Dressing Up the iPhone’s Dull Uniform

Excerpt from an article in

The New York Times

Monday, April 02, 2012

Dressing Up the iPhone’s Dull Uniform

By JENNA WORTHAM

For some, fashion means a wardrobe makeover for spring. Then there are those for whom it means an elaborate neck tattoo.

The same holds true when it comes to iPhones. Most people are happy to personalize their phones with, say, a case covered in plastic jewels. But some opt for surgical modifications.

Apple, of course, has decreed that iPhone buyers can choose any color they want, as long as it is black or white. That has prompted some rebels to transform their devices by, for example, replacing the front and back panels with colorful unauthorized alternatives, ensuring that they stand out in a sea of millions of identical phones.

“Apple wants the phone to be a black box, and replacing the back is like saying ‘I have control over my device,’ ” said Kyle Wiens, who runs iFixit, a Web site dedicated to hardware repairs and modifications. The site sells a replacement back panel for the iPhone that is see-through, showing off the phone’s innards.

Kelly Dwyer, 40, a musician in Brooklyn known as Killy, was tired of her monochromatic iPhone. So when a friend told her about a small but popular shop in the city called DrBrendan that would swap out her phone’s black glass casing for any color in the rainbow, she leapt at the chance.

Ms. Dwyer paid $150 to have a candy apple red front and a honeybee yellow back installed. “I want everything to be eccentric,” she said.

Messing around with the iPhone can be expensive and is not without risk — Apple does not condone it and may refuse to service or repair a phone if it has clearly been tampered with. But those who do so say the trouble is worth it.