iPhone Tip Of The Day!

GUYS GUYS GUYS!!

Guess what?

You don’t have to have WiFi turned off when you’re in airplane mode!

Yeah, it automatically turns it off when you enter Airplane mode but you can turn WiFi back on afterwards!

Sweet!

iPhone Tip of The Day! iMessage Edition

iMessage is an awesome way to send free text, photo, and video messages to friends who are using iOS 5 and above. Read receipts allow your friends to see whether you’ve viewed their message or not.

Now, we’re all good people around here, right, but sometimes there are circumstances when you don’t really want people to know if or when you read their messages.

If you don’t want your friends notified of when you have read their messages, go to Settings >Messages > Send Read Receipts > Off.

You’re welcome!

Image courtesy of macrumors.com

Walmart & Best Buy Holiday sales feature price drops on iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S!

So, this Friday is Friday the 13th.

Christmas Gift guide Part 3 – Tips & Tricks for buying tech this Christmas!

We told you we loved Christmas right? We also really like deals. Deals, tips, tricks, writlefifers, all of it. This is why we now proudly present the Christmas Gift Guide Part 3 – Tips & Tricks for buying Tech this Christmas!

( See our other Christmas Guides, Part 1 -Comprehensive Holiday Tech Gift Guide and Part 2 – The Really Really Expensive Gift Guide.)

According to Macrumors, Apple now has an official policy on price matching, which allows specialists to price match iPhones, iPads, and Macs, giving up to 10 percent off on products without authorization. Specialists are also allowed to give business customers up to 20% off a non-Apple accessory when purchased with an Apple product via special order.

Apple also has free shipping now through December 22nd.

If you’re thinking of buying that special someone a Smartphone this holiday season, you should get yourself along to Whistleblower – a fantastic tool that you can use to compare cell phone plans online, and see which one is best for your needs and your budget!

If you use Amazon ( and you should)  you should be aware of a couple of things. Firstly, they will price match on cell phones and televisions within 14 days of shipment of the product.  Click here to see the details. 

Amazon also offers 3-months of Amazon Prime Membership for free for parents & caregivers. This includes Free 2-day shipping on qualifying items, 30% off Select Diapers & Wipes which qualify for subscribe & save (15% discount + 15% S&S discount, an additional month of Amazon Prime for each $25 you spend on a single order (up to 1 year total of free prime) and exclusive e-mail discounts and offers.

Click here to check it out.

College students should also click here to apply for Best Buy’s student discounts, all you need is your student email address ( must end in .edu). With this, you’ll save $50 on MacBooks and receive similar discounts in your email.

College students also save up to $200 off a MacBook with Apple’s education pricing.

You guys should definitely check out the refurbished products on the Apple special deals page here. You can find deals like the iPad Mini Wifi 64 Gb with a 1 year warranty for $419, 13 inch MacBook air for $849, or Apple TV for $75.

Target’s markdown day is usually Monday for electronics. Markdowns usually take place every two weeks and items will continue to be marked down every two weeks until sold or the discount reaches 75 percent. Markdown schedule’s might vary from store to store, so it won’t hurt to check.

You can get a bunch of sweet Mac applications all in one go from MacUpdate in corroboration with Macrumors. For only $39.99, the bundle includes 10 applications such as iStopMotion 3, Anonymiser, and Backblaze. All up it’s worth a cool $360 clams.  Click here to check out the deal.

And here’s a couple of specific deals you should check out:

iPad Mini and iPad Mini with Retina Display Smart Cover by Apple – 19.99 for blue, 14.99 for all others including Red. Free Shipping. Click here to see the deal. 

Pioneer A4 WiFi Speaker w/ AirPlay Streaming $80 + Free Shipping save $120! Check it out here.

Get a Apple 15.4″ MacBook Pro for $1549.99 with a discount and rebate at MacMall.

Happy dealing and Writlefifing and Merry Christmas!

