Our deals of the day!

Well, we might not make it rain, but we’ll… stop the rainclouds? Something witty like that.

Here’s our deals of the day!

These ones come all the way from that place where you think you can spend lots of money but then you realize you don’t have that much money, so you should really sell that stinky old iPhone in the drawer so you can get CASHMONEY and you can buy tickets to that sumo & sushi night AND buy these awesome accessories.

In other words – Living Social.

<breath>

These two deals are all about keeping your device going and going and going and going! Battery power! Yeah!

You can get an Enerpak Tube 5000 mAh external battery pack for $29 here! You will need to bring your own USB cable to the table, but for $29, some extra battery you can carry around in your pocket is not too shabby of a deal.

ANNND you can get a Purgoodies solar paneled charger for your device for $29.00 here. USB cable is included in this deal, sahweet! Extra good for camping or electricity blackouts, or hanging out kickin it at the park for a really long time.

These are both offered at pretty excellent prices – so go check ’em out!

Groovy!

Got Denied Your Apple Warranty? It’s Class Action Lawsuit Time!

GUYS THIS IS LIKE RON BURGUNDY. KIND OF A BIG DEAL.

Image courtesy of askmen.com, squidoo.com, sonnyradio.com & vh1.com

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

How to pre-order the new iPhone 5C

Alright you guys, so this blog post is all about how to pre order the iPhone 5C. That’s cool. It’s also weirdly difficult to describe when this can actually happen. We know what’s right, we think, but it sounds wrong. So we’re gonna try it so that there can be no misunderstandings.

You will be able to pre order the iPhone 5C at 12:01, the night time version, on the 13th of September. So, like, when its the 12th of September, wait until it’s 11pm, wait an hour, and then you can go ahead and pre order!  That’s California time, too. Make sense?

Now, we got the time right, but what do you do then? Well, you do a little jig, cos you’re buying an iPhone 5C b*tches!

Then, you do this stuff. (Do most of this stuff before midnight though, cos the amount of iPhones available for pre order will shrink. Real fast.)

You need to decide if you’re buying on or off contract.

For the free spirits out there, you can buy the iPhone 5C off contract with T-Mobile, or SIM free. You can do both through Apple.

If you do this, you’ll be buying the phone outright for $549 for 16Gb, and $649 for 32Gb in both of these options, but you don’t get a SIM with the SIM free option. Duh.

If you choose the SIM free option you WILL need a SIM from somewhere at some stage for the phone to work as a phone. Specifically, you’ll need to get a GSM compatible nano-SIM. Your iPhone will be unlocked, so you can use a SIM from any carrier, domestically or international, as long as it has the right specifications as above.

If you choose to buy the iPhone 5C off-contract with T-Mobile, you will be choosing them as your mobile provider, and will pay them month to month for data, voice, text etc, but you won’t be locked in to a contract and can exit any time. Your phone will arrive with a nano-SIM card already installed that you can activate by visiting an Apple Retail Store or a T-Mobile store or by calling T-Mobile.

If you’re already on contract, but really want the new phone, you have the option to upgrade. You are of course eligible to upgrade once you have ended your current contract, after 2 years.

But, here’s the thing. A lot of people don’t realize that you are more than likely eligible for an upgrade 18 months after your contract started, not two years. It’s definitely worth checking! Go check, dudes.

For Verizon, Sprint and AT&T upgrade eligibility, you’ll most likely need the number for the phone you would like to upgrade, the last four digits of the primary account holder’s Social Security number, and the billing ZIP Code. To see if you’re eligible for an upgrade, or to see the price you qualify for, check out this link.

For Sprint you can also use your phone- dial *2, press send, press 1, enter your phone number and then press 1 to check for eligibility.

AT&T also has the option to check your upgrade eligibility via your phone, just dial *639# and press send and you will receive a text message shortly after letting you know when you’re eligible for an upgrade.

If you’re a little unsure about the whole idea of upgrading, you should talk to your carrier. BUT, you should also read this– If you are eligible for an upgrade, it means that all you have to pay to get the new phone is the price Apple shows next to the phone.

