Category: New Releases

Apple Media Event Alert!

So the guys in the crystal Apple are telling us that March 14th is when Apple will hold it’s next media event. They also say that during that event, Apple will reveal new Apple Watches, an iPad Air 3, and a new 4-inch iPhone named iPhone 5se, or as we like to think of it, iPhone Fivesy.

 

The event is expected to be held in San Francisco, feature CEO Tim Cook and a few other key Apple executives speak, as well as 1 or 2 very well made videos featuring the elusive Sir Jony Ive. iOS 9.3 with Night Shift for the iPhone Fivesy  WatchOS 2.2 would be revealed soon after.

 

Are you excited for another Apple event? Do you want a Fivesy? We think we want a Fivesy. We love the size of the 6, 6S and 6S Plus, but Fivesy just sounds so damn cute. OR WAIT. Maybe the next iPhone won’t be called iPhone 7, it’ll be called iPhone 6se, and then it’ll be… iPhone sixy. And that would be cute, but also, then New Zealanders would have iPhone sexys. The best. Please let that happen, Apple gods.

 

 

Superbowl Sunday Funday!

roadto50

 

If you didn’t know, IT’S SUPERBOWL SUNDAY TOMORROW!

 

Denver Broncos versus Carolina Panthers, 6:30PM ET. The game is Superbowl 50, which is kind of a big deal, and it’s being held at San Francisco 49ers stadium in Santa Clara.

 

Here’s how tech can help you enjoy the game. First, if you didn’t actually know that the Superbowl is tomorrow, you might not be super clued in on how the game works. Look that shizz up, guy. Wikipedia is your friend!

 

Then, get the NFL app. It’s free! Follow scoring and highlights and stats and articles and players and all kinds of important Superbowl stuff. If you’re with Verizon, you can watch the Superbowl live on your phone, too.

 

 

If you’re in the Bay Area – get yourself the Road to 50 App. It’s free, and it’s made special for this SuperBowl. It’ll tell you all the things you need to know for being in the Bay Area this weekend, with a schedule of events, interactive maps and transport information.

 

If you don’t have cable, or a friend’s cable login, or a nearby Bar…. well, then we’re sorry. Just kidding, read on!

 

Those of you that have a Roku, Xbox One, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, or Android TV, download the CBS Sports App, or the NFL App, and you can watch Superbowl 50 Live. BAM.

 

If you don’t, download the CBS Sports App onto your iPhone and if you have a Chromecast, cast it to your TV, yo! But, you have to be using WiFi – if you’re using cellular data, you’ll only be able to stream the game if you’re with Verizon.

 

Yay Superbowl! Don’t forget the dip, man. We’re serious. The Dip. Also – want to sneak peak at the Superbowl 50 halftime Ads? Here you go! We told you we loved you.

 

 

 

 

Top 10 Things you shouldn’t do with your phone

We’ve all had these fancy pocket computer phone things for a while now, but there’s still people out there that need some iPhone courtesy learnin’! In that vein, here’s 10 things mobile phone users should never do! In our humble opinion anyway, and what do we know?

 

1. Please don’t miss social opportunities that you mistake as awkward social situations by pretending that you’re texting.

When we use technology to avoid possibly awkward situations, we’re simply avoiding learning how to manage ourselves in possibly awkward situations. Once we learn that, we can turn these situations around to use them in our advantage. Evil genius or awesome Yogi advice?

 

 

2. Don’t go one step further and pretend to be on a phone call, cos, you know, the phone will probably ring.

There is no sage advice with this one. Just don’t risk it, please. For humanity’s sake.

 

3. Don’t Judge people on their smartphone choice or lack of choice.

Just because you made a choice based on your own understanding of how technology works well in your own life, does not mean you should judge other people for making a different decision. Your opinion on which brand is better may be important to you, but calling people sheep or stupid for their smartphone choice is irrelevant and, well, dumb. People make different choices, get over it.

 

4.Please don’t put your phone on loudspeaker, put it right in front of your mouth and then proceed to yell into it.

This. This just hurts everyone’s ears and some people’s souls. Please consider the poor souls around you. Speaking quietly is far more effective in business and personal relationships, at any rate. However, it is far more acceptable if you are yelling into your phone because you are pretending it is a microphone, and that you are Steven Tyler.

 

5. Don’t Frape.

In case you don’t know, Fraping is when someone leaves their phone or computer unattended and has their FaceBook app or page open. The aim is to then go ahead and try to make them seem stupid/gay/pregnant etc to their many friends and loved ones.

Who is actually laughing at these? Please stop. The only exception is if it is totally awesome, like this one.

