I guess you were really busy preparing for this last Halloween, weren't you? You must have had something better to do, than get a free iPhone 3G case, at least that's what I can figure out. That, if you had really loooong preparations, and if you were really in a hurry, I am sure that stands as a solid reason for missing our SyncMate contest. No problem, because with or without winners, those contests are now a part of the past, but there's something great waiting right around the corner - a few USB drives, just for you!

Helping us with this contest is M80, and I am not talking about the M80 explosive here; this is the Social Media Marketing & Online Publicity company also in charge of the awesome Digital Cribs: Heaven or Hell? contest. If you're one of those considering a 4 GB USB thumb drive to be unworthy of your time, then Cisco's Digital Cribs contest is surely something worth your time, believe me! Anyway, let's leave that (awesome) contest aside, and get back to our little one here. So...

...what would you like to do to become one of the owners of a brand new 4 GB USB thumb drive? I know that some of my friends would answer "Nothing, just give it to me and shut up!," and I can only hope you're not like some of my friends... To sum it all up, here you have all there is to know about this giveaway/contest:

1. Remember that it starts today, right now, and it ends on the 30th of November, 2008;
2. The winners will be announced on the 1st of December, and we'll have at least two of them;
3. All you have to do is place a comment below and tell us about the first USB device you ever used, and if it's a funny story, that's even better!

This should be all. Just don't try to post multiple comments, because we always like to play fair, and that's what we expect from our readers, too. Our families and close friends are not allowed to enter the contest, so it's all in your hands.

Oh, yeah... one more thing - the USB thumb drive in the image at the beginning of the article is only a concept, so don't expect to receive such a thing as a prize! That's all for now, good luck!

For some, it may be boring hearing about iPhone statistics again, and again, and again, but while I am not crazy about such things, either, today there's something you have to hear. After all, you don't see such reports being posted in the "Hot News" area of Apple.com, right? OK, so we know "why," and now let's check exactly "what," shall we?

First of the iPhone statistics pushed forward by Apple says the iPhone became the top handset in the US, leaving Motorola's RAZR in the dust. When talking about numbers, it is interesting to mention that the mobile phones market, overall, is cooling down rapidly, and the iPhone could also feel the impact of that, probably in early 2009. For now, things are still looking incredibly nice for Apple, despite the general tendency.

Next, we have a report that's a bit older, but it's surely worth being mentioned - Apple is second global smartphone producer! While the economy is going down the drain, the smarthpone market is going up, with a total of 39.9 million smartphones shipped during the third calendar quarter of the year, for a 28 percent increase over last year's totals. Amazing, isn't it? And Apple managed to climb into second position, leaving behind companies with decades of experience in the field!

Just as a final hint, it seems over 70% of those who want to get a new laptop in the coming months are thinking to grab a MacBook, at least in the US, where the study that came up with these results has been conducted. That's no big surprise, considering that most new laptops now come with Vista, and lack support for Windows XP... and I don't have to tell you anything about the customer satisfaction provided by Microsoft's latest OS, do I?

About a week ago, we were talking about IBM vs Apple for the first time, and back then, it was more about a rumor, than something certain. Shortly, Mark Papermaster got a full year's salary promised by IBM for a very simple task - do nothing, simply stay away from Apple. That's a very tempting offer, but it seems Mr' Papermaster had other plans already, and now this entire story becomes really interesting...

...since on the 4th of November, Apple issued a press release announcing that "Mark Papermaster Joins Apple as Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering." If you don't like reading press releases, here's the interesting part of it all:

"Apple® today announced that Mark Papermaster is joining the Company as senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering, reporting to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Papermaster, who comes to Apple from IBM, will lead Apple’s iPod® and iPhone™ hardware engineering teams. Papermaster has 25 years of product and technology experience, and was previously a vice president at IBM.

Apple also announced that Tony Fadell, Apple’s senior vice president of the iPod Division, and his wife Danielle Lambert, vice president of Human Resources, are reducing their roles within the company as they devote more time to their young family. Fadell will remain at Apple as an advisor to the CEO. Lambert will depart the company at the end of this year after a successor is in place."

