A couple of quick notes…

Just a quick note on some changes to Chapel Wireless’s service offerings.  Trust us when we say that all of this is for the benefit of mankind.  If it doesn’t appear to be to your benefit then we apologize.   You will just have to believe us  All of these changes are effective as of 5 seconds ago.

• We will no longer be offering any repair or replacement services for the original/ 2g iPhone.  I love that device.  It is slightly heavier and slightly narrower and the aluminum just feels good in your hand.  It is no doubt the slickest first release of any recent piece of tech.  The issue is that it is a $%&* to work on.  It really is a case of “more trouble than it’s worth”.  The cost of parts and intensity of labor put it in the Beyond Economical Repair category for the vast majority of consumers.  If this causes you pain we apologize.  Our open position has been to upgrade for some time now, we are just putting action to the sentiment.
• We are cutting the cost on nearly all repair and replacement services for the iPhone 3g.  You can expect to pay an average of 20% less on almost all that we offer with the exception things like full transplants and water damage.  Pricing will be up on the website shortly, but for example replacement of cracked glass is now under $100.00; a savings of over $20.00 and fully half of what you can expect to pay at an apple store.  In addition, thanks to some innovative advances in tactics, we can get you out of the door in less than 5 minutes in most cases as opposed to 5 days with the genius bar.
• Chapel wireless will be stocked, locked, loaded and looking to execute on 3GS repairs within a week.  Call us at 985.845.4800 or drop us an email for updates on the availability of those parts and repairs.  The cost on 3GS repair services has yet to be finalized, but we will have that for you soon enough!

Big thanks to everyone through this little transition.  Please feel free to contact us for any reason at all.  We answer the phone

The Quick and Dirty on Battery Replacement

“Battery life was never great, but this is getting a little out of hand…”  If you have noticed the longevity of your iPhone has been diminished as of late, it may just be the natural way of things.  If you were an early adopter of the 3G and have not slid into a 3G S as of yet, then chances are you are about to be in the business of changing your battery.  Apple claims that the 3G is good for around 400 charge cycles– unlike many manufacturers their battery numbers are usually pretty alright so we will give the Cuppertino boys the benefit of the doubt on that one.  So what does 400 cycles look like?

I have never known anyone to go more than a full 24 hours of  regular usage without needing to shackle up to that white ball and chain we call a charging cable.  Sorry, it just doesn’t happen.  Unless you have all location, data polling, and multimedia functions disabled and stay strictly on edge while keeping your phone locked religiously, you are probably plugging in on the way home from work every day.  The point is that even under “normal” usage your time between charges is probably 18-20 hours, which puts your 400 cycles ending around yesterday.

So what can you expect to gain from a battery swap?  It is very dependent on your usage patterns, but there is certainly no reason why even under heavy data usage why you should be able to leave the charger at home tomorrow morning.  Unless you are watching season 2 of lost while “working”, in which case you may still need to bring it.  So what next?

1. You can send your handset off to Apple for replacement if you don’t mind spending nearly $90.00 to be without your phone for 5+ days amd losing all of your data. (Better than nothing)
2. You can send your handset off to a 3rd party and you can be without your phone for 5+ days and $15.00 richer with data intact. (Better than Apple)
3. You can swing by Chapel Wireless and have your iPhone back in your hands in less than 30 minutes with data intact and enough money left over for lunch.  (Infinitely better than any other solution)

Lets not forget that your wireless device is supposed to be wireless. You don’t have to live like this with your iPhone shackled to a white chain for half the day.  Call, write or drop by for any additional details or answers to wireless questions.   Contact data can be found here as always.

Anticlimactic: iPhone 3.0

If you are one of the millions of iPhone owners who braved the congested servers and and fought back potential download snafus in search of mobile software bliss, I have some news for you if you haven’t figured it out already:  There is not much to be excited about.  Now before you go shaking you that arthritic, forever cocked in swiping position finger of yours at me, lets take an objective look at this incremental improvement.

I own an iPhone and i think that it is easily in the top 5 pieces of consumer technology to be born in my nearly 30 years on this planet.   I am not going to sing of its wonder or worship at the alter of Jobs, but I assure you that my right index finger is also arthritic.  Also in all fairness,  I use a jailbroken device and frankly don’t know if I could go back to the big house.

