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

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

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.

Tags: Cell Phone Repair, Cell Repair Services, iPod repair
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Android Devices and Apps Big in Barcelona

Friday, March 12th, 2010

The mid-February Mobile World Congress in Barcelona became a groundbreaking event for introducing a blizzard of Android phones, other devices, and their apps. While the open architecture of the Android platform has made it the “next new thing,” one certainty still exists: In the hands of human consumers, devices, no matter what makes their guts run, will still break. When that inevitably happens, your independent repair shop is still around the corner.

The buzz was in Barcelona because the Androids were coming. Not in the sense of humanoid robots set to conquer the Spanish city – but instead like high-tech Conquistadors in reverse. This incarnation is the newest techno-rage – a blitz of Android phones, appliances, and applications at the ready to invade world consumer markets. Stars were featured, things yes, but akin to human celebrities being showcased at the Golden Globe awards. Chipsets such as the BCM4760 for personal navigation or perhaps Broadcom’s BCM4329 chip that is integral to Google’s Nexus One. Think of Android handsets from Huawei, or Motorola’s new Droid smartphone.

Android means new features for smartphones and smart feature phones. Despite occasional malware that is able to sneak in to the open architecture like the proverbial Trojan horse, new vistas are being conquered and you don’t even have to peer through Windows to find them.

Smartphones and their cousins will continue to make a splash in market share pools, and the Android architecture is only making them more ubiquitous. But what happens when your expensive Android smartphone or smart feature phone makes a real splash in an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and there’s not a Trojan to be seen? What happens when it lands and cracks on a cement walkway (and there are several of these in the world now that cement is no longer a novelty)? While its open architecture won’t help it, an independent repair shop very well might.

At independent repair shops, the Conquistadors are expert service techs trained in the functioning of cellphone innards, ready to fix anything – even an Android smartphone – that is walked into the convenient shop by its owner, usually a consumer. What tale of woe that is related by the human, or perhaps by the telltale Android if it’s sophisticated enough – is of little consequence. “My pet crocodile crunched my phone,” a customer might assert. Without judgment regarding the wisdom of keeping such exotic pets, a canny service tech will know how to fix your broken gizmo – assuming that magic or an act of God is not the downlow. Such service techs can be found at independent repair shops – you bet they can.

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.

Tags: Cell Phone Repair, Cell Repair Services, iPod repair
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Solar Cells Can Recharge Cell Phones

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Solar cells use photosensitive dye to provide power for e-book readers to cell phones, but what happens when a solar charged cell phone breaks? Independent repair shops will still be on standby.

New solar cells can convert sunlight to energy, in much the same way that leaves use chlorophyll to begin photosynthesis. The key is a photosensitive dye expressed by miniature solar panels that can assume as many shapes as the humanoid “shape shifters,” a species of extraterrestrial alien once featured on a Star Trek spinoff television series. E-book readers will stitch the thin, flexible panels into the reader’s cover. New lines of backpacks and sports bags already have the solar cells housed inside their fabric to recharge cell phones and music players.

The only prerequisite is light, either full direct sunshine for best results, or dappled and ambient light, such as fluorescent bulbs used indoors, for acceptable results.

The newest technological twist is the dye. Until this innovation, photovoltaic cells consisted of silicon or related inorganic materials, not dyes.

The dye-sensitized cells have become increasingly efficient at converting sunlight and other ambient light into electricity. It works like this: Within the solar cell, the dye is painted in a thin layer on a porous titanium dioxide scaffold to collect light, and in a series of steps, to create power.

All well and good, but fast forward a year or two, when solar cells have become commonplace to charge waning cell phones. The very employment of this technology is likely to mean less dependence on cell phone manufacturers as conventional chargers become passé.

Manufacturer warranties will also become increasingly passé as consumer independence becomes the rule, instead of the exception. Cell phones, even smartphones, which will by then no doubt approach genius level, will no longer need battery chargers. But humans being what they are, these devices will still be subject to human error, and BREAK. With all this extra autonomy for consumers, what then? What options for repair will still exist? Not to fret, not yet. Independent repair shops are likely to be more prevalent in this brave new solar-charged world, not less.

