Replacing iPhone Front Glass & Digitizer
Total labor: 1 hour
Total materials: $30
Jackie notes:
The process wasn’t too bad. Lots of tiny screws and risers and such. I found a good light, a small blade, tweezers, and a heat gun (I used my hair dryer) useful in addition to the tools they provided. I followed this video (http://youtu.be/8fujLMaxJsw) and felt he offered many good tips that other sets of instructions might fail to include.
My screen, as you might see, was in fact shattered. It really was being held together by the screen protector. I had ideas that if the new screen didn’t work out, I’d put the cracked one back on. In retrospect, this never would have been possible. Prying the screen away from the glue ( I think it’s double sided tape, but everyone says glue) basically ensures that its coming off in pieces. It’s necessary to reuse the home button, and a small piece belonging to the front camera.
Putting the new screen on required a bit of wiggling and finagling, but no real pressure. I wonder if this is where others cracked the new screen. Also, the ribbons connected to the LCD and Digitizer can get snagged – as mentioned in the video. They did get snagged for me, and it took me a minute to notice, even with the warning.
The new screen is not Apple quality. The digitizer seems responsive enough, for now. I don’t play games on my phone, so I’m not sure how sensitive it really should be. The display does seem a little cloudy – I’m not sure if this is noticeable in the photo. It’s absolutely usable, but its not as crisp as it was. Comparing to my iPad (both supposed to be retina displays) it seems more an issue of brightness than clarity. The new screen, however, is not cracked. 
Diana, Brattleboro
Many thanks for Brainspiral’s help in making Core Flow Yoga a success. Justin is a great designer! Good luck with everything.
A Look At Google
Just a few thoughts about Google.
I just received an email introducing a new high definition media player running the GoogleTV software.
And it occurred to me almost immediately: Google is turning into Microsoft.
Does that mean in 20 years Google will be making bad software that costs way too much money and yet everyone will buy it anyway while Apple works very hard to give away their superior alternatives? Looks like it.
Google doesn’t make any of their own hardware. They are relying exclusively on other hardware and software developers to build the appliances that run their software. All of them, in fact – their phones, tv software, web browser.
In comparison, Apple develops all of their own hardware. The end result is that the overall product – the thing that the consumer actually uses – is much more functional because the hardware and software work seamlessly together. That’s the sticking point with technology. Software isn’t a sole solution. You need hardware, too.
I have to believe this is why the Droid phones have atrocious battery life, Chrome crashes all the time and (I suspect) Revue won’t be able to dual output digital and analog audio.
So Google – Are you going to start improving your company model by developing better products? Because as it stands now, your software is only so-so. You just have the luxury that Microsoft has – you’ve duped people into thinking that it’s the best solution.
Mary, Williamstown
It is even more fun than a new car! I like it and thank you.
*****
Regarding: Installation of a new Lenovo A70Z All-In-One Integrated Workstation and migrating data & settings from an older Dell system.
Kathy, Williamstown
BRAVO!!! As always, you have been amazing and we really appreciate all your hard work. K
*****
Regarding: Installation and configuration of:
16 Apple iMac Desktop Computers
10 Apple Macbook Laptops
1 Apple Mac Mini Server
2 IBM Lenovo A70Z PC Workstations
1 HP Laserjet CP2025X Network Color Laser Printer
2 Canon MP560 Wireless Color Inkjet Printers
2 Epson Scanners
Including the migration of an existing Windows Active Directory Domain to Open Directory on Mac OS X Server, reconfiguration of various network services including DHCP & DNS, and installation of a new print server.
Kaytie, NY, NY
Yes! Jackie has been GREAT. Thank you so much for your help!
New Website Launch
After years (yes, it’s been a long time since Williams graduate and former Brainspiral partner Samantha Orme designed and developed the original website), Brainspiral Technologies, Inc. is pleased to announce that we have a new look. Samantha was an outstanding designer & we still miss her. We’re slowly growing, learning and developing, and we want to use our website as a tool to communicate. We’ll continue to post all sorts of information – recommendations for new purchases, DIY troublshooting & repair, solutions to common and uncommon problems. This is just the first step, too – there will be more to come.
– The Brainspiral Staff
Exchange Servers?
We have had some recent questions about Microsoft Outlook Exchange servers. This is what we told one client:
Dear Mr so-and-so,
Protection of your data
Your data is important. While we work magic in many ways, recovering data from failed hard drives is difficult, at best, and often impossible. The only way to protect your data & minimize downtime is to ensure you have a good backup solution in place. We’ve discussed this before, but it’s so important we want to discuss it again.
We have found the best way to backup data is to use an external hard drive, preferably a network hard drive. Network drives are inexpensive, easy to configure, reliable & fast. We recommend them in all cases – Macs, PCs, even Servers.
While most network drives are identical, we recommend those made by Buffalo. They offer many excellent features & are very compatible. They come in a variety of sizes (250gb, 320gb, 500gb, 750gb, 1tb, 2tb, 4tb) to accommodate for all different kinds of storage needs. They also provide an excellent means to share files among multiple users in a household or small business. These devices can also be configured to backup to each other – for maximum data protection.
On the Mac side of things, we highly recommend using Leopard’s (10.5) Time Machine. It’s an excellent program (thanks, Apple!) that makes automatic backups on a regular basis. It can even be used over a wireless connection. Though many of you are probably still running 10.4 or 10.3, have you considered upgrading?
On the PC side of things, we highly recommend using a backup program called Cobian. It’s freely downloadable from snapfiles.com. It offers great flexibility – allowing you to choose what you want backed up, and when.
If you’re really concerned about safeguarding your data, look at an online backup service like mozypro.com or mac.com.
Microsoft Office 2007 / DOCX Files
We’ve had a lot of complaints from clients who have received attachments from users with Microsoft Office 2007 and have been unable to open them. It turns out that Microsoft changed the default file format in Office 2007 & that format is not compatible with any other version of Microsoft Office (both on a PC and a Mac). This is typically Microsoft – introduce something new that offers no advantages whatsoever & provide zero backwards compatibility within their own software families. Nice work, Microsoft!
Microsoft also learns from their mistakes (though they never admit it) & has released converters for both PCs and Macs to allow these new file formats (based on eXtensible Markup Language – suffix docx) to be opened properly. They’re available here: