What to do if you water, wine or vodka damage your iPhone

Hey guys. So we seem to have been referencing getting your beloved shiny iPhone wet recently. Tackling the hard to talk about stuff, as per usual…

We understand that it’s not funny when someone accidentally drops their phone into a pitcher of beer, or falls into a pool, or does something to a person that gets them so mad they revenge pee on their phone ( happened to a friend of a friend of ours…)

Well, no, scratch that. That stuff is really  funny, as long as it’s not your phone, and if it is your phone, you usually get your sense of humor back if, IF you can rescue your wet wet iPhone.

Here’s what you should do to try rescue that poor wet puppy!

1, Don’t freak out. Crying will just bring more wetness. Duh. Your phone needs you to be strong, just like your Grandfather when he used to, like, walk all day in the snow to get to work and stuff.

2,  If the phone is submerged, unsubmerge it. Dry the surfaces real quick.

3, If the phone is still on, turn it off ASAP. If it’s already off, don’t try and turn the phone on RESIST THE URGE! Trust us. If your iPhone refuses to respond to your touch and refuses to turn off, well… no you can probably cry a little bit.

4, From here, it kind of depends on what stores you have at your disposal. The easiest helpful drying ingredient most people can get their hands on is Rice.  Put some rice in a ziplock bag or tupperware container – anything airtight- and completely envelop the phone within.

5, Rice is a great option, but what’s better is Silica Gel. Silica Gel is the stuff that’s inside those little packets of stuff you get in Beef Jerkey bags.

You can buy these at craft stores ( It’s intended use here is for flower drying). Again, submerge your phone in an airtight container full of the sachet’s.

6, If you have a good hardware store nearby, you could try to get DampRid.Works the same as the Silica Gel. Again with the airtight container, submerge, etc.

7, Place the container/ziplock bag in a warm dry place.

8, DON’T TOUCH YOUR PHONE FOR 24 HOURS! Even if you think it might really be ok, and you’re expecting the most important text ever, leave it in there. We would actually recommend leaving the phone for a full 48 hours, but the minimum has to be 24 hours to give it the best chance of surviving.

Poor little fella.

If all of this fails, send him on over to us, we’ll give you some CASHMONEY and make a nice new home for him out here on the farm.  You can do this HERE. 

Image courtesy of gameconsoleworld.com, robotroom.com & countrylife.co.uk

Guys! iOS 7 makes your phone waterproof!

NO. NO IT DOESN’T

But some people said it did, because some people are big jerks. Like the guys behind this fake out video.

It is possible to waterproof your iPhone, but not by updating the software. Apparently, some people believed the big jerks. If anyone knows these kids, pass them our number yeah? iPhone Antidote.

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?

How your iPhone can save your life

We all know what your iPhone can do for your social life- let you keep in contact with all your friends, help you meet new ones, keep up with all the new trends, etc. But it is important to know that your iPhone can also literally save your life. Whatever kind of emergency you may find yourself in, there are ways your iPhone can help you – apart from dialling 911- that you need to be aware of.

How many of you know CPR? How many of you know it but fear that you ( or the person doing it to you) might freeze up when it came down to it? Firstly, if you don’t know CPR, download the new CPR guide. It’s free, has a step by step how-to guide and has the ability to dial worldwide emergency numbers from every screen.
If it’s the freeze that has you worried, tell everyone you know that is actually trained in CPR and you know won’t freeze to download The Fire Department App. Once they’ve signed up, this app intercepts data from 911 calls and using the iPhone’s GPS, will alert them and anyone in the area trained in CPR– so help can get there faster. It also alerts that person to where the nearest defibrillator is. Invaluable.