 

6. It’s totally the cool thing these days to make sure that no-one uses their phone at the dinner table. We get it, people are trying to be disconnected from the outside world, and only connected to the people in the physical space around them.

But please, understand if someone has to have their phone on. Sometimes people have things going on in their lives that means they need to be connected to the outside world. It doesn’t mean they’re rude.

 

7. On the total opposite hand, don’t take out your smartphone to do anything that is less important that what is happening in the room around you. Especially if there is something happening that is important to someone you care about.

 

8. DON’T USE YOUR MOBILE PHONE WHILST DRIVING.

It’s so tempting, we know, and we know you’re super awesome at things and can do two or three things at once, and we know you’re one of the best drivers you or anyone else knows, but that’s what other people thought, minutes before they crashed.

Just don’t do it.

 

9. Don’t forget to use your upgrade!

Sirs! Madams! You should upgrade! Why are you waiting around with a stinky old phone? You can do better, you can be better! Upgrade! And then don’t you dare leave that stinky old phone in a drawer. Sell it for CASHMONEY.

Then smile!

Lastly,

 

10. Don’t forget to be super grateful and happy about the tiny fancy computer in your pocket that lets you communicate, educate, create, listen to music, play games and movies, take photos and video. It’s kind of ridiculous.

 

 

Apple Earnings call details

Today was the day when Apple held their earnings call, detailing the financial results of the first fiscal quarter of 2016 – which is actually, just to confuse you, the fourth calendar quarter of 2015.

 

So how have Apple been going? Plugging along quietly? Well, you might have guessed it, because they seem to be pretty good at it – it was record breaking.

 

For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $75.9 billion and a net quarterly profit of $18.4 billion.

 

Just a drop in the bucket, really.

 

Interestingly enough, international sales accounted for 66 percent of revenue. And just to put the cherry on top of the very expensive pie,  Apple currently holds $215.7 billion in cash and marketable securities, partially offset by $53.2 billion in long-term debt.

 

Now, let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Apple sold (again, a record)  74.8 million iPhones during the quarter, Mac sales were down slightly to 5.3 million units sold from 5.5 million units in the year-ago quarter, and iPad sales were also down with a measly 16.1 million (from 21.4 million).

 

From the Sauce, CEO Tim Cook:

 
“Our team delivered Apple’s biggest quarter ever, thanks to the world’s most innovative products and all-time record sales of iPhone, Apple Watch and Apple TV, the growth of our Services business accelerated during the quarter to produce record results, and our installed base recently crossed a major milestone of one billion active devices.”

 

 

 

 

Future Tech Toy of the Week! PowerUp FPV

How fun are paper airplanes? Everyone loves them. If you know someone who doesn’t  love paper airplanes, we give you permission to give them a wet willy.

 

So imagine our excitement to tell you guys about the PowerUp FPV –  A Live Streaming Paper Airplane Drone. WHAT. HOW COOL IS THAT.

 

 

powerup

 

 

Pretty damn cool, that’s how cool.

 

It’s a paper airplane drone which you control using an onboard live streaming camera and Google Cardboard Virtual Reality. You see what your plane sees, controlling your paper drone with intuitive movements of your head. Mind Blown.

 

 

Check out the Kickstarter campaign here, and check out their rad website Poweruptoys.com! You can preorder the PowerUp FPV now for $199!

 

 

Again, we’re going to remind you guys… Valentines Day is fast approaching! Give your loved one the gift of a rad Live Streaming Paper Airplane Drone and they’ll love you forever. 

 

 

 

New iPhone research

Is your iPhone making you crazy? Normally it’s the people trying to talk to you through your iPhone that’ll make you nutso, but according to new research – you’re iPhone’s not helping out either.

 

A study carried out by Dr Michelle Drouin, from Indiana University-Purdue, found that 89% of university undergraduates had experienced ‘Phantom vibration syndrome’, which tricks the brain into thinking your phone has vibrated – indicating a notification – when no such thing has occured.

 

You know that feeling, that little nudge against your leg or pocket area, and then you think – ‘Ooh, I think that’s my personal telephone telling me that someone wants to talk to me or liked something I did.’  But then you take your phone out and it’s just there, looking ta you, like ‘what? Nothing to see here.’

Stupid iPhone.

 

The syndrome, whilst having a official and slightly scary name, is yet to actually harm a human (bar the ego).

 

 

 

Deals of the week Friday!

currency_dollar green

 

Deals! We got ’em!

