Who got an iPhone 5?

Who got an iPhone 5 today? Who got any new iPhone? Lucky bastards!

Well, here’s a way to earn good karma, give back to the world, and earn some sweet cash on top of it all.

Recycling your stinky old iPhone with the iPhone Antidote is the best way to sell your old iPhone, no matter what condition it’s in. We accept broken, water damaged, cracked, used and new iPhones, and with quote prices guaranteed, we offer you 40% more money for your iPhone than the nearest iPhone buyback program on the Internet.

We’re a fast and  reliable company  that is interested in creating the best possible experience for our valued customers. We want to give you cash, and we want to do it easily and quickly.

So what are you waiting for? Simply go to our quote page, fill in the details of you old iPhone, print off a shipping label, and send it in to us. Sit around and play with your new iPhone 5 for a few days (bastard) and then go spend your cash! Go! Seriously, dude… go.

iPhone Antidote 2012 Holiday Gift Guide

Here’s a list of awesome gift ideas for your loved ones just in time for Christmas! From the cheap and cheerful to the truly luxurious, for kids all the way to grandparents, we think we’ve got everything covered for gifts in the iPhone world! Merry Christmas!

1. The good ol’ fall back stocking stuffer- the iPhone case. For this year’s version, we suggest going to zazzle.com or vistaprint.com and ordering a custom iPhone case, perhaps with a picture of your smiling face on the back… or for something more ingenious, try for a picture of the side of your loved one’s face, so when using it, their phone will look see through…

Alternatively, you can go for something a little bit more… flashy, perhaps something you wouldn’t stuff into a stocking. Introducing the worlds most expensive iPhone case- designed by UK brand Uunique, who claim that it’s London Lotus iPhone 5 Case is the most expensive on the market. At $302,985, I bet they’re right.

2. Another stocking stuffer, but more of the necessary ‘school shoe’ type. If you don’t know what to get someone, and you don’t really like them that much- get them some iPhone lightening to USB cables. $19. Super… useful.

3. For the reader in the family, sign them up for some audio books. Go to audibleshopnow.com to sign them up, and they get two free audio books of their own picking, plus whatever book you want to pony up the cash for. If they can’t handle people speaking books at them, buy them some books on iBook for their idevice.

4. The gift of music. Music is the soundtrack of our lives. It creates moods, aids memory, allieviates boredom and enhances life events. It can also be a whole lot of fun. For the gift of music, buy them a Pandora gift card, or an iTunes gift card.

Pandora Internet Radio is a service that recommends and plays music based on the user’s selected preferences through any computer or idevice. A one year subscription for Pandora is $36 www.pandora.com/one/gift

Giving an iTunes gift card means your loved one can buy the tracks and albums they really want. You can buy these online over here or at many major shopping outlets- you may want to look around too, as you can often get great deals on these if you buy multiple.

5. Headphone splitter. A very small gift, capable of bringing so much joy. Have you ever needed to share something with a loved one, friend or work colleague in a public space? Ever wanted to watch a TV show in an airport? At school/work? Ever need only the two/three/four of you to hear? The headphone splitter is tiny little gadget gold. Buy one for your girlfriend with a DVD copy of that show you don’t want people to know you watch together. Less than $5 at Radioshack.

6. Speaking of headphones– another excellent Christmas Present. The two top picks from us are; Skull Candy Heavy Metal and BeatsByDre.

For Skull Candy , not only are the Heavy Metal earbuds a very decent, sexy product, all Skull Candy earphones and headphones come with a lifetime warranty, so you’re effectively buying your loved one headphones for life. Right now you can get 50% MSRP by entering the coupon code REDBULL50 at checkout. www.skullcandy.com

If you want to go for a more professional sound quality and have a little more cash up your sleeve, we recommend BeatsByDre headphones. With a range from Wireless to Studio, the listening pleasure is guaranteed with these bad boys. www.beatsbydre.com

7. For the times when headphones aren’t needed, you can give the gift of music OUT LOUD! Good speakers are invaluable and make for a great Christmas present. Our recommendations are on the cute, cheaper side and the slightly more expensive, quality side. How much do you really like them??
For cutesy, go for the Deadmau5 MP3 Speaker from Urban Outfitters. Damn Cute. $35.
For quality, sophistication, and ease of use, try Jambox- either the original or the big Jambox. Also not bad looking, this speaker is wireless, can be used with any of your devices capable of Bluetooth and produces amazingly pure sound quality. They come in multiple colors and you can buy them from multiple retail stores such as Costco, Fry’s, Best Buy, Staples or Radioshack. You’re looking at about $150 for the original, smaller Jambox.

