A Prepaid iPhone Coming Soon?

First came God, then Steve Jobs, then came the iPhone. We all know that the iPhone is an amazing and beautiful thing.

However.

Whilst every little rumor heard about the next upgrade or new iPhone release is leapt on with glee, there is one part of the market that Apple needs to, and indeed may be looking into entering.

A huge percentage of the world, and an estimated 70 million Americans use pre-paid phone plans, (otherwise known as pay-as-you go), rather than what is the main billing/buying method here in the states, and Apple’s only official method -post-paid, or simply put- chain yourselves to a carrier for a few years, then, good consumer, you get an iphone.

The advantage of the post pay contract is that, yeah, you get a ‘free’ iPhone.  But it’s not really free is it? No matter how much you use your phone, you pay the same rate every month, it involves credit checks,  early termination fees are applicable, there is no discourse if you happen to lose your job or can’t pay the monthly fee anymore. Prepaid, is easy, you pay for what you use, and if you can’t afford it one month, well, you find out where the closest payphone is.

There were rumors last year, and continuing this year that Apple is looking at releasing a very basic iPhone specifically for the pre-paid market, but until then- there are still options.

But… surely you can’t expect us to pay for an iPhone outright? Right?

Yeah, you’re right. Unless you’re lucky enough to be able to drop a few hunnids to do this, there is a huge phone market on eBay. You can buy cheap second hand/as new iPhones everyday, or if you’re really smart, wait until just after the new release- everyone wants to get rid of their stinky old iPhone so they can get the new one.

Stinky old iPhone? It’s fine! eBay is a buyers market, and if you don’t get what you paid for you’ll be looked after. But most of the time, you get a great, recycled, as-new iPhone. It’s even environmentally friendly! Kind of.

Now to the tricky part. Most iPhone’s on eBay are going to be locked.  This means that you may not be able to use your previous carrier.

Insurmountable Problems? Nah.

Yes, most of the iPhones from the US on eBay are locked, but you always have the option of looking further afield-  find an international seller as they tend to have unlocked ones- think Hong-Kong, Australia, Greece.

Walmart now sells pre-paid Sim cards by StraightTalk. $45 a month unlimited voice and Data and No contract. If you have  picked up a locked iPhone, they also apparently even show you how to unlock it.

Verizon, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile also offer pre-paid sim packages for unlocked phones.

Another option is H2O Wireless’ iPhone unlimited plan. H2o offers 3 different plans ( $40/ month unlimited talk and text, $50/month unlimited talk, text and 250mb data or $60/month unlimited talk, text and 3G/4G.) and you don’t need to unlock your iPhone.

The great thing about this is that the technology becomes available to more people, and until Apple makes an iPhone that is cheap enough to become part of the pre-paid market- be smart, look at your options, and you can still have an iPhone, just on your own terms.

Apple iPhone 5: New features and rumors

Guys, with the potential release date of iPhone 5 approaching we are having a lot of news (and rumors too!) and we thought of sharing some of those here.

iPhone 5: Revamped Home Button and bigger display

Well, the home button has been an integral part of iPhones for the last five years or so. But according to information we are having, Apple is looking forward to drop the Home button and replace it by two buttons on the side of the iPhone.

The idea of replacing the Home Button with alternative buttons on the side of the iPhone dates back to the concept of AppAdvice—to distinguish ‘the next big thing’ from predecessor iPhone 4. Though there’s not much info we can offer at this point of time, but it sounds like when the two buttons are pressed at once would act like the home Button we are familiar with. Alongside this, these buttons would be individual functions, details of which we do not know yet.

Other big developments we are expecting include a bigger display, possibly a 4.6-inch one; much bigger than 3.5inch iPhones we are using these days and also an OLED display replacing the LCD. This may be an attempt of Apple to keep up with other smartphones manufacturers, who seems to have been poised to make bigger screens. On the LCD to OLED move, going by Samsung’s recent switch to OLED and Apple’s heavy investment in OLED technology since last year; it seems likely.

Lifetime data usage in iPhone

Using a data limited plan on your iPhone? Still wondering how to control (or should I say cut down) the data usage on your iPhone? Well guys, here a couple helpful tips to keep data usage in control.

Taming the data monster: Just keep a your usage in check

You must be agreeing with me— the iPhone, with data speeds even up to 1400kps is a data monger. Not all of you enjoy unlimited data plans, so the data usage cap for you guys is really crucial . You might not know it buy, you can also keep an eye on your total data consumption from the iPhone itself.

To view the data usage, you just have to tap ‘General’ under the Settings app available on the iPhone home-screen itself.  A gentle tap on the ‘Usage’ tab opens up a new window exhibiting ‘Cellular Network Data’ near the bottom. Under the ‘Cellular Network Data’ you will find both the total volume of data sent and received.

Data Constraint? Better check out with your service provider

Well, if you are too much worried about your data usage in a particular month or during a specific period better to check out the service provider’s website. Generally, they’ll let you know under their Billing reports segment; giving analytical details of your data usage and trends. Some like AT&T even went on to offer online data calculators, where you can estimate your usage approximately.

With carries crying foul over iPhone users gobbling up too much data on their ‘unlimited’ plans (Come on losers!), even if you are enjoying one—it’s time to keep a check on the iPhone data usage and it’s where the ‘Settings’ comes handy.

How to Scroll Up Fast on an iPhone

So just a quick little post today.  Just wanted to let everyone know about a cool little feature that helps page usability on the iPhone.

If you are every scrolling down a long list or webpage on the iPhone (or other iDevice) there is a fairly simple way to scroll back up to the top of the page.

