iPhone Skins

Accessory maker iCarbons has teamed up with the evad3rs to release a limited edition skin for iOS devices. You can choose your own custom color combination for the iPhone 4, 4S, 5 and 5s. A back skin retails for $12.95 and a full skin (back, front and sides) will set you back $24.95. Each skin features the official evad3rs logo.

The limited edition skin is also available for the iPad 2 or later. The official evad3rs iPad skin comes in various colors such as black, red, and purple, or in wood and brushed aluminum finishes. The iPad skin starts at $29.95 for the 9-inch variety, and $24.95 for the iPad mini version.

Chinese merchants are offering a cheap alternative to the gold iPhone 5s, and the new marketing technique seems to be working. Online stores like taobao.com are selling $2 gold stickers that transform any iPhone into a gold iPhone. The Wall Street Journal reports that "thousands of the stickers have been sold" in China, where " the color gold symbolizes wealth."

Merchants have been advertising the stickers as an affordable alternative to buying an entirely new phone. One ads reads: “Dear, you don’t need to sell your kidney for the new iPhone. Instead of paying 5288 yuan, you only need to spend 35 yuan to make your iPhone 5 look like a golden iPhone 5s in seconds.”

A 16GB iPhone 5s is around $863.84 in China, because mobile phones are not subsidized by cellular providers like they are in the US.