June 8, 2010 in Business News, Technology by jferris

CPR Will Repair Cannibalized Apple iPads

It is in the realm of possibility for iPads to cannibalize iPod Touch devices, but what do you do if your iPad is cannibalized? If it is still intact enough to be repaired, take it to your nearest CPR.

I was familiar enough with human cannibals, most of them from primitive areas of New Jersey, in the jungle there that develops amid the poison ivy in the summertime, but this cannibalism by devices was a novelty to me. Still, if the rumors were true, iPads were beginning to cannibalize iPod Touch devices, and the mere thought of it was so creepy it sent chills up my spine.

I thought I would do some investigating, to see if there was any substance to the rumors. I placed an iPad right next to an iPod Touch on top of a blanket, and switched on a convenient camcorder to record their actions. Which one would be the aggressor? I waited. For the longest time, both the iPad and the iPod Touch seemed extremely passive. I could be patient, and in fact, had ample time to waste. I took my eyes away for just a moment and suddenly saw it – yes, it was the iPad being positively vicious, that little electronic cannibal, but finally I couldn’t stand the cannibalizing anymore and I separated the two devices – nearly losing a finger and a toe in the process. A toe you’re saying? Don’t ask. But I knew that the iPod was fine, and, actually, reverse cannibalism had been occurring, and it was the iPad that was injured, partly cannibalized, so I knew that my iPad’s only chance for repair was to be taken down to the nearest CPR shop, where an expert service technician can fix an injured iPad – even one that’s been cannibalized by a crazed iPod.

I walked down, trotted actually in my jogging shoes, a pair of Nikes, and walked into the CPR where a couple of in-house geeks, expert service technicians, immediately knew what had happened.

“Cannibalized iPad?” The taller geek said, and then the words I’d been craving, “Don’t worry. We can fix it good as new.” Within an hour, he did just that – while I waited, chewing the fat, actually a piece of jerky.

To learn more visit: http://www.chicagocellrepair.com

June 8, 2010 in Business News, Technology by jferris

Apple’s iPad Rolling Out Internationally

Apple’s popular iPad is selling so well that it’s being rolled out into nine international markets. But what if someone mistakenly rolls your iPad off a cliff, what can you do to fix it? Independent repair shops are rapidly filling that need.

Starting May 28, 2010, Apple has announced that its amazingly popular iPad will be available in nine international markets, with preordering beginning on May 10. In July, additional launches will bring the iPad to countries like Belgium and Hong Kong. More than a million iPads have been sold since the gadget first came out on April 3.

As of May 28, iPads will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. Earlier, the iPad had sold in amazing fashion in the United States, a place where only centenarians are snapping them up at a slightly slower pace. July will take the iPad market to more countries, including Austria (birthplace of Adolf Hitler), Belgium, Hong Kong (not the birthplace of King Kong), Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Singapore. Release dates for an additional nine countries beyond those are currently in the works. Who knows? Maybe Togo and Andorra are on that list. Apple is looking to make $62.6 billion in profit by the end of May – almost like Exxon.

But what happens when someone in some far-off place brings back their tattered, broken iPad into a friendly country – such as the United States – and suddenly wishes to see their device become whole again? Hello. Does an iPad get fixed when you want to use it again? Manufacturer’s warranties with distributors are often not available – like they were with the first Smartphones. Where do you take one of these things to be repaired, once you’ve dropped it into the swimming pool or off your sun roof? Who is able to fix your iPad that you figured was tatered? The answer may be staring you in the face, depending upon where you are of course. Think Indy, as in independent repair shop. At places like that, where they used to just fix cell phones, their in-house geeks, expert service technicians all, can repair your iPad good as new – even if it originally came from Andorra, as in the very near future – it very well might.

Jeff Gasner is with CPR-Cell Phone repair. The leader in Cell Phone Repair and iPod Repair offering cell phone repair services nationwide. Visit http://www.chicagocellrepair.com.

June 8, 2010 in Business News, Technology by jferris

Apple Tries to Fix iPad Issues

During the first week of April, Apple tried to address some issues that customers were having with their new iPad. But when your iPad really breaks, independent repair shops are often able to fix it.

