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Wow. Props to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who has announced a $100 Apple Store credit to anyone who bought an iPhone when it was released.

This comes in the wake of the announced $200 price drop just two months after the product was released.

Said Jobs in his statement:

"..even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these."

Joss Whedon fans take note:

Amazon's Gold Box Deal for today is Firefly: The Complete Series for $19.99 (!)

Firefly is the prematurely canceled cult sci-fi show that spawned the film Serenity and retains a fierce cult following. Part Western, part space opera, the show has great characters, terrific production and effects (by which I mean they look as though they could actually be happening -- a bit of gritty reality to the future and to space travel).

It's well worth looking into -- and for the price of the average DVD you can get the whole series plus DVD extras.

I forgot to mention that I did a feature on cool (and most available and affordable) tech gifts for the holidays.

Here's the list, with links.

People keep laughing at me when I tell them I may make my next car a Smart car.

But I test drove one a few months back for the paper and actually liked it. GQ gave it a spin this month and came away impressed as well.

The fact that they get an estimated 40/city and 45/highway is a huge draw -- but they're also attractive (and attractively priced -- the convertible model is $16K), comfortable (believe it or not) and fun to drive.

I got mine up to 60 mph on the test drive -- but the GQ writer got on the highway and went up to 80 for over an hour. I don't remember the last time I needed to go faster than 90 mph, which is the Smart's top speed -- so I'm not sure what the downside of owning one of these would be.

Famous (infamous?) hardware hacker Andrew "bunnie" Huang bought one of the One Laptop Per Child XO Laptop, picked it apart (literally and figuratively) and posted this review.

I've written a bit about the XO Laptop and recommended it as a holiday gadget gift in an N&R Life section centerpiece just before the holidays. It's fascinating to see someone get one and look at it with this kind of scrutiny.

Over at the Bargain Blog, Mike Fuchs points to an article in Slate by a writer who bought an HD-DVD player...only to see the format go the way of the Dodo a few months later.

Josh Levine writes:

"If there's any consolation for us HD-DVD-buying losers, it's that disc-shaped physical media won't be around much longer. Once high-definition digital downloads, like those available through Apple TV, hit the mainstream, Blu-ray will be as dead as HD-DVD. Take that, Sony!"

He's right, of course -- and early adopters of all sorts get screwed. I've been through three MP3 players since getting my first one in 2005. The one I have now actually appeals to me because of its simplicity -- and it's actually about the size of my first one and smaller than my second. It takes us a while to wade through the tech that's being constantly spewed at us these days and figure out what we like, what we need and what will serve us best.

I didn't buy an HD-DVD player -- and I don't have a Blu-Ray player either. Hell, I've still got tons of VHS tapes. And I'm going to keep playing them until they go completely fritzy-wobbly on me and I can't make sense of them. My DVDs, too.

Any of you get on that train a little early and end up kicking yourself?

Students at MIT have been tinkering with a 1976 Porsche 914 -- converting it to run on electricity and go 100 mph for 135 miles without a recharge. Plug it in for five hours and it's ready to go again.

Check it out.