New configurations of Apple Watches shipping now!

Did you order a fancy stainless steel Apple Watch with a Link bracelet, Modern buckle or Leather loops band? If you did, it’s likely you haven’t received your shiny new device yet, along with everyone else who ordered those specific configurations.

BUT! You can rejoice. It seems that Apple have overcome the shortages that plagued those models/bands and they have begun shipping out. Commence shipping dance! The first orders, in fact, should be arriving ANY MINUTE NOW HOLY APPLE WATCH BATMAN!

It looks like Link bracelet band on Stainless Steel is shipping first, with modern Buckle and Leather Loop soon to follow. If you ordered the Link Bracelet or Leather loop band separately, they have begun shipping, whilst the elusive Modern Buckle band remains unavailable for purchase.

According to Apple’s site, the Link Bracelet is crafted from 100 components, including links that take more than nine hours to cut, while the Modern Buckle and Leather Loop are made from leather sourced from small tanneries in France and Italy. FANCY.

You tell us: Worth the wait?

Apple’s new iPad microsite

Apple has just launched a new microsite celebrating the iPad and how ‘everything changes’ with the device. On the site you’ll find sections dedicated to showing a bunch of apps and ideas about how the iPad could start changing your life in many different areas, such as cooking, small business, traveling, education, etc (once you buy one, of course).

This is in line with Apple winning everywhere recently – except in iPad sales which have been down (12.6 million from 16.35 million in the first quarter.) There is also persistent rumors of an iPad pro being introduced this year, most likely at WWDC in June which would make promoting the device as a whole a step forward in boosting both current and future device sales.

Check out the website http://www.apple.com/ipad/change-everything/ and the new ‘iPad changes everything’ video below.

You’ll soon be able to pick up the Apple Watch in-store!

So, you guys remember how you can only get an Apple Watch through shipping after online ordering? Well, natch! Not so much anymore! Apple is in the process of making it possible to pick up certain models of the Apple Watch in-store as well!

The ‘pick up in store’ option is officially labelled as ‘coming soon’ for most people on the Apple website, and as ‘currently unavailable’ for others, the pick up option for both remaining greyed out for the time being.

Soon, however, it seems as though you’ll be able to reserve your shiny Apple Watch online to be able to be picked up in a physical store shortly afterwards. You’ll reportedly be asked to present your government-issues photo ID, of which the name must match the name on the order. Uh, duh.

There has been no confirmation as to when this new option will become live, but we’re assuming it won’t be too much longer than 1- 2 weeks.

Exciting stuff!

Image courtesy of www.macrumors.com

Apple’s revamped music streaming service

Predicted to be released in late June after being announced at WWDC 2015 in San Francisco, Apple’s revamped music streaming service has just started hitting the next level of tech rumor mills.

While the company is said to be working on last minute record label deals in order for the service to be launched as part of iOS 8.4 and iTunes 12.2.  The current iTunes Radio was announced at WWDC on June 10th, 2013, with the service launching on September 18, 2013, the same day as iOS 7. Available across all Apple devices, it is currently only available in the US and Australia.

Apple purchased Beats Music for $3 Billion dollars last year with the speculated intent of using the brains behind it to not only revamp their music streaming service – but become the best in the business, beating out (ha) other popular moneymakers such as Pandora, Spotify, Tidal, etc.

The revamped service will purportedly be available in additional countries, welcoming a new design, the ability to pay for unlimited song skipping, streaming from music and playlists stored offline, manually created playlists instead of ones using an algorithm.

The beta version of the service has already been seeded to developers as part of iOS 8.4, however we assume (read: hope) that there will be a few tricks up Apple’s  sleeve in order to lure and win over customers, some wow-factor music streaming goodies that have yet to be even whispered about yet.

You will reportedly be able to trial the service for free before signing on the line for about $8-$10 a month.

Who does Tim Cook follow?

CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, is a fairly important and influential man in the scope of the tech world, yeah? He’s in charge of one of the wealthiest and most successful companies in the world, and an advocate of change towards workplace (and life-place) equality for all.

So who does he think of as important? Who does he look to? Social media will help us!

Cook currently has 1.14 million followers on Twitter (his preferred public social media forum) however he only follows 37 people. It’s said that who you follow on Twitter (especially when it’s such a small select group) is pretty telling, so let’s have a look, Mr Cook:

1 – Human Rights campaign – Civil rights organization working towards LGBT equality.

2 – The Official Twitter account of the United Nations Human Rights office.

3 – Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft Corporation

4 – The band One Republic 

5 – Aaron Levie, ‘Lead Magician’ (and CEO) at Box, a company that allows you to ‘Access, manage, and share your files securely from anywhere’

6 – Auburn University Tigers Football team.

7 – American Journalist David Muir

8 – Dick Costolo, CEO at Twitter

9 – The National Football Foundation

10 – Scientific American – the ‘authoritative source for the science discoveries and technology innovations that matter.’

11 – College Game Day

12 – Angela Ahrendts, Senior Vice President, Apple Retail.

13 – Duke Men’s Basketball.

14 – Charlie Rose from the Charlie Rose Show.

15 – National Parks Foundation – official Charity of America’s National parks.

16 – iTunes U on Twitter

17 – iTunes on Twitter

18 – ESPN on Twitter

19 – RED Charity ‘Harnessing the power of people & companies to fight AIDS.’

20 – TED Talks – ‘ Ideas worth Spreading’

21 – iBooks on Twitter

22 – iTunes Movies on Twitter

23 – The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

24 – The App Store on Twitter

25 – iTunes Music on Twitter

26 – Nike 

27 – Former President Bill Clinton

28 – Pope Francis

29 – The Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama.

30 – The Auburn Plainsman, Auburn University’s student-produced news source.

31 – Duke Basketball, Coverage of Duke Basketball from The Chronicle, Duke’s independent daily student newspaper.

32 – Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a nonprofit organization working to realize Robert Kennedy’s dream of a more just & peaceful world.

33 – American Journalist Anderson Cooper

34 – Philip Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple Inc.

35 – Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services

36 – Jimmy Fallon

37 – Kerry Kennedy, President, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights 

So, it seems like Mr Cook is into Apple (Duh), sports, his Alma Matter Auburn University, sports, tech, news, news oriented comedy shows, charity, and making the world a better place.

What a good guy.

More teen survey goodness

Piper Jaffray recently did a survey of American teenagers, seeing what tech and social media they’re into compared to years past. The survey is  published and used by investment analysts and company head honchos to see what they should be doing different to pick up the lead in the all-important youth market.

Recently, we learnt that Instagram is number 1 in American teens eyes, whilst Facebook is falling in importance in their wee little eyes. Now we learn that the Apple Watch? Not so much in their focus.They surveyed 6200 teenagers and only 11% plan on purchasing an Apple Watch. This is down from 16% from a similar survey down last Fall. And mainly? They’re in it for the style, rather than the function.

…Yeah, we could probably have guessed that.

The good news for Apple? The iPhone and the iPad remain the most popular smartphone and tablet among teenagers. 66% of teenagers surveyed owned an iPhone, while 64 percent owned an iPad. 72 percent of teens expect their next smartphone purchase will be an iPhone, while 60 percent expect their next tablet to be an iPad.

21 percent of teens expect their next smartphone purchase to be an Android, and 16 percent plan to buy an Android tablet. Interest in Windows tablets has grown slightly, however, and 20 percent of teens expect their next tablet purchase to be Windows-based.

The next Teen survey will be published in October this year, and it will be interesting to see what we expect to be teen interest in the Apple Watch build quite significantly.

This lady put all of her boyfriend’s apple products in the bath!

Have you been cheating on your significant other?