It’s been reported that many iPad owners have been experiencing issues with the gadget’s wireless connection – typically bad reception and slow speeds. According to one disgruntled iPad owner, “I would have done better with a pencil and a napkin.” Since the first week of April, no fooling, Apple has been offering troubleshooting tips to help owners who have moved beyond exasperation to find a tiny bit of solace.

There’s a Knowledge Base article for general iPad wireless issues that’s been circulating for awhile, but now Apple has generated a piece from their in-house geeks that is geared to problems, specifically that the device is not reconnecting to wireless networks.  At least that single issue has received some attention, albeit scant. Praise the Apple, kneel and praise the Apple.

If your iPad isn’t reconnecting to your network, and you’re using a dual-band router, Apple wants you to rename your wireless networks. I can help there. If your wireless network is nicknamed “Bill,” instead you can call it Tom, or even Pat, especially if you don’t mind risking gender confusion.  Actually, Apple’s suggestions are a lot more helpful, and these problems can at least be more easily resolved than they could, say – back in March.

But what if your iPad really breaks? You just dropped it on the concrete, or into the crapper, or some unknown household pet has been chewing it. Where will Apple be then? In fact, if you can’t depend on Apple for the real repairs, especially if you don’t want to be without your iPad for like – months – your next destination should be an independent repair shop – for instance, the one nearest you.  Places like this have their own geeks, expert service technicians, who know how to repair iPads, even yours. They don’t particularly care if your pet happens to be a rambunctious something or other with very sharp teeth, even fangs, as long as you don’t bring your pet into the shop when you’re getting the broken iPad repaired. While devices like iPads perhaps used to be a mystery to such folks, nowadays …

Jeff Gasner is with CPR-Cell Phone repair. The leader in Cell Phone Repair and iPod Repair offering cell phone repair services nationwide. Visit http://www.chicagocellrepair.com.

May 9, 2010 in Business News, Technology by admin

HP’s New Slate Device Is Billed as a Full Mobile Experience

The Slate is coming, and we’re not talking in the distant future, soon these things will be challenging the iPad and they’ll be getting broken and wet and taken to the nearest CPR to be fixed – that is the way of the techno-world, it has to be.

There’s a teaser video about the Slate that shows you what you’d be getting. It’s going to give the iPad a run for its money, which is figurative when you’re talking tablets. HP has stepped up to the plate, and R & D means something again. The Slate’s built-in camera has a 3MP lens in back and a front-facing VGA camera for video conferencing. There’s a single USB 2.0 port, an SD card reader, a “conventional” SIM tray for 3G networking, and HDMI-out video capabilities and 1080p playback via the Slate’s proprietary dock connector.The pixel display is state-of-the-art (although it’s slightly smaller and lower res than the iPad), and its 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor is something your grandfather didn’t find under his hood. The Slate is a tad taller, narrower, and thicker than the iPad, and also a tad lighter – it weighs only 1.49 pounds instead of 1.5 pounds. Its Windows 7 is a full-on, multitasking, desktop-caliber OS, and if it comes with a SIM tray the Slate will be about $80 cheaper – at $549.

You are really going to love this device, so when it’s available, go out and buy one. You have my permission. You’re really going to love your new toy, utterly and completely. Look at everything it can do – until suddenly it can’t. You’ve accidently dropped it into the toilet bowl when Herbie, your 8-year-old’s no longer beloved parakeet started singing – and you were so angry you strangled it – there was a startled parrot squawk in miniature, a last one, a dénouement. Your 8-year-old shrieked when she saw what you did, to the parakeet and to the Slate, and you gave her the dead little bird, promising to bury it in the backyard, as you ran out of the house with the Slate in hand, wet, and no longer functioning. Your destination was CPR, the nearest one, as this was an emergency, and you garbled something about murdering your daughter’s beloved pet, and not meaning to, although you did mean to, and the expert service technician examined your Slate, and uttered the magic words, “Calm down sir … We can fix this. Yes we can. You’re at CPR.”

To learn more visit: Chicagocellrepair.com.

May 9, 2010 in Business News, Technology by admin

HP Is About to Launch Its iPad Killer

While HP is preparing to jettison maybe iPad killer Slate into the cruel wide world, waiting to catch it and potentially save it when gravity grabs it and it inevitably breaks, is CPR, and their expert crew of service technicians.