For the 5C, that means that when you upgrade and preorder, you will pay upfront and outright $99 for the 16Gb version and $199 for the 32Gb version. You will be committing to another 2 year contract with the provider.

If you are not eligible for an upgrade, but you reallllly want the new phone, you can, of course, get it. You will pay an extra fee, and how much that fee is depends on the carrier, but i’ll give you an example.

Say you started a new 2 year contract this time last year when you bought the iPhone 5. You’re a year into your contract, so you won’t be eligible for an upgrade, but you’re going to go ahead and get it anyway, because hey, it’s a free country right?

Your carrier will more than likely be absolutely cool with that, because that means they have your business guaranteed for another 2 years, but, they will charge a fee, which will more than likely be about $200. So you’ll be paying $300 upfront for the iPhone 5C 16Gb, and $400 upfront for the iPhone 5C 32Gb.

You also absolutely always get to keep your old phone, so that you can use it as financial leverage! It’s a stinky old iPhone! Sell it for CASHMONEY, YO!

If you’re joining up with a new provider, you’re looking at 2 year contract and paying upfront $99 for the 16Gb or $199 for the 32Gb. When choosing a new provider it’s important to look at their plans, and it’s also important to check out the coverage maps of each of the options. You can do this below by clicking on the blue links.

AT&T Coverage Map

Verizon Coverage Map

Sprint Coverage Map

T-Mobile Coverage map

Ok, so now you know what category you’re in, and you’re prepared for all your choices and options, how much you have to pay, which carrier, upgrade eligibilty, etc.

Now it’s almost midnight.

Dance!

And then, time to move!

You can pre-order on all of the carrier’s websites, as well as Apple’s.

To buy straight from Apple, go to this link.

Choose your color, you sparkle pony you. You have the option of blue, green, yellow , pink and white.

Next, choose the model you want, the smaller 16Gb or the 32Gb. The bigger the GB ( Gigabytes), the more stuff you can have on your phone, basically. Things that take up storage space include photos, videos, lots of songs or apps. 1000 songs is about 7Gb, for example.

Once those decisions are made and entered into the system, you’ll have to fill in some personal details, you will need a credit card, and you will need to press enter at the end. You will need to do a little dance. And send it to us. Yeah, do that.

Remember, if you’re upgrading from an iPhone 4S or older and have accessories that use the old connector port, such as a dock or something, you will also need to purchase a lightening to 30 pin adaptor.

And, guys, last year the iPhone 5 pre order was sold out in about an hour. So be quick. If you miss out, you have to wait until the 20th of September, when they’ll be available in store.

Happy pre-ordering! Remember – 11PM, Californian time, on Thursday the 12th of September. You have one hour after that until you can pre – order.

Image courtesy of The Verge. addictinginfo.com, iphonehacks.com, speres.com & sweetclipart.com

Back to School!

So guys, back to school time, huh? Time for a back to school app review then I guess! Hooray for school and work and stuff! ACTUALLY hooray for iOS apps that make it all easier!

Whether you’re going back to high school, college or have a kid doing one of those, here are the top apps we recommend for helping to educate oneself the besterest!

And, because we understand the life of a student, most of these apps are free! But Priceless! Like that Mastercard ad! Kinda. Also, there’s a couple on the end that we think are worth a little bit extra cashola.

Enjoy kids! Don’t forget that all work and no play makes Homer …something… something

*StudyBlue has over 150 million pieces of student authored content, taken from tens of thousands of colleges and high schools from around the world. Browsing is easy, group collaboration makes those dreaded group projects easier, and if you don’t want to use other people’s quizzes, review sheets and flashcards, you can create your own to perfect your study experience. FREE from the Appstore!

*MyHomework Student Planner App.
This beautifully designed app will sync and track your schedule, classes, assignments, exams and homework. Even better- if your teacher or Professor uses the amazing Teachers.io, you can get a buttload more information such as syllabi, attachments, resources and communication from your professor.
MyHomework is FREE with ads, however if you want the ad-free experience, it’s only $1.99 per year.

