Best Buy this week is offering significant discounts on the iPhone to current members of its Reward Zone loyalty points program. Regular Reward Zone members can save $50, bringing the price to $149 for the 8 GB model or $249 for the 16 GB models. Premier Silver members can save $100, bringing the price down

Another option to save some money on an iPhone 3G is upon us, except this time, instead of refurbished models from AT&T, the deal is for new models from Best Buy. A recently announced savings for Reward Zone members is offering up to $100 off, of course the amount you save depends on your Reward

Recently reported by Wired , The Presidents of the United States of America ( PUSA ) have released an iPhone application that allows users to instantly stream all of their albums for only $2.99. Just to make sure we are all on the same page, we are talking about the Seattle based ’90s alternative rock band, not the actual president. The band’s former guitarist and vocalist, Dave Dederer, is now a vice president of business development for Melodeo which makes on-demand audio and video programs for various platforms. The company now offers an application that is fully dedicated to the band PUSA. The application allows users to stream every album PUSA has to offer, even the unreleased first album. Since it is streaming music users are required to have some sort of wireless connection. The application includes links to the band’s songs as well so users can purchase them from the iTunes Store. It is an interesting concept to say the least. Fans could spend over $50 purchasing all of the music that is available through this application for only $2.99. The downside is that the music is streaming, so the quality can be quite poor and users can’t actually pick the songs they want to listen to. A playlist must be selected, like a streaming PUSA radio. It’s also not overly practical considering most bands and labels don’t own full rights to their music: “If all the rights to the masters and the publishing are contained — if the artist has control of them or the label has control of them,” said Dederer, “they can sell music in this entirely new format. The first one we’re doing is for my band, The Presidents…” Issues aside, if you are a big PUSA fan this may be a good way to get your “Lump” fix for cheap. It will be interesting to see if other bands or companies attempt this new way of marketing and distributing music.

Ten23 Software developed PhotoKast, a very popular photo rating app for the iPhone, and Mashable (a popular tech blog) published an article about the development of the app, the thought process that went into it, and how to market an iPhone app successfully in today’s App Store environment. It’s a bit of a self-serving sort of

Generally, I am pretty happy with the virtual keyboard on my iPhone. I would not say it is perfect, but the lack of a physical keyboard helps keep the phone thinner, for that I prefer the iPhone the way it is. That said, I do think a hack that allows you to use the Apple

In addition to the invisibleSHIELD, ZAGG also offers a very nice set of earbuds designed for the iPhone, and for a limited time you can get a nice deal on them. The deal, which is currently available runs through February 28, 2009 and will allow you to buy one pair at full price and get

Pocketgamer.biz has posted an interview with Eric Jue, Apple’s senior product manager for iPhone worldwide product marketing, regarding Apple’s stance on many iPhone gaming related issues. Like all Apple employees, Eric Jue doesn’t give any definite information but he at least gives us a glimpse into what they may be working on.  Don’t fret, we will decipher his code. When asked if Apple would consider an Xbox Live style networking system for the iPhone, Jue stated it would be up to developers to implement the system: “I don’t think we look at it in quite the same way [as Microsoft],” says Jue. “Xbox is a system that they’re creating certain capabilities with, but we have a very open platform, with technologies built into it that are free to developers through the SDK and the APIs. “So if somebody wanted to develop that then they certainly could, but… we’re not championing that type of experience per se. It’s open to the developer community and wherever they want to take the platform.” For those of you unaware, Xbox Live is a paid service that allows Xbox 360 users to socially interact with other Xbox 360 users. It is also a platform for all of the online games for that system to use, creating a standard instead of each game having its own online system. Jue also admits that it may be difficult at times to find great applications at the App Store but they are always trying to improve the system. He cites the constantly changing featured applications list as an example as well as saying that dedicated sites (like ours) are doing their best to review and demo the best applications available. He wouldn’t confirm or deny that Apple is working on adding its Genius technology to the App Store. One of the biggest App Store rumors so far this year has been the implementation of a premium games section for the store. Jue had this to say about the rumor: “Are we creating a new category? People can charge those prices now - they can charge whatever they want to charge. We haven’t publicly talked about any new format to the store or creating a new category though.” Touché Eric Jue, touché. In conclusion, Apple has no intentions of a multiplayer online system, they will add Genius technology to the App Store sometime in the future and premium pricing is up to the developers.

Here we have a nice YouTube video showing off an app that hopes to serve as competition to the default Mail app on the iPhone. The app is called ibisMail and appears to offer quite a bit feature wise, many of which are currently lacking on the default mail app. Just to begin with, ibisMail will

Do you feel inconvenienced by the lack of easily accessible number keys on your iPhone’s keyboard? If so, developer KennyTM has an application just for you. The application is aptly titled 5-Row QWERTY Keyboard, and it does exactly what the title claims. The application adds a fifth row of number keys to your iPhone’s keyboard, just like your standard computer keyboard. It also allows quick access to the symbol keys normally associated with the number keys by simply hitting the capitalize arrow. The application adds a whole new set of previously unavailable buttons as well, such as directional keys, home, end, page up, page down and a quite a few more. The new keys are accessible by installing the application and going to the international keyboards settings. In this menu you will be able to toggle the 5-row keyboard on or off. To use the new keyboard layout, users can simply tap the globe button, and an extra row of number keys will magically appear. To get the extra special characters, tap the 123 button and then tap the arrow button. So where does all of that extra space come from? Well, to be honest, nowhere. The keys are all scaled down a bit to fit the extra row in. If your digits are too large for the standard iPhone keyboard, this application is definitely not for you. The application is available for jailbroken iPhones free of charge through Cydia. Just search for 5-Row QWERTY Keyboard. [via iPhone Hack ]

Yes, folks…the iPhone skateboard is here, and you must own one. Perhaps you’ve spent many an hour staring at the wonder that is the iPhone, and wish you could careen down a steep concrete hill (assuming you’re fit enough to do so) with this ultimate badge of geeky coolness. Zazzle is selling this starting at $59.95,