It’s coming. Hewlett Packard’s much anticipated Slate, a potential iPad killer in the marketplace, a tablet powered by Windows 7 that made its sneak peak back in January 2010 at Microsoft’s CES keynote when your cockroach was just a baby. Now, it’s April, the reappearance of Tiger Woods has come and gone, there’s a leaked teaser on Engadget and Slate has features that the iPad doesn’t, like a built-in camera, a genuine USB port, not a mere adapter, and an SD card slot. The Slate will be keen for video conferencing and the pixel display (8.9 inch, 1024-by-600 pixel display), a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor under the hood, up to 64 GB of built-in flash storage that’s expandable via its card slot and Windows 7. So let the tablet wars commence, and when they do, perhaps a million Slates will fly through the air beholden only to Sir Gravity, and his pull, quite compelling I’m told, are sure to smash a few so that CPR might have to fix them; as is usual, CPR will be the independent repair shop to take them. What will our expert service technicians hear from frustrated or disheartened consumers who have inexplicably wrecked their new Slates? To be honest, they are liable to hear a multitude of expressions, some of them quaint or archaic, which don’t happen to be printable. But that’s not what this article is about. It’s about service and about loyalty to our customers, and to consumers who may be trying out CPR for the first time ever.

My cat ate my Slate, it’s made by HP, and burped it up, she thought it was a chirping bird because of the app that was playing, I don’t blame Little Hellfire, my tabby, but now nothing works on the thing … there are strange blips on the audio and it smells worse than cat food, can you fix it? Consumers who own their damaged slates are liable to say things that they wish they could take back, but our expert service technicians at CPR have heard it all before. Can you fix it? Can you fix my Slate?

To learn more visit: Chicagocellrepair.com

May 9, 2010 in Business News, Technology by admin

Cell Phones Since 2000

In the God’s breath of a decade, but an instant in time, cell phones have morphed into creations barely imagined just a decade ago. With all the improvements, one thing remains true: They still break, and independent repair shops are more needed than ever.

Back in 2000, when your thirteen-year-old was just a baby, there was a great commotion about the Samsung Uproar. The first MP3 phone; it was the rage. Its storage capacity was a whopping 64 MB, you could talk on the thing for more than two hours (its battery life allowed 130 minutes of talk time), although it didn’t have a camera, or WiFi, or GPS, and you had to dial in your voice commands, had no apps stored or available and cost $399, you didn’t care. You wanted one, because in 2000, 1 out of 10 people in the world, including some of those you knew and envied, owned one.

Fast forward to the year 2009, why don’t you? Your 13-year-old is now 12, as it’s last year. You just bought an Apple IPhone 3GS for Nimrod, your greedy not-so-little one. Nimrod’s toy has a storage capacity of 16 GB, which is a lot more than 64 MB. The IPhone’s battery life allows Nimrod to talk to his friend for 5 hours straight, a privilege that your loquacious 12-year-old is more than capable of, primarily due to his lung capacity, which is decent because your son doesn’t smoke, like you used to. His phone does have a camera, 3.0 megapixel, with full video recording and editing capabilities, it does WiFi, it has turn by turn GPS and digital compass; Nimrod can do voice commands with full voice control, yes he can talk Obama, and he merrily accesses the iTunes app store and can easily get 100,000+ apps, yes he can. You purchased this device last year for only $199.00. Last year, when you bought it, the thing worked, now, Nimrod managed to break it: Dad, I got to have my IPhone back, 6 out of 10 people in the world have one, please dad, pretty please with peanut butter on top?

Thank God you know of an independent repair shop down the street where expert service technicians are behind the counter ready to serve you … and especially young Nimrod. Time waits for no one; he’s a teenager now, no longer a tweener.

Jeff Gasner is with CPR-Cell Phone repair. The leader in Cell Phone Repair and iPod Repair offering cell phone repair services nationwide. Visit Chicagocellrepair.com.

May 9, 2010 in Business News, Technology by admin

Microsoft to Roll Out Pink Social Smartphones

Microsoft is about to launch a new line of smartphones that will be pink, which in this case, will not be a color, or even a color-code, but instead a code named ‘Pink.’ That’s all fine and dandy, but what happens when they break?

