Google FI

Last week Google launched a new product called Google FI which, in partnership with Sprint and T-Mobile, brings about a new wireless service. Initially only available on Google’s latest Nexus 6 phones, the service intends on disrupting how we use our mobile carriers (or how they use us).

Customers of Google FI will use either Sprint or T-Mobile networks- whichever is the best for them at any given time. So that’s pretty cool. Google claims it switches seamlessly and securely between Wi-Fi and LTE to ensure fast, consistent speeds.

Google FI will also offer unlimited domestic talk and text, low cost international coverage and Wi-Fi Tethering. Cooler.

And then there’s the pricing. If you join Google Fi you’re looking at a flat fee of $20 per month, with $10 per GB of cellular data. Purchase as much as you like, and any data you don’t use will be credited back to your account.

The excellent part here? There’s no contracts or termination fees.
The service is currently available by invitation only, so if you’re interested, sign up here! 

Apple Watch warranty and Applecare+ information

Did you buy an Apple Watch? Are you concerned about damage or breakage? Wondering if Applecare+ is for you? Here’s what your warranty does and does not cover.

You get a 1 year limited hardware warranty with the purchase of your Apple Watch and up to 90 days of complimentary support.

Damage eligible for warranty service includes user-claimed debris under the display glass or pixel anomaly, a back cover removed with no damage, and any condensation in the heart rate sensor windows. A removed back cover is only covered when not accompanied by enclosure damage or evidence of prying.

Damage eligible for out-of-warranty service includes a racked, missing, removed or damaged Digital Crown cap, extreme abrasion, puncture holes, missing buttons resulting from a drop, any chips or multiple cracks in the display glass, a removed back cover with evidence of enclosure damage or prying, a bent or split band enclosure, a missing or removed band release button, or cracks in the back cover.

Damage which would deem your Apple Watch nonreturnable and ineligible for warranty service includes a disassembled unit or missing parts, catastrophic damage, counterfeit or third-party parts, and unauthorized modifications such as aftermarket displays and other non-Apple installed parts.

You’re looking at out-of-warranty service fees of $229, $329 and $2,800 for the Sport, Watch and Edition models respectively for repairs not covered by Apple’s limited one-year warranty or AppleCare+ for Apple Watch.

Out-of-warranty battery service is also available for $79 plus an applicable $6.95 shipping charge if required for all Apple Watch models.

Applecare + for Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch Edition is $49, $69 and $1500 respectively and extends your coverage to two years from the original purchase date of your Apple Watch and adds up to two incidents of accidental damage coverage, each subject to a $69/$79/$1000 service fee plus applicable tax.

You can purchase Applecare+ for Apple Watch within 60 days of your Apple Watch purchase.

Don’t like the band your apple watch came with? It’s ok!

So, you’ve got your shiny new toy, the Apple Watch, in your grasp, and you love it. We mean, you love it. But…something’s a little off. You’re not too sure about the band, are you? Little too green? Were you unaware until now that your wrist swells up all weirdly when you play tennis and it doesn’t fit right?

Well, you’ve got some options, friend. Apple will allow you the opportunity to exchange your Apple Watch band for another style! Yay! Unless you have the Apple Watch Edition, or you purchased your Apple Watch at a non-Apple retailer. Bowboooow.

Here are the rules for band-swapping:
– The new band must be within the same collection as the watch and must be an available band option for that watch face.

– The band swap is within 14 day return period.

– The watch must have been purchased at the Apple Online Store, Kiosk, or Apple Store App.

– You are not using band swaps as a way to configure a sellable product for a customer.

The swap must be initiated through the Online Store call center who will create a new band order for you, ship it out, and provide instructions on how to mail your old band in for a refund.

You will not be able to return a Apple Watch band by itself for a refund, and you can’t return an Apple Watch without the band.

iFixit teardown of the Apple Watch

The good people over at iFixit have performed their all-serving ritual of tearing apart new tech, giving the Apple Watch a repairability score of 5/10.

Somewhat expected for an Apple product.  If you’re interested to see the guts of the Apple Watch, check out the teardown here:

Thanks iFixit!

Watch the new Apple Watch Ads!

Just in time for the official release of the Apple Watch, Apple has released a set of three ads celebrating their new wearable tech. Cue sappy romantic music, heartfelt emotions, and ‘grass is greener with an Apple Watch’ themes.

Time to FEEL!

Who wants an Apple Watch now? Huh? Huh?

How to set up and use your Apple Watch!

Did you get a shiny new Apple Watch today?  HERE’S HOW TO USE IT!!

First things first: Make sure you have an iPhone 5, 5s, 5c, 6, or 6 Plus running iOS 8.2.

Secondly things secondly: Your watch should come with about 50% charge, but charge your watch if it needs it.

Power on the Watch by pressing the side button, and follow the prompts to select a language etc. Launch the Apple Watch App on your iPhone (it was automatically installed when you updated to iOS 8.2) and Tap “Start Pairing” on the main screen. Hold your watch up to your iPhone’s camera so the screen is aligned with the yellow outlined box on your iPhone’s screen, and follow the instructions on your iPhone screen.

If you open the Settings App on your shiny new watch, you’ll find the options to customize your brightness, sound, text size, silencing ability, and Do Not Disturb functions.

Your new best friend is the Digital Crown. Tap it to get back to the home screen, use it to zoom in maps/photos, press it in conjunction with the side button to take a screen shot, press and hold to activate Siri, and double click it to jump to your most recently visited app.

