Regardless of  the lawsuits and what the critics and analysts said, a lot of people we're thrilled when Steve Jobs finally took the wraps off from the Apple iPhone. Well-off consumers are not the only ones who are happy about this development, the $1 billion accessories market also embraces this as good news as the iPhone poses a new opportunity and challenge for them.

Even if Apple carry its own line of cases and other accessories, no one can deny that the third party accessory makers are basking in financial success thanks to the success of Apple products, specifically the iPod. Now, they are ready to work and earn their paycheck with iPhone accessories. Andrew Green, VP for marketing and design of Digital Lifestyle Outfitters said that the iPhone and its specs are  the "the worst kept secrets in the industry," and as a result, most had already begun working out design and development ideas way before it was unveiled.

Scott Huskinson, CEO of iFrogz, another iPod case maker mentioned that when it comes to making and developing accessories for the iPhone they "are not privy to the specs...But the rumors were out there about the touch screen and bigger display. The important thing is to get the specs right."

Indeed, third part accessory makers are watching Apple's every move.

Got a 4th-gen iPod that's stopped working for whatever reason? You could drop it if you like to get it to start working again, as some (desperate) people have done with their units. But I have to tell you that that method doesn't always work. The few lucky ones who get their iPods to work again end up using it for only an hour or so before they die again.

Take this Mac geek, er, Mac genius for example. JC, as he fondly calls himself, had the same problem with his iPod. Since it wasn't working anymore, he tested his iFrogz case too by dropping the entire thing from his balcony three floors up.

Yup, three floors up. And it started working again but only for an hour.

The moral of the story? There isn't one yet. But here's a more constructive way of fixing your dead iPod. He disassembled his iPod and looked for whatever was wrong with it - the use of substandard cables, mis-jumpered cables, dust stuck on the heads on a hard drive.

What did the trick was the re-seating of both ends of the hard drive cables. As the connectors are taped down and sandwiched between the hard drive and the main board, one can't see them loosening easily. Re-seating it made it work again. Hopefully, other dead iPods will work again when disassembled and re-seated this way.