The iWatch

 

 

The iWatch! Could it finally be on it’s way onto our super deserving wrists? Well, we think so. We’re almost as sure as we can really ever really be with an Apple product release, especially a completely new product release. Here’s a bunch of stuff we think we know about the iWatch.

 

Way, way back in 2008, Apple co-founder  Steve Wozniak confirmed to the Telegraph that “Apple’s future could lie in an ‘iWatch’.”

 

Then, in the midst of a thousand iWatch rumors, Apple trademarked ‘iWatch’ in Japan, Mexico, Russia and a number of other countries.

 

Tim Cook has said this about wearable tech:

 

“I think the wrist is interesting. I’m wearing this (Nike Fuelband) on my wrist…it’s somewhat natural. But as I said before, I think for something to work here, you first have to convince people it’s so incredible that they want to wear it.”

 

So we know it’s coming, and we know it’s going to be incredible, which is pretty exciting.

 

The iWatch is rumored to be out this year. Definitely, probably, this year. We think it will be if not announced, at least hinted at during the WWDC in June, and if not, definitely revealed  in the Fall, and released later in the year or early 2015.

 

The idea is that the iWatch will feature a small number of already established products combined into one, similar to the original iPhone when it came out.

 

It is said to be standalone with the option to be used in combination with your iPhone. It will most likely include watch, (duh) as well as fitness, health and phone functionality. Siri is a possibility, as is FaceTime capabilities, and maps, if not full iOS 8 functionality.

 

Fitness and health tech accessories were one of the big new industry product sectors at this year’s CES conference in Vegas. Many believe that it’s where the future of wearable tech lies.

 

Apple have recently made a bucketload of new roles rumored to be centered on the creation of the iWatch. Some of these are a little vague, others are quite telling. These include:

 

Sleep analysis experts who hold “several patents for integrating mobile devices with fitness equipment”

 

Biometric scientists.

 

Ben Shaffer (previously innovation leader at Nike) and Jay Blahnik, a health and fitness instructor who consulted on the Fuelband for Nike.

 

Sleep research expert Roy J.E.M Raymann, a scientist from Philips Research last month.  Raymann’s experience includes extensive research into non-pharmacological methods of altering sleep quality and in wearable sensors and miniaturization of sensors related to tracking sleep and alertness activity.

 

Nancy Dougherty was hired as a hardware engineer in late 2013. Previously she worked with technology-based medical products with Proteus Digital Health. Her work there included a health metric-reading wearable patch and ingestible, Bluetooth-connected smart pills for monitoring dosages and scheduling. Most recently, Dougherty worked as a hardware lead for Sano Intelligence, whose tagline reads ‘the API for the bloodstream,’ working on a wearable sensor system.

 

Apple recently advertised for an Exercise Physiologist to oversee cardiovascular fitness and energy expenditure tests at its main headquarters campus.

 

The ad read: Design and run user studies related to cardiovascular fitness & energy expenditure, including calories burned, metabolic rate, aerobic fitness level measurement/tracking and other key physiological measurements.

 

Michael O’Reilly, M.D. was recently added to the Apple team. Previously he was the  Chief Medical Officer of pulse oximetry (measuring the amount of oxygen in the blood)  for Masimo.

 

In the fashion line, Former Yves Saint Laurent CEO Paul Deneve, below, was hired last year to work under Tim Cook on a “special project”, and Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, joined Apple in a newly created position last year, as a senior vice president and member of their executive team.

 

Pretty promising stuff, right? So what else do we know?

 

A supply chain source indicated to Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White in early October that it may also serve to integrate with home automation systems, allowing users to control heating and cooling, lights, and audio/video systems right from their wrists.

 

The design will come from the delightful brain of one Jony Ive (and his no doubt delightful team).

 

It is expected to have a 1.5-inch display, it will more than likely have a battery life longer than one day (Hi Galaxy gear!) and no one is brave enough yet to guess at a price.

 

What about competition? There are already a few smart watches, coming from the likes of Samsung with the Galaxy Gear  (1& 2), the Pebble, the Sony smart watch 2 and now Google who has confirmed to the Financial Times after filing a patent that they are indeed manufacturing a smart watch, possibly for release this year.

