While the June 29th release of the Apple IPhone was recieved with excitement by millions of affluent and socially concious young adults, the same day was the cause of dread to many charities that depend on donations from Apple's trend following customer base. Wendy Wilson of PETA explains, "That thing costs $500 plus another $80 a month for the service plan. That's money that college students would usually blow on a PETA Tshirt or tickets to a Save the Earth Concert." GreenPeace spokesperson Rain Sunshine echoed the concerns, "Its a disaster. And its not just us. Hemp belt sales have plummetted. Toyota dealers are already being forced to slash the price of the Prius. And those starving kids in Somalia and Darfur, it'll be a long time before they see another bag of grain."

It's not only charities that are being hit hard, other 'cool causes' are being pushed out of the marketplace. Micheal Moore's new film had a dissapointing box office over the weekend, and DVD sales of Al Gores 'An Inconvienent Truth' are at thier lowest point in weeks. Lance Armstrong of the 'LiveStrong' foundation said they have been hit the hardest. "What are we gonna do with 3 million $15 plastic wristbands now? Before the IPhone was announced, it was a sellers market".

Mike Works, a long time Apple user , was able to maintain his kharma while also keeping up with tech fashion. "I was lucky. I was able to cancel my check to the Make a Wish Foundation in time to get two IPhones, one to use and one to keep in the box as a collector's item. Unfortunatley the Pediatric Aids people were able to hit my credit card before I could stop them. So no leather carrying case for me. That sucks."

While many new IPhone owners had to chose between trendy technology and trendy charities, a few have managed to balance the two. Jennifer Dobson a Sophomore at UCLA told us, "Sure, to pay for my IPhone I had to cancel my sponsorship of a Ehtiopian village and skip out on an AIDs walk, but its okay because I used it to download the new Pearl Jam album from Itunes. I think they give a penny for every song downloaded, so I'm still totally helping out." 

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