More Data for Verizon & AT&T customers!

It’s the holidays! Which means, what, exactly? Well, friends and family and food and champagne and thinking about others and toys and all kinds of wonderful things. AND PRESENTS.

Verizon and AT&T seem to have gotten onto the present giving early as they’re both offering their customers more data! Yay! We love us some data.

Verizon has increased data for customers on the $80 and $100 More Everything plans. You can now get 10GB for $80 and 15GB for $100, which has increased from the 6GB and 10GB previously offered.

More GB is always welcome, are we right?

This deal isn’t even restricted to new customers like more good deals are, but it is only available for a short time. Go check it out here.

If you are a new customer, you can also be eligible for a $150 Bill Credit per smartphone when you bring your number to Verizon. Cha CHING.

AT &T has also increased monthly data for it’s $40 and $70 plans, with 3GB for $40 and 6GB for $70. Check it out here.

Go forth and get more data!

Deals Of The week Wednesday

This week we’ve got some pretty awesome deals for you guys!

*Get a new Jawbone UP Blue Fitness Tracker (2nd Gen) in assorted Sizes for as low as $48.99 from Staples

*Get a free Best Buy Gamers Club Unlocked Membership ($129.99 value) with the purchase of any phone (including prepaid), which you can for as low as $5! No activation recquired. First give your Best a Buy account info, then scan the phone. The Gamers Club Unlocked membership should be given automatically.

Try the Tracfone LG 440g which is $15 at Best Buy price match to Radio Shack to make it $5.

*At BestBuy, grab $150 toward an Xbox One console when you trade in a working Xbox 360 250GB or Sony PS3 Slim console

*Get an Apple iPad Air w/ Retina: 64GB $424, 32GB $379, 16GB $339 PLUS Free Shipping from Staples

*Beats by Dre Solo HD Headphones (Manufacturer Refurbished) for $99.99 from Groupon.

*Get yourself a Nintendo 2DS Handheld Game Console (Crimson Red) $79 + Free In-Store Pickup at Walmart

*Go retro wild with an AtGames Sega Genesis Classic Console with 80 Built-In Games fro $39.99 from Groupon.

 
Have fun guys! Hope you’re having a good week wherever you are and that maybe these deals made it that slight bit better!

Mark Zuckerberg cares about Ebola.

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Pricsilla Chan have given the Center for Disease Control Foundation a check for $25 MILLION dollars to help the fight against the spread of Ebola. Because Ebola be scary and is on the precipice of completely tearing apart and ruining parts of West Africa.

From the sauce direct:
“It has infected 8400 people so far, but it is spreading very quickly and projections suggest it could infect 1 million people or more over the next several months if not addressed,” he wrote. “We need to get Ebola under control in the near term so that it doesn’t spread further and become a long-term global health crisis that we end up fighting for decades at large scale, like HIV or polio.

“We believe our grant is the quickest way to empower the CDC and the experts in this field to prevent this outcome,” he continued. “Grants like this directly help the front-line responders in their heroic work. These people are on the ground setting up care centers, training local staff, identifying Ebola cases and much more.”

We, unlike other media, are not going to compare their $25 million gift to their current net worth or recent purchases, because these guys are being GOOD GUYS and any money you give to help others in need, no matter what, is not only admirable but amazing.

Rant over.

The donation will go to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Ebola response effort in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and in other spots in the world where Ebola is a threat.

If you want to give a donation, please head on over here – http://www.cdcfoundation.org/ –  then feel good about yourself for the rest of the day !

New Apple Activation Lock Tool

Have you purchased an iPhone from eBay or Craigslist and discovered that it’s locked to the previous owner? And then you can’t get in touch with them for whatever reason or they’re too busy to unlock it and now you have a really nice looking paperweight that cost you way more than a paperweight should?

Yeah. it happens.

Activation lock was brought in with iOS 7 and has shown to have decreased device theft (specifically iPhone theft) which is fantastic. If it is locked to a user, anyone who doesn’t know the Apple ID and password will not be able to use or wipe the phone. Great – unless you’ve paid for a used phone and discover it’s locked.

But! Good news! Apple has now come out with an Activation Lock Status Tool that lets anyone check to see if a device is locked to someone else using either it’s IMEI number or Serial number.

The IMEI and serial numbers can be found through Settings > General > About to see your device’s serial number and IMEI. You can also find the serial number for your iPad and iPod touch engraved on the back case, near the bottom.

If the device does turn out to be locked, the tool will then give you instructions on how it can be unlocked. This will always mean getting back in touch with the owner. The good thing here though is that you can request the IMEI or Serial number of a device before it’s purchased to make sure it’s unlocked, or giving you opportunity to request that it be unlocked before you buy it.

Check it out here: https://www.icloud.com/activationlock/

Jony Ive speaks!

The shy genius himself, Jony Ive, Senior Vice president of Design for Apple, is the subject of a in-depth profile by Vogue, titled ‘A Rare Look at Design Genius Jony Ive: The Man Behind the Apple Watch’.

Mr Ive’s time at Apple has been prolific and he has been behind many of their signature products, however he is notoriously media shy, only appearing in video’s to show off his work at Apple events. Most recently, he has been working on the Apple Watch, their first foray into wearable tech that created a buzz at their September media event and which will be released early next year.

Check out the full article here. It makes for an interesting Thursday evening read.

Tips on how to prevent your iPhone being lost forever

These are the things you should do, right now, while your beloved iPhone is sitting in your hands. Right now.