 

Apple will be looking to blow them all out of the water, obviously. This means that it has to be innovative in the same way that shocked the world with the original iPhone, and that all the components such as battery life, synchronization with other tech, wearability and functionality will have to be perfect.

 

 

So, no pressure, Apple. Also: hurry up, cos we really, really want one.

 

 

 

 

iWatch mock up photo by Brett Jordan Via www.adr-studio.it/site/?p=269 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

iPhone Tip Of The Day! Safari Edition.

 

Got iOS 7? Yeah? Want to know a Safari feature not many people  know about? Yeah? Yeah?

 

 

 

Here you go: In Safari on iOS 7 devices you have the option to search within a page for a specific word!

 

 

Start typing the word you’re looking for into the URL bar at the top of the page. The results will show you the google search results first but if you scroll down it will show you “On This Page” and let you jump through the mentions of that page.

 

Sweet!

 

 

 

Images courtesy of Quickmeme & Troll.me

The iPhone 6!

 

Are we excited for the iPhone 6? Huh? Huh? Duh! Rumors about the upcoming 9th generation iPhone to be released by Apple are running rampant already, and we couldn’t be more excited.

 

 

 

 

Here’s a rundown of everything we know about the iPhone 6. And what we think we know. And what we think other people might be potentially correct on what they think. And some things that probably aren’t true but some people think they are. Etc. All photos in this article are not real and are representations of what people believe the iPhone will be, or photos or purported prototypes.

 

Most people agree that one if not two new iPhones will be released this year, and following Apple’s recent naming system one of them more than likely will be called the iPhone 6. The main hardware difference that most people are solid on is that the new iPhone(s) will be thinner and slimmer, just like your New years resolutions!

 

 

 

 

Tim Cook has revealed that 2014 is a big year for Apple product releases, and people are optimistically expecting the release of the iWatch, possibly the iTV, and the next iPhone update(s!). These possible new product releases alongside other factors such as the possibility of dual iPhone releases will obviously affect when and exactly how fancily updated the new iPhone(s) will be.

 

Some people are speculating that the iPhone 6 will be, in fact, the iWatch and the current mobile iPhone will only get a new iOS update.

 

 

 

 

The more trusted and reliable thought is that the iPhone 6 will be its own separate hardware update, and because of the rumored new product releases set most likely for the Fall, it will be released early this year; think sometime in the 2nd quarter, June, or early Summer.  This is certainly a possibility – Apple released the first four generations of iPhone in June, before moving to an September/October launch schedule.

 

The other line of thought is that the iPhone 6 will follow the more recent iPhone release schedule and released in the Fall, leaving the Apple team plenty of time to make sure everything is perfect.

 

A lot of analysts believe that Apple will continue with their new 2 phone release model, this time featuring 2 differing size options. The sizing rumors range from 4.5 inches waaaay up to 5.7 inches. There is additional speculation that Apple will minimize or completely eradicate the bezels (the part bordering the screen) on the iPhone 6.

 

 

 

 

Arguments against the bigger screen sizes are backed up by Apple’s hard stance on one handed mobile use and their reluctance to provide a bigger screen at a loss to function just to compete with other smartphone companies. Tim Cook said this in April of last year:

 

“My view continues to be that the iPhone 5 has the absolute best display in the industry. We always strive to create the very best display for our customers. Our competitors have made some significant trade-offs in many of these areas in order to ship a larger display, we would not shop a larger-display iPhone while these trade-offs exist.”

 

 

 

 

Two new hardware components that are rumored to be allowing the iPhone to be thinner, lighter and more durable are Sapphire Glass and Liquidmetal.

 

Apple has exclusive rights to Liquidmetal, but have done for quite a long time. However, in November, five new Apple patents relating to Liquidmetal were published. Liquidmetal is a very strong and very durable material, which, if used, could make the iPhone 6 stronger and thinner as less material would be needed in comparison to Aluminum. According to some reports, the iPhone 6 could be just 6mm thick compared with the iPhone 5s’s 7.6mm. Below is a purported prototype from Sonnydickson.com

 

 

 

Sapphire glass is the material currently used on the iPhone 5S’s Touch ID Home Button the cover of the iPhone’s rear-facing camera. It’s more than twice as durable than Corning’s Gorilla Glass, and is “extremley scratch resistant. Apple has apparently spent $578 million to enter into a multi-year agreement with manufacturers GT Advanced Technologies to provide sapphire materials from a huge new Apple facility in Arizona.