1.  MMS
I am not a huge user of MMS and never have been, but for those who are:  No dice.  At least not yet  Your SMS icon now bears no initials as if to indicate that it is now “messages” but no sendy or receivy.  Supposedly be here round August if you are drinking the At&t kool-aid.  I have had a conversation with an At&t engineer and he confirmed my theory which will be forthcoming.

This is anticlimactic because: 1.  Well, you can’t even freaking use it, and 2.  This has been available through several apps via Cydia, most notably Swirly.  Although the At&t cripple does effect the function of Swirly MMS as well if you are really motivated, you can make it happen.

2.  Tethering
Tethering your phone to your computer is incredibly useful.  It has saved me more than a few times both on the road and in the office during an outage.  Guess what?  No dice here either.  Word is you can get this functionality in August as well.  Are you seeing a pattern here?  The end of the summer appears to be some sort of a chronological  calling card for iPhone functionality.  Although if you have been waiting for this, you are no stranger to waiting.

This is anticlimacic because: 1. Again, you cant even utilize the functionality.  Grrrrrr, and 2. This has been available since 2007 with SSH and has been fool-proof since the second quarter of 2008 with apps such as PDAnet.  Oh and by the way, when At&t enables tethering I am sure that you will enjoy the $30.00 additional charge to your bill and the 5gb bandwidth limit.  Cheers.

3.  Cut, Copy, Paste
This option actually kept me out of an iPhone for quite some time.  I need this.  No self respecting individual should tolerate being without the ability to efficiently move information from application to application.  The fact that it took over 2 years to roll this out is a criminal offense.

Why is this anticlimactic?  Well for starters this also has been available to jailbroken iPhones for quite a while and since the release of Clippy it has been a no brainer. Clippy is an 87kb download that boasts SYSTEM-WIDE cut copy paste that is actually far better than what the 3.0 offers.  Cut, copy, paste, delete and most importantly a stack-able clipboard.  Keep oft used blocks of text at hand all the time.

4.  Spotlight Search
Search functionality on a smart phone?  Say it ain’t so…  Actually if you own any “smart” device produced in the last 5 years then you are already accustomed to having this.  My nearly 4 year old BlackBerry had a really handy search feature.  Thanks for the innovation apple.

First off what can we search?  Contacts, mail meta data (but not message content), calendars, media, and a bit more.  That is just a hare limited in my opinion, not to mention that again, this has been available since almost day one of the iPhone’s existence.  With sophisticated search apps such as quick-gold adding support for web links, quick launching common and recently used apps and access to the iPhone’s 4 keyboard varieties depending on the type of data you are looking for, it is pretty tough to impress.

5.  Landscape Mode
You can turn the phone sideways to utilize a much larger and easier to operate keyboard to type in URL’s but not to type emails or text messages.   I don’t know what engineer suggested this but now 2 years after the release of the device they have had a change of heart.  Let’s look at this:  I think there have been around 8 software releases since the iPhone’s inception and now we get this “advanced” feature.

Landscape mode is and has been available for SMS and email via several applications my favorite being biteSMS .  biteSMS offers landscape mode, forward and delete of individual message  bubbles, allows you to receive AND SEND tex messages on top of nearly any open application, and offers a quick compose that is accessible from any screen as well.  Not to mention that if you have a pay per text plan or text internationally, their credit based messaging is at least half the price of At&t!

Conclusion
The 3.0 update is.. well an update.  It is an incremental improvement not much different than the ones that M$ asks me to install on a monthly basis.  I can keep on talking about how and why I feel this way as I have about 15 additional points, but this post is getting long.  I would rather shut up and listen.

iPhone 3G S Upgrade Giveaway!

Starting Friday, Chapel Wireless is giving away (2) iPhone 3G S in our shop in Mandeville. No, we won’t ask you to whore yourself out on a social media scavenger hunt to get the goods. We are just asking that you finally get that cracked-up, jacked-up screen on your 3g fixed. Nothing more, nothing less.

• Come on over to Chapel Wireless and have your touchscreen and/ or LCD replaced and you just might leave with a brand new 3G S. Starting 6/19/09 we are going to hand out a new iPhone 3G S to the 25th and 50th customer through the door that hands thier 3g over for touchscreen/ LCD replacement.