*EasyBib.
Here’s some big words for you: Automated bibliography and citation generator. We like the sound of that. You know what we don’t like the sound of? Writing Bibliographies. Ugh, right? Well, sigh no more kids, the EasyBib App is here to save the day!
All you need to do is scan the barcode of the book you’re referencing, or type the name into the app and EasyBib will automatically create MLA, APA and Chicago style citations for you. These can then be emailed to yourself or exported into EasyBib’s online bibliography management service.
FREE from the app store.

*Mint.
Picture this: you’re in class when suddenly you realize that you are almost 94.6% sure you were supposed to pay, like, 5 bills in the last week and you actually have no idea how much money you have because you’re educating yourself and shouldn’t have to worry about things like rent and when you get paid and debt and lalalala. Well, the Mint.com App has all these things covered, so you can go ahead and not worry you’re pretty little smart head over it. Mint categorizes and organizes your bills, spending, income and debt into lovely little tables so you can keep a track of what money is going where and when chunks of it are incoming and need to be outgoing. Just remember to check it! Free from the App store.

* iSlick
So we all know education is big money right? But you still gotta eat, drink, have household items, maybe catch a baseball game, take your girlfriend out and party right? Welcome to the wonderful world of Slickdeals. Slickdeals.com has a mobile app- iSlick, which will show you the wonders of secret sales, unbelievable deals and the dream that is double (or triple ) couponing. Free with Ads or $1.99 ad-free.

*Gasbuddy. Y’all wanna get the cheapest gas prices out there? Get the Gasbuddy app and you’ll always know where to get the cheapest Gas. Simple as that, and it’s FREE from the App store.

*OnWatch.
Our pick from the range of Campus safety apps- a tool which shouldn’t have to be used but stays in the better safe than sorry category of must-download apps. A safety blanket even if never needed. And we hope that is the case!

OnWatch has 6 ‘watch’ modes that stay on your phone when you think you may be at risk or are feeling a little uncertain. From there it’s only two taps to contact friends, 911, campus police or a combination of those. You can also set an alarm for a future time and when that time arrives, you are asked to enter a passcode- If you don’t- the app will send your pre-selected friends a message and your location.
There is currently a 30 day free trial, after that It is $19.99/year or $2.99 per month. Even if you discontinue with the app for whatever reason, the call 911 and call campus police features remain free forever.

*BenchPrep. This app is essentially a be all, end all tool for study and exam preparation with a huge interactive course library with study features, reports and test preparation materials.
The App includes a massive amount of material for academic subjects from Algebra to Spanish to Biology, Test preparation for those special flowers smart enough to be taking the LSAT GMAT MCAT and a bunch of others, as well as courses on practical subjects such as eMarketing, Accounting, and Word.
An invaluable study tool, as seen by this: Students who learn with Benchmark receive 15% better grades than before they started using the app. 15% better? Not much to lose here, except the fee, which is a $25/month for one course and $99/month for access to all courses.

*Wolfram Alpha Mobile App
The best computation and expert knowledge search engine app out there in our opinion- it’s really impressive. Simply ask the app what you want calculated or a question you want the answer to – from complex mathematics to how old a president was when he entered office. $2 or – try out Wolfram Alpha Pro, which goes beyond text input and includes downloadable results. A monthly subscription is $4.99/ month or $2.99/month for students, and for a very short time ending TODAY; you can get the first three months free with an annual subscription.

*iStudiez Pro is the established and award winning student planner app that will track and summarize in simple and yet extensive detail, your assignments, due dates, schedule for classes, work and extra curricular activities, as well as your grades. It will give you alerts for upcoming exams, classes and assignment due dates and sync with other co-existing apps such as the calendar. Each class has the ability to include your professors contact information with simple tap to connect features to be able to reach them on your mobile. Highly recommended for years, this is one well worth checking out. $2.99 or free for the Lite version.

For those of you looking for some extra tutorials, or for those of you not going back to school but still looking for some education, we also recommend downloading the iTunes University app. It’s awesome.