If so, you better watch out, because not only is it hella douchey, but this could happen to you! A Japanese Twitter user who goes by the handle @foolishnessfly2 caught her boyfriend cheating and did this:

Yup. That’s not bath salts, guys.  She launched all of his Apple products into a nice hot bath and posted proof for all of the Internet to see. The post has since racked up more than 16,000 retweets and 10,000 favorites.

If this happens to you (you rascal you) then don’t despair! Take a photo of it, become internet famous, then sell all those stinky water damaged Apple products to us! We’ll give you cash for them in no time! Internet fame and cash? What’s to lose? ( except your data and, erm, your relationship…)

Get a quote to sell your iPhone here!

Tech of the Week!

Are you one of those people who are always losing things? We get it, yo! That’s why we have some new tech to tell you allll about that will help you NOT lose one of your most important possessions – you wallet.

Give a warm welcome to our Tech of the Week –  The SmartWallet.  This thing? Sounds awesome.

The SmartWallet (above, in all it’s aesthetically pleasing glory) is a wallet that not only carries important things like cash and credit cards, but it also has a built-in 1000 mAh backup battery so you can charge your phone for up to 4 hours on the go.

BUT that’s not all, the main use of the SmartWallet is to make sure you don’t freakin’ lose the thing (and the important things inside). It does this by using GPS. If you lose it within a 50-150 foot radius, use the associated app on your phone and it’ll show you exactly where it is and how to get there.

If the Wallet has been lost outside of that radius, it’ll show you the GPS location the Wallet was last in. Before that happens though, as soon as your wallet goes out of that range, your phone will notify you.

AND if you’ve lost your phone, not your wallet, pressing a button on the wallet will make your phone ring – whether it’s on silent/vibrate, or not.

The wallet was a successful Indiegogo project, and it will retail for $116 USD, so if you’re a loser (of things),  keep an eye out for this one !

Apple’s environmental projects

If you’ve checked out the Apple website recently, you might have seen something new, and no, we don’t mean the Apple Watch.

Good guy Apple has embarked on a number of new environmental projects, in order to ‘leave the world better than we found it’.  They’re developing a renewable micro-hydro project to power data centers, building solar farms in china to reduce their carbon footprint, and beginning a partnership with The Conservation Fund to protect and create the type of forests they use in their packaging. 

Learn more about it by watching the film here.

Deals of the week Thursday

Hi Guys!

What have we here? Some deals? SWEET DEALS BRO

* Get a GoPro HERO3+ Silver for just $253.99 down from $299 from AT&T.

* Into Selfies? Get a Selfie-Stick With Remote Shutter Control for only $5.99 with Free Shipping from 13deals.

*Check out a Universal Anti-Slip Smartphone GEL Pad With Grip technology for just $2.99 with free shipping from iTech Deals.

* Get your hands on these: 3in1 Fisheye+ Wide Angle + Macro Camera Clip Lens for your iPhone for just $2.90 with free shipping from eBay. 

*Also on eBay, we’ve got a good deal on a Apple MacBook Air 13.3″ Core i5 4GB with 128GB Flash Storage for $829.99 with free shipping.

*Need a new TV? Check this out: Dell Home has 55″ Vizio (M552I-B2) 1080p 120Hz Smart LED HDTV on sale for $697.99 – $98 off with Use coupon code W1SW2234RRCH0J to get a further $98 dollars off for a total of $599.99. Shipping is free.

*Need some entertainment? Family Video has Select Used Blu-rays on sale for $5. Shipping is free with coupon code GRATIS4U.

*OR step into the Google Chromecast world with the Wireless HDMI Streaming Dongle for only $25 (store pickup only – click ‘pick up today’) from Staples. 

* At Target – buy a Brightspot mobile refill card ($30/$35/$45/$55) in store and you automatically qualify for a Nokia Lumia 521 smartphone for only 99 cents more. Wot. The phone usually retails for $43.99! The offer is added when the refill card is scanned. (This phone will work with T-Mobile SIM also.)

Happy Hunting!