• While there is no guarantee that you will get out of here with a $600.00 mobile device, we guarantee you that 2 people will. We will post pics of the lucky customers getting the hookup on facebook and twitter as well as our website and blog. Let’s not forget that the worst case scenario is that you get your present 3g repaired while you wait for the results

• Of course, while we won’t require you to tell the the world at large how great Chapel is at what we do, or how noble and generous we are in our pursuits, we do certainly appreciate it:) Lastly, remember that Chapel Wireless gives 15% off on repair services to active followers on twitter, and fans on facebook. Please check out the FAQ for more information. Thanks!

The Lowdown on Water Damage: part deux

Well, well, it doesn’t take long for the game to change completely now does it.  It wasn’t but a few precious days ago that we at the Smart Device Blog went through  a quick but fairly thorough rundown on the ins and outs of handling the fallout one encounters after providing their handset with swimming lessons.  Our goal was to dispel some of the myths surrounding revival of water-logged mobile electronics and to provide some realistic sense of the hope one may cling to if ever faced with such circumstances.

We stick to and stand by our story unwaveringly and we can and do raise devices from watery graves.  In fact, we just brought two more back yesterday, and will probably get two more in before the end of the day.  But again, the primary factor behind taking the chance and furthermore spending the money necessary to replace individual components was summed up as a main point in the first post:

“While we have heard reports of convincing the guys at the Genius Bar to send drowned handsets off for “repair” we don’t put too much stock in that considering apples policy expressly states that “service may not be available if your iPhone has been damaged due to accident or abuse”  And we know of several people personally that have been shown the door.”

Seems though, if you haven’t already heard via one channel or another, that the “geniuses” have had a change of heart.  As first reported by AppleInsider there is a new equation: water-logged iPhone + $200.00 = Refurb and 2 more years of your life.   Albeit temporarily.  The general consensus is that apple is trying to move the 1000s and 1000s of refurbished 3g handsets before the anticipated launch of the “new” iPhone.  We have not independently verified this report, but AppleInsider is as solid a source as you can get a handle on.

So, what’s this mean for both you and for us?  Well for you, it means this in our “educated” opinion:

1.  If your iPhone has encountered either chlorine or sugar and after following the procedures documented here and elsewhere you cannot get your device to fire up, AND you either are fully backed up via iTunes or you had very little in terms of data in and on your iPhone THEN  skip ANY water damage repair service.  Including ours.  Go straight to apple and spend the 200 bones and save yourself the time, anxiety, and potential heartbreak.  In love and water damage there are no guarantees and the ability to get a working, warrantied handset $300.00+ dollars off of retail is too good a deal.  It’s an odds game.

2.  If your iPhone has fallen in the toilet, or the tub, or the sink, or was rained on, or likes pond water, or was a “workout victim” AND was removed from moisture quickly your chances are actually quite good for a full recovery.  If it was fresh water and it was submerged for a time BUT you started a responsible drying regimen AND have not plugged the device in, then again your chances for recovery are fair as well.  We would suggest that it is worth the bench fee to take a good crack at it.

3.   If your iPhone has encountered any type of moisture and you have done nothing about it for 3 weeks and now you OR you have repeatedly plugged it in while wet and attempted to charge or power on the device AND you have decided that you would like it to miraculously start functioning properly, we got news for you:  It aint looking good brother.  We will try and we have seen it happen,  but you acted irresponsibly and will probably be punished for it, but at least with this new policy you wont get whipped too bad.

If you would like any additional information or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at support@chapelwireless.com or reach out to us via any other channel.  Thanks again!

Is there anything that you don’t want your “phone” to do?

When does a phone cease to be a phone?  This is a question that I find myself asking from time to time.  It certainly appears  for an increasing segment of society, that  the voice-based  functionality which is the primary feature of the “phone” is quickly becoming a non starter.  Nielsen has previously submitted data demonstrating that SMS messaging has surpassed voice calls in terms of quantity.   On average people are sending about 150 more text messages than they are making phone calls on a monthly basis.  As you could imagine, with young people this of trend gets downright loony with 13-17 year olds sending over 1500 more SMS messages than phone calls.  Per month…  That is ridiculous.  Now, also bear in mind that that is only SMS messages.  This does not include MMS messages, traffic across “phone” based IM clients, or email messages.

