One drop. Five minutes in a pocket with your keys. Three months of regular use. This is all it takes for an iPhone's backplate to go from a mirror-like shine to a scratched-to-hell eyesore. Here's how to fix it.MacRumors forum member Shenaniganz08 salvaged an iPhone 3G from eBay, sanding, buffing and polishing it back from the brink of a life in a case, which would be dumb, because cases are dumb. (I mean, not really, but that's kind of the premise of this whole process, right? Anyway.) Here's what you need:

You can almost hear Steve Jobs flipping out right now. Psystar, notable for its efforts to sell generic PCs with Mac OS X pre-loaded, has just released something called Rebel EFI. It’s software that allows you to install Mac OS X on generic PCs without having to Hackintosh said PC. (Hackintoshing isn’t for the weak of heart!)

Apple has just pushed out an update for all iPhone generations in the form of iPhone OS 3.1.2. Don't expect any major feature updates in this 241MB download, but do expect a few fixes to some annoying problems, most notably:

Classy, Apple. Tell people running 10.4 that they need to buy the $169 box set when the $29 upgrade will work just fine. (UPDATE: $25 AT AMAZON.COM) That’s the Apple philosophy in action, isn’t it?