iOS 6 Review

The iPhone 5 of course comes with the new operating system iOS 6, however you can and should upgrade your current model for free– and it’s been available since Sept 19 ( 100 million devices have so far been updated!).

Keep in mind that even though it’s available on all Apple models after and including the 3GS, only the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S can utilize all the features. And there’s 200 of them!

It will take time to find them all and Apple hasn’t even named them all, here are the best and most noticeable new features of iOS 6.

#Email has been upgraded in a few noticeably better and more efficient ways, incorporating a new VIP email inbox so that you don’t have to sift through crap that’s only kind of important to get to the juicy most important emails.

There is now the ability to insert numerous photos & videos in the body of an email instead of attaching them one at a time, and you can now have more than one signature, depending on if you’re sending an email to your boss or your crush ( *special signature for your crush actually not recommended).
To select or delete draft emails, just hold down the compose button.
The smallest but somehow best new feature with email is that instead of pressing the refresh email button to get new emails, you can now simply swipe down, you get a spinny wheel and voila new emails. It looks much better.

#Handling incoming calls has been improved ( although this feature has been around on driods for a while, it’s nice that Apple has caught up, and it’s a very useful feature). When someone calls, you now have the option to answer the call, put the call through to voicemail, or reject the call and reply to that person with an automated text message. There is also the option to reject and get the phone to remind you later that the person called.
Another call handling feature is Do Not Disturb– this feature, when turned on, prevents notifications, texts and calls from everyone except a select few that the user chooses. An unknown number calling more than once in a three minute period with be let through as well, allowing for possible legitimate emergencies.

# Shared photostreams, allows users to share photos with friends in realtime without messy attachments. The selected photos are uploaded to iCloud, available to friends and family right in their own photo app on their mac ( running mountain lion ) or their iphone ( if it’s running iOS 6) and if the friends aren’t on an apple device, the photos are available on their very own unique URL.

#If you’re worried about privacy, the new Advertising tracking feature is for you. The ability to turn off and stop marketers from targeting you with ads. Small but pretty powerful.

# iOS 6 comes with deeper facebook integration – you can now post photos straight from the camera, ask Siri to make a post for you, post location from maps, post scores from the game centre, and tap to post to twitter and fb from the notification centre. Facebook THIS!

# The much discussed Passbook app is a virtual wallet for keeping and more importantly easily accessing your boarding passes, coupons, loyalty cards, movie tickets and more, with tickets/boarding passes appearing on the lock screen when the event time approaches or you enter into the right location ( E.g. airport).
With NFC ( Near Field Communication ) rumored to be released for Apple devices after Christmas, this will mean that in the not too distant future payment processing applications will be available for this passbook as well.

#Siri is improved with this new operating system, with 7 new languages added to her repertoire, the ability to ask Siri to launch apps and to interact with maps and new knowledge for Siri with movie screening times and sports scores.

#You can now Facetime over any 3G or 4G cellular network as well as over wifi.

#Safari is a lot faster and now includes iCloud tabs which have the ability to sync open tabs between iOS6 and OS x Devices. Through the reworked sharing options menu you can also send an interesting article/picture etc via email, message, and facebook, as well as being able to print, copy, or add to bookmarks. A super nice new feature is the ability to add a website to an offline reading list for later perusal.
When viewing safari in landscape, there is now a ‘view in full screen’ button, on the bottom right.

#Updating apps no longer requires a password, and downloading a new app doesn’t close the app store. Newly downloaded but unopened apps get a fancy bright blue ‘new’ banner.

#The Find My Friends App has been updated, so that you can be notified once friends or family have left or arrived at a certain location.

#There is a bunch more emjoi icons.

#For the alarm you can now escape the godawful noise you’ve been putting up with and pick any song from your music to gently raise you from your sleep.

#Late night listening– A new EQ setting that lowers the jarring bass making the music less intrusive, allowing falling to sleep easier.

#8 more default wallpapers

#Bluetooth settings appear right at the front of the settings page.

So there you go, the best improvements that come with upgrading to the iOS 6 operating system.

There are a few features that you will lose when upgrading to iOS 6 – youtube for example, is absent from the update, but you can just go to the app store and download it for free.

The new operating system is definitely stacked full of small but ultimately more efficient improvements, making the user experience that much more fast, fun, and valuable.
Then there’s maps. Which… we’ll discuss… next time…

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.

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?