 

 

 

 

The iPhone 5s incorporates a 64-bit A7 28-nanometer chip manufactured by Samsung. Apple’s iPhone 6 will reportedly incorporate a 20-nanometer A8 chip from TSMC, which will be both smaller and more energy efficient.

 

Samsung will continue to be involved in the production, alleviating some of TSMC’s manufacturing workload. The A7 chip marked a 31 percent improvement over the A6 in the iPhone 5, and it is likely that the leap to a 20-nm A8 chip will offer similar increases in performance.

 

 

 

 

Apple’s next-generation iPhone should, and may support the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard that first began appearing in Apple products in 2013. 802.11ac, or “Gigabit” Wi-Fi offers speeds up to three times as fast as existing 802.11n wireless networks, reaching speeds over 1 Gigabit per second. It’s though that Apple have been waiting for external technology to catch up before they update their iDevices with the Wi-Fi Technology.

 

Wireless Charging is something that has been tossed around in the great big salad bowl of rumors, but we don’t think it’s coming- yet. Curved Glass is also a feature many are looking forward to- and would be be beautiful on the iPhone 6, but we wouldn’t be betting the house on it.

 

 

 

 

Holographic keyboard is the magic  feature everyone quietly and slightly unreasonably hopes for with each update. Will it be this year that their hopes are fulfilled? We think not, but there’s always a little hope. Meanwhile- they actually currently exist as an iPhone and iPad accessory.

 

 

According to a reports from The China Post, Apple will not be upgrading the resolution of the rear camera for the iPhone 6 later this year. Citing analysts from Nomura Securities, they indicate that while the iPhone 6 will have some camera improvements like enhanced optical image stabilization, it will continue to use an 8-megapixel sensor rather than a higher-resolution sensor in the 12-16 megapixel range.

 

Some people think that the Touch ID introduced on the iPhone 5S last year will be removed from future iPhone updates – we think this is pretty categorically not going to happen.  What we think will  happen is that Apple will, this year, introduce new payment methods using the touch ID.

 

 

 

 

 

Apple recently purchased PrimeSense, a firm specializing in the development of three-dimensional sensors for home appliances and mobile devices. This technology is similar to the gesture-detecting sensors of the Xbox’s Kinect controller. This purchase could certainly hint at a move to include gesture control on the next generation of Apple devices, although unlike Samsung, they would want to have it perfected before they release anything with gesture control.

 

The iPhone 6(s) will run on iOS 8. Yay!

 

So that’s it – so far. Everyday there are new rumors and people certain they know exactly what the iPhone 6 will be like. In actual fact, there’s very, very few people in the world who knows exactly what it will be like. This guy is one of them.

 

 

 

 

 

So if you see him, can you guys ask him for us?  Thanks.

 

 

 

 

Images courtesy of Unitedcats, dailymail.co.uk, bgr.com, Officetoocean.blogspot.com, sonnydickson,  usatoday.com, geeky-gadgets.com, pcadvisor.co.uk, Coolistuff.com, 9to5mac.com, & mashable

iPhone Tip Of The Day Camera Edition

 

 

 

Got iOS 7? You special little kitten you! Wanna know a camera trick?

 

You can now focus photos on iOS 7 without tapping the screen with your finger!

 

Instead, focus the photo by holding down the volume button for a few seconds, like you would do on DSLRs and point-and-shoots.

 

Nice!

 

 

 

 

Image courtesy of thedailytouch.com & OMGcutethings.com

Missed Out On Flappy Bird? See Our Games Review & Get Addicted!

 

 

 

 

Yes, our iDevices are super awesome for organization, education, sophistication, communication and blah blah blah. This post is purely concerned with entertainment. Games, to be precise.

 

 

 

 

You may have heard the recent furore over the Games App ‘Flappy Bird’ being taken down from the App store by the creator.