Images courtesy of Freechristmaswallpapers & Hqwallbase.com

Apple Videos

Here are some videos from the most recent Apple Event featuring the new iPads, the Apple Magic, the wonderful Mr Ive, and Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston as the narrator on the “Pencil” TV ad.

Way to be hip and happening with current pop culture there Apple. Also, way to use music and fancy images to make us all goosebumpy.

Enjoy friends!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9gLqh8tmPA

Also enjoy this, posted on Aaron Paul’s instagram.

OS X Mavericks – What you need to know.

We would have suggested OS X Liger (rawr!), but Apple went ahead without consulting us, starting over with the naming process for system upgrades and leaving the big cat names behind.

Announced back in June at WWDC and coinciding with their new ‘Designed by Apple in California’ ads and the announcement that the Mac Pro will be built solely in America, Apple started a new naming scheme for their operating system based on locations in California.

Mavericks is a surfing location particularly well known for its dangerous big wave riding in Northern California, just north of the town of Half Moon Bay.

Now, it’s also the new Apple operating system. Is it as cool as beach with big wave breaks? Well, kinda? We may have trapped ourselves in that comparison- it might not be that cool, but it is very cool.

Here’s the double rainbow of coolness for you guys;

New Finder Tabs.

Just like in your Internet browser, you can now have independently controlled tabs in your finder windows. You can merge these finder windows and take the finder full screen.

Tagging.

Filed under ‘I wouldn’t have though of this, but now that you did, it looks really freakin useful’ is tagging.

With Mavericks you will be able to ‘tag’ documents and media – save it, tag it as sports, home, to do, etc. and it catalogues these under their tags in the side bar of the finder.

You can tag documents with multiple tags, create new tags on the go, and the best part? Searching using tags. For instance, searching for ‘iphone stuff’ and ‘the best’ will naturally take you directly to your saved iPhone Antidote Wallpaper.

Multiple Displays

Users will now be able to access the menu bar and dock separately on each screen with multiple display support. You will also be able to load separate and independent applications on each screen, and drag them from screen to screen.

Apple TV is not forgotten here either, as it can now be a fully powered OS X display, with access to menu bar dock and independent applications also.

Extended Battery Life

There is a heap of new processing elements included in Mavericks to extend your battery life and reduce CPU utilization by up to 72%.

We particularly like a new feature called app nap, which figures out what applications and web pages are in use, and which are not. The system will then simply stop giving power to the web pages and applications that you’re not currently looking at.

Compressed memory pretty much does what it says, compressing inactive memory to provide spare memory to running applications when needed.

Timer Coalescing groups low end operations together , creating tiny periods of time when your computer can enter into an idle, low power state, which in turn saves your battery.

Safari

Safari is updated with Mavericks, starting with an all-new homepage with top sites and a sidebar with your bookmarks and access to your reading list. This will also include shared links from people you follow on Linkdin and Twitter.

Safari uses less energy in this update and includes accelerated, smoother scrolling and one click bookmarking.  In your readin list, you will be able to scroll continuously through all of your articles, one after the other.

iCloud keychain

Cross device safe keeping of all your passwords and credit card information starts with iCloud Keychain.

This new feature will store all your passwords, across all your devices, so you don’t have to think about them ever again. Sounds pretty good right? The keychain will even suggest new passwords for you, and then will go ahead and put it in the cloud, encrypted.

With your credit card information, when shopping online, the keychain will offer the last four digits of all the cards you have stored, and you can pick one when paying and be done with it.

Although this sends little tiny shivers of scariness up the security part of our spine, it also sounds super useful and convenient.

Notifications

You can now get all your notifications, from all your devices, on your computer.

What’s also pretty great about this is you will have a number of new options for action within the notification when it appears on your screen.

You can respond directly to most notifications, (by replying to email, declining Skype calls etc.), within the notification banner when it appears.

Once you have actioned a notification, you won’t see it again on any of your other devices, and they will all be updated with your response to the original notification.

When the computer is awoken from sleep, all the alerts you may have gotten when it (and you!) were asleep will be listed.