A fantastic app that you should know about is PanicGuard. This app has the ability to bring great comfort for those who worry about the safety of their daughters/sons/brothers/sisters/friends, etc. All you need to do is set up an account on their website and install the app on your iPhone. If you find yourself going into a worrying or potentially dangerous situation, turn the app on, and PanicGuard will track your movements until you switch it off.
If the potential danger turns into actual danger, just shake your iPhone vigorously and it will begin to emit a very loud alarm and trigger your iPhone’s flash in an attempt to scare off anyone who might be trying to do you harm.
Once the alarm has been activated your iPhone will send a text to your chosen emergency contacts, letting them know that you are in danger and your exact location. The beauty of this app is that once the alarm stops, the phone returns to the home screen to fool anyone else into thinking that the alarm is over. It actually starts recording a short video in case anyone around you needs to be identified at a later time, and uploads the video in case the iPhone is broken or smashed.

A less intense, but still important app is Circle of 6, created specifically for college students. This app lets you pick six friends, representing them with icons on your screen which you press in a situation where you might need help. It also sends your exact location to whichever friend you choose. Although this app can also be used for scary situations, they are very useful for situations less serious, and in need of a little subtlety, such as needing to be interrupted on a bad date, needing advice, and needing to be picked up because you had a few too many drinks. All of which are important.

Hopefully you won’t ever need your iPhone to save anything except your social life, but just in case, it is very comforting to know that this technology can be in our hands, on hand, to help us if need be.

You thought a passcode on your iPhone 4S was enough?

So as it turns out, the incredible Siri may have some drawbacks you may not have known about.  Currently, there is a bug on the iPhone 4S, which actually allows for people to still use some parts of your iPhone even with a passcode on it!

Essentially how this works is that even though your iPhone is locked with a passcode, you can still access Siri, and thus are still able to use some aspects of the iPhone.  For most people it is probably not that big of a deal, but if you were to lose your iPhone or have it stolen, that might not be the case.

It is simple enough to change your settings to prevent Siri from being accessed while your iPhone is locked, we’ll go through these settings below.

1) Get Your iPhone

2) Go into the Settings App

3) Choose General

4) Choose Passcode

5) Turn Siri to Off.

That’s it!  Your iPhone should be nice and secure now!

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!

How to Create a Backup of your iPhone

Although it is fairly easy to do, there are still a lot of people that would not entirely know how to create a backup of their iPhone.  Here is a quick guide in case you find yourself unsure of how to create a backup.

•  Plug your iPhone or iPod into your computer
• Load iTunes
• Find your iPhone or iPod on the left side under the Devices section of iTunes
• Right Click on your Device
• Click Backup

How to Put a Passcode on your iPhone

Are people always messing with your iPhone? Or do you just want to make sure your data is safe in case you iPhone gets lost or stolen?  Either way, there are several different situation that making having a passcode on your iPhone a good idea.

With the iPhone, you are able to create a 4 digit passcode to prevent people from getting into your phone’s data.  To do this is simple, and there are also several options you may not have known about including:

• The ability to have a complex multicharacter passcode

• The ability to erase all data after 10 failed passcode attempts

• The ability to require a passcode only after leaving the phone idle for a certain number of minutes.

Here is how you do it:

1)      In your iPhone, go to the “Settings” application

2)      Select “Passcode Lock”, it should be near the bottom of the screen.

3)      Select “Turn Passcode On”, it should be near the top of the screen.

4)      Enter in a 4 digit passcode, and then reenter it once more to confirm.

5)      Now you have a passcode on your iPhone!

In addition, you can add several options:

If you would like a complex password, combining both numbers and letters:

1)      Slide the “Simple Passcode” slider to say off.

2)      Enter in your old passcode

3)      Now you can enter any string of characters as your password.

If you would like your iPhone to only require a passcode after leaving it idle for a certain number of minutes:

1)      Select “Require Passcode: Immediately”

2)      Change to your preference of when you would like the passcode to be required, ranging from 1 minute to 4 hours.

And finally, if you would like your iPhone to erase all of its data in the case of 10 failed passcode attempts:

1)      Slide the “Erase Data” slider to say on.

2)      Confirm on the next page by clicking “Enable”

Be careful as in the case you were to forget your passcode and try 10 times, all of the data on your iPhone will be erased!  However, this can be particularly handy in case you were to get your iPhone lost or stolen and it had sensitive data on it.

And that’s how you put a passcode on your iPhone!