Or tomorrow, we’re all for some standard procrastination, but you should do it before you lose your iPhone, and you could lose you iPhone at any time. Because the universe is random and all that stuff. PLUS it’s the weekend. Weekends, for a lot of us, have this weird thing that sucks all our money and time and makes us lose things. I think it might have something to do with beer?

You should make sure that ‘Find My iPhone’ is activated on your iPhone. The app uses the built-in GPS to track the location of the phone. From then you can choose to go and get it if it’s just sitting somewhere lost and alone, or if you suspect it has been stolen, you can lock it so the person who has it can’t use it.

If you do suspect that your iPhone has been stolen, please don’t go to the wherever the thief is to try and get it back. Tell the police, and give them the information you have. Your iPhone is not worth risking your safety for.

If your iPhone IS just lost and alone somewhere, you can use the Find my iPhone app on a friend’s device, or you can look it up on your computer here by logging in with your iCloud account.

Have a look at Apple’s Find My iPhone support page.

You should probably have a contact in your phone listed under ‘ICE’, or, In Case of Emergency. The phone number should be someone you’re close to, i.e. your emergency contact type person. Obviously. That will be the number the person who finds your iPhone will call to try and get it back to you.

Some people advise that you should make sure that you have a bunch of alternative contact information for yourself within your contacts. That way, when someone finds your iPhone, they can swipe to the top of the contacts list to find the iPhone’s ph number and from there contact you using your email address, work phone or home phone (do people still have these though?).

If you have an iPhone above the iPhone 4, and you have a passcode on the device, you should make sure Siri understands who ‘mom’ or ‘dad’ is and the phone number associated with them. Even if your Mom or Dad aren’t in your life, if someone has found your iPhone it’s who they’re likely to try and contact, and hence who they would ask Siri to call. You can put a phone number to another close contact under that name. This also works for ‘my husband’ or ‘my wife’.

If you’re ok with people knowing your details, you can take a photo of your email address or home phone number written on a piece of paper and enable it as your lock screen on your iPhone.

Finally, we here at iPhone Antidote have a friend who carries their smartphone in a sock. Yes, a sock. One time it fell off her lap when she got out of a car and she didn’t notice. The car dropping her off drove off, she walked off, and realized an hour later she was without phone.

DISASTER.

Except. Who’s going to pick up a dirty ol’ sock on the side of the road? That’s right, nobody. She went back and dirty ol’ sock was still on the side of the road, with shiny iPhone still inside.

Woot! Enjoy your weekend Kids! Try not to lose anything! Actually, try to gain things! Like Love and Happiness and Unicorn sparkle karma bi*ches!

New Apple ads with your favourite good looking gents

Apple has released 2 new ads called ‘Huge’ and ‘Cameras’ featuring none other than everyone’s favorite ‘got it all’ guys Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake.

The new ads are all about the size and impressive camera prowess of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. So, go with us here, do you think Jimmy and Justin had a lip-synching karaoke dance off to figure out who was going to be the iPhone 6 guy and who was going to be the iPhone 6 plus guy?

Yeah. Us too. They’re so cool like that.

and

New Apple Ads

Kool kids Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon are the voices of the new Apple Ads featuring the iPhone 6. Take a look!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHPACRa6Vq8

Thinking of pre-ordering the iPhone 6 on Friday? Read this first.

So, you like the look of the iPhone 6, huh? Looking to get a bit of iPhone 6 Plus action? Good news! You can pre-order one on this Friday the 12th! Wahey! AND they will be available in Apple retail stores from 8am on the 19th.

So, what are your options? What’s the condition of your current phone? Are you eligible for an upgrade?

To check your upgrade eligibility with your carrier, you can type a quick code into your phone. See below for the codes for each carrier.

– AT&T: *639#
– Sprint: 1311
– T-Mobile: #874
– Verizon: #874

Apparently AT&T won’t exactly tell you all of your current options this way,rather the option they want you to take, so it is definitely worthwhile calling them or visiting the Apple website. Once there, you can go through the motions of pre-ordering the iPhone 6 and it will give you the option to ‘check your upgrade eligibility’. For those T-Mobile users out there, you’re a little out of luck here, as Apple only gives you guys the option to buy the phone outright.

You’ll need to fill in your pertinent information, after which it will list all of the upgrade options available to you.

If you are eligible for upgrade, then you can sell your current stinky iPhone to get cash to help you pay the upfront purchase cost of the shiny new iPhone!

Here are the prices of the new iPhones on contract:

The iPhone 6 – 16GB/64GB/128GB for $199/$299/$399.

The iPhone 6 Plus – $299/$399/$499 for 16GB/64GB/128GB

Grab a quote from us and see how much cash you can get for your old iPhone to help you get the new one! You have the option to get paid in PayPal, Check or Bitcoin and have the money in your account in days.

If you’re getting an iPhone 6,  pre-order is most likely to begin at 12:01 AM on the 12th. Which is kinda the 11th. It’s one of those confusing times.

Just BE READY to pre-order at 11:59pm on the 11th! Yay for iPhone 6!

Apple live streaming their big Media Event!

IT’S COMING!

Apple has changed their home page to a countdown to their special media event and to announce that they will be live streaming it. YESSSS!

‘live video from our special event will be right here. And so will a whole lot more.
Join us at Apple.com on September 9 at 10 a.m. PDT to follow every moment.’

Head on over to their website  to check it out and to stream the event when it begins. Alternatively, tune in right here! We’ll be blogging about the event and will publish all the need to know details shortly afterwards.

16 HOURS 57 MINUTES!