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!

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: 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.