So strictly speaking of 2-way communication, it is pretty plain to see that your “phone” is no longer being used as a phone, or more precisely that for many– the dialing and talking is an afterthought.  Communication is only increasing but it is trending away from voice.  Or is it?  The simple, simple, truth is that talking will never become a non-issue.  Only that it will fill a very specific place in the scheme of things and be utilized as such, and that the protocol behind how voice is handled will be different.  In short:  It is not necessary to depend upon call quality and coverage as as your determining factor when purchasing a handset, and it hasn’t been for years.  If it still were,  the iPhone would have been a complete failure.  The iPhone is a mediocre phone on it’s best day.

But the iPocketComputingDevice is very, very good at being nearly everything but a phone and guess what?  When faced with all of that functionality housed within a 7.2 ounce frame, people care less about dropping calls.  Who needs calls when you have iBeer.  Seriously though, when you have 695mhz in your shirt pocket you have plenty more to be concerned with than the hissing, scratchy voice of your Aunt Edna.  You  just send her an email instead.

But what else could your pocket computer do for you?  I’m typing this on an MSI wind nettop with a dual-core atom that draws about 4 watts at idle.  Mobile handsets will break the 1gigahertz barrier by this time next year placing their processing power on par with  a machine capable of running windows XP servicably and then what?  Onward and upward is the manner of things and you can use your own imagination.  Is it too much?  Apparently not yet.

Earlier today Electronista reported that Chip manufacturer Renesas has developed a mobile chip, the SH7370 which is capable of playing 1080p video at 30 fps.  Placing not only decoding of blue ray quality video on your “phone” but encoding as well.  It’s a ways away and will be up against bandwidth constraints, but soon it will be possible to  to shoot, compress, and upload hd video from your telephone.  How absurd does that sound?   This is of course in addition to everything else that we have outlined, in addition to whats already in the pipe and coming to a handset to you, and in addition to what can possibly be conceived in the near and not too distant future by the same generation that sends 1700+ text messages a month.

SMS, MMS, IM, email, internet, intranet, file sharing, project management, document editing, document publishing, media player, video streaming, HD encoding, Bio-Metric analysis, VOIP, social networking, microblogging, stock trading, time tracking, iBeer and the occasional phone call.   I am an early adopter and technophile, but seriously: Is there anyting that you don’t want your “phone” to do?

RIM’s Q1 Smartphone Sales: What’s More Shocking?

I was sent a link a little earlier today to a C|NET article by Lance Whitney on Q1 Smartphone sales figures which were just released by the NPD Group.   A whole lot is being made about the number one slot.  Hold up;  it isn’t because of it’s 3.xx firmware update or the possibility of new hardware, because those stories belong to #2.

Yep, that’s right.  Apples now ubiquitous, game changing handset was outsold and by none other than RIM.  “WHAT?!  But that can’t possibly be true?!”  Oh, but it is.  For more C|Net commentary on the issue check out this post by Dave Rosenerg

Now of course that’s not really all that shocking when you begin to be reasonable about the data.  For instance: This includes every 83xx series blackberry curve which is available on every major carrier in the United States and beyond.  Apple’s smart device is of course relegated to AT&T.  But still, with the majesty and power of the apple marketing machine and the participation of all of fan-boi-dom in their hyping, it is a remarkable thing.

Now for something that is really shocking:  The #3 spot went to none other than the much lambasted and ill-launched BlackBerry Storm.  Errrr, say what?  Yep again.  The seemingly forever maligned  and constantly mocked Sure-Click touchscreen replete with software snafus has taken to #3.  Now, I personally have no beef with the Storm, but I have never owned one either.  However, I did make an undocumented prediction back in December that the Storm, while not an iPhone killer, was a much better device than it’s software and the media were painting it as being.  Well, a few firmware updates and a realistic but potent, primarily price-based marketing strategy later this is the result.

I think that things will get real interesting as the Palm Pre gets becomes a contender, which leads me to wonder if any one device can rule them all.  So what is the bigger shock to you?  The loss of iPhone supremecy or the seeming revival being experienced by the Storm?

Free iPhone Insurance!?