Mobile phones come in all shapes, sizes and colors, even pink. If Microsoft was going to launch a truly pink smartphone for the marketplace, it would target women over men, and probably gay over straight, although a lot of people probably are fond of pink that don’t fit a particular demographic or stereotype. Such strategies can be left to the marketing gurus. Since Microsoft’s new line of mobile phones will only be code-named ‘Pink,’ and are not actually pink, the point is moot. In fact, these new ‘Pink’ phones will be available to everyone when they appear in the U.S., and will be targeted to younger people due to their social-networking capabilities.

There are so many smartphones these days. Will this new smartphone be the envy of those consumers sporting iPhones or a nifty Google Nexus or perhaps a Motorola Droid that happens to be pink? Who could say, except for the Great Oz who once saw Dorothy’s Droid close up and lived to tell about it? Answers to such questions are known only by the likes of Esmeralda the Great Squirrel, a being comparable to the ancient Greek oracles on the island of Delphi before they had WiFi.

The only certainty in this world, an equalizer common to any of these devices, including the Microsoft ‘Pinkie,’ is that they are going one day to be placed in the careless hands of clueless consumers one of these days – and when that happens, the device will surely break. It could be dropped or crash against a concrete wall, or it might get wet. It might be eaten by a whale like Jonah was and regurgitated smooth as sheep intestines in the manner of bat puke. It might go hurtling under the embrace of gravity when Grandma trips on a crack in the cement when she’s not paying attention. Lots of bad things can happen to a smartphone when the person holding it isn’t very smart, at least for an instant when an accident happens. If THE smartphone that you care about most in the world should suffer an untimely mishap, you should scurry like Esmeralda would to the nearest independent repair shop where expert technicians can help. Go to the shop now, go with your Pink code smartphone.

Jeff Gasner is with CPR-Cell Phone repair. The leader in Cell Phone Repair and iPod Repair offering cell phone repair services nationwide. Visit Chicagocellrepair.com.

March 30, 2010 in Business Articles, Technology by admin

CPR Will Be Ready for 2010’s Slew of iPad Devices

With tablets arriving like gadget-faced locusts in 2010, CPR’s expert service technicians are anticipating the inevitable. When they break – they will come to our retail shops.

It’s happening. The big names and the not-so-big names are riding Apple’s wake with tablet devices of their own. Who would have thunk it: Perhaps Moses or someone Biblical-sounding. “There will come hither and thither a swarm of tablets, not with the nine commandments chiseled into their LCD screens, but all will feature mobile microprocessors, and the devices will be smart, and have apps, and allow you to take more naps.” Will they be spotted in the red sky at dawn, along with a cloud of locusts? No, these apparitions that the prophets failed to envision will be seen at electronics trade shows, and such Expos, a veritable swarm of novel devices that the deity has blessed, until they break.

These tablets, and e-readers, and mini-laptops, and whatnots will first be handed to you, perhaps by a salesperson who has not died, different versions of androids and smartphones and yes, the gadgets of whatnot, with names like Ubiquitous and Armadillo but not necessarily, and the dumb phones will become extinct, or at least consumers won’t buy them as much because they won’t be trendy, and it won’t be long before they’ll be in the hands of millions of U.S. consumers.

Magical machines, these, blessed with apps, and with a kind of functionality that is bordering on scary – until that moment – that calamitous moment – when all the correct and intelligent design in the world won’t be able to save them simply because they’ll be in the hands of … the careless consumers of which there are always bound to be a surprising number, who will crack their devices like eggs, who will drop them onto a rock or a hard place, who will accidentally flush them prior to a hasty retrieval.

When this should occur, it will be CPR time, device savings time, and the hands of an expert CPR service technician is not only going to be infinitely safer, but the fixing is upon you, the fixing is upon you – no matter what you have – or what have you – in the manner of iPad device – albeit part of a tablet swarm. Who would have thunk it? That CPR would be ready.

To learn more about Cell phone repair, ipod repair, cell repair services, visit Chicagocellrepair.com.

