Owen -
Yeah, its clear to me that my 4s won't survive this done more than
once more, its pretty tough on the insides of the critter. I made at
least 4 mistakes I feared would be fatal, but weren't. Damn these
screws and protectors are TINY!
yes and amen to all that!
iCracked is changing almost daily. I went back to look at the parts
they sell, and they have one real life-saver: a complete screw set:
http://www.icracked.com/accessories-and-cases/iphone4s-parts-and-kits
As you may have found out, they can easily be lost. I was surprised I
didn't loose one, but it was close. One stunt I used was to use
scotch tape loops on the workflow chart to place the screws on.
Worked quite well.
Question: I have not yet mastered the reassembly stunt that requires
you to take these micro crews and place them accurately on your
magnetic screw driver. They seldom "seat" properly and thus are
always slipping and getting off-center. I ended up using a travel
magnifying glass (only 2x or so) held in one hand, steadying the
driver w/ screw. But getting the screw in place is an artform that I
hope the pros can tell me about.
Do you have any tricks? I tried tweezers but heaven help you if they
"pinch" sending the screw across the room! They're all the size of a
period at the end of this sentence.
I hit the vision wall myself a few years ago... I've not had an eye
test, but what was an acute 20/20 is now pretty lame when it comes to
small things up close. I use a hands-free magnifying glass, the kind
that come from China for like $3.99 at Harbor Freight? I also used the
highest power reading glasses I had laying around (I can hardly stand to
use reading glasses, they make me crazy, but sometimes they are the only
option).
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!
Whoa, now that is encouraging! The "82% higher" is pretty old, and
definitely pre-iPhone4s.
My personal concern is wondering what happened causing my screen to
crack. I had dropped my earlier iPhone 2g (original) several times
with no problem. I've dropped the 4s 2 or 3 times, generally bending
over and having it drop out of a shirt pocket. Never saw a crack.
That's why I think my putting the phone in pants pocket may be
the culprit.
Yes, that is disconcerting. I must have dropped my 2G 30 times onto
various hard surfaces without a crack... then one day as I dropped it, I
commented to my nephew that "it never cracks" and viola! it was
cracked! Given our track record with screens, we are pretty good about
working around the cracks, though the style of cracking on my 3gs meant
that I picked up tiny slivers of glass in my fingertip for the first
week... and eventually the touch screen started to flake in areas that
were important (answer the phone? no way!).
I'm not a case user, why should I make a beautiful thing ugly! But
iCracked included a bumper and a screen protector with the order .. I
guess I'll try them.
I'm not big on cases either... but given my screen breakage style I've
thought I would design my own based around a set of brass knuckles,
called the iKnuckles. The case would come as an add-on to an app that
upon a sharp blow would put up the image of a cracked/crazed screen over
the surface. This grew out of my flip irritation with the many people
who think they can tell others when/where/how to use their phones. I
don't get much of this myself because I'm actually thoughtful, polite
and careful when and where I use my phone, but I've heard one too many
self-righteous boobs tell off someone else or make rude comments in
front of them about their texting or talking on the phone. So when
people commented on my cracked screen I just told them it happened the
last time somebody made a rude comment about my using my phone in their
presence and I "just popped them one!".
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?
Well, honestly, its a bit harder than that, but courage and taking
your time and listening to EVERY word on the video does bring it into
the capacity of a 70 year old tech-y.
I can't tell you how many times I rewound several different videos and
*hated* the makers of the videos because NONE of them actually showed
re-assembly... they simply stopped at the end and said "reverse the
process to reassemble)... watching the tiny components popping loose
when you unscrew or tug them apart is not always that helpful for
understanding the tricks to putting them back in place! The point
still holds, we *should* be able to do this kind of repair if we call
ourself techies, but it is not for the faint of heart!
An inordinate amount of my misspent youth was misspent rebuilding
carburators on various vehicles I owned. Anyone with experience with
such can see the relevance... when you release a part and check-ball
just about twice the size of the proverbial period at the end of the
sentence, propelled by an equally tiny spring, flies across the room, it
is quite frustrating... and of course, the thing about finishing the
rebuild and discovering you still have parts left is also quite
disconcerting (until you realize that they furnish extra screws, check
valves, springs, etc. just in case you lose one, and they make a single
kit for a dozen variations on the same carbuerator).
As always, good workflow management (and yes loops of scotch tape sound
promising) and very careful step-by-step processing is key. I *also*
photographed each configuration before I disconnected anything... it was
*almost* enough... but still I think I had to back up several times,
thus adding to the ultimate trauma that left me with only 3 rebuilds
before failure.
I was raised to believe in investing in good tools and learning to keep
them sharp, well lubricated and how to do repairs as needed, this is the
one thing I like YouTube videos for... most of the rest of the time, I
find them a terrible sinkhole of my time!
- Steve
============================================================
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
