing an ill-fitting pair of specs. Not cool.

In short, it sucks. Mine went back to the Apple Store the same day it was purchased. Here’s hoping the Apple Bluetooth Headset works better, but for now I’m back to my trusty Plantronics Discovery 645.

New findings by Lightspeed Research report that 90% of the population has heard of the iPhone and 32% of non-owners want one.  The launch of the iPhone could easily be the most successful product launch in history.

If this is the first time you’ve heard of the iPhone, welcome back to Earth.

via MacWorld