repairs

Shatter your iPhone 4 screen? Here's how to fix it

I think we can all agree at this point that the iPhone 4 launch is not going well for Apple or its customers. In just two days since its release, iPhone 4 owners have found a plethora of potential and real-world problems, from a faulty antennas and Bluetooth headset connectivity issues to screen discolorations and scratches.

Then there's the phone's glass. Why oh why did Apple decide to use glass for the back of the iPhone 4? As Ryan Salerno, a Gizmodo writer, discovered this morning, glass is breakable.

The good news, if you can call it that, … Read more

Outlook fixit

If you depend on Microsoft's Outlook, a good recovery tool can save the day if things go wrong. DataNumen's Advanced Outlook Repair 3.0 can recover email, folders, appointments, tasks, and anything else that holds your critical data in Outlook's Personal files (PST). AOR supports recovery of attachments, embedded objects, encrypted and password-protected PST files, and deleted Outlook items. It can handle immense files, which protects against obsolescence.

To use AOR, you must have Outlook installed as your default e-mail client. AOR's dialog-based interface is so intuitive that the fully indexed Help file seems almost superfluous. … Read more

The 404 574: Where we're wasting away in Margaritaville (podcast)

Our third host, Jeff Bakalar, doesn't get sick very often, but when it pains, it roars. The last two days have been rough (no offense to Wilson), but we can all breathe easier now that his 10 arms are back running the engineering board just in time for Cinco de Mayo! Unfortunately, we ran out of margarita mix awhile ago, but will you settle for a Jimmy Buffet reference with an extra-funny episode of The 404 Podcast on the side? It's all we got!

My iPhone mysteriously broke last weekend and I thought I was doomed to suffer this ultra-budget Samsung flip phone for the next few months until Wilson referred me to New York's own iPhone repair specialist, Dr. Brendan (not a certified doctor).

Yesterday I took my phone to the clinic (Brendan's apartment) and left fifteen minutes later with a brand new display! Best 75 bones I've ever spent, if you don't count that place where I put that thing that time. Dr. Brendan fixes all sorts of Apple products and we plan to have him and his partner on the show in the near future, but in the meantime check out his Facebook page and tell him The 404 sent you!

Nerds across the world love to celebrate International Free Comic Day, but a greedy thief in Australia dipped his fingers in the wrong honeypot last Saturday. Forty-five-year old store owner Michael Baulderstone spotted a man trying to steal a collector's X-Men comic from his store that was worth $160; luckily, he was wearing a Spiderman costume to celebrate the event and cornered the criminal while signaling to two Jedi Knights (also shopping for comics) to guard the door with their lightsabers until the police arrived.

Silly Padawans: colored plastic flashlights are for kids...and air traffic controllers. Anyway, if the perp had any common sense he would've just shouted a George Lucas sighting at the Popeye's Chicken next door and made his escape.

There are a few more stories to cover on the show today including a Catholic Church turning to Facebook to recruit new priests and a collection of Calls From the Public from last week--who doesn't love leftovers?

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Quick cleanup

The publisher of PureRa claims that it "removes files from your computer that other mainstream cleaning programs tend to oversee," by which we suppose they mean "overlook." Though it's neither the most attractive nor the most grammatically accurate program we've encountered, we found that it works well as a quick, no-nonsense way to rid your computer of unwanted files.

The program has an extremely simple and intuitive user interface. It lists a variety of file types and locations that you can check off for removal, including temporary files, Recycle Bin files, software distribution logs, … Read more

Word keeper

Microsoft Word documents are susceptible to corruption and loss from a variety of causes, including viruses and other attacks, system crashes, software incompatibility, and even media read errors and other inexplicable events. Stellar Information Systems' Phoenix Word Recovery Software can help users recover and repair damaged Word documents. It doesn't promise to recover every lost document, but it can undo a wide range of damage.

This program's job is to find Word docs gone on walkabout in your system and, if they're damaged or corrupted, restore them to a previous state, including all links, OLE objects, and … Read more

Restoring the engine on a 1937 BMW 328 Roadster

I love checking out car restorations and seeing what some people are doing to their old-school rides. Well it doesn't get much more old school than this: a 1937 BMW 328 Roadster, and in Wednesday's blog post we got to see and hear about the work that was being done by Black Horse Garage to improve the body shell. In today's clip we join up with the Black Horse gang to see what work they are doing to the engine, and it should be quite interesting.

This video begins with a Black Horse Garage tech checking out … Read more

It pays to call customer service, sometimes

I'll be honest with you: I hate customer service as much as you do. The long waits, the anonymous feeling of phone calls, the paperwork...it's like a doctor's appointment. Maybe that's why many people I speak to simply don't bother. My dad always calls me before bothering to spend time trying to reach Apple. A friend let his bricked Xbox 360 sit in a drawer for two years rather than try to call for a repair.

As for me, my fear comes from broken headphones. At least once a year, it seems, some pair … Read more

How to buff away your iPhone's scratches

Unless your iPhone went straight from box to case, it's probably lost some--if not all--of its original shiny luster. Indeed, it's rare to find a handset that doesn't end up looking like the one in this picture after a few months.

It's awful, right? That's more or less how my iPhone 3GS looks, and it's been riding inside a rubberized shell since day one. Unfortunately, while there are plenty of DIY guides showing you how to fix the front of an iPhone, I've yet to see one that focuses on its backside.

Until … Read more

Jet City Devices: iPhone screen repairs while you wait

When your mind replays your iPhone's ill-fated fall to the pavement, followed by that gut-wrenching sound of shattered glass, it'll no doubt be in slow motion. Traumatic events like that often are.

If you're lucky enough to live in Chicago or Seattle, however, you can get your baby fixed fast. Jet City Devices is an iPhone repair service that on Monday, March 1, will open a new location in Chicago's Orland Square Mall. (The Seattle office: already open.)

Both locations will replace your glass in 15 minutes for a flat rate of $85. There are, of … Read more

Apple offers MacBook Repair Extension Program for hard drive issues

Apple is now offering the MacBook Repair Extension Program for hard-drive issues on machines purchased roughly between May 2006 and December 2007. Customers experiencing hard-drive issues should take their machines to an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Reseller to have it diagnosed.… Read more