Virgin offering shiny new iPhones at shiny new prices!

Virgin Mobile USA, a subsiduary of Sprint Mobile, has begun selling the shiny new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C!

And here’s the extra good bit- the pre-paid brand are offering a$100 discount from the normal (unsubsidized) pricing!

Sahweeeeht!

The 16Gb phones will be available both online and in retail stores whilst the 32 GB and 64 GB iPhone 5s and 32GB iPhone 5c are only available at Virgin Mobile’s website.

As is to be expected, stock is somewhat limited, especially on the gold iPhone 5s and the yellow 16Gb iPhone 5C models.

Another Sprint subsidiary, Boost, is expected to be offering a similar deal in the weeks to come.

Yay for Virgin!

Image courtesy of 9to5mac.com

What to Do if You Drop Your iPhone in Water

The worst has happened.  Your iPhone has gotten wet, and as with all electronics and water, you fear the worst; your iPhone is broken.

This horror story has happened too many times, but if your quick and on the ball, you can possibly prevent your iPhone from damage.  Follow the instructions below to help fix your water damaged iPhone before it is too late.

• First, take your iPhone out of the water!

• Turn your iPhone off immediately!  Water and electricity do not mix well, and if there is anything you can do to help preserve your iPhone it is to make sure it is off immediately.

• If your iPhone fell in any type of salt water, beer, soft drinks or anything else, put your iPhone in fresh water to clean off any of the previous liquid.  A quick rinse should be fine, do not go overboardwith useless water damage.

• Get a ziploc bag and put uncooked rice or silica gel in it (the packets that come in shoeboxes and beef jerky packets to keep them free of moisture) and place the iPhone and the rice/silica gel inside the plastic bag.

• Keep your iPhone in this bag for 48 hours, or AT LEAST 24 hours.

• Take your iPhone out and turn it back on.  Hopefully if you were fast enough your iPhone will work perfectly again!

How to Replace Your Cracked iPhone 4 Back Glass

So you broke the back on your iPhone 4?  That is a bummer.  But don’t fret, it is not really as bad as it may seem.

With a couple of steps you can make your iPhone 4 or 4S look just like new again.

1) Go to eBay.com and search iPhone 4 (or 4S) Back Glass.  You should be able to find them for around $15-20.  Make sure it includes screwdrivers.

2) Once you receive your new iPhone 4 Back Glass, go ahead and take the old glass off of your phone and swap to the new glass as shown below.

3) Now your iPhone looks just like new!

Repair Steps

a) Unscrew the two screws at the bottom of your iPhone using the screwdriver that was included with your iPhone Back Glass (as shown below)

b) Slide the back of the iPhone glass up towards the top of the iPhone, which will release the back off of the iPhone.

c) Place your new iPhone glass against the back of the iPhone where the old glass was located and slide it back down to lock it in place.

d) Using the screws you previously unscrewed, screw the new back glass back into place

Enjoy!

How to Get Out of Your Sprint Contract without Paying an Early Termination Fee

Have you been itching to leave Sprint, but you are still on contract?  As it turns out, their terms and conditions have changed recently, and this may mean that you can get out of your Sprint cell phone contract without paying the dreaded early termination fee (or ETF).

This is applicable for people on family plans and have a discount applied on their account.  Basically what Sprint has done is that they have decided that only the first line of your family plan will be able to have a discount (not the additional plans), whereas previously, they did give this discount.  Since this discount will raise most people’s plans prices each month, there are opportunities to get out of your contract without paying the ETF.

Call the Sprint Consumerist Hotline (703-433-4401) and tell them that you would like to cancel your service because of the increase on your bill regarding your discount on your family plan lines.  Make sure to mention that since this is an increase of your bill on your contract, that you do not need to pay the early termination fee.  They should know about this, and if they do not, ask to speak to a manager.  This will be valid as long as they are made aware within 45 days of the change.  Make sure you have a new carrier to port your number to after you cancel your Sprint service.

Enjoy your savings and don’t worry about paying any of the dreaded ETF!

The iPhone Antidote – Now We Buy All Types of iPhones

Up until recently, here at the iPhone Antidote we only purchased the iPhone 4.  Now we are excited to announce that we purchase all types of iPhones in ANY condition!  That means that no matter what kind of iPhone you have, we are willing to buy it!  It does not matter if it is used, broken, or even water damaged.  Heck, your iPhone 4 could be sitting in water right now and we would still be willing to pay $150 for it!

We have discussed earlier why it makes sense to upgrade your phone as soon as possible here (sometimes you can actually make money)!  So why not do it today?