OK, so what about IBM and that lawsuit they had in store for Mark? Just this - Friday evening, Federal District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains ordered that Mark Papermaster "immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc until further order of this court," and that's it.

For now, Apple's response is "We will comply with the court's order but are confident that Mark Papermaster will be able to ultimately join Apple when the dust settles," and I must confess this story is pretty strange to me. Anyway, sooner or later, "his Steveness" will grab Mark Papermaster to join Apple, I am sure of that!

OK, so you got the iPhone 3G you've been waiting for ages... Congratulations, what else could I say? If you were also lucky enough to stay away from those iPhone 3G problems so far, that doesn't mean you won't have to tear apart your beloved phone one day and replace the battery... or the screen... or who knows what else! I know, I know - most people would say they will go to some Apple authorized service center, but why spend more than you have to? Today, I won't show you how to replace iPhone and iPhone 3G parts, but I will tell you about the best priced iPhone 3G replacement parts you can find on the Web(no, don't even think about some local store!).

When looking for iPhone or iPhone 3G replacement parts, there is one thing you should always do, regardless the part you need, and that is to search for broken iPhones for sale. The reason is obvious - no matter how broken one phone could be, there must remain some salvageable parts in it. My suggestion would be to start with your local newspaper, eBay, or some similar local online store.

Now, let's get to the parts you will probably need, once your iPhone starts having more problems than usual, shall we?

1. Battery - officially, there's no internal iPhone battery to be bought, but things look a bit different in reality, as it happens in most similar cases.

Anyway, if you want to play fair and avoid voiding your warranty, you can get a backup battery for iPhone, the good part of the deal being that you can also use it with the iPod Touch. Obviously, it works with both the iPhone and iPhone 3G. Considering that the backup battery available above is priced at $49.95, I consider it a pretty good deal, especially since you won't have to mess with the iPhone's internals...

When it comes to internal iPhone batteries, things are much cheaper, but you need to be a bit of a techie guy (or girl) to install it yourself. Here's a nice 1400mAh iPhone battery I found for you on eBay - OEM NEW Apple iPhone Battery Replacement 1400MAH.

I am sure you can find more than just the above, but I'll stop here with the battery part...

2. Case - my suggestion is to get a protective case, so you won't have to buy some broken iPhone just to replace yours. Here's a nice iPhone aluminum case for the 1st gen iPhone, and since the Web is full of leather, polycarbonate, and even metal cases, all you have to do is find the one that suits your needs.

3. Screen & other internals - best bet would be to simply check for broken iPhones, as I said already, but here's a good iPhone 3G replacement parts source (and 1st gen iPhone, too, of course) - We Love Macs.

As a final suggestion, be sure to check Apple's prices for various replacements, first of all. I say this because sometimes, the time spent to find a cheaper iPhone 3G replacement part may cost you more than grabbing the original in first place and quit wasting time!

The iPhone and Victoria's Secret are one of those two things you wouldn't dream about seeing together, or maybe you could dream about both of them at the same time. Sexy lingerie, and a sexy smartphone - they could go pretty well together, after all, don't you agree? Anyway, the big problem is that we won't get deeper into Victoria's Secret lingerie lines, because there's a different iPhone Victoria we have here today, as you're going to see right away...

Despite the fact I would wish to tell you about sexy lingerie and the iPhone, the iPhone Victoria is a service that was just discovered by the guys from ArsTechnica, who got to the concolusion that iPhone Victoria is more like "iPod Victoria," since it seems to allow the iPod have full support for the new Nike+.

Ask me about Apple, and I'll give you this - I love some of their products, but I hate their secrecy. I know some may say this is being done to protect the brand name and their image, but what if you register some patents, and then say "I am currently working on x, y, and z -" that won't hurt for sure!

Anyway, it seems iPhone Victoria is one of those stories coming right from the iPhone firmware, beta or not, just as the podcast downloads expected from the iPhone 2.2 firmware. Let's hope that, one day, Apple will decide to open itself to the world a bit more - that would make it much easier for everyone, I am sure. Don't you agree?