March 30, 2010 in Business News, Technology by admin

CPR Will Be Able to Fix AT&T’s Android, Too

It took awhile, but AT &T is finally getting its own Android and the iPhone will have a little brother. That’s nice, but if it breaks, CPR will be able to fix it, and that’s even nicer.

Everybody, when you’re talking ‘bout corporate has had their own droid, except for AT&T. While the iPhone is practically ancient (since 2007), AT&T’s spectrum of mobile devices – feature phones, BlackBerry devices, and smartphones have all primarily relied on the Windows Mobile platform, and that’s been iPhone turf. Even Verizon has come to promote the Motorola Droid – while not so subtly lambasting the iPhone’s shortcomings. But now via the Motorola Backflip, AT&T will have its own Droid. CPR is waiting in the wings.
The iPhones fail. They break, are thrown into swimming pools or land on cement walkways, and the truth is, no matter how smart your phone is, and how many apps it eats, or in the case of AT&T’s newest Android – how many revolutions it can make in the air when it’s doing a backflip – gravity sets in and when these devices break – they inevitably fail.

A day can be envisioned when CPR’s expert service technicians will be waiting for AT&T’s new Android to come damaged into their repair shop – it will need to have all of its apps restored to functionality, and they will fix it, yes they will. Will a CPR expert service technician dare to perform a backflip in exultation when the first AT&T Android is successfully repaired? Probably this won’t happen. Even so, it’s a smartphone, isn’t it? We already know the answer to that one. Yes it is. Why should a Backflip be much different than a Droid? CPR has been fixing smartphones for years now, and the number of smartphones repaired is an astounding number, said by the Wise CPR guru to exceed a gazillion. These broken smartphones, including Androids, have been made whole again, after being broken in numerous and sundry ways. It’s nice that the iPhone will have a little brother brought to you by AT&T, and even if you want to do a backflip with a Backflip – you should know that it can be fixed. If you take it to your nearest CPR, it will be fixed.

To learn more about Cell phone repair, ipod repair, cell repair services, visit Chicagocellrepair.com.

March 30, 2010 in Business News, Technology by admin

iPad with Wi-Fi Is About to be Launched

Apple’s new iPad for Wi-Fi will be available to U.S. consumers on April 3, 2010, the latest innovation in 3G multi-apps wonderment. But what happens when it breaks? That’s what independent repair shops are for.

Something I could not say fifty years ago, “The iPads for Wi-Fi will be available in the United States.” These particular iPads will be available on April 3, 2010, and other models equipped for Wi-Fi plus 3G will become available perhaps by the ides of April – if there is such an ides. As a small child, I was iPad-deprived. Yes, I’m going to admit it. It’s not easy to confess to such a thing, not once you’re past fifty. But even for geezers like me – I resemble a well-preserved centenarian – these Wi-Fi iPads – oh my – will include a pricey (~ $500) 16GB model, a pricier (~$600) 32GB device and a priciest (~$700) model with 64GB. The iPads (all of them) weigh 1.5 pounds and are ½ inch thick. Retail stores have just added 12 new applications (some people call them “apps”) and the “tablets” will run most, if not all, of the estimated 150,000 apps that exist in the Apps Universe. Which apps aren’t supported? I don’t know. Remember, I resemble a well-preserved centenarian.For those who like to do their reading via apps, according to Apple, the new iBooks app for iPad, including the iBookstore, will be available as a free download from the Apps store on April 3. I couldn’t say any of that as a child either – oh, maybe I could have, but no one would have known what I was talking about. We live in marvelous times, full of techno-wizardry and apps. Apps are everywhere. There are probably as many apps as there are squirrels. That said, squirrels don’t break – although they do die except for Immortal Squirrel – but iPads do. What should you do if you lose all your apps because you dropped your iPad and became very iSad?

Don’t fret, unless you’re a musician adept at stringed instruments too. Even this well-preserved centenarian knows that if you take your injured device to the nearest independent repair shop, that their expert service technicians will be able to make you iGlad in a nifty jiffy and you won’t have to wait fifty – years that is.

Jeff Gasner is with CPR-Cell Phone repair. The leader in Cell Phone Repair and iPod repair offering cell phone repair services nationwide. To learn more about Cell phone repair, ipod repair, cell repair services, visit Chicagocellrepair.com.