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So, you broke your iPhone 4 screen?

You are not alone. Thousands (millions?) of people just like yourself have been stung by the dreaded iPhone 4 screen disaster. A simple slip of your fingers, a twist of your wrist, a bungled hand off to your wonderful child. As you gasp in shock and watch, as if in slow motion, your beloved iPhone falls victim to gravity and finds its way to the ground. As you lean to pickup your iPhone, which inevitably lands screen-down (just like the butter dish) on the asphalt/concrete (insert name of glass breaking substance here), you realize the screen on your Jesus Phone has shattered, just like your

dreams. The first thoughts that pass through your brain are usually "Oh no! Now I have to get a new phone!" - but, we've got great news for you - you don't need a new phone and no matter how much you just cussed and swore at your iPhone, it still loves you and it wants to stay by your side, just with a new screen.

But here's the deal, there's a lot of confusion about iPhone 4 screen repair - some important information is being left out of the conversation and we're here to set you straight about what you need to know to get your iPhone 4 back up and running, with a new shiny screen for those late night FaceTime sessions you've come to love so much.

First, let's toss out some definitions for your edification:

1. Digitizer - AKA Touch-Screen (exhibit A): This is the part of your iPhone you lovingly stroke anytime to want to use it. Your finger knows the silky feel of this glass covered wonder very well. Basically, this is the top glass of your iPhone 4.

2. LCD: This is the Liquid Crystal Display (exhibit B) that shows all those pretty pictures that you're used to looking at. The LCD is located directly under the Digitizer.

What usually happens when you slam your iPhone 4 to the ground (we know you didn't do this, but, it happens) is that the glass Digitizer shatters. Your phone may still work, but it's like driving with a crack in your windshield - things are going to get worse, not better. Now that we've defined those two parts, here's where things get tricky.

On the original iPhone, both the LCD screen and the Digitizer were fused together during the manufacturing process. When the next generation iPhone was released (the 3G), Apple, in its infinite wisdom, decided to separate the LCD screen from the Digitizer. This was great, because it allowed you to just replace the Digitizer when you went crazy and threw your phone through the wall, finally fed up with your AT&T reception problems. Oh, we know this didn't happen to you...but. Same thing with the LCD - the repair was less expensive, since you could just remove and replace that part alone. The separate screen design was the same for the iPhone 3GS model - life was good.

The iPhone 4 exploded on the scene in June of 2010 and take apart videos began appearing within about 3 seconds of the first person leaving the Apple store. And then, the world stood still as we all realized that Apple had gone "back to the future" and the iPhone 4 screen, that fabulous "Retina Display" LCD and that super slick Digitizer were once again, fused together for eternity.

So, what does this mean and why should you care? Well, confusion reigns in the marketplace and you'll find all kinds of folks from small towns in Asia selling you an iPhone 4 digitizer all by itself, or an iPhone 4 LCD all by itself. And since you are reading this article and are now educated on this subject - you know that these separate parts are (read this part out-loud) : COMPLETELY WORTHLESS.

Yes friends, somewhere across this wonderful land of ours, an excited iPhone 4 user is opening up a cheap LCD or digitizer they bought on eBay and they are still thinking that they got a smoking good deal and are just beginning to try and repair their iPhone 4 screen. They only have a few more minutes of glory before they realize that they have been tricked, scammed, flamboozled, if you will. The part they bought is...yes, COMPLETELY WORTHLESS. There is no way for an end-user to remove the LCD from the Digitizer on the iPhone 4. You need, what is referred to as a "Complete Assembly" that contains the LCD screen + Digitizer + Frame (Exhibit C)

Yes, this means that your iPhone 4 screen replacement is going to cost a little more than the iPhone 3G or 3GS - but, think about how much money you just saved yourself by not buying either the LCD or Digitizer by themselves, since we know that they are... yes, we won't remind you of their value since you are now a fully educated iPhone 4 consumer. Go forth and repair!

We're headed into the 2nd week of the great TechRestore Breakfast Challenge of 2010!

If you haven't seen it already, check out our latest video, a stop-motion animated unboxing and take-apart of the new iPhone 4. 1784 hi-res photos combine to make a stop-motion expose of the iPhone 4, revealing every detail of construction, from packaging, down to the chips on the logic-board:


Click here to view the video, or see download a copy to play on your device of choice on our video downloads page. iPod, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV ready versions are available, as well as the full HD quality .mov file!

Labels: Apple, autopsy, disassembly, dissection, diy, iPhone, iPhone 4, video

Apparently, Apple has some words of explanation about why reception drops so dramatically when you hold an iPhone 4 in a certain way. "Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place," said an Apple rep in a letter to customers. A faulty algorithm, in use since the release of the original iPhone, was only recently discovered by the company. Rest assured though, Apple is planning to resolve the issue by not only fixing the way signal strength is calculated but also "...making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see."

Wow, that's what I call a PR fail. Seriously Apple, that's kinda like telling a friend, "I didn't forget your birthday - I ignored it intentionally!"

-Brian

Read the full story on SF Gate

Labels: Apple, hoodwink, iPhone, iPhone 4, reception

Happy official iPhone 4 Launch Day!

We received our first batch of phones yesterday afternoon and jumped right in to begin another of our famous stop-motion take apart videos. Our videos take a "little" more time (about 2-days) to produce and a "few" more pictures (about 1500) to take to come up with the look that TechRestore has become known for. But don't fret, it'll be worth it, promise.

