replacement

Looking for a fun and unusual way to trick out your iPhone 4? Repair-guide site iFixit now sells an iPhone 4 Transparent Rear Panel for $29.95.

Made of clear glass, this replacement back cover reveals all the inner workings of your device. Actually, it reveals mostly battery, but it's still pretty cool if you're into that whole "naked" look.

The panel consists of a camera lens, flash diffuser, and bezel. To install it, you simply remove the two screws from the bottom of your iPhone, pop the old panel off, place the new one, and restore the screws.

The only potential problem is if you have the newer pentalobe screws, in which case you should consider tossing iFixit's $14.95 pentalobe screwdriver into your cart. (Better yet, grab one on eBay for as little as $2.29 shipped.)

One other caveat: the Transparent Rear Panel is compatible with only the GSM (i.e. AT&T) versions of the iPhone 4, meaning Verizon iPhone owners are outta luck. "We have nothing against the Verizon users," says the iFixit blog. "Apple chose to modify the rear panel layout for the Verizon version, and sadly our panel can only fit GSM iPhone 4 units."

What do you think of the Transparent Rear Panel? Cool way to make your iPhone stand out from the crowd, or painful reminder that the iPhone looks a lot sexier with its clothes on?… Read more

This awkwardly named utility (now known as "Better Rename" in the Mac App Store) can be extremely useful in some very specific situations. Anyone who needs to rename large batches of files on a daily basis--especially Web developers and anybody working with lots of photos or audio files--should definitely check out A Better Finder Rename. Most of what this app does can also be done with the Finder and Automator, but nowhere near as quickly nor as easily.

ABFR offers a huge number of renaming options, everything from modifying text and adding sequence numbers to changing formats and … Read more

Are you the proud owner of a new iPad 2? Let's talk warranty.

Apple backs the tablet for a year, of course, and for $79 you can add an AppleCare Protection Plan that extends the coverage to two years.

However, neither policy covers the most likely scenario: accidental damage. I'm talking dropping the iPad in the bathtub, rolling over it with the car (don't laugh--it happens), getting sand in the dock connector, spilling your coffee on it, and so on.

Enter SquareTrade, which offers an extended warranty that includes "accidental damage from handling" (or ADH). … Read more

The Windows Explorer shell is responsible for some of the most basic aspects of the way Windows looks. The Start menu, system tray, and other aspects of the taskbar are all part of the shell. Emerge Desktop replaces the Windows Explorer with a different, more customizable shell. On the whole we didn't find it to be a huge improvement over the Windows default, but if you like to tweak your desktop's appearance, it might be worth checking out.

The program's interface isn't the most intuitive thing we've ever seen, and we had to consult the … Read more

I love me a good laptop deal, and this one from TigerDirect definitely qualities.

Until midnight tomorrow, Jan. 14, you can get the refurbished Acer Aspire AS7741Z-5731 17.3-inch laptop for $399.99, plus around $9 for shipping. That's after applying coupon code MGU17038 at checkout.

You might expect a fairly no-frills configuration at that price point, but the Aspire is nicely appointed--very nicely indeed.

It starts with a dual-core, 1.86GHz Pentium P6000 processor--no speed demon, mind you, but fast enough for mainstream computing chores.

Other noteworthy specs include 3GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, a DVD … Read more

A couple of months ago, I noticed that my third-generation iPod Touch (32GB) was having trouble holding a charge. After using it for a few hours, the battery was at about 30 percent, and if I left it sitting on my desk overnight, it was invariably dead in the morning, even after I turned Wi-Fi off.

I looked into getting a replacement battery and found out that Apple charges $79 (see complete chart of iPod repair pricing). Now I like my iPod Touch, which serves both as a Sonos remote and a remote for an old Roku player that I … Read more

Some Apple employees are apparently having fun sending pictures of internal policy documents to the Boy Genius Reports tech Web site. Recently, a screenshot of Apple's LCD replacement policies surfaced on the site, and currently another is available, which shows changes to Apple's liquid-damage policies for iPods, which may indicate some good news for iPod owners.

Apple's mobile devices come with small Liquid Contact Indicator (LCI) patches that react and change color when in contact with water. Apple uses the color change to determine whether a device has been submerged in water before honoring warranty claims for … Read more

Boy Genius Report has uncovered documents containing Apple's policies regarding dead pixels, including replacement requirements for iPhones, iPads, and various-size Macs.

The document suggests that Apple employees have leeway when dealing with customers that have dead pixels on their screen, but should abide by the grid (see below) when determining if a unit should be replaced.

iPhones, for example, should have no dead pixels, whereas an iPad can have as many as two before it would be replaced. Screens on bigger Macs could have as many as 16 dead pixels before an Apple employee might replace it.

Of course, … Read more

If you like the interface of the Mac OS but are stuck using a Windows machine, this little app from Stardock can help--if only very slightly. The premise behind ObjectDock is very simple: it adds an animated, Mac-inspired dock to your desktop that provides easy access to useful shortcuts and can serve to replace your taskbar.

Read the full review of ObjectDock.