 

 

 

 

 

The fact that the dude has since gotten death threats and iPhones with Flappy bird installed are supposedly selling on eBay for MEGA big bucks is testament to how seriously people take their iOS gaming!

 

And so do we. Here are our votes for the best games currently available on iOS and why you should go ahead and download them. What are you, like working today? Pfft. That’s right, PFFFT. Download these games and start playing, that’s an order!

 

 

 

 

Cover Orange

 

 

 

 

One word: Addictive. Essentially a puzzle game with super cute graphics and light bouncy music. The goal is to move different objects in different ways in order to cover one or more poor little orange dudes from the evil rainstorm that kills them. Kinda like fun physics. Kinda.

 

Simple to start, with an impressive number of levels – 400- that gradually gets more and more challenging. Incredibly frustrating when you just can’t work it out, there is also Cover Orange 2 available.

 

$0.99 From the App Store

 

 

 

 

Mushroom Wars

 

 

 

 

This is an iPhone Antidote personal favorite. Just be warned, this might just take over your life- and that of your significant other. This beautifully animated game offers duel functionality, allowing multi level play against the computer and online multiplayer games.

 

You might find yourself yelling at the screen and saying how grossly unfair and stupid the game and everyone you’re playing against is but don’t worry- you’ll be back. Because it’s a really good game. It’s just that it can be really hard, and stuff, ya know?

 

You can play against the computer ad free as much as you like. For the multiplayer option, you get 5 free games that deplete as you play and lose. One game is replaced every hour and you can keep playing as long as you keep winning! If you do that, you move up the ladder. Just a warning, that ladder is hard, man.

 

FREE from the App Store

 

 

 

 

Dumb Ways to Die

 

 

 

This game is actually born from an Australian public service announcement campaign by Metro Trains in Melbourne, Australia, to promote rail safety. Which is weird, and cool and all, but it’s also really fun. Try to beat our top score of 3200!

 

The aim of the game is to avoid the dangerous activities that the funny looking cartoon dudes get themselves into throughout the campaign. You get three lives, which you use to do such heroic things as saving a dude  from getting run over by a train, putting mustard on a bun so you can feed it to a snake so it wont eat you, flicking pirahnas away from a dude’s privates as seen above and other such delightful activities!

 

The longer you manage to stay alive the quicker each play gets until it’s all rather frantic. It is free and it includes the capability to tweet your death! Sweet!

 

FREE from the App Store

 

 

 

 

Can You Escape

 

 

 

An interesting and perhaps momentarily captivating puzzle game where you must collect and use multiple tools clues to find objects which in turn lets you open locked cabinets and drawers within the room. The objective is to get out of the room and into the elevator, so you can enter and figure out the next room.

 

Extremely frustrating in a good way, it’s the type of game where you find yourself jabbing furiously at the screen. I KNOW these stupid keys go HERE! Until you realize that they don’t, actually go there, and you’re a moron.

 

Free from the App Store, but you can pay $0.99 for walkthroughs. (Loser!)

 

 

 

 

Sprinkle

 

 

 

This game was the winner of Best Casual Game in the 2012 International Mobile Gaming Awards so you know it’s gotta be good.

 

Hella cute graphics, and level based gameplay where the aim of the game is to aim your water gun correctly to put out fires before it gets to your little blue guy!

 

You get points for how much time and water it takes you to put the water out. Level up, more fires, more rocks to help or hinder the direction of the water, and more ways to move your giant water gun.

 

If you run out of water, everyone gets sad, or if you don’t get to a house in time before it burns down. Obviously. The game starts off super simple but it gets harder and more addictive as it goes along. You get affectionate with the little guys too.

 

Sprinkle has 46 levels, 22 of them are available from the start, and you can unlock the remaining 24 levels by scoring 5 Drops (stars) on the first 22 levels, or unlock them with an In App Purchase (this unlocks all previous levels as well).

 

Sprinkle Free available or for the full game , be ready to pay $1.99 in the App Store.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Super Monsters Stole My Condo

 

 

 

Another Adult Swim gold nugget!

 

Twisted and pretty, with overpowering graphics that are almost too much to take in, this game is pretty good if you can handle it. You have to match colors of precariously stacked condos to clear them and gain power-ups. Also? Angry monsters surround your condos and try to topple them, unless you feed them the matching color buildings, or clear three of that color.

