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For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with BluShark to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win an aluminum Apple Watch Series 7 and a BluShark Apple Watch band to go along with it. The Apple Watch Series 7 is the newest Apple Watch, and it has a larger display, fast charging, and better durability.

blushark-apple-watch-bands.jpg

BluShark has a large selection of Apple Watch bands available in materials that include Leather, Silicone, Cordura, Knit Weave, Canvas, and an AlphaPremier seatbelt weave. All of the bands are affordable, ranging in price from $18 to $78, and there are designs for both 38/40/41mm models and the larger 42/44/45mm models. Each band comes with Apple Watch lugs in silver, space gray, or black.

blushark-alphapremier-band.jpg

Leather bands from BluShark come in a range of attractive styles and colors. The Rally band, for example, has a perforated design and comes in brown, black, and red, while Italian Calfskin Leather bands are available in blue, black, and gray.

blushark-rally-band.jpg

BluShark's Leather Basics bands come in vintage gray, vintage brown, and saddle brown, and each of these has an attractive weathered look and a soft leather design that makes them comfortable to wear. There are also Two Switch Leather Bands with a classic look.

blushark-leather-basics-band.jpg

BluShark's Cordura bands use ultra strong and lightweight Cordura fabric, which is wear resistant and will hold up over time. They're thinly padded with leather so they're comfortable to wear, and they come in colors like pink, silver, blue, black, gray, and orange.

blushark-cordura-band.jpg

The CanvaSoft bands are made from a soft canvas material that's meant to provide a rugged canvas look without the stiffness that's normally associated with canvas watch bands. They're 1.9mm thick and designed to be soft and pliable.

blushark-canvasoft-band.jpg

The Knit Weave Bands are available in attractive two-tone striped designs and are made from a nylon weave that provides a texture that resembles a knit fabric. BluShark says these bands are designed to create a complex depth of color.

blushark-knit-weave-band.jpg

BluShark's AlphaPremier bands are made from a soft, supple seatbelt weave nylon and are modeled after BluShark's original AlphaPremier bands for traditional watches. The straps are dual-layer and held in place with nylon keepers, with the band available in black and white, black and red, black, navy blue, and gray.

blushark-alphapremier-band-2.jpg

Silicone bands are BluShark's most affordable offering at $18, with both textured and smooth options available. Silicone bands come in gray, blue, black/yellow, orange, and white pearl.

blushark-silicone-band.jpg

We have one aluminum Apple Watch Series 7 to give away, with the winner to select the size and color. The winner will also receive a BluShark band of their choice.

To enter to win our giveaway, use the Gleam.io widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

The contest will run from today (November 5) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on November 12. The winner will be chosen randomly on November 12 and will be contacted by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before a new winner is chosen.

Article Link: MacRumors Giveaway: Win an Apple Watch Series 7 and Band From BluShark
 
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These bands remind me of Apple's nato bands, which was named Woven Nylon Band.
 
Guess I’m not going to be participating in any giveaways anymore (and by extension reading the associated sales pitch).

I don’t like the new login requirement.

I refuse to use Facebook products including instagram as the whole company is a big ball of society destroying yuck.

I don’t have a google account.

And I’m not about to give access to my Twitter account where a 3rd party can read my protected tweets. That’s intrusive and insane.

Login with my MR account should be more than sufficient to demonstrate I’m a human.
 
I have a couple of the Cordura bands. I like them, but the Knit Weave look like they would pair nicely with a Series 7.
 
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that question has been answered numerous times, see thread below

Wasn't really the question. Canada can take part but not Quebec - which last i checked - is part of Canada ;)
 
Wasn't really the question. Canada can take part but not Quebec - which last i checked - is part of Canada ;)

We generally don't discuss giveaway rules here, but for Quebec, it's because there is a rule that all contests must also be in French, which we are not prepared to provide.
 
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Guess I’m not going to be participating in any giveaways anymore (and by extension reading the associated sales pitch).

I don’t like the new login requirement.

I refuse to use Facebook products including instagram as the whole company is a big ball of society destroying yuck.

I don’t have a google account.

And I’m not about to give access to my Twitter account where a 3rd party can read my protected tweets. That’s intrusive and insane.

Login with my MR account should be more than sufficient to demonstrate I’m a human.

I want to address this, because it's not something I can fix on our end. Gleam is using this for "suspicious" entries, and if you're using a VPN, turning it off may fix the issue. If that doesn't work, Gleam can manually fix this if you contact them here: https://gleam.io/contact.

I'm sorry about this, I talked to Gleam just recently about this issue and it's not something we can override. This is their explanation: "We've had to increase the strictness across our app recently because of all the people trying to cheat in Cryptocurrency giveaways."

So far this is a minor problem that isn't affecting many MR readers, but if it continues we may have to look at switching platforms.
 
Guess I’m not going to be participating in any giveaways anymore (and by extension reading the associated sales pitch).

I don’t like the new login requirement.