8. If a friend or family member is obsessed with Draw Something or similar game on iPad or iPhone, or simply prefers the antique skill of handwriting, a shiny new Stylus is a perfect present for them. The best one in our opinion for design, precision and overall quality is the Hand Stylus, available as of Sept this year. Go to www.handstylus.com. $29.95

9. Christmas time means snow! Snow means everyone having one freezing cold hand whilst they use their iPhone for updating that all important Facebook status right? No! Staaahp! Get a friend some Touchscreen Gloves and they’ll have two cosy hands all winter long! Best to get are Mujjo Leather touchscreen gloves, $168, second best are Mujjo Knitted touchscreen gloves for the more acceptable price of $32, orrrr, go to the national deals section of livingsocial.com and get some very respectable ( but perhaps not as warm) Sol and Oscar touchscreen gloves for $21.00.

10. For the friend that loves to use the Camera on their iPhone or iPad, the Griptight Gorillapod tripod for iPhone is a perfect present. Making their iPhone completely stable for that crucial photo taking moment, giving them the ability to set the tripod up on any surface, and giving them the opportunity to be all that much closer to taking the perfect iPhone picture. Or selfie. $30 from www.joby.com ( Currently Free US Shipping).

11. So you got your brother/sister the Tripod, and they’re happy as Larry taking photos. How about you ingeniously join presents together by theme, and get Mom and Dad a photo printer or Digital photo frame, so they can enjoy their progeny’s genius photography? Hammacher Schlemmer sell the The iPhone Photo Printer and the Wireless Smartphone Photo Printer, both of which print out extraordinary quality 300 dpi resolution photos (without ink cartridges), the second with the added bonus of not having to plug your iPhone in to the printer. The first is $159, the Wireless version $219. Take a look. http://www.hammacher.com/product/79938

12. Something for the Chef’s in the house. The iGrill oven Bluetooth thermometer is a digital thermometer that can be connected to any Bluetooth-enabled device, and enables the user to set a timer, view the current temperature in the oven, and look up recipes online. Sweet. $80. http://store.igrillinc.com/

13. If you’re someone who has to make sure the four legged members of your family get presents under the tree, this might be something less tasty but more useful than the usual bones and cat treats. The Tagg GPS Pet Tracker is a waterproof GPS-powered collar so that if they ever go missing, you, or someone in your family can check the Web-based map and know exactly where Scruffy got off to. $99 for peace of mind.

14. This one… Well, this gift idea might just have to be for yourselves, kids. Or me. It’s pretty damn awesome. The Logicom SPY-C Tank.

A futuristic tank. Tick. Moveable camera. Tick. Controllable from any iOS or Andriod device. Tick. It’s own wifi hotspot allowing you to control it both indoors and out. Tick. Night vision mode. Tick. Walkie Talkie Capability. Tick. The Spy-C tank will even let you record videos and upload photos via email or various social networks once they have been saved to your device. Santa… Hey Santa…you there Dude? I… I have a question…
$210.00

15. And last but not by any means least, Apple. D’uh. If you have the cash, spread the Apple joy this Christmas! Of all the products, we think that the iPad Mini or Macbook Air would be most welcome under the Christmas Tree. Both are long serving gifts and both have the ability to help the new owner improve their lives through the magic of technology. iPad Mini starts at $329 and Macbook Air 11 inch starting at $999.

Merry gift giving and the happiest of Holidays Kids!

Apple Maps for iOS 6 review

So, Apple Maps. Garnering a lot of press and a lot of anti-apple ammo, maps was the rather large hiccup of the iPhone 5 release. The premise made sense- take the advantage of owning one of the biggest and most useful apps away from one of their biggest competitors- Google. If they had the brainpower, they could build their own version. And they did, built using Dutch navigation equipment and Tom Tom’s Data.

And it works. Just not… perfectly. Yet. Soon after the release the internet was flooded with screenshots showing the inaccuracy of the application, from wrong destination information to odd looking buildings, roadways etc. Stating that your destination was in the ocean 10 miles out is not very good for a maps application. Unfortunatley the more humerous the inaccuracy, the worse it was for Apple- and anyone relying on the app to get them somewhere…

So. The app itself is not quite fully formed. It does, however, work very well for a lot of people. Here at iPhone Antidote we have used it extensively- across two countries, in the city and in the middle of nowhere, and have only come across one inaccuracy. Don’t get us wrong- there are  apparently lots out there, we just haven’t happened across a lot of them.

Disregarding the flaws for a moment-  the features of Maps are great- turn by turn directions, voice intergration, flyover and vector based maps. The 3D looks brilliant, vibrant and lifelike, and it’s really fun to play with- the pivoting action of being able to rotate the point of view and zoom out so you can play with the whole globe is stupidly fun. A lot of people find the interface a lot simpler to use and more pleasing to the eye.