Calendar

The calendar app has been updated in a really cool way- where now if you have appointments scheduled, the app will give you a ton of information you might need for them.

The calendar will now provide you with weather in the spot where your appointment is scheduled, as well as suggestions for restaurants etc if you require them.

We particularly like that the calendar will work out and tell you the travel time to and from your appointment, and will even add it to the calendar so you cant double book the time when you’re supposed to be on your way!

You will also get notifications of when you need to leave on your phone and/or computer.

Maps

Maps hits the computer with Mavericks! You can now access street maps, 3D flyover data and info cards. You can also push turn-by-turn directions to our iOS device straight from your computer.

iBooks

iBooks will be on your computer by Fall with this system update. Now you can access all the books in the iTunes store as well as your stored books and bookmarks, and read them full screen on your computer screen.

But what is really cool is for the educators and the learners amongst us.

iBooks for Mavericks will come with interactive textbooks, which feature videos and other media embedded within the normal text. You will also have the ability to highlight and make notes, and learn using study cards made from the material.

Sounds pretty awesome huh?

OS X Mavericks is available RIGHT NOW for FREE in the Mac App store.  Download it here now.

All images courtesy of Apple.

iPad mini with Retina Display

Along with the iPad Air, Apple also gave us a shiny new iPad Mini. With Retina display. Yeah, we all knew this was coming, but it’s still awesome. Because Retina is Awesome. D’uh.

The new Mini has the same 7.9-inch display BUT with the retina display the screen now has four times the pixels, with a full 2048 x 1536 resolution.

It’s ever so slightly heavier and thicker to compensate, but the good guys out there who have held it say that it’s not really noticeable.

The other extra on the upgraded iPad Mini? It also comes with the new A7 chip seen in the iPhone 5S. The super fast & super powerful 64-bit A7 processor makes scrolling and everything else notably faster and smoother.

The Mini with Retina comes with an improved 5-megapixel camera and the front FaceTime camera comes in HD with larger pixels to help in low light, and duel microphones. It also comes with Multiple-input and Multiple-output tech that gives the device faster Wi-Fi capabilities. It maintains it’s 10 hour battery life.

HOW MUCH??

The Fancy Retina Screen comes at a price, beginning at $399. BUT it is now being offered at 16Gb, 32Gb, 64Gb AND 128Gb.

iPad Mini with Retina Display with Wi-Fi – $399 for the 16GB model, $499 for the 32GB model, $599 for the 64GB model and $699 for the 128GB model.

iPad Mini with Retina Display with Wi-Fi + Cellular – $529 for the 16GB model, $629 for the 32GB model, $729 for the 64GB model and $829 for the 128GB model.

You can still get the original iPad Mini at  LOWER price, with the 16Gb starting at $299 for Wi-Fi and $429 for Wi-Fi + Cellular.

They will be available in Space Grey and Silver.

WHEN?

It will be at some point in November.

Also: There are expert analysts who say that the iPad mini with Retina Display will be really hard to get your hands on until early next year (These guys don’t really have a lot to do with Apple themselves, except that they study them and have secret sources and stuff).

So, if you’re planning on getting one as a Christmas Present, you better get your best Christmas Present Getting Boots on early, and on well!

Images courtesy of Apple, TodayIFoundOut, KnowYourMeme & Cactuscreekdaily.com

Next Apple Event October 22nd!

Thanks to AllThingsD, we’ve got a date of the next Apple event! With announcements of new products and upgrades and wheeee!

(so far unconfirmed by Apple, but that’s pretty normal.)

Pencil it in kids: October 22nd, 2013.

The event will most likely focus on all things iPad, although Mavericks OS X and the new Mac pro will also probably get a look in.

The fifth gen iPad is expected to be announced, with more than a passing resemblance to it’s little bro the mini, with a thinner, lighter design and smaller side bezels ( the bits beside the screen).

It is also expected to have  a 64-bit A7 processor and an improved 8-megapixel camera.

Sahweet!

According to up and coming tech leaker Sonny Dickson – these are leaked pictures of the 5th Generation iPad next to the current gen.