I refuse to use Facebook products including instagram as the whole company is a big ball of society destroying yuck.

I don’t have a google account.

And I’m not about to give access to my Twitter account where a 3rd party can read my protected tweets. That’s intrusive and insane.

Login with my MR account should be more than sufficient to demonstrate I’m a human.
You don't have to login with Google or FB etc.. I never do.

Edited to add: It looks like they are trying to force people to use Social Media. I have never seen that requirement before. That leaves me out. I think the is pretty crappy, MR.
 
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You don't have to login with Google or FB etc.. I never do.

Edited to add: It looks like they are trying to force people to use Social Media. I have never seen that requirement before. That leaves me out. I think the is pretty crappy, MR.

We're for sure not trying to force people to use social media. There is a security check feature that Gleam has added recently, but most people shouldn't be seeing it unless they're using a VPN/proxy. I also just tweaked a setting that was checked accidentally, please let me know if that was the cause.
 
We're for sure not trying to force people to use social media. There is a security check feature that Gleam has added recently, but most people shouldn't be seeing it unless they're using a VPN/proxy. I also just tweaked a setting that was checked accidentally, please let me know if that was the cause.
I turned off my VPN and it still is demanding Social Media login.
 
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I want to address this, because it's not something I can fix on our end. Gleam is using this for "suspicious" entries, and if you're using a VPN, turning it off may fix the issue. If that doesn't work, Gleam can manually fix this if you contact them here: https://gleam.io/contact.

I'm sorry about this, I talked to Gleam just recently about this issue and it's not something we can override. This is their explanation: "We've had to increase the strictness across our app recently because of all the people trying to cheat in Cryptocurrency giveaways."

So far this is a minor problem that isn't affecting many MR readers, but if it continues we may have to look at switching platforms.

What I see is this. Which seems pretty ridiculous for an Apple-product giveaway on an Apple-focused site, as I am not actively blocking cookies – these are literally modern Safari default settings.

This is new behavior, that I believe started with last week's giveaway (possibly the one before that).

Screen Shot 2021-11-05 at 12.44.20.png
 
Sweet, another Apple Watch giveaway. Would love to win one to replace my aging series 3. Hope soon we start seeing new MacBook Pro giveaways as well.
 
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Reactions: Robert.Walter
Guess I’m not going to be participating in any giveaways anymore (and by extension reading the associated sales pitch).

I don’t like the new login requirement.

I refuse to use Facebook products including instagram as the whole company is a big ball of society destroying yuck.

I don’t have a google account.

And I’m not about to give access to my Twitter account where a 3rd party can read my protected tweets. That’s intrusive and insane.

Login with my MR account should be more than sufficient to demonstrate I’m a human.
Yeah, calm down. You don't have to log in to a Facebook, Insta or YouTube account. You merely have to visit their respective pages to receive the entry...
 
I want to address this, because it's not something I can fix on our end. Gleam is using this for "suspicious" entries, and if you're using a VPN, turning it off may fix the issue. If that doesn't work, Gleam can manually fix this if you contact them here: https://gleam.io/contact.

I'm sorry about this, I talked to Gleam just recently about this issue and it's not something we can override. This is their explanation: "We've had to increase the strictness across our app recently because of all the people trying to cheat in Cryptocurrency giveaways."

So far this is a minor problem that isn't affecting many MR readers, but if it continues we may have to look at switching platforms.
Hi Juli, thanks so much for your reply. I’m using Apple Private Relay as I was in several previous entries. It was on this and the last one that this new requirement appeared. It seems your suspicion of this being related to VPN is correct as I’m able to enter when I turn off Private Relay. (Although I believe the crypto story, I find it is kind of ironic that to enter to get an Apple Watch, one has to switch off apple’s privacy feature.)

Thanks again for your feedback.
 
Anyone else here appreciate these contests just for learning about some brands? I know it's a business relationship and I should take things with a grain of salt, but MacRumors does tend to choose some good advertising partners. I bought a custom leather folio case from a company I can't recall the name of, I think beginning with a 'V', off a MacRumors rec. back in the day and was very pleased.
 
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What I see is this. Which seems pretty ridiculous for an Apple-product giveaway on an Apple-focused site, as I am not actively blocking cookies – these are literally modern Safari default settings.

This is new behavior, that I believe started with last week's giveaway (possibly the one before that).

View attachment 1903508
I’ve seen this for the last 3-5 giveaways and always just clicked it to successfully continue but, as mentioned in my original post, the bar was raised to painful (and in the case of Twitter ridiculous) levels under the guise of one verifying oneself as a human via social media accounts.

Subsequent to Juli’s feedback, I switched off my Apple Private Relay setting and the additional verification steps disappeared. (Have to say I’m not keen on giving up my home IP to participate in a giveaway though and may abstain in the future for just that reason. What is curious is that if I participate via my mobile data (with my Wi-Fi off and which AFAIK broadcasts the same external IP for all users on the network) I don’t see the socials login requirement.
 
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