So like a gadzillion people have asked me: "What do I do with my old iPhone now that I'm upgrading to a spiffy new 3G unit?" I thought about doing a top ten list. I thought about clever and amusing ways to use an old iPhone. But seriously, it just comes down to this. So read my lips.
Jailbreak it. Unlock it. Give it away or sell it. The end.
Get yourself a copy of iLiberty+ or ZiPhone or whatever tool you like. Once unlocked, you can sell it for a badzillion dollars on eBay, because contrary to what I originally thought, AT&T isn't going to let you walk away with a new 3G iPhone without signing over your first born, your personal bank account and possibly your soul. So the demand for 1st gens is going to go through the roof (as will the demand for posthumous mobile air conditioning units once AT&T is through with you). Over at Google, those $250 refurb iPhones from a few weeks back are going for $500 and up. Ebay has relative bargains at $350 and up.
If you have a child, a spouse, a dog or any other loved one, you can now give them the phone with a T-Mobile or AT&T SIM and they're good to go. If any of these loved ones are foreigners ("votre chien", for example, in the case of those north of the border but within the Quebecois borders), they should be able to use a non-US SIM in the unlocked unit (i.e. "Le Rogers Fido").
As we've posted before, AT&T says it will reset your contract to 2 years once you get the new iPhone, so your old one will be completely free, clear, and contract-free. No one (except, perhaps, your dog) will sanction you for unlocking it.
The Boylston Street Apple Store opening in Boston was entertainment for all, especially Bostonians. The unveiling was almost as much fun as the facade. Among the souvenirs floating around, at least one is worthy of special note, as the sale of it will benefit more than just the lucky buyer.
Rescued from the dumpster and lovingly restored (to the best of the seller's ability, anyway), a chunk of the Apple logo that stood front and center on the "Green Monster" facade is up on eBay. All of the proceeds from the auction will be going to boston2portland, a bike ride to raise money for the cure of Parkinson's disease. You might not need a monolithic, duct-tape-textured, decorative piece of Apple history. But, maybe you'll bid for the benefit of a worthy cause and pass the spoils on to someone with too many bare walls, a love of all things Apple and very fond feelings for Fenway Park.
I don't eBay nearly enough to use a completely separate application just to browse through it, but if you do you'll probably be interested in GarageBuy, a free download from Iwascoding. They also make GarageSale, an eBay buying-and-selling program that I've heard good things about, but GarageBuy is committed specifically to browsing around eBay. If you want to browse for auctions without using eBay's old school (and frankly, clunky) interface, GarageBuy might be just the ticket.
They've just updated to version 1.1, with a whole lot full of new features. There's a new view that features a cool color-coded price tag (to tell you whether you're winning the auction or not), a countdown timer to show remaining auction time, and a slick little sliding thumbnail view for the auction's images. Plus, there's a whole bunch of other performance improvements.
And the best part is: it's all free. GarageBuy is freeware (and if you like it, check out GarageSale) over on the website.
Holy cow that's a lot of stuff-- he's a matching grayscale (!) display and speakers, all the cables, a spare motherboard, all the books and discs, and even the original sticker sheet. Who keeps the sticker sheet?!? The thing even still runs Omniweb (inside NeXTSTEP 3.3 patch 2), and he's got a screenshot of Google up and working.
So how much will it run you? Currently, the auction is at $710 with a business week left to go even higher, but seriously now-- how much is it worth to you to get a little piece (or in this case, a lot of pieces) of non-Apple Jobs?
After we posted that neon Apple sign a little while back, reader Franco thought we'd get a kick out of this Apple flag for sale on eBay, and he was right. The best news is that right now, it's sitting pretty at only $10 (reserve not yet met, though) flying upwards-- what are you TUAW readers, rich?-- so you could own a little piece of Apple history for cheap.
As for dating it, the page says the 80s. No mention of Macintosh might put it before 1984, but that's just a guess-- Apple IIs were known as the first "personal computers" and those were made all the way up until the early 1990s. I really love those fonts, though, and of course the rainbow logo is a classic.
Whether you make a living from buying and selling on eBay or you merely sell off your basement junk when it gets too crowded down there, iSale is a fantastic eBay client that merges the wonders of Mac OS X with the world's leading online marketplace. Offering beautiful tempaltes, WYSIWYG auction composing, integration with iCal, Address Book and iSight, a Dashboard widget for monitoring auctions, Google Maps and worlds more, iSale has everything you need to get your eBay on.