Your second best friend forever is the SWIPE! YES! Swipe up from the watch face to see what Apple calls ‘Glances’ which contains information such as calendar events, weather, heart rate, location, and the ability to access the option to ‘Ping’ your misplaced phone.

Swipe down to see your notifications. Swipe left on a notification to quickly clear it. Check your heartbeat by swiping up to expand Glances and swiping left to the heartbeat card.

Tapping is the cool guy you thought you knew that has a surprise twin brother that seems pretty cool. The Watch is pressure sensitive, so light tapping will have a different effect than if you ‘force touch’ – a slightly longer, firm press.

There are a number of uses for the force touch that become more apparent the more you play with the device. For instance in the maps app, you force touch to get to the search feature. Force touch the watch face to change its design, or on the notifications ‘red dot’ to clear them all, or on the Messages inbox to compose a new text.

In Glances, tap to get more information on any of the applications.

Raising your hand will activate the display and show you the time, the last notification if you’ve received one, or activate Siri if you say “Hey Siri” at the same time. Lowering your wrist after receiving a notification will dismiss it. Putting your hand over the watch face will silence an incoming phone call.

You can also use it to control Apple TV, which could be useful, and also could be super annoying to anyone else in the room (which, yes, can be excellent).

To use Apple Pay, double click the side button and hold the face of the watch near the card reader. POOF, MONEY EXCHANGED!

We’ll be bringing you more Apple Watch updates and user guides as we get to know more about the device, and in the mean time, you should also check out the Apple video guides here.

Happy Weekend Kids!

People have started to receive their Apple Watches!

As of this morning, many people have started to receive their Shiny Apple Watches in the mail, delivered by either UPS or Fedex.

Have you received yours yet?

More Apple Watch guided videos

Want to learn more about the Apple Watch that you just received/will receive soon/will one day have? Or perhaps it’s Friday afternoon and you’re feeling a little procrastinatey, but you’ve already read the whole internet?

We got you, friend!

Apple has launched a further update to it’s Guided Tours section on it’s Apple Watch website. Now you can be guided through some super interesting things like Apple Pay, Activity apps

Check it out here on Apple’s website, or here on their YouTube channel. 

You can buy Apple Watch in-store today !

Today is the official Launch date of the Apple Watch, ( Yay!) however, as you may have heard, that doesn’t mean you can just walk in to any ol’ apple store and buy one.

Apple has restricted the purchase of Apple Watches to online only, meaning you can go in-store and check them out, however when you decide that you want one and which one you want, a kindly Apple employee will then be able to assist you in making your online purchase, and you’ll have to wait for your new shiny baby to be shipped.

Bummer, right? But wait – there’s more!  According to reports, there will  be retail stores where you can buy an Apple Watch on the spot. You’re looking at high end fashion boutiques for this one, including Dover Street Market in Tokyo and London, Maxfield in Los Angeles, Colette in Paris, the Corner in Berlin, and 10 Corso Como in Milan.

None of these stores will have the Apple Watch Edition available for on-the-spot purchase, and stock will be limited for the other models (likely in the 100’s).

The first people to get their hands on an Apple Watch apart from those lucky enough to scoop them up in one of the above fancy boutique’s will be those who were quick-handed enough to pre-order within the first few minutes of April 10th, however those who pre-ordered afterwards might be in luck, with Apple advising that more Apple Watches are shipping faster than expected.

Deals of the Week Thursday

Hi Guys!

Let’s have a nice little look-see at what kind of deals we dug up for you this week.

* This isn’t such a big tech deal, but Sam’s Club do sell tech, and it’s a good deal, so we thought we’d throw it in on top! Groupon is offering 1-Year Sam’s Club Plus Membership + $20 Sam’s Club Gift Card + $22.94 Fresh Food Value Coupon (New Customers Only) for only $45. Get on it!

*Get your mitts on some Sony Over-the-Ear Bluetooth and Noise Cancelling Headphones (Black or Blue; MDR-ZX770BN/B) for just $149.99 with free in-store pickup from Best Buy. 

* Grab a 13 inch MacBook Pro early 2015 model 128 GB for $1099.99 – down to $989 with the Best Buy Movers Coupon from Best Buy. 

* 70-80% Off Spigen Cases for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ at Amazon.  Search Spigen and then use Coupon Code SPSPIG70 or SPSPIG80 to bring the prices down to as low as $3.20!

*Get 50% off some Apple products in-store at Radioshack! See -Magic mouse 34.99, Apple wireless keyboard 34.99, Magic trackpad 34.99, Regular keyboard 29.99. Check here to see if your local Radioshack has these items still in stock.

*Look at this sweeet deal! Get $100 off any iPad Air 2 or iPad Mini 3 at Staples in-store with coupon code 68428. Expires April 25, 2015 ( Find coupon here down the bottom right of the page, and check out the other coupons there while you’re at it!)

*Through Amazon, trade in select PlayStation 3 and Xbox consoles and bundles to get: Up to $140 trade-in value for the Xbox 360 or PS3 consoles and bundles and up to $275 trade-in value for Xbox One consoles and bundles. Get an $80 bonus discount applicable towards the purchase of select PlayStation 4 bundles from Amazon. Combined with the trade-in value that is a total of $150-$350 toward a PlayStation 4.

*Get a super rad Hello Kitty Kids’ Snap n’ Share 2.1-Megapixel Digital Camera for just $9.97 from Walmart. Did we say super rad yet?

* Get 10% off site-wide at TechRabbit via coupon code “TRLAUNCH10”.

*Finally, get iColorama S – Photo Editor and Brush Painter for iOS for FREE from the App Store for a limited time.

1, 2, 3, Dealhunters…..GO!