Also, because we totally understand procrastination, there is SelfControl. Not an App, but something that may just change your life…even though you might end up hating us for introducing you to it!
Available only on Mac OS X 10.5 and above, SelfControl is a way to try and curb your Internet based distractions whilst studying. Simply add any website or access to your mail server to your ‘blacklist’ and an amount of time you would like to be blocked from them, and BAM! No more distractions ( on the internet) until that time is up. Restarting or deleting the application from your computer will not make a difference either! Useful and annoying! And FREE!

Also handy is ratemyprofessors.com, check it out to make your class choices a little more informative. Last but not least, don’t forget that good ‘ol Tinder app… College is all about making friends, right?

So that’s it! If you have any other handy apps or tips for going back to school let us know!

Hope we’ve given you a l’il bit of help!

Good luck Kids!

Images courtesy of Mashable.com, laptopmag.com, beautifulpixels.com, readwrite.com, crunchbase.com, Glamour.com, kicks99.com, zdnet.com and easybib.com

The Annual Apple ‘Back To School’ Promotion

Something for the learners & learned amongst us!

Apple have announced that to celebrate that magical time of year- the beginning of the school year- their annual Back To School promotion will be starting as soon as tomorrow.

The promotion offers students who purchase a Mac a $100 iTunes/App store gift voucher, and for those students who purchase an iPad or an iPhone, they will be offered a $50 gift voucher.

Sweet deal!

What’s sweeter? This promotion is added on top of the usual student discount of $200 off a new Mac.

To be eligible you must be a college student, parents buying for college students, teachers (including homeschool), school administrators & Staff.

Happy learning guys. Also, we apologize for calling the beginning of the school year magical.

Image courtesy of top10films.co.uk

Tuesday Deals

Here at iPhone Antidote, we care about you! Well, we mostly care about you in relation to iPhones and Apple stuff, but we care a lot about that.

So here are some deals for you guys to keep an eye out for right now. Whether it be your first time delving into the Apple iPhone world, or if you need to replace a stinky old/broken iPhone (and we all remember what to do with that stinky old iPhone once you get a shiny new one right? Am I right? Here’s a hint- it starts with…um, us. )

T-mobile currently offers shiny new iPhone 5s for a low low $99 with financing, Sprint is offering $100 off for new iPhone customers switching from another carrier, and there are very (very) strong rumors that Verizon are about to start a new promotion reducing the iPhone 5 by $100 around the end of the month.

If it’s not appropriate or even if it doesn’t feel right to be switching carriers right now, and you’re already on contract, we’ll soon be talking about the upsides of upgrading within contract, when, how and why you should do it.

Photo courtesy of The Security Auditor

Bidding War for Sprint

Sprint, America’s number three wireless carrier is in the middle of a bidding war for 70% of their corporation.

In October last year Japanese company SoftBank announced that it was lodging a 20.1 billion dollar bid to buy a 70% stake in Sprint Nextel, with the intention post-sale that Sprint would remain a separate entity within SoftBank.

Sprint agreed on the sale, and the deal was expected to be finalized in the second quarter of this year. Unexpectedly jumping in on the deal and essentially starting a bidding war is Dish Network Coorporation ( America’s second biggest satellite TV provider).

On April 15th, Dish offered a counter bid of 25.5 Billion Dollars. So… more money pretty much always wins, right?

Not always. In this particular situation, the choice is made more complicated by the future intentions of both SoftBank and Dish- what can they offer Sprint apart from the original bid price?

SoftBank, a Tokyo based company, has advised investors since the opposing Dish bid that they have the intention- and the ability – to ensure Sprint $3 billion in annual operating savings by 2017.  They have also advised that once merged, the companies will be able to cut Sprint’s capital spending by 32 percent to 36 percent.

Dish’s bid is attractive because of the size of it- a few extra billion dollars does go a long way. Dish posted their first quarter revenue results recently and it showed what seems to be a slowing market- which means that Dish is super keen to use Sprint to expand into the mobile phone industry.