All you have to do is tap the top of the page on your iPhone.  Check it out in the image above to see what I mean.  All you need to do is tap where the arrow is pointing, and it will actually scroll the entire way back up to the top of the page.  This can be a real timesaver if your looking at a webpage that is seemingly endless.

Hope it helps some people!

Apple iPhone 5 to sport Liquidmetal casing: Reports

According to industry insiders’ iPhone 5, set to hit the market later this year will be sporting a ‘Liquidmetal’ casing—giving the next iPhone a sleek and much more robust look.

iPhone 5: Apple looking forward to metallic glass

There are reports emerging that the next Apple iPhone is switching over to a casing of ‘metallic glasses’ better known as Liquidmetal, in an effort to cut down the thickness of the handset as also enhanced durability.

Well, this metallic glass developed by California Institute of Technology is no new; the amorphous metal alloy has been in commercial usage since 2003. After its wide application in boiler tubes, petroleum drills and sporting accessories like golf ball cores and tennis rackets it looks like a surety to make inroads into the iPhone casings too.

Apple following Sandisk: Casing to embrace Liquidmetal

You excited Apple’s gonna introduce a unique stuff in gadget world? Hold on guys, that’s not the case.

Sandisk has already been using Liquidmetal in their Cruzer Titanium Flash for a long time. Well, they are strong, sleek and sporting—no doubt about that. But there’s a catch! Owing to a mix of Titanium, zirconium, copper, nickel and niobium, Liquidmetal posses a unique property of holding elastic energy—it exhibits bouncing effect. The implication is simple, it’s hard and durable for sure, but while dropped it may lead to bouncing of the iPhone–multiplying the chances of a shattered display.

But guys, Apple has surely taken note of that too. Perhaps, it not the durability of Liquidmetal that has got Apple engineers interested—rather it’s the high strength-weight ratio that have caught their eyes. Apple Inc. have secured the exclusive license to use Liquidmetal in consumer electronics (Swatch held the same for timepieces)—there’s must have enough reason to make the investment.

What’s your take on Liquidmetal iPhone casing? Feel free to drop in your thoughts.

Apple posts record numbers for Q2 2012

Apple announced today their Q2 2012 earnings this year and they most certainly did not disappoint.  They posted a quarterly revenue of $39.2 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion.  This is nearly double their Q2 2011 earnings of $24.7 billion of revenues and and $6.0 billion of net profit.

During this quarter, which ended March 31st, 2012, Apple sold an impressive 35.1 million iPhones and an incredible 11.8 million iPads.  Even more impressive is that the new iPad was only available for sale for roughly 2 weeks of the quarter.  That’s nearly 350,000 iPhones sold per day!

While their Mac and iPod categories saw less strength, they were more than held up by their iPhone and iPad sales which continue to dominate the market.  If we see more of this in the future, Apple will surely begin to tower over the competition.

How to Restore Your iPhone From a Backup

There are  a few cases in which being able to restore your iPhone can be a valuable thing to know. Take for example, if your iPhone was stolen, or you accidentally deleted a funny video off of your iPhone, or maybe you even accidentally erased the whole iPhone!  Either way,  it is pretty easy to restore your iPhone to its previous state provided that you made a backup (to learn how to create a backup see here).

The First thing you’ll need to do is to plug your iPhone into the computer with your backup on it and turn on iTunes.

Secondly, in iTunes, under devices, find your iPhone.

Right click on this iPhone and click “Restore from Backup”.

Select the proper backup from the selection of previous backups and click ok.

iTunes will go through and restore your iPhone so that it is the exact state of your old iPhone.

Enjoy!

Erase Your iPhone and Restore to Factory Settings

There are a few different reasons why you may want to restore your iPhone to its factory settings.  One of the main reasons would be if you were selling the iPhone.  If you are selling your iPhone it is a good idea to erase all of your data to ensure data security.  When you sell your iPhone to the iPhone Antidote (see here), we securely erase all of the data, but some other companies or other methods of selling your iPhone may not be as secure.

Follow the directions below to erase all of the data on your iPhone and restore it back to it’s factory settings.

First, turn your iPhone on and go to settings.

Next, go to General.

At the bottom of the General screen you should see an option for reset, click this.

Now click “Erase All Content and Settings”

This will erase everything on your iPhone and restore it back to it’s factory settings.

Thanks for reading!

How to Lock Your iPhone Screen from Rotating

Have you ever been lying in bed, using your iPhone to browse the internet, and you turn over just to have your iPhone’s screen flip sideways?

Apple created a feature in the iOS software to enable the iPhone to switch perspectives if you were to tilt the iPhone over.  This can be really helpful if you actually want the perspective to be rotated, but it can be quite annoying if you are laying down or are otherwise horizontal.

Rest assured, however, there is an easy way to fix it.  If you would like to temporarily disable the screen rotation, follow the steps below.

First, hit the home button twice to bring up the bottom menu.

Then, slide the menu to the right (to view what is to the left) and click the circular logo with the arrow on it once.

This will change the circular logo to include a lock logo inside of it.

Once you have done this, you will be able to lay in bed and read on your iPhone without any worries about the screen changing its rotation.

Enjoy!

How to Take a Screenshot on Your iPhone/iPod/iPad

Something most people tend to miss out on with their iDevices is the ability to take a screenshot. This can be really helpful in a variety of different situations. You can take pictures of your text messages, your call log, different websites you are on for later viewing and pretty much anything else you can think of.  It can also be a really helpful way to zoom in and crop pictures that may already be on your iDevice.

The gesture is quite simple to do, all you need to do is:

Press the Home (round button) and the Lock (top button) button at the same time.

Hope this helps someone!