It’s definitely something that holds promise, which, yeah, is not really what you want with a cornerstone feature of a new operating system. You want that shit dialed in.
So, Good Guy Apple organizes a press release where they tell their own customers that they made a mistake in releasing their maps too early, that they were sorry, and advised them to go to their competitors- please. They showed remarkable customer service by admitting their mistake and doing the right thing for their customers.

Apple have told their customers that they are improving maps and that the problems like buildings or roadways looking a bit funny will be fixed by user feedback, so an increasingly perfected system. Until that point is reached, we suggest using Apple maps until you run into a problem, then using Google maps as a backup. To do this- go to google maps in safari, and you will be prompted to ‘save as an app for your mobile’ by touching the arrow on the bottom and choosing the option to add to homescreen.

Happy travelling.

Pictures of the New iPhone 5

Here we go guys!  We have several new pictures to show you of the new iPhone.  They all appear to be from trusted sources, and it really looks like this is what we are going to end up seeing this September/October.  Not too many changes that haven’t been noted previously, but its still pretty nice to get a good look at what the finished product will end up looking like.  Here are the pics!

iPhone: FaceTime Tricks and tips

Facetime is a nice feature of the iPhone 4 and perhaps all of us are quite fond of it. Well, here are some little tricks for you to get the most out of Facetime chat.

Facetime: Video Calls now with more fun

FaceTime has been quite popular among iPhone users for its free and high-quality iPhone –to-iPhone video calls. Though there’s the catch that you need to have good signal strength in a Wi-Fi zone to prevent call dropping, Facetime had been quite popular.

So, we thought of sharing some tricks with you that can spice it up further.

The default mode of FaceTime screen in portrait, now just try by rotating the phone by 90 degrees—you can have your image turned into landscape mode. The one you are calling will see your image turning suddenly. Nice, isn’t it? J Well, by rotating the receiver set in the same way, he or she can get it back right obviously.

Here’s another funny aspect for you. You can even show your family or friends on FaceTime what you are actually seeing at that time. Got confused? Well, we are talking about the camera-switch option from your FaceTime. While on FaceTime chat you can tap on the Camera-Rotation icon from your screen, switching from the default front to the rear camera. With the rear camera in action, even the person you are calling can see what you are seeing in front of you.

You can also do a quick bit of stuff just by changing to another program or even simply tapping the Home button. Well, while the audio contact remains on, the video screen goes black and you can do a bit of work before going back to the call. In the meantime a Green banner would pop-up and stay on the top of the Home Screen to remind you of the ongoing Call.

iPhone with Facebook: Maybe in iOS 6

iPhone already has Twitter; wouldn’t you be delighted to have Facebook integration into iOS?  Well, as per reports Apple is also considering the same to get on-board with the most popular Social Networking platform.

Apple joining hands with Facebook?

Reportedly Apple Inc. is in official talks with Facebook to work on a piece of code to integrate the Facebook app into the iOS. Possibly named Sundance, this integrated app would grant Apple users to interact with other iOS apps directly avoiding the sign-in on each occasion.  It’s not only Apple who gets the benefits—at a time when share prices are dropping horrendously and facing tough competition from twitter and others, this would be a golden opportunity for Facebook to get into the iOS devices.  Twitter, integrated more than a year ago in iOS 5 is receiving quite a good response and surely Apple Inc. at this critical point of would keep no stone unturned.

It has been two years since we started hearing buzz about Facebook-Apple co-operation. But there are issues—low similar sort of services can run parallel like Apple’s music network or Ping. But in recent times Apple’s stance has been softened to a great extent, even at last D10 conference Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted at future co-operation between the two Giants.

At a time where Facebook is having their own share of problems with the pricing issue at stock markets and on the back foot, Apple perhaps thinks it’s the best to push forward with the integration. Well, whatever it is—iOS users are the one who would be getting the benefits.

iPhone tips: It’s not only for ‘dummies’

We have already discussed some tips to maximize your iPhone’s usage, now we are back again with some more.

iPhone abruptly hang-ups? Just try out rebooting

One of my friends was complaining the other day—his iPhone ‘hangs-up’ and he just not could not get it working. What would you have done? Well, the better way is to try the On/Off button or  by pressing down your Home button for more than six seconds. From my experience, I can say it works on 99% cases—it ‘quits’ any locked up application on your iPhone.

Now if your problem still persists, keep your On/Off and Home button pressed for around 10 seconds. This would reboot the iPhone and you can view the Apple logo which the iPhone is booting up.

