I’ve been meaning to blog this for a few days now and I want to apologize to our generous sponsors that gave us a place to host the meeting and great food, all at no cost to us for taking so long. We had one of our highest attendance meetings ever for the Utah Social Media Developers Garage last Tuesday, where we watched a great video from the Palo Alto Facebook Developers Garage in May, and then went over the new Facebook Design. There were many great questions, and I think people are more enthusiastic than ever on building Facebook apps. We had near 25 attend, and I only expect that number to grow based on the excitement we saw.

I am always impressed at these meetings, as I seem to meet new Facebook developers working on new Apps each time we have these things. Facebook is truly on the radar for many businesses in Utah - I’m very excited to see what comes out of it!

A special thanks goes to EPIC Ventures and Rachel Strate, who hosted the event - if you are writing a Facebook App and need some investment, give Rachel a ring! Also thanks to Bungee Labs, who at the last minute stepped in to provide Pizza for everyone. I’ve reviewed them before but I do recommend you try them out and see how they can fit into your software development plans if you get a chance. If your business would like to host or provide food for future events, please let me know - it’s a great way to get in front of a group of developers!

These meetings are a true community effort - if you would like to help out or be an officer please let me know and we’ll get you involved in helping me plan the events. Heck, if you think you can do it better I’m open to even letting you take over! These are not my events, but yours, so I want to be sure those attending are able to contribute - if you’re interested in helping please let me know. Also, please let me know if you have an idea for a meeting.

Our next meeting will be September 9 from 7pm to 10pm so add it to your calendars now! My O’Reilly Book, FBML Essentials, will be available then and perhaps we can do a Facebook development focus around that - maybe a launch party of some sort? You can learn more about our group on the group’s official Facebook Group here, or by joining the Google Group here.

My original 2G iPhone actually made me money. I mean literally - it made me $111 to be exact! I have long been a fan of Apple products. Not only is the UI superb, but Apple focuses on the entire experience - from the hype before the product launch, the purchase of the product, to the unboxing of the product, to owning the product and making every element of the product an enjoyable experience. Not surprisingly, every Apple product I’ve owned has also held its value at the time of sale. My very first iBook died, wouldn’t even boot, and with full disclosure I sold it, DOA, for $500 on Ebay. My second laptop, a Macbook, I made $200 on it after owning it for a few months (I sold it because my job at the time gave me 2 laptops and I did not need 3). I was completely amazed, that when I decided to try the same on my old iPhone, the same thing rang true. I bought my original iPhone at $399 just less than a year ago, and almost a year later, I was able to sell it yesterday (unlocked) for $510 on Ebay. Name one other cell phone that you can do that with on the market today.

If there’s one reason you buy an iPhone it should be that it, among all the other cell phones on the market, will not depreciate near as much as that of other phones. In fact, with the continued innovation of Apple and their continued edge they seem to have on the market, the hype surrounding the iPhone could just so happen to increase the value of your old phone to higher than you bought it.

I don’t know how long to expect these inflated prices to last, but so long as Apple stays innovative, and they continue to force customers into contracts on the new 3G phones, unlocked 2G iPhones actually have a value that the new 3G iPhones do not have - the ability to buy a phone, right up front, with no contract or provider tied to it. I don’t expect the price of the 2G’s to go down any time soon. Growing up my Dad (he is an Accountant) always taught me to make purchases that were the least likely to depreciate. The iPhone is a wise financial choice to make.

Have you made money on your iPhone? Please share your stories!