iPhone 5: ‘Gifting’ for special occasions

In an earlier article, we talked about the NFC chip and its implications in controlling financial transactions on the next iPhone. As it turns out, NFC chips are capable of doing a lot more—Apple will be offering customers a chance to send and receive digital gifts via iTunes.

Gifting: Digital gifts over iTunes

Downloading and sharing audio and video over the internet is quite in vogue these days—but there’s the copyright law issue. A lot of digital distributors are binding up the usage and distribution of audio/video files these days, so what you have is those copyright protected medias become unplayable when transferred to a second media.

The solution to this, in the Apple way—‘Gifting’. It’s going to be a unique platform, where you buy and present music and video contents to your beloved ones. The better part; it’s not only limited to iPhones; but also available on iPod Touch and iPad over the iTunes.

Gifting through iTunes: Simple enough

Guys, the gifting is easy enough. If you are sending say, an audio file , as soon as you authorize the gift charge on your iTunes account—it gets transmitted via the NFC chip to the designated user’s device. As the receiver has to confirm the receipt over NFC, the copyright issues and illegal distribution is not at all an issue.

You may be thinking, well, my fiancée is away and I want to give her a track as a surprise gift! Then, you can submit a request with iTunes, which will be processed backend and the receiver will receive a specific encrypted gift file. Also, file transfer can be done between two remote iDevices by sending and confirming emails alongside customized voice and image greetings.

Simple, isn’t it?

iPhone latest features: ‘iWallet’ and LTE Connectivity

Apple have won the major ‘iWallet’ patent this March 6^th, LTE connnectivity on the iPhone 5!

iWallet: Using NFC to control your accounts

On 6^th March, Apple won the patent for an intelligent technology named the ‘iWallet.’ The best part of the technology is that it will empower you to simultaneously control all your iPhone subsidiary financial accounts. You can do all your credit card transactions through your iPhone itself, making use of an inbuilt Near Field Communication (NFC) chip. Not only that, you can keep yourself updated about the payments you are making– via the statements from iTunes billing systems. If you are worried about security issues, you need not be—the digital encryption confirms every transaction you are making to be safe and secure. As per reports, ‘iWallet’ will also have a ‘Parental Control’ option—to make use of the features in a restricted manner; much like a digital wallet.

LTE Connectivity in iPhone 5: A surety

Going by the positive feedback Apple received from the latest iPad, implementation of 4G LTE connectivity is almost a surety. Owing to LTE’s superior download and upload speeds over conventional 3G networks, Apple is certainly looking forward to integrate this onto the next iPhone 5, possibly a Qualcomm next generation chip. Perhaps when you are reading this article; Apple techs are busy working out ways to increase battery life in the future LTE iPhone 5.

Not All iPhone Cases Are Created Equal

The best way to cover up your precious iPhone, useful, protective, beautiful.

1.Pico Genie A100

All the tech heads I know are far more excited about projector technology over TV technology. Please step forward, the Pico Genie. This is an iPhone case, yes, but it also has a built in pico projector, extended battery and external speakers for your iPhone. Project your favorite movies, photos, anything on your iPhone onto an available wall and have yourself your own little cinema experience. Amazing. Seemingly only available for sale in the UK for the moment, you can order it online for around $392

2.Opena Case

The worlds first iPhone case with a slide out bottle opener. Get in. As their slogan says, ‘How about a beer with your iPhone?’ Uh, yes please? Free standard shipping, available in black or white. $39.95

3. Griffin Survivor Extreme Duty

This is if you are not only the ultimate clutz, but everyone around you is too. This case passed military endurance testing ( tested to meet or exceed US Department of Defense MIL-STD-810 and UK Department of Defense Def-Stan 00-35 through an independent testing procedure). This is some secure stuff. Drop your iPhone, throw it against a wall, leave it in the rain, sandstorm, duststorm, stamp on it in frustration- this case will protect it. $49.9

4.Knucklecase

Rihanna has one. Enough? No? This is an iPhone case that has a knuckleduster attached. To keep it attached to your fingers, mind. And look badass. Silver and shiny and pretty in a totally awesome way. $99.00

5. Proporta Amphibian iPhone Case

Lucky enough to be scuba diving? Snorkeling, in a pool? This is for you. Go on, make us all jealous. You can make and receive calls and take photos underwater, and it’s not some weird baggy thing, it’s a case. The Proporta Amphibian makes your iPhone 100% guaranteed waterproof to 3 metres (9 feet) underwater. $33.00

Honourable Mentions: There are two honourable mentions, for both being amazing technology, but also for not being available quite yet. The Nissan Scratch Shield and Magnifi. One is very useful and very cool, the other is very, very cool, but perhaps only useful to so many iPhone users.