The mini is expected to have a nice little upgrade, with similar 64-bit chip and camera improvements as it’s big bro as well as a retina display. FANCY.

Just a word of warning- According to some, the iPad mini won’t have much availability once it is released. Because it’s fancy, ya see.

There have been leaks (unconfirmed) that the upgraded iPads MIGHT come in the gold color seen in the much sought after in the iPhone 5S, and/or equipped with the Touch ID also seen on the iPhone 5S.

Both the 5th generation iPad and the upgraded iPad mini should be offered in Silver & Space Grey, if not Gold as well.

With the announcement looking like it’s 99% on October the 22nd, we’ll probably be seeing the launch of the upgraded products on November 1st.

In the tech world, the date of Apple’s fall event coincides with both Nokia’s Innovation Reinvented showcase, and the retail debut of Microsoft’s new Surface 2.

What do you guys think, are you excited about the announcement or over it for the year?

Will you get a new iPad or iPad Mini?

Image courtesy of iftodayisyourbirthday.com , Sonny Dickson & Zazzle.

MORE GOLD DEVICES?

Gold iPhone, Tick.

BLING SOPHISTICATION

Well, tick only for realllllly lucky people so far, but tick in general. There are even companies offering gold stickers for the rest of us shmoes… do you think it’ll have the same effect? huh? hmmm.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!

Could we be getting a gold iPad?? Some people think so! Chinese website DoNews recently posted photos of a golden colored iPad Mini 2nd Gen with a Touch ID!

As per usual, there’s going to be lots of rumors starting to swirl before the next Apple release.

NEXT APPLE RELEASE WHA?

Well, yeah. It’s coming. It won’t be as big as the iPhone 5C and 5S, but it will more than likely focus on the iPad slate of products, including a new retina screen iPad Mini and a 5th Gen iPad. AND MAYBE SOME GOLD STUFF TOO SORRY WE’RE IN A CAPILIZATIONY MOOD

The announcement regarding these product upgrades is suspected to be kinda sorta around October 15th.

And we wait!

Image courtesy of iMore.com

We might be able to do what on planes now?

There are three types of travelers in the world-

1, Those who turn their mobile devices off before they’re told to and place them neatly in their carry on bag with a smile.

2, Those who wait until the last minute to turn their devices off or (with a sneaky, guilty look) place them on airplane mode before ever so anxiously and reluctantly sliding them into their pocket.

AND

3, Those who smile as the flight attendant walks by, then checks their email whilst waiting to see when exactly during take off their phone will stop getting service, smiling calmly at anyone who looks in abject horror in their direction.

This, boys and girls, is because for, like, forever, everyone has had to turn off their phones and other devices capable of transmitting data during take-off and landing.

This is so that your device doesn’t interfere with the plane’s communication and navigation equipment.  These rules are, by all accounts, predominantly precautionary.

With the rise of portable devices and smartphone capabilities, there has been a similar rise in complaints from really busy business dudes and general everyday people that not being allowed to have their devices on is stupid and bad. Sometimes they even put it more eloquently.

Now some of the high up important people might have paid attention!

Smile! Because we might soon become one big happy flying family, friends! Except for the people who grab the top of your head from behind when they’re getting up or walking by. Or the people who steal your Apple juice AND blanket ( totally happened). God, those people. We’ll never be family.

Anyway.

By the end of next week, the FAA ( Federal Aviation Administration) will hear back from a panel of industry folk regarding the possible relaxation of the in-flight device rules. Um… AWESOME!

According to the FAA:

“The FAA recognizes consumers are intensely interested in the use of personal electronics aboard aircraft, that is why we tasked a government-industry group to examine the safety issues and the feasibility of changing the current restrictions. . . . We will wait for the group to finish its work before we determine next steps.”

( Statement was made to USA Today)

Well, independent panel of dudes from the flight industry, we eagerly await your results and suggestions!!

By the way, how awesome is this photo on a scale from 1-100?

Images courtesy of designboom.com, thesavoia.com & smh.com.au