 

Super Monsters Ate My Condo is actually a free sequel to Monsters Ate My Condo. It adds a time limit for games and boosts that can be activated with in-game currency. This game is highly addictive. Silly Condo eating monsters.

 

FREE from the App Store. 

 

 

 

 

Subway Surfers

 

 

 

 

Another continuous runner game. This time, you’re running through a subway, away from a station guard/inspector, dodging trains, jumping, ducking, and moving left to right. Controls are easy, design is pleasant and colorful and the music is pretty catchy.

 

Throughout the game you can collect coins and earn or purchase game extras and boosts to help you achieve the goals presented to you by the game as well as trying to get as far as you can with as many points. Works best on the iPad, with many different versions out there.

 

FREE from the App Store.

 

 

 

Quiz Up

 

 

See our review here for this super addictive general knowledge game. Free from the App Store. 

 

 

 

 

Major Mayhem

 

 

Go to the tropics, stop the dogs of war and save the world from mayhem! Great graphics. Easy to follow instructions. Great music, takes you inside the action.

 

You are given different missions to accomplish for each level. Your guy runs, then there’s ninjas which you have to shoot by tapping on the screen. You also have people you have to rescue- i.e, don’t shoot.  With each mission more controls are slowly introduced, making it more and more difficult.

 

You get awarded with medals when you safely finish the level ‘mission’  and you get mayhem points.

 

FREE from the App Store.

 

 

 

 

Clayjam

 

ClayJam is another personal favorite.Beautiful claymation art bringing gameplay alive like few others can. And the game itself is fun, and addictive. Across a number of levels, you complete challenges using your one little clay ball. Collect clay through a variety of measures, rolling over a variety of awesomely unique objects and characters.

 

You are up against a red sea of clay follwing you at a quick pace, and objects much bigger than you that you bounce off and lose clay. The clay you have collected by the end you can keep to create further characters and unlock other worlds. Missions help with the addictiveness!

 

 

FREE from the App Store.

 

 

 

 

Very honorable mentions: Tiny Wings ( $0.99 from the App Store)  &  Sonic Dash ( free). Also- An iPhone Antidote Associate swears by the Simpsons Game ( Free from the App Store) . Give it a try.

 

 

Play on, kids.

 

 

 

 

Images courtesy of slidetoplay.com, Vulcanpost.com, applenapps, pockettactics, iTunes, Game-solver, Digitalspy, toucharcade, Applenapps, Techradar, app4smart, iTunes, appadvice, bunchofgamers

iPhone Tip Of The Day! Camera Edition.

 

 

Ever feel the need to access your iPhone camera super fast?

 

Swipe up on the little camera icon in the bottom right corner of your home screen. The Camera app will open, bypassing the unlock screen!

 

So next time you see something like this:

 

 

 

Don’t bother running for your camera, or bother with unlocking your iPhone! Just swipe man!

 

Then you can be like this guy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images courtesy of Howto.cnet.com, Techeblog.com & Globalnerdy.com

iPhone Tip Of The Day Text Edition two

How to turn off ‘Find My iPhone & Anti-theft Activation Lock’ from the phone you’re selling!

 

 

If you’re thinking of selling or giving away a stinky old iPhone, you need to understand how to turn off the ‘Find My iPhone’ function. ESPECIALLY if the device has been upgraded to iOS 7, whereby it will also be loaded with Apple’s Anti-theft Activation lock.

 

 

 

 

That’s not it. The Anti-theft Activation Lock introduced with iOS 7 is however super awesome for preventing theft by rendering the phone basically useless and worth roughly one eighth of its proper resale price. However, it also does this if you forget to turn it off before you sell it or give it away.

 

For instance, here at iPhone Antidote, we cannot give you the total quoted amount for your iPhone unless the Anti-theft Activation lock is turned off.

 

 

So, you guys need to know how to turn it off! And luckily for everyone involved, whilst not being the funnest 3 minutes you ever spend (we hope) it IS super easy! High Five!