Like so many other web-integrated Mac OS X apps, however, iSale was hit with compatibility issues if users installed the Safari 3 beta. Fortunately, a couple of recent updates have fixed those issues and added over 30 new templates to bring the grand total to more than 200 different auction templates, organized by category. With a wide variety of template styles, imagery and layouts, you'll be hard pressed to not find something that'll fit just about anything you post for auction.
This most recent v4.2 of iSale is a free upgrade for registered 4.x users, and a demo is available. A single user license costs $39.95, while family packs start at $49.95 and go up from there.
Macenstein points to the ultimate Mac collector's item, a 6-foot neon version of the rainbow Apple logo (which, you'll remember with the help of Wikipedia, was used up until Jobs turned the logo one solid color in 1999), up for sale on eBay. Now you too can own a gigantic neon piece of Apple's history, sure to turn even the most casual Apple user green with envy. Or at least green with something-- having colored neon lights in your field of view all day can't be that good for your health.
But still, someone wants it-- there are 17 bids so far, and even at $4350 as of this writing, the reserve hasn't been met. The sign itself is in Huntsville, Alabama (at an Apple authorized dealer who doesn't need it anymore), and they're offering to ship to anywhere in the contiguous 48, or you can come by and grab it yourself.
People, people, people. The phone's not shipping yet. It's not out yet. It's not even approved by the FCC! So why -- why on earth -- would anyone with the slightest degree of common sense bid almost one thousand dollars on eBay just for the privilege of getting ripped off? Wow.
Three auctions for iPhones from the same single seller... shame on you, rgonzales23455; no wonder you've got no feedback. "Please note: I have 6 of these phones available for immediate shipping.. I accept Paypal only for this auction.. Free shipping via USPS Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation.. Will ship immediately after payment clears Monday - Friday." Uh-huh, sure you will. These auctions close soon, folks, get your bids in now -- NOT.
Thanks to reader David Miller, who took time off from his Mac mini car integration project to give us the heads-up on the sad state of iPhone auctions over eBay way. As the expression goes here in Brooklyn: "Oy."
Update 9am EDT: The original auction has closed, with a winning bid of $1125... *sigh*.
Apple's stand-alone FireWire iSight may have recently gone end-of-life, but people's interest in the devices is still going strong, so sayeth eBay. While the iSight's retail price was $129, I'm seeing actual bids ranging from $152 all the way up to $280 as of this writing, with Buy It Now sellers bringing on the greed with prices in the range of $289 up through $500+. Even more astonishing are the completed listings - items that have actually sold (barring any fraudulent activity, of course) - which top out at $610 for a new, in-box iSight.
As before, we're still just as curious as you are as to whether there will be a stand-alone iSight 2.0. With most of Apple's lineup now sporting built-in iSights, and rumors of the Cinema Display line not being far behind, it's questionable as to whether we should hold our breath.
iSale from equinux is a killer app for anyone serious about selling on eBay, and a recent update to version 4 brings some major new features to the table. A completely revamped template chooser functions much like GarageBand's sample chooser, utilizing multiple keywords to help you filter through over 130+ templates to find the perfect look and feel for your auctions. iSale 4 can now also pull item descriptions from Amazon, eBay and even your very own Delicious Library database, taking the chore out of collecting the nitty gritty details of whatever items you're posting. There is also much broader support for 'boilerplates,' snippets of information that remains the same across all your auctions such as shipping, introductions, item descriptions and even a general footer. In addition to already supporting FTP and .Mac for alternative image hosting for your auctions (eBay charges per picture), iSale 4 now also supports uploading and hosting from Flickr. Last but certainly not least on iSale 4's new features list is robust support for multiple eBay accounts, making it much easier for über-sellers or families to manage multiple accounts all in one app, without purchasing separate licenses or going through the effort of switching users in Mac OS X.
As a happy iSale customer in the past, I can tell you I've already upgraded and am darn satisfied with the new features. A three auction demo is available, while a full single license costs $40. Upgrades from 3.x are on sale for $14.95 (down from $19.95), though anyone who purchased after December 1st, 2006 gets grandfathered in at no charge. Multi-license packs are also available, starting at $49.95 for up to three Macs.
