My wife and I are both literally hell on iphone and even MacBook
screens. I've successfully replaced 2G and 3G 3Gs glass, though the
last time into my 3gs to replace *back*, *battery* *and* glass, I'd
apparently insulted the "video" connector/cable to the motherboard one
too many times... the screen is blank unless I squeeze the phone just
right... but this was the third time into all this on that phone and a
good excuse to go to a 4.
Overall, I feel like the 4's screens are *more* robust... Just Friday I
was driving to Denver, discovered I didn't have my phone 1 mile down the
road, went back and looked high and low for an hour only to finally find
it when I gave up and discovered it had in fact fell off the top of my
car in my driveway... dusty and overheated (in the sun) but no broken
(or even scuffed) screen!
I like the DIY motto: If you can't open the case, you don't own it.
What kind of technoweenies are we if we can't follow a youtube video
and do some simple component replacement?
- Steve
Owen, so glad you live near me, so I know where to bring the doll to
be fixed!
On May 10, 2012, at 4:51 PM, Owen Densmore wrote:
An adventure right here in river city!
I recently cracked my iPhone 4s screen. I'm not sure if it was
caused by a drop, or by my carrying my phone in my pants front
pockets .. and bumping a door or something. I was surprised by the
crack until I read that iPhone 4 glass breaks are 82% higher than the
earlier iPhone 3gs after 4 months of use. (This from a warrantee
company)
The usual "fix" is to trade it in for a new phone, getting
replacement value for your broken phone .. i.e. a cost of $200 and
hassling with Apple and Verizon.
I started to look for alternatives and was surprised how many
you-tube videos showed how to "tear down" the iPhone (and most others
as well, this is a general problem). And there are kits from places
like iFixIt and iCracked that are do-it-yourself.
iCracked is a recent Y-Combinator award winner .. VC money with a
fascinating business model: they train folks all over the US so that
they immediately became a large company with hundreds of local repair
people. They have three modes for customers getting their phone
fixed: 1: mail in to iCracked central and get it fixed a few days, 2:
find a local repair person (there are 3 in Albuquerque!) or 3: DIY kit.
Here's their DIY video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EXTWp6bd6Y&feature=related
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EXTWp6bd6Y&feature=related>
Normally I wouldn't think much about DYI but with computers and
phones getting smaller and smaller, they are costlier to do simple
thing like repairing batteries etc. Heck .. I decided to buy some
tools, buy the kit, and see if its possible.
Well, it seems to have worked! I just stitched up the patient and
its doing OK, apparently. We'll see after a few days if there are
any oddities.
As a side note, it turns out teens here in Santa Fe are doing this
for pay. One neighbor mentioned a classmate charging $40 + parts
cost for screen repairs, so its not a bad business.
Here are some pix:
A picture of the work space:
http://backspaces.net/temp/PhoneFix/Panorama.jpg
The tool setup, showing a ridged work surface to make sure parts and
screws don't get lost!
http://backspaces.net/temp/PhoneFix/Tools.jpg
A closeup of the above, showing the chart used of the steps for the
tear-down.
http://backspaces.net/temp/PhoneFix/ToolsNChart.jpg
A view of the instructional video .. a really great tool!
http://backspaces.net/temp/PhoneFix/Video.jpg
Now to attack my Macbook Air!
-- Owen
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether
that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."
Charles Dickens, opening lines ofDavid Copperfield
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