The Nissan Scratch shield is a protective, self-healing iphone case. Nissan says that a small graze can heal within an hour while deeper cuts could take up to a week to fix. What?? The case is not on the market yet- but will be on sale in North America very soon.

Magnifi is another kickstarter project and is the world’s first universal photoadapter case for the iPhone. It connects the camera on your iPhone to your favorite optical instrument, allowing you to take pictures and video through the eyepiece. This includes binoculars, microscopes, telescopes and almost anything else with an eyepiece. Available soon.

The Future is Now – Top 5 iPhone Accessories

Yes, your iPhone is cool. Yes, you’re cool for having an iPhone. But wait- there’s more! Here are the top five coolest, craziest, best iPhone accessories for your iPhone.

 Be cooler.

1. Freeloader Pico Solar Rechargeable iPhone Charger

Everyone knows that whilst your iPhone is cool, the battery life is the least cool aspect. We all want our phones to last for as long as possible before we try and find our charger to make us tied to one spot. This a a great, environmentally friendly accessory to try and fight that tied-down feeling. Using advanced solar cell and lithium ion battery technologies, PICO takes only 30 minutes to deliver its power to your iPhone. PICO can be powered from both its own solar cell or from connection to a PC or lap top (cable supplied). $39.99

2. The Kogeto Dot 360 panoramic video

Once this is on your iPhone, you’re free to start taking fully 360 degree videos. This accessory makes your iPhone able to record everything. Everything. Once you’ve captured absolutely everything around you, wherever you may be, or be doing, you can share it with your friends via facebook, twitter etc. It’s like inviting your friends into a 3D version of your life. Started on the website kickstarter.com, this is an amazing app. While it seems futuristic, the future is, apparently, now.

Available in different colours, $49.00

3. iPhone Photo Printer by Hammacher Schlemmer

Using nothing other than a free downloadable app and this tiny teeny printer that you dock your iPhone into, you can get brilliant quality photo prints ( 1, 4, or 10 images on each 4 inch by 6 inch borderless sheet) from your iPhone photos. It takes less than a minute and is smudge proof, tear proof, fade and water resistant. Pictures are worth a thousand words right? $159.95.

4.Vuzix Wrap 310 XL Video eyewear

This wicked accessory lets you be kinda like a spy, wearing cool dark glasses, sitting there not actually watching what’s in front of you ( like your boring job or boring commute to said job) but instead watching any movie or video on your iPhone or iPad, through your sunglasses. It displays both standard 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios and is super cool. $169.99.

5. Microscope lens for iPhone 4 – 3B Scientific iPhone Microscope 100X Magnification

Want to see if you have bed bugs? Or the really tiny little bits of, well, everything? This is for you, and it’s kind of unbelievable that this technology is available. It’s literally an accessory that turns your iPhone into a microscope. You can even take photos of all that microscopic awesomeness and share it with your friends. Around $45 Amazon.

Go get ’em.

Go on, design an app. I dare you.

A few years ago, if you wanted to skip the 9-5 rat race, sick of working your way up the ranks of middle management, always being at someone else’s ( your boss’s) mercy, you had the chance, if you had the balls and the smarts, to start your own business. It was very, very hard work, and extremely risky. Geniuses very rarely start their own businesses because they understand the risks involved. Both financial and emotional.

A lot of people who wanted to, never took the plunge, and a lot of people did, with one great idea. And they lost.
With the introduction of the iPhone however, under the guidance of Steve Jobs’ own creative smarts, we were introduced into a whole new business world. Apps. The first time in a long time a whole new and increasingly lucrative business market opened up.

You could take an idea, and you could run. Anyone can do it. Make millions. Think of the apps you use the most, or the ones you like the most- Instagram, Draw Something, Words with Friends, Angry Birds. Simple ideas. Some of them are not even executed very well but they made millions.

Here’s the thing- If you want to be your own boss now, you can design an app. Scratch that. DESIGN AN APP. Brainstorm with your friends. Think of anything and everything that someone could have use for or do for fun on their iPhone. Have an iPhone app designing night, hell, make it a drinking game. Just give it a try. You could make millions. There are companies out there that will give you a lot of money for a good idea, if not buy your app outright.

But…. but I don’t know how to do computer… stuff? I hear you say.
Well, hire someone dummy. Use one of the many freelancing websites out there (freelancer.com, elance.com, etc) .  Spend a small amount ( upwards of $300 depending on the idea) and people will do it for you. All you need is one great idea, a little bit of start up money, a little faith, and no guts at all. Easy, peasy. ( note, nine out of the top ten best selling apps of all time are games. Just so you know.)

iPhones, making millionaires out of anyone with a spark.

Some Awesome iPhone Shortcuts

A helpful time saving trick for using your iPhone is using shortcuts. Most useful for writing emails or texts, you can for example use the shortcut ‘hme’ and the phone will fill in your prescribed sentence, ” Will be home soon’ or, ‘meets’ for ‘in a meeting right now, I will call you back as soon as I can’ or ‘fce’ for ‘I’m sorry I drew genetalia on your face when you were passed out last night’.