The iPod lawsuit may be over, but the eBay auction has just started. As TUAW's earlier story discussed, the 30G white video iPod surrendered to Shannon Derrick is now up for auction on eBay.
Until November 20th, you can place your bids on the item with all proceeds going to launch "a pilot program of Junior Crimestoppers in several Aurora, Illinois schools."
The iPod contains one (1) song, has "many scratches on front and back" but "works perfectly". If you have further questions, the auction listing contains a contact e-mail address.
One of my favorite things about the web is how it enables anyone, with even the slightest bit of effort, to become an educated consumer. Whenever I make a significant purchase (new camera, phone, etc), my first stops are sites like PriceGrabber, which allow you to search for things using specific criteria such as megapixels for cameras, carrier availability for phones, or speed for computers. This helps me get an idea of what my options are. The added benefit of these sites is the fact that they provide pricing quotes from hundreds of stores around the web, as well as ratings and customer reviews for those stores.
While on the topic of smart internet shopping, lets take a peek at the new Earthlink Shopping widget. While it doesn't allow for the refined searching interface that I enjoy so very much, it does make it quick and easy to check prices on things. The widget searches eBay, shopping.com, and amazon.com for your search term, and displays the results in familiar search engine form. Earthlink Shopping also displays store and product ratings when available.
If you remember the P-P-P-Powerbook scam last year, then you're going to love the new and improved M-M-M-Macbook scam. Once again, a Something Awful forum dweller by the name of isnoop has documented quite the adventure involving a MacBook Pro sale on eBay, and the intrepid scammer who didn't quite get what he ordered. Check out the first post in the forum for links to the key events of the scam, and marvel at this wonderful entertainment the internets make available.
If your picture is hanging on eBay's 'Favorite Customers of All Time' award wall, this eBay Watcher widget might be just for you. As a powerhouse eBay monitoring tool, this widget has it all: up to three items can be watched at once, audio feedback for price changes and auction ending, Growl notifications, automatic refreshing at user-specified intervals, localized display labels for German, French, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Italian and even a world clock. Just about the only thing this widget is missing is a kitchen sink, though I'm sure an eBay widget could help you even with that minor setback.
One complaint I have about this widget is the explanation as to why you should register it from Hawk Innovations. Discussions about whether one should charge money for a widget aside, check it out: "Our demo version has a 50-50 chance of working. Make sure your widget works 100% of the time by registering now!" Cryptic as that may be, I think it deserves at least a few points for being one of the more... unique demo limitations I've seen.
So, a '50-50 chance of working' demo is available, and a license (which includes two machines) will run a mere $5. Hey: nobody said making eBay's 'favorite customers' wall was free.
iSale, the application our own Scott McNulty dubbed 'the Delicious Library for eBay auctions', has been bumped to version 3.1 with some very useful site interactivity and significant changes under the hood. iSale 3.1 can now relist unsold auctions and allow you to watch how many people have looked at and are watching your auction - right from within iSale. An improved widget can also display the watch count, hit count, highest bid and feedback from the highest bidder. Last in this new version is a localized and active links preview for English, German and French languages. Under the hood, iSale has been tuned for an upcoming change to eBay's communication standards which goes live on July 1st.
For a refresher, here's a list of the other features iSale already offers: beautiful auction templates, a 'funky pinboard' with photos of auction items, one-click locating of buyers with Google Maps, 'Smart Date' simplified auction scheduling, description importing from Amazon and eBay, Address Book/Mail integration, .Mac syncing, iCal scheduling and much more.
iSale 3.1 is a Universal Binary, offers a three-auction demo and sells for $39.95 USD. Upgrades from iSale 2.x are $14.90 USD.
The 
I don't eBay nearly enough to use a completely separate application just to browse through it, but if you do you'll probably be interested in 
Macenstein
People, people, people. The phone's not shipping yet. It's not out yet. It's not even approved by the FCC! So why -- why on earth -- would anyone with the slightest degree of common sense 
Apple's stand-alone FireWire iSight may have 
One of my favorite things about the web is how it enables anyone, with even the slightest bit of effort, to become an educated consumer. Whenever I make a significant purchase (new camera, phone, etc), my first stops are sites like 
If your picture is hanging on eBay's 'Favorite Customers of All Time' award wall, this 