Come give our site a look, and check out our newly updated quote section under the “Let’s Start” heading at the top of the page.

1)      Simply select the model of your iPhone and an instant quote will show up!

2)      Click “Let’s Do It!” located just under the quote, and fill in your shipping information.

3)      Click submit and a prepaid USPS Priority Mail PDF Label will download.

4)      Send your iPhone in using this label.  The label will work for any type of packaging, and works from anywhere in the United States.  Don’t worry about sending in the box or accessories, you can keep those if you would like.

5)      In just a couple of days you will be paid via check or paypal (your preference)!

With payouts up to $400, sell your old iPhone today!

Check Data and Cell Phone Usage for Overage

Have you ever thought you might be a little over budget on your text or data usage for the month? It is easy to check and find out. And if you are actually over your plan for the month, don’t worry, just predate your bill with AT&T here. This can also be quite nice if you are worried about international or roaming usage, as this will show your limits as well as your actual usage.

In order to find out, simply take your phone and dial *3282# and click send. This triggers AT&T to send you a text message which will state the information regarding your plan. It specifies:

a) Your Next Billing Cycle Date
b) Data Usage
c) Text Message Usage
d) International/Roaming Data Usage
e) International Text Message Usage
f) Other Plan-Specific Information Regarding Your Phone Plan

That is it!  Enjoy!

How to Pre-Date your Phone Bill and Avoid Overages

Uh oh.  It happened.  You sent too many texts, used too much data, or called too many people.  Don’t worry, as long as you haven’t actually been billed for the usage, you can actually predate your bill with AT&T.

This can come in particularly handy if you are trying to “get by” with the smallest cell phone service package, if you are traveling and didn’t upgrade to an international or roaming package, or if you just happened to use your phone a little bit more than normal this month.

The process is surprisingly easy, but many people still don’t know that it is an option, and end up paying hundreds, even thousands, in overage fees (international data is billed at a staggering $20,000/GB as opposed to the normal $12.5/GB for domestic data).

First go to https://www.att.com/wireless/ and login to your wireless account.  Then click “My AT&T” and then continue to “Wireless”.  At this point, if you are on a family plan, make sure that you are on the phone number that you want to change the rate plan for.  Click “Manage Features”.

Now you are able to select the features that you want to have on your account (or wished you had at the beginning of this billing period).  Choose the features which you want, and click continue at the bottom.

This brings you to a new page where you are asked to “Select an Effective/Expiration date”.  Now you have the option of three choices:

1) Backdate to the beginning of your billing period

            This is really great in case you are already over your limit for your bill.  This is the primary situation where you can save a considerable amount of money. Say goodbye to cell phone overages!

2) Make effective today

            If you know you are about to start using your phone more, or going traveling starting today, this is the option for you.

3) Future date to the next billing period

            This option is great for those who are well prepared, and don’t want to worry about going over in the future.  Unfortunately, you cannot choose a specific date for the features to be enacted, so you either need to future date it to the next billing period or wait until you actually need the features and choose “Make effective today”

Stop Wasting Money Every Month (on Your Cell Phone Bill)!

Something tells me you are wasting money every month.  Not a lot, but I bet after you read this you could save anywhere from $5 to $20 a month on your cell phone bill.

It turns out most people are eligible for a discount with their mobile phone service provider, and they don’t even know it.  For example, any student from the University of California is entitled to a 10% discount with AT&T and possibly even more with the other carriers!  A simple 10% discount is very easy to find, and sometimes you can get a discount of up to 25%!  It all depends on your email address.  Do you have an edu email address?  Maybe you just started working at a new company and you have an email address with them?

It is pain-free and very easy to check for and add a discount to your service plan.  You can do it in about 5 minutes.  You don’t need to visit a store or even make any calls.  All that you need to do is check your email address for the discount and then login to your wireless account.

For AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, the process is amazingly simple.  All you need to do is go to their website and type in your email address (the one with your school, employer, or other organization).  If your email address doesn’t provide you with a discount, look to see if you have another email you could use.  For example, if you used your employer and there was no discount, try using your school, or other organization.

Here are the links to check your discounts (some of them tell you the discount percentage right away, while others require you to login to your account or pretend to start a new account first).  Start saving money today!

AT&T Wireless : https://www.wireless.att.com/business/authenticate/

Verizon Wireless : http://www.verizonwireless.com/employee-discounts-email-authentication.shtml

Sprint: http://sprint.p.delivery.net/m/p/nxt/dev/wdyw.asp

T-Mobile : https://my.t-mobile.com:443/Corporate/Default.aspx