 

 

 

 

There is a couple of different methods depending on the condition and location of your iPhone. If your iPhone works and is with you, you should-

 

Remove your iPhone from Find My iPhone by turning  it off on the iPhone.

 

Simple! On your iPhone, go to Settings > iCloud, then tap to turn off ‘Find My device.’ It will ask for your Apple ID password ( The one you use in the App Store), then BAM, both Find my iPhone and the Anti-theft activation lock is turned off.

 

YAY!

 

If your iPhone is not with you, already sold or given away OR broken or water damaged so that it won’t turn on, it’s also, really, really easy. HIGH FIVE!

 

 

 

If you can’t use your iPhone because it’s too damaged, or you’ve already sold it or given it away, you can remotely remove it from Find My iPhone and remotely remove the Anti-theft Activation Lock.

 

Your iPhone must be powered off. Easy to do if it’s broken! Also easy enough to do if you’ve sold it to a company such as ourselves or you can get in contact with the friend that you gave it to.

 

Then:

 

Sign in to icloud.com/#find with your Apple ID (the one you use with iCloud & the App Store).

 

Click ‘All Devices’ at the top of the page. Wait for the website to locate your iPhone, then select it from the drop down menu. It should appear as offline and grey.

A menu of options will appear on the right hand side of the screen. IGNORE THESE ( Unless you want to remotely erase your iPhone)

 

Click back on the ‘All Devices’ button at the top of the page. There should now be an X next to your iPhone.  Click it. Click it good.

 

Click “remove” on the next screen to confirm.

 

Aaaaaand you’re done! Now someone else can now activate the device, making it worth a whole lotta more clams from us/high fives from the friend you gave it to!

 

 

 

If you guys have any problems removing the anti theft activation lock from your iPhone – please contact us and let us know! We’d LOVE to help you out! And we give hugs too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images courtesy of  Appleinsider, Doblelol, grandfather.com, bidorbuy.com, iPhonehacks.com, Cheezburger.com & Dashburst.com

iPhone Tip Of The Day! Texting edition.

 

The world of text can be an intimidating and confusing one.

 

 

Tone, intent and, well, the ability to spell can all be lost in translation when considering the great communication tool that is texting.

 

Hence, welcome to the first part of our  iPhone Tip Of The Day, texting edition. First up – timing!

 

You know, sometimes you just really need to know what time you sent that text to Billy to tell him that you really like his new Tricycle.

 

 

And maybe you weren’t paying attention when you sent it because your heart was racing too hard because what if Billy naturally understood that when you said you liked his Tricycle you really meant you want to hold hands? And now you might have sent him the message at the same time as Stupid Cathy from next door and we all know what Cathy likes.

 

Life can be hard.

 

 

But never fear, we’re here to help! To find out what time you sent a message swipe from right to left in the message stream and a time will appear next to each message. 

 

Also? We… we really like your Tricycle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images courtesy of  Catsmob, funnyjunk & Dailydot.

Top 8 apps we wish existed

 

 

 

 

We wish we may we wish we might, have the wish we wish tonight.

 

Tonight, we’re wishing on Apps ( cos we’re super fun and cool like that).  Apps have been around for so few years (5.5 to be exact) and yet we just don’t know how we would live our technocratic lives without a lot of them!

 

BUT. There’s some blank spots. Here’s our wish-list for Apps of the future.

 

 

1. An App that tells you when you’re being stupid.

 

 

 

 

2. An App that buys the perfect gift for people, and wraps it.

 

 

 

 

3. An App that tells you exactly how many calories is in a meal or specific food item by scanning it.

 

 

 

 

4. An App that helps you pick which charity is most in need

 

 

 

 

5. A Space-Time jumping App, obviously.

 

 

 

 

6. An app that learns your priorities and then organizes your to-do list accordingly.

 

 

 

 

7. An App that tells you exactly when you would really be missing out on the best time ever by choosing to stay home and watch Diners Drive-Ins and Dives.

 

 

 

 

8. An App so you can communicate with animals.

 

 

 

 

What Apps do you wish existed? Telekinesis would be nice, actually, now we think about it…

 

Copyright iPhone Antidote. Serious.

 

 

 

 

Images courtesy of Quickmeme, Lolsheaven & Gigaom.