Cell phones and their cousins are likely to be cracked and smashed, or damaged by water, or even get infiltrated into their delicate mechanisms by such prosaic invaders such as a dash of eggnog. But skilled service technicians will know what to do then, just as they do now.

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.

Tags: Cell Phone Repair, Cell Repair Services, iPod repair
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When Your Smartphone Is Hacked

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

CPR is the company to call when your smartphone is hacked.

2010 is not the start of a new decade. We’ll have to wait another year for that. But as the last year of the 21st Century’s first decade, one of a smartphone consumer’s biggest worries is security. There are a whole lot of threats out there. So many viral worms now exist, that they now have their own condo community with its singular zip code starting with 666. Cloud breaches no longer pertain to hailstones falling through a cumulonimbus. We’ve recently seen Heartland Payment Systems’ ugly invasion and been confounded by the Conficker worm – which renowned journalist Tom Wicker had nothing to do with. In fact, the saying “There’s nothing sicker than Conficker” may soon be surpassed by the next botnet, phishing scam, or fake anti-virus software to sleaze along. What’s especially ominous to some consumers is that smartphones like the Apple iPhone and Google’s Nexus One are already within the sights of bad people who do bad things to good smartphones, increasingly the way PC desktops were just a few years ago.

The newest threat may be malware attacks against “jailbroken” iPhones – iPhones whose owners have deliberately disabled Apple controls so that they can free themselves from an onerous carrier or migrate on their own to a different operating system. With low-level access thus sabotaged by the consumer, the manufacturer is in effect, “locked out” of providing software anti-viral remedies that can be anywhere close to current.

An increasingly popular option for protecting smartphones from being hacked is to take your apps-loaded little phone machine to your nearest CPR. Here in this hacker-whacker environment, the possibility for your phone to remain compromised by some malignant force drops practically to zero within hours, or a day or two in the shop at most. While creating a jailbroken iPhone may not have been the most prudent idea to begin with – it doesn’t have to mean a trip to a smartphone morgue. You should still shy away with any zip code starting with 666 and phishing is pronounced “fishing,” when you bring a pole, and if you swallow a botnet you should spit it out immediately – but everything gets better even for slackers if not hackers if you simply be smart and take your phone to CPR.

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

Tags: Cell Phone Repair, Cell Repair Services, iPod repair
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Making Gadgets Safe from Kids

Friday, February 5th, 2010

In this safety conscious world the focus is typically on making techno-gizmos, everything from smartphones to gaming systems to computers, safe for kids. But how safe is a laptop, smartphone, or Play Station 3 in the hands of a careless kid? Is there a “hospital” option for maimed gadgets?

Kids in this day and age have easier access to technology, gadgets, games and information than ever before. Many kids believe this is the greatest benefit to growing up in this century, while parents and authority figures have argued that with the rapid rate of evolution, kids don’t even have to leave home for danger to find them.

Sprint has entered into a partnership with a group of leading child-education and protection organizations to create a security system called 4NetSafety.This will ensure that all phones, computers and even video game systems that can access the Internet will have every conceivable safety precaution on-board before they are used by kids. The best news about this partnership: It’s free to use.

4NetSafety teaches parents and kids about how to protect you and your family while surfing the web. Some features include animated videos, safety tips such as selecting gender-neutral screen names, not putting any personal information in e-mail addresses or online profiles, and what could be the most important tip: Never meet in person someone you first met online.
Now that your kids are safe from online predation, what can you do to make your technology safe from them? Supervision is usually a good start to protecting fragile electronics but you can’t always keep your eye on both your kids and your gadgets. What if you happen to leave your iPhone in the bathroom and your 3-year-old has to go potty. You think she is big enough to go by herself. She does but didn’t get her pants off in time and knocked your phone on the floor right into the puddle of piddle. This wouldn’t have been such a big deal if the screen hadn’t also cracked upon impact.

What do you do when situations like this occur? A savvy consumer would start by cleaning up the puddle and the kid. The next step is almost a no-brainer in the sense that a kid could have thought of it: Head for the nearest independent repair shop. If they have expert service technicians on-site, they can dry out your phone, replace your screen, and fix whatever else needs fixing. But still, to make your gadgets truly safe from your kids, you might need an assist from God, or at least some extraterrestrial in authority.

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.

Tags: Cell Phone Repair, Cell Repair Services, iPod repair
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