Dish would also want the two companies to merge their marketing and other business teams in order to save money, purportedly around 11 billion dollars, but according to sources familiar with the proposed deal there are those at Sprint who are uncomfortable with this, and unsure of Dish’s ability to guarantee financing for the 9 billion dollars it needs to secure the bid.

Both Dish and SoftBank have come out fighting, with SoftBank going so far as to try to force investment banks not to finance Dish’s bid, threatening no role in the upcoming IPO of Alibaba, a company of which they have one third ownership.

Whoever they go with, Sprint is looking to return to profitability after it’s 2005, 36 Billion dollar purchase of Nextel communications which led to billions of dollars of debt. The extra bid from Dish has excited investors with a rise in Sprint’s share prices by 1.4 percent, and there are many who are expecting the bidding war to rage on way into the second quarter.

We’ll keep you up to date with whoever has the winning bid- and what that means for you if you are a sprint customer ( We’re cautiously predicting only good things btw).

Image courtesy of Forbes.

Suggested New Years Eve Resolutions From iPhone Antidote

Here are some good NYE Resolutions for you guys in case you never came up with a good one:

I will solve world peace

I will be a good person

I will not break my iPhone

I will buy a llama

I will try not to break my iPhone, but if I do, I will sell it to iPhone antidote for the most cash on the internet, and then I will buy a llama!

A Prepaid iPhone Coming Soon?

First came God, then Steve Jobs, then came the iPhone. We all know that the iPhone is an amazing and beautiful thing.

However.

Whilst every little rumor heard about the next upgrade or new iPhone release is leapt on with glee, there is one part of the market that Apple needs to, and indeed may be looking into entering.

A huge percentage of the world, and an estimated 70 million Americans use pre-paid phone plans, (otherwise known as pay-as-you go), rather than what is the main billing/buying method here in the states, and Apple’s only official method -post-paid, or simply put- chain yourselves to a carrier for a few years, then, good consumer, you get an iphone.

The advantage of the post pay contract is that, yeah, you get a ‘free’ iPhone.  But it’s not really free is it? No matter how much you use your phone, you pay the same rate every month, it involves credit checks,  early termination fees are applicable, there is no discourse if you happen to lose your job or can’t pay the monthly fee anymore. Prepaid, is easy, you pay for what you use, and if you can’t afford it one month, well, you find out where the closest payphone is.

There were rumors last year, and continuing this year that Apple is looking at releasing a very basic iPhone specifically for the pre-paid market, but until then- there are still options.

But… surely you can’t expect us to pay for an iPhone outright? Right?

Yeah, you’re right. Unless you’re lucky enough to be able to drop a few hunnids to do this, there is a huge phone market on eBay. You can buy cheap second hand/as new iPhones everyday, or if you’re really smart, wait until just after the new release- everyone wants to get rid of their stinky old iPhone so they can get the new one.

Stinky old iPhone? It’s fine! eBay is a buyers market, and if you don’t get what you paid for you’ll be looked after. But most of the time, you get a great, recycled, as-new iPhone. It’s even environmentally friendly! Kind of.

Now to the tricky part. Most iPhone’s on eBay are going to be locked.  This means that you may not be able to use your previous carrier.

Insurmountable Problems? Nah.

Yes, most of the iPhones from the US on eBay are locked, but you always have the option of looking further afield-  find an international seller as they tend to have unlocked ones- think Hong-Kong, Australia, Greece.

Walmart now sells pre-paid Sim cards by StraightTalk. $45 a month unlimited voice and Data and No contract. If you have  picked up a locked iPhone, they also apparently even show you how to unlock it.

Verizon, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile also offer pre-paid sim packages for unlocked phones.

Another option is H2O Wireless’ iPhone unlimited plan. H2o offers 3 different plans ( $40/ month unlimited talk and text, $50/month unlimited talk, text and 250mb data or $60/month unlimited talk, text and 3G/4G.) and you don’t need to unlock your iPhone.

The great thing about this is that the technology becomes available to more people, and until Apple makes an iPhone that is cheap enough to become part of the pre-paid market- be smart, look at your options, and you can still have an iPhone, just on your own terms.