Blog Archives

Did Apple sneak a waterproof phone into the market without telling anyone?

9/28/2015

Short answer: maybe

Slightly longer answer: probably not

Even longer answer: While the evidence is largely anecdotal, Apple has certainly modified the iPhone design. These modifications seem to keep water out - to an extent, as found in various internet searches. Our iPhone 6SP isn't scheduled for delivery until tomorrow, so while we haven't actually seen these modifications personally, the internet has no shortage of 6S and 6SP teardowns and tests. Below is just one screenshot of a video on YouTube questioning this very subject.

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Does the new 6S and 6S Plus break when dropped?

9/24/2015

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Watch for yourself to find out!

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The 6S is released tomorrow. Is leasing it right for you?

9/24/2015

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On this eve of the latest iPhone release date, I heard a couple of radio hosts discussing Apple’s new lease option to get a new iPhone every year. Granted, they were discussing this from Apple’s perspective and how much money it will bring into Apple’s already over-sized bank accounts. But, is the lease program right for the average consumer?

For the most part, ri4d.com says NO! Leasing rarely makes sense for the average consumer and the iPhone is no different.

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Rice is nice, but it's not for your wet device!

9/18/2015

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Cell Phone Water Damage Repair Is Not Easy...

9/13/2015

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...in some cases. Unfortunately, in those cases, the process of repairing wet cell phones grinds to a halt as board-level repair is very time consuming. Thus, at this time, we are no longer offering a full recovery of your phone for just $45.00 + parts as we once did.

Since launching this website in January, 2015, we have received close to 150 wet cell phones for repair in addition to various solder repairs (charge ports, buttons, etc). At times, the rate at which wet phones were being repaired slowed significantly due to one phone requiring extensive board-level testing/repairing. Then the repair speed would pick back up until the next rabbit hole phone showed up and required extensive testing and board-level repair.

This is neither fair for our customers or our repair shop as phones deemed rabbit-holes bring the repair queue to a halt. Not sure what a rabbit-hole phone is? Eli, the Computer Guy does a great job explaining it in the video below.

So, from this point forward, we can no longer offer "water damage restoration" with a guarantee that you will receive a working phone. While ALL wet phones CAN be fixed, I learned a new acronym while at the CTIA conference in Las Vegas last week: BER. You can pronounce that as B.E.R. or phonetically as "bear". BER stands for "beyond economic recovery". I learned this acronym from a booth at the conference for a company that does nothing but cell phone refurbishing. The guy at the booth explained their model of identifying BER devices so that they do not waste time trying to refurbish it. BER's cost companies money and we, at ri4d.com is not immune to this loss. If a dead phone is deemed, "not economically viable", we will not work on it for the sake of reviving a dead device.

We will still offer water damage repair. After all, that is the foundation of this website. However, the name has been changed from "water damage recovery" to "water damage cleaning". (link for that is here: http://www.riceisfordinner.com/store/p17/Water_Damage_Cleaning.html) Your phone will still be stripped to its bare components and the protective shields removed from the logic board (only way to do water damage repair work properly), then cleaned in one of our high-end ultrasonic cleaners (not a jewelry cleaner), reassembled and tested. If components such as the battery, buttons, charge port, screen, etc are found to be defective due to the water damage, we will submit an estimate for replacing those items and send an invoice for the balance due upon your approval. Many cell phones can be restored under this approach. It's the handful of phones that don't come back to life after ultrasonic cleaning that have high potential for becoming a Rabbit Hole to Hell and becomes the proverbial "wrench" tossed into the gears, grinding everything to a halt.

I've always been the last to give up on something, so this isn't an easy decision to come to, but for company viability and out of fairness to all of our customers, ri4d.com will no longer chase down problems on all wet phones sent in for repair.

As an alternative solution for those who have damaged devices, whether by water or other means, we will now offer a data recovery only option at a flat rate of $199 and a no-data, no-pay guarantee. Meaning, if you send your dead device to us for data retrieval and we cannot get the data off, then you pay nothing. We cannot offer it for less than $199 because of hours of work needed to get to the data recovery point. This is a flat-rate no matter the device and is perfect for anyone with once-in-a-lifetime photos and videos, contact lists, and other information that wasn't backed up prior to the accident that caused the device to no longer function. This option can be found here: http://www.riceisfordinner.com/store/p35/Data_Recovery.html

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CTIA Show Las Vegas

9/8/2015

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This is just a short announcement that riceisfordinner.com is leaving for Las Vegas today to attend the CTIA Super Mobility show in Las Vegas, NV. Information on this event can be found here: http://www.ctia.org/ctia-show

We have received notifications of at least 4 packages en route to our mailing address for repair and we have 5 devices currently on our workbenches awaiting parts. We'll try and get emails out to everyone regarding their devices while in Las Vegas, if the device is still in our office, otherwise you'll be receiving it in the mail shortly. We will be out of the office all week, and returning on Monday, September 14th.

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I wonder if Conan ever put his wet phone in rice

9/6/2015

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Dropped my phone in the toilet

9/6/2015

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I'm sure it goes down like this sometimes.

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The notorious iPad mini backlight problem (that isn't really a problem)

9/6/2015

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Any DIYers out there ever take on their own iPad mini screen replacement, and everything went well, right up until you powered it on and it does nothing - until you notice the faint Apple logo under a bright light? You let it boot up, then try to frantically adjust the brightness with the slider, but it does nothing. Has this ever been you, or someone you know?

If so, keep reading!

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Purpose

#1 Blogging to inform the masses of the silliness that is: "put your wet phone in rice". Rice cannot save your phone; follow the blog to find out why. If you feel like rice saved your phone, you got lucky. Nothing more. Nothing less.

#2 To offer high quality repair services, phone, and of course, rice accessories at a great price. Be sure to visit the store. New products and services are continually being added, so check back often.

Purpose

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