 

 

* Get a 60″ Samsung UN60JU7090 4K UHD 3D Smart LED HDTV for just $997.99 with free shipping from Amazon, or $999.99 with free shipping from Best Buy. Savings of around $800 BAM

 

samsung

 

 

 

* Sick of your iPhone? Online at BestBuy.com, get a 16GB ZTE Zmax 2 5.5″ AT&T GoPhone No-Contract Smartphone  for just $79.99. Shipping is free or select free store pickup where available. Then sell us your stinky old iPhone for Cash! 

 

 

 

*Did you know a bunch of Walmarts are closing? Apparently you can get 25% off everything right now at closing Walmarts – check out the list here. 

 

 

*Both Target and Amazon have The Martian DVD on sale now for $15. Select free store pickup where available at Target , otherwise Shipping is free on orders of $25 or more. Shipping is free from Amazon with Prime or on orders of $35 or more.

 

 

*In an Arty mood? Check this out – Adobe Photoshop Elements & Premiere Elements 14 for just $115 .09 with free shipping from Amazon.

 

amazon

 

 

 

*Are you more in a sit on your butt and watch TV becasue you’re tired and TV is cool and it’s right there? We got you! Get a LG 65″ Class Ultra-Slim 4K Ultra HD LED Smart TV from P.C. Richard & Son for just $1498.97 down from $1799.97!

 

 

*Not in a TV mood? Well… are you in a stain finding mood? Because apparently Vansky UV flashlight is Perfect for Revealing Dry Dog, Cat and Rodent Stains and unfavorable Spots. You can also spot Scorpions, authenticate currency, driver licenses, official Identification cards, and passports. So there you go.  $7.99 from Amazon, so why not? 

 

fluro

 

 

 

*Last but not least, Adorama has the Canon PowerShot SX530 HS Digital Camera – Bundle with Camera Case, 16GB Class 10 SDHC Card, Cleaning Kit at 35% off. Get it for just $249, down from $379 with free shipping.

 

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Happy weekend kids!

 

 

 

 

Free iTunes Radio ending.

Those of you who bypassed the wonderful yet paid offerings of Apple Music and continued to use iTunes Radio for free – we have some bad news.

 

At the end of January iTunes Radio is being discontinued. Sad face.

 

Beats 1 radio will be the only free listening option available to those who do not subscribe to the Apple Music service. Customers who listen to radio stations sans ads with an iTunes Match subscription are also receiving the emails and will no longer be able to listen to radio stations as an iTunes Match perk.

 

US listeners, you have free listening until January 28th.

 

 

25 most common passwords – is yours on here?

In this future world, unless you’re someone who doesn’t use passwords at all (and if you are we’d love to meet you), then chances are you have one if not a few trusted go to words or phrases that you use as passwords.

 

In this day and age, passwords protect our online identity, our finances, our family, our everything, so they should be strong, memorable and ship shape! But are they?

 

SplashData, a Los Gatos, Calif.-based company that makes password-management applications  just released the top 25 most common passwords from more than 2 million leaked passwords that were posted online by hackers. Most of the data came from people in North America and Western Europe.

 

From the Sauce, SplashData chief executive Morgan Slain:

 

“We have seen an effort by many people to be more secure by adding characters to passwords, but if these longer passwords are based on simple patterns they will put you in just as much risk of having your identity stolen by hackers.”

 

And, ladies and gents, here they are, in all their glory.

 

123456
password
12345678
qwerty
12345
123456789
football
1234
1234567
baseball
welcome
1234567890
abc123
111111
1qaz2wsx
dragon
master
monkey
letmein
login
princess
qwertyuiop
solo
passw0rd
starwars

 

If you see yours on here? Probably change that ish. Use a phrase if you can remember it, or alternatively, a mixture of numbers, letters and symbols. Check out some useful tips for password creation and strengthening here. 

 

 

 

 

 

Skype Bringing Group Video Calling to mobile!

Did you know that Skype free video calling is 10 years old? But… but how can the future be so old? Weren’t we just dreaming about video phone calls? Weren’t we just watching a Jetsons epsiode about that? Are we that old?

 

Yes. Yes we are. But there’s good news too! To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of said video calling, Skype has announced that they are bringing group video calling capabilities to mobile devices!! For free! WHAT.

 

Yump, coming soon to an iPhone near you – all your friends faces!! Who’s up for a group Skype to celebrate? Wherever you are, go to the fanciest place you know and let’s internet party! Long Distance Party Time! (LDPT for short, obviously).

 

We’ll have to pick a time and date in a little bit, because Skype is rolling out the feature over the next couple of weeks. If you want early access (you do) you can register here with your email address and Skype user name.

 

Watch the announcement below!