Last week I was in the elevator when someone bemoaned having cracked their iPhone screen. I told them that Apple stores where now fixing screens, but they responded that they had tried Apple and had no luck. I decided to do some research and found that Apple does repair cracked screens for $199 but there are other solutions as well.
There is no doubt that cracked screens are a bummer since most of the time they can be avoided. Over the last 10 years of using a touch screen PDA and smartphones, I have cracked three screens. Both were on Windows Mobile devices (they were actually Pocket PCs at the time). I had them both repaired by PPC Techs and its predecessor company. They have always come through in a pinch and have done an excellent job repairing the device. They now also repair iPhones.
For the iPhone there are two other solutions; a do it yourself process documented by Jeff Carlson and taking your device to an Apple Store. If you are handy with small tools Jeff Carlson process looks pretty straight forward, but since the Apple store has a special tool to remove the screen from the device I would stick with them. The do it yourself process is obviously the cheapest but also the riskiest.
If you don't live near an Apple store I would recommend PPC Techs over the Apple ship in replacement program since you will end up with a refurbished unit rather than your device with a new screen.
My T-Mobile MDA in 2006 with a cracked screen.
How to block SMS Spam
If you are experiencing a high volume of SMS Spam messages on your phone, here is an excellent source of information from David Pogue's New York Times article "How to block Cellphone Spam".
I feel lucky, up to now I have had very few Spam SMS', but then again I give out my cell phone number as little as possible. For us T-Mobile customers the options are in the Communication Tools section of my.t-mobile.com. Here is the T-Mobile excerpt:
"T-Mobile: T-Mobile doesn't yet offer a "block text messages from the Internet" option. You can block all messages sent by e-mail, though, or permit only messages sent to your phone's e-mail address or alias, or create filters that block text messages containing certain phrases. It's all waiting when you log into www.t-mobile.com and click Communication Tools."
I am not sure you need an option to block text messages from the Internet, but it would not hurt to have it...
Posted by sskarlatos on June 25, 2008 at 08:14 AM in Commentary, PPC Tips, T-Mobile | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)