We had about 200 photos by the time we unboxed the iPhone 4...now just 1300 more during the take apart process, then stitching it all together, dubbing in some original music and we'll be all set. Stay tuned!

Greetings!

Now that June is almost over, I think summer is finally here, although we still have snow in many spots in the Sierra's, shorts and sandals are now required attire, at least around our house. The kids are out of school, already counting down the days until September when they return to those hallowed halls of learning and we had a new Pixar movie coming out last Friday - all sure signs that we are in fact enjoying summertime.

Along with those summer trends, we're starting to see a steady supply of iPads landing into our Tech labs for repair. It's the usual suspect, a brilliantly shattered piece of glass on the brilliant device that is bringing these gadgets in each day. Like I mentioned when I first did my mini-review of the iPad back in April - get a case to help keep your iPad intact when (not if) you drop it.

And of course, what would the lead-in to summer be without a new iPhone from the Mothership? If you missed the announcements at the Worldwide Developer Conference, you can watch Mr. Burns, I mean Steve Jobs, announce the new "iOS", the new "iAd" and of course, the new iPhone 4.

So, the iPhone 4 was announced, with pre-orders beginning on June 15 and delivery on June 24th. At least that's what was supposed to happen. At around midnight on June 15, the Apple store online shut down to get ready for the iPhone 4 onslaught. At 1AM, Apple turned the store back on and that's when the fun began. Ordering the iPhone 4 worked fine, until you had to connect to AT&T to confirm your information - that's when all hell broke loose. You can read the full story here. We finally got our iPhone 4 orders to go through, it just took about 14 hours after we clicked the "submit" button - not bad. ;-) If you were unable to order your iPhone 4 yet, it looks like you will have to wait until July 14 to get one now...oh, the horror! While this was going on, the Twitter feeds were brimming with vitriol about the situation. Of course, we had to chime in with our own comments to our Twitter followers:

"Either the Apple store is still broken, or we own 114 iPhones."

Headline News: ATT Orders new server farm to handle influx of iPhone 4 orders..."Oh, was I supposed to order those servers? Sorry!"

"Whoa! Finally got an iPhone 4 order at the Apple Store Now that's what we call service, 14 hours after clicking the 'Add to Cart' button."

And my personal favorite: ATT CEO: "We regret trying to run our iPhone account server on the new Mac mini."

With all the headaches with pre-ordering, Apple still was able to book 600,000 iPhone pre-orders on the first day. Wow.

Photo courtesy of Gizmodo.

New Self-Install Mac logic boards available!

If I had a dollar for every phone call we get requesting a particular Mac laptop logic board, well, I'd have a lot of dollars. We're positively brimming with excitement to bring this new self-repair category online. You'll find boards for just about every Intel MacBook and MacBook Pro available. I have to warn you that we've been selling out quickly, so our stock will vary each day as we continue to bring new boards online. Check out this new category here.

DiamondGlass Update

We're been selling a ton of our new DiamondGlass replacement LCD covers for MacBook and MacBook Pro Unibody systems. Most of our glass is sold to other repair companies, but we do see some brave souls buying glass on their own each week. Today we are rolling out our latest creation, DiamondGlass for the iPad! This is good news for iPad owners that are already contacting us with horror stories about low quality glass replacements for the iPad that are flooding the market. Check out the new DiamondGlass for iPad here.

FUTURESHOCK

Greetings Earthlings!

The Applesphere has definitely been abuzz lately, with the video calling iPhone 4, wicked iOS 4 features on the way and a unibody Mac mini - wow. To celebtrate the first day of summer, I've got some more exciting stuff for ya...

Wallpaper

Perfect for desktops, laptos, iPads and iPhones - this fun bit of sand and surf is a great backdrop to start off your summer with!

Click here to see full-size image
then, right-click and select 'Save' to download.

Mac Survival Guide

There are a few basic trouble-shooting steps that every Mac user should have available to them, but they're hard to memorize and, until now, thay've been scattered around the web on different pages. Here, in one concise, illustrated PDF document, that you can print out, or read on your iPad, are all of the essential tech tips that you need to keep your Mac running, including zapping the P-RAM, Resetting the PMU and running a file system check in single user mode (matrix style):

Download the Mac Laptop Troubleshooting Guide

Enjoy!

Brian Northway
Designer/Animator

Labels: Apple, ATT, download, iPhone 4, screen saver, summer, wallpaper

If you have an extra couple of thousand dollars to burn, why not get a pimped out iPad out with 6000 Swarovski Crystals?

You can buy one from CrystalRoc if you want to broadcast your rock-star status at the coffee shop.

Labels: Apple, bling, CrystalRoc, iPad, Swarovski

You really have to see this screen saver in action to appreciate it. Due to the nature of rendering employed, it looks a little different on each computer or monitor that it's displayed on. Based on video feedback, the Glow Sticks screen saver creates both wildly organic designs as well as precise fractalar shapes, in endless variation. See a preview video and download your free copy here.

Happy Friday!

(for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and above only)

Labels: download, qtz, quartz composer, screen saver

Today we have an exclusive look at the Retina Display LCD, from the iPhone 4. Below you can see it side-by-side with the LCD from an iPhone 3Gs. Notice how you can see lines in the 3Gs screen, and the iPhone 4 screen appears darker.




Below, you can see that the Retina LCD is about 25% thinner than the 3Gs LCD:

Labels: 3gs, Apple, iPhone 4, LCD