Now sync iPhone Notes with MAC: Notes on the go

Truly speaking this is a stumbling block in iPhone’s ‘Notes’ – you can’t synchronize the Notes you have in your iPhone with those on your Mac. But we have figured a way around syncing your notes.  You can create a pseudo-contact and copy-paste the important notes in the ‘notes’ field of that fake contact. So, what you have is a pseudo-contact added to your Address Book with all your important notes and hence moving on the go.

iPhone: Alternative calling from Safari and more

Rather than scrolling down to a contact number and dialing—you can even call from your Safari. It’s simple—you need to find the phone number in Safari and just tap it—and bingo; iPhone will call up in no time.

Also, you can now time-up when to receive your voicemails. When you are not using a Bluetooth headset (that routes the calls instantaneously when plugged in)—you can use the Audio button of the Voicemail screen to time-up the messages. This enables you to hear those messages only when you desire.

iPhone: Some more tips for you

We have already shared some handy tips for your iPhone. Here’s some more for you—to squeeze out the maximum from your iPhone.

Time to manage e-mails better

Now you can send e-mails from your iPhone and you can have absolute control over your emails. It happens sometimes—you try to send an email but your network is down. So, your mail doesn’t get delivered and it’s even not in your ‘Sent Items’ folder. So, where is it? Do you have to type it again? Oh! Certainly not—it gets stored in a temporary outgoing folder on the device itself. You don’t have to do anything—whenever the network is back it gets delivered.

Many a time we have read an email and then want to mark it as unread—for the simple reason it’s so important that upon logging in again you will want to read that one first. Marking read mails as unread is quite simple—while viewing the message just tap the Details; you will have ‘Mark as unread’ option. Click that one and next time on logging in onto your inbox the same message will show as unread.

Just like your PC, you can also Save messages as drafts and can later work on it. In iPhone it’s a bit different to what we are used to on desktops—after you finished your typing, just tap Cancel. You will be prompted to a dialog box with three options—Save, Cancel and Don’t Save. As soon as you tap save, the half-finished mail gets saved into the Drafts folder which you can later retrieve and complete.

The iPhone doesn’t have anything like email folders physically, but there’s one you can see on your device. Wondering how? Well, IMAP email accounts produce a shadow folder on IMAP server—though the folder appears on the device; the contents of your device gets synced with the server.

Want to know what more your iPhone can do? Keep checking out here for more info.

iPhone: Some cool tips that may come handy

iPhone Tips: Get the most out of your Safari

Bigger Keyboard means better browsing experience, right? Well, the generic keyboard of the iPhone is OK, but perhaps a bigger keyboard is much better. So, what you have to do is simple—rotate the iPhone horizontally and tap the address bar. You will have the Safari in horizontal view with the keyboard appearing horizontally. What’s better is this keyboard’s size is much bigger than what we are accustomed with.—making data entry and long text typing much convenient. But if you open up the keyboard before turning the iPhone—this won’t work.

A friend of mine was telling me that he was having trouble with reading all the forum posts of a particular site, because whenever he tries to scroll down a dialog box; the whole page scrolls down. I tried out myself and the solution is simple—you just have to click and zoom in the box and then scroll.

Perhaps we all know that while surfing if we hold on a particular link without tapping, a balloon appears giving you intricate details of the links where clicking will redirect you. On the iPhone Safari, you can even do the same on your emails. This is excellent for security parameters, because you can be somewhat cautious before clicking some obnoxious malware link that somewhat had got into your email.

So, find these little tips useful? Well, there’s much more coming.

iPhone going to Mainland China? Maybe soon

Apple Inc. is in talks with China Mobile to take the next iPhone to mainland China, thanks to a next-gen Qualcomm chip in the iPhones compatible with China Mobile’s innate 3G technology.

Telecom Giant China Mobile to go Apple way! At last

You may be thinking; what took China Mobile so long to bring in the iPhones? Well, the main problem for the World’s biggest telecom service provider is technical constraints of their indigenous 3G technology.

China Mobile which already boasts of the largest customer base in the world is in talks with Apple to bring in the iPhone to the Dragon country. According to latest news, Xi Guohua, Chairman China Mobile had confirmed to the shareholders that they are ‘actively cooperating’ with Apple Inc to make the collaboration possible. Though he declined to divulge further details, this can be looked upon as an effort to compete against the rivals—China Telecom and China Unicom who have already struck  deals with Apple earlier.

Reports further suggests that China Mobile is looking to venture to Hong Kong with 4G services—which could be the first instance China Mobile would be going outside mainland China.

China Mobile going International

Are we going to have another Chinese International Giant? Maybe , as China Mobile Chairman Xi made their intentions pretty clear in a recent interview. He confirmed that they have already for license to operate in United States and are hoping to have the clearances soon. The Chinese giant already having a customer base of 667 million is looking to try out with LTE mobile network with 850 BTS all over China by as early as June 2013.

Though only time can tell if iPhone gets into mainland; China Mobile is certainly having a great run at the Hang Seng Index—their stocks are already up by 13% compared to last year.