So many uses.

You can set up your shortcuts on your phone by going to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts.

Just be careful- your friends could read this too and this could happen to you–

How to Put an iPhone in Airplane Mode

It is pretty easy to do, but that doesn’t mean we all know how to do it.

So I figured I would go ahead and post how to put your iPhone into Airplane mode.  This can be useful for when you are actually on an airplane, when you do not want to take any calls (maybe a really important meeting?), or when you just want to save some battery on your iPhone.

It is quite simple really, on your iPhone just:

1) Tap the Settings App

2) Swipe the Airplane Mode slider from Off to On.

Thats it!  Now you can be free and not have to worry about the outside world contacting you.  No rings, no calls, no vibrating, just you and nature.  Hey!  I wonder what my friends are up to…

It is pretty easy to slide back off as well 😉

Cool iPhone Web Browser Features

Are you looking to save an image that you have hit across the web suddenly? Well, here’s something that may come handy for you. When you are going through the picture on your Safari browser, simply hold on to the image and you will be prompted with an option to ‘save image.’ Just save it and you can use it as wallpaper or screensaver.

Well, the Safari browser also offers some short-cut options—like if you are looking to type a website address, you can easily omit the .com extension in the URL box and land directly into the website page. Also, you can choose the other extensions like .edu or .gov by pressing down the .com button for longer time period.

We’ve mentioned it before, but thought it might be handy to mention it in the context of the web browser.  Here is how to take a screenshot! It’s pretty easy—just press down the Home button while taping the Lock button—click! And you have your screenshot.

Hope it helps!

Taking Pictures Fast on the iPhone

You’ve maybe been hearing a lot of tips and tricks related to iPhone. We won’t bore you with those same ‘tricks’ which you are already aware of; we’ll keep this post short and simple.

Last night I was thinking, well, are we making the full use of our smartphone?  I bet not—there are so many cool features which most of us don’t have any ideas about.

All of us are fond of taking snapshots on our iPhone—it’s pretty simple and robust. Just thought you should know you can take some quick pics even when it remains locked.

Many a times it happens—you miss to capture a ‘magic moment’ on your phone, only because of 1-2 seconds delay in unlocking the Phone. But, now with the iPhone you can even take quick snaps prior to unlocking the phone. Let’s explain how.

When it’s locked, just double tap the Home button—this would open up the camera icon on your screen.  Also, now you can just use the volume up button on your headphones to take the picture.  Awesome, right?

Want $10? Tell Your Friends about iPhone Antidote

Need a little bit of extra cash?  Start telling your friends about iPhone Antidote.  Here at iPhoneAntidote.com if you send a friend to our website and they place an order, we will give YOU $10!

We buy any type of iPhone, in any condition, so as long as you have a friend that once owned an iPhone, you have a friend that could use our services.  We pay much more than the competition (sometimes two times as much!) and we are VeriSign and Better Business Bureau Accredited.  What’s even better is that our quotes are guaranteed!  So you don’t need to worry about sending your iPhone in, and then having us say that it’s really not worth as much as we previously quoted you.  We will pay you what we quoted, every time!

When your friend sends in their iPhone, just make sure they include your name and address, or even just your PayPal email address.  That’s it!  If your friend only includes your name, that is okay too!  We will just issue a check to your name, sent to his address (provided they did not include your address).  And when we receive the iPhone, we will pay you $10 for the referral and your friend his quote for his iPhone!  With payouts up to $500, iPhone Antidote is the obvious choice!

Now, how might you find some of your friends with old iPhone’s?  It’s simple!

1) Share our website on FaceBook (Don’t forget to tell them to include your name!)

2)Share our website on Twitter

3)Let your friends know in person when you see them

4)Ask your friends if they know anyone with an old or broken iPhone

5)Break people’s iPhone’s, and then ask them if they’d like to sell it

6)Wait at party’s to see if anyone has a broken iPhone (people at partys tend to.. uh.. drink a little bit… and tend to.. uh.. break their phones).

7)Create your own website that sends referrals to ours

8 )Walk down the street yelling “Sell Your iPhone with iPhone Antidote! I’ll give you $5 extra!” (and split the profits of $10)

9)Look for sad people, and ask them if they have a broken iPhone (and then make their day by telling them our ridiculously high payouts!)

10) Hang out at Best Buy or the AT&T store and wait for people that look like they are going to upgrade their iPhone’s

And we’re sure there are a ton of other ways to earn that $10 too!  The great thing is, we will keep on paying you no matter how many people you refer!  The possibilities are endless.  Get 10 people and we’ll pay you $100!  Why stop there?!  Get 100 people and we’ll pay you $1000!!