Network Protection

Wireless Insurance. Unfortunately the days of spending $2.49 a month to throw your phone at a brick wall for fun are gone. These days you’re looking at 5 bucks a month minimum with a deductible as much as $129.00 and plenty of strings attached and exceptions.

Worst of all, if you are one of the millions of people who have plunked down the cash to go with an apple iPhone, then you are just straight out of luck. There is no first party insurance. Once you leave AT&T they have washed their hands of you. Although apple offers great service, it doesn’t cover most insurance related issues such as theft, physical damage, water damage, or loss.

You cannot so much as drop the thing without thinking of having to come out of pocket $200.00-$300.00 for “repair” service from apple, which is actually product replacement service. (And no, it isn’t a new product.) It is someone else’s product that got smashed just like yours. Except it isn’t yours, it wasn’t cared for by you, it doesn’t have your data or your apps on it. Your data is still on your phone in the hands of a tech in a refurb facility somewhere in Mexico.

So whats the point here? The point is that while we can’t insure your phone against theft, loss, swimming lessons, or mid-air collisions with tomahawk missiles, we can insure your device against the occasional drop or fallout from your latest break-up. And it won’t cost you a dollar.

So What is Network Protection?
Simply put: Network Protection is protection that you earn by networking. Simply refer 5 friends, family members, co-workers, or strangers to Chapel Wireless for iPhone repair* and stop sweating the small stuff. We will replace your top glass/ digitizer and LCD if necessary at absolutely no cost to you. Literally 90+% of iPhone repair is tied to those 3 components and Chapel has you covered.

The first thing that we ask people who either walk through the door or submit an order online is, “How did you hear about Chapel?” We note their response in our CRM software and invoice system. When 5 people have informed us that “Matt Smith” sent them, Matt receives an email with a coupon and code. It’s that simple: So start networking and get protected!

Stay tuned to twitter, facebook, and this blog for additional details and success stories!

*Please see this page for additional details and restrictions.

The quick and dirty on water damage.

We just had another iPhone walk in the door that decided to go swimming.  We see quite a bit of this and will only see more as summer draws closer.

You may have seen web based repair houses that claim to be able to bring any device back from the dead. They show pictures of phones in full glasses of water and people talking on them in swimming pools. That stuff is cute and all, but reality is a bit different. While we can and DO restore mobile devices that have experienced varying degrees of moisture we have to be realistic with people. Especially since the majority of our business is local and we may bump into them at the Rouses down the street.

Here is a quick rundown on what to do if you have to jump in the pool to save a drowning child with your device attached to your hip.

1. Remove the battery if it is removable and if it isn’t removable power it down. Electricity is the enemy! Do not power the device back up and certainly don’t attempt to charge it. You may short out sensitive components.

2. Wipe visible water from device. If the device was submerged then you can gently move it around to help expel standing water. Just don’t give it the maraca treatment and don’t use a heat gun or hair dryer. You may push water deeper into the handset. Resist the urge to run it through the oven. It will be strong.

3. Place device in a sealed container or zip-lock bag with silical gel and/ or dried rice. The silica (Those little packets in shoe boxes) and rice effectively wicks water away from your handset. If you have a vacuum sealer, removing air from the bag or container will speed up the process. Start saving those little packets right now for emergency purposes.

5. Let the device sit for a minimum of 24-36 hours. We recommend 2.5 to 3 days. If you bring it on over to us we will do the same exact thing except we will break the phone down into base components first to speed up the process in addition to cleaning the major contacts inside the device. Something we do not suggest trying on your own.

6. Cross your fingers and pray, pray, pray. BE PATIENT. Many a device is lost because the owner “Just can’t take it anymore!” and tries to fire it up, or attempts to charge it before the device is completely moisture free

Bear in mind that speed is of absolute importance. Your chances of success decrease with every passing hour.  While we have heard reports of convincing the guys at the Genius Bar to send drowned handsets off for “repair” we don’t put too much stock in that considering apples policy expressly states that “service may not be available if your iPhone has been damaged due to accident or abuse”  And we know of several people personally that have been shown the door.  We have personally identified 4 H2O detection devices in the 3g and there are supposedly 2 more somewhere, so lying isn’t going to help either.

We hope that this information is helpful. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to drop us a line at support@chapelwireless.com or reach out to us via any other channel.
Thanks!