Adventure iPhone Repair via iCracked!
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Owen Densmore
May 10, 2012, 4:51:41 PM5/10/12
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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
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:
The tool setup, showing a ridged work surface to make sure parts and screws don't get lost!
A closeup of the above, showing the chart used of the steps for the tear-down.
A view of the instructional video .. a really great tool!
-- Owen
Kim Sorvig
May 15, 2012, 1:20:17 PM5/15/12
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Hi Owen – and anyone else who’s reading:
In your researches, did you happen to see anything about repairing a Dumb Phone that is cracked at its flip hinge? Mine appears to have miraculous superpowers, since it can fall apart yet still function, but one day I expect to find myself holding the keypad in one hand and the screen in the other and saying really bad words…
If anyone has suggestions (other than get with the 21st century and get a smarter phone), I’d be happy to hear about them.
Kim
Kim Sorvig
Research Assoc. Professor, School of Architecture & Planning, University of New Mexico
Contributing Editor, Landscape Architecture magazine
505-474-8531 (Mountain time zone)
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Owen Densmore
May 15, 2012, 2:23:52 PM5/15/12
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Google your feature phone's name and model and see if there are repair discussions, youtube tutorials, vendors of the phone's parts and so on.
Feature phones, what the vendors call non-smart phones, are still quite common, pretty smart themselves, and naturally are blurring the distinction between the two. So if the model is popular, there is quite likely material relating to it on the web.
Your carrier may replace your phone if its over a certain age, presuming you got your phone via a contract.
-- Owen
Owen Densmore
May 17, 2012, 11:16:03 PM5/17/12
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OK, I just moded my iPhone 4s' back panel to be transparent:
iPhone 4S Transparent Rear Glass Panel
http://backspaces.net/temp/VisibleiPhone.png
Kinda nice to know what's inside. And yes, the biggest part is the battery!
Pat the tummy, rub the head: the pix is into a mirror so the iPhone could take its own picture.
The kit is here: http://goo.gl/nSFeU
-- Owen
Steve Smith
May 17, 2012, 11:40:36 PM5/17/12
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Great! Now I can have cracks *front* AND *back*!
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