You should listen to your online friends. They often have great ideas, like in this case. I was recently turned onto a simple but effective alternative to bulky plastic cases and leather holsters for my new iPhone 3G. It's called the invisible SHIELD . The product, simply put, is pretty darned terrific. You hardly know it's there, and it protects like crazy. You can also get invisibleSHIELD for the iPhone first-generation device.

Now, let me tell you right up front that when it comes time to "install" the shield on your phone, you'll need a clean work surface, a little patience, 12 to 24 hours to let your shield "cure" on the phone,  and the ability to read and follow some simple instructions. If you make sure you have those few key things taken care of, all will go well.

In the video below I show and abuse my iPhone 3G (the only one I own...) with an Invisible Shield installed. In the video you can see that there are a couple scratches under the shield. Those came from a combination of iPhone and the keys in my pocket (before I ordered the invisibleSHIELD . In fact it was those exact scratches, which I got the first day I had the phone, that prompted me to find a real, working anti-scratching solution.



I can highly recommend the Invisible Shield.

Full disclosure: Zagg (the manufacturer of the invisibleSHIELD ) doesn't know I am doing this review. I found their product all on my own based on a real need, and clicking on the advertisement below takes you to my link on their product site - If you buy something there I'll get a small chunk of the change you spend. If you don't like that idea, no problem - just go to zagg.com and click through to the iPhone 3G page (or whatever product you want to cover and protect - For me, my MacBook Air is next).