We’ve blogged about “Do It Yourself” iPhone 3G and 3G S repairs before, but we wanted to post this.

This iPhone 3G S was dropped and it’s top glass is broken. It’s owner bought a new glass/digitizer off the Internet after he watched a DIY video that made the repair look pretty easy to handle. Sadly, in the process of trying to remove the glass from the iPhone he also broke the iPhone’s LCD. So while this well meaning client was trying to save a few dollars, he could have had the unit fixed same day if he had just brought it in to MacMedics.

See large size photo of this iPhone 3G S here.

You can see all of our previous posts about our warning regarding DIY iPhone repairs at this link.

I’ll recap three things here:

1. It only costs about $20 to $30 more to have MacMedics fix your iPhone or iPod. If you figure in ALL the costs: The replacement part, the shipping of that part, is the part you ordered BOTH the correct part and actually genuine?, the special tools needed, the correct adhesives to attach the parts, the fact that MacMedics will warranty our work for one year, and the fact that if you try the repair yourself, you’re taking on a whole bunch of risk. (Trust us folks, the people who sell the parts WANT to make it look easy, it’s not. Plus, many of the bloggers that HAVE done the repair, say if given the choice, they would not do it again!)

2. How fast do you want to have your iPhone fixed? How about same day? If you buy a part on-line, you have to wait for it to arrive, pay for shipping, and then have the time to perform the repair.

3. Are you properly grounded for static? Most likely not! Our techs perform all repairs in a static safe environment and perform the work while they are properly grounded. Our lab facility has been inspected by Apple and meets their requirements for Apple Authorized Service Providers.

UPDATE 12/26/10: I’m re-posting this Blog POST from last January, because lots of folks are spending time during the X-Mas/New Year holidays to do some house keeping on data from 2010. I’m sure lots of people got new Macs for the holidays too, so be sure to read the Blog post below.

Two things to remember:

1. Never delete data that has not been certified in it’s new location or on a new computer.

2. Never use a computer to process and generate mission critical data without a back-up.

Always keep your data in two places at once while moving over to a new computer!

When folks buy a new computer (or get one as a gift during the holidays) and then transfer the data to the new Mac, they are often anxious to re-purpose, re-gift, or re-sell the old Macintosh. So much so, that once they see the new unit is up and running, they will ERASE the old unit and put a fresh OS on it in preparation for it’s new life. In many cases they have already made a deal to sell their old Mac (or give it away to a family member) and the sale is “pending” on them getting the new Mac up and running. So there’s often some pressure to get the job done quickly and complete the transaction.

NEVER EVER transfer or migrate your current data over to a new Mac (then delete your old data or sell an old computer) and assume that you’re safer then you were with the old drive. Data SHOULD always be in two places at once!

If you need to erase an old computer and you’ve just transferred ALL of your data to a new shiny computer, don’t let that “new computer” feeling of safety (because it’s new I’m at LESS risk!) distract you! If it’s a new Mac, run a quick Time Machine back up or clone your drive with SuperDuper BEFORE you erase that old data. In fact, one very safe way to back up and then test your data is to make a bootable clone of your data (you can do this with SuperDuper), you can then “boot” off this clone and test to ensure your data is all there. This way if something gets fouled up in the migration or transfer, you can at least have a bootable copy of your data and use that to work off of until you can sort things out. Don’t forget to ensure that new backup is also working correctly. This is a common issue, so DON’T fall into this trap!

You ALWAYS need to have your data in two places at once WHILE you are moving over to a new Macintosh laptop or desktop. Very often we see client suffer data loss during this time of transfer. In many cases the clients first scan of the data is positive and everything looks fine. Then they erase their old computer, only to learn that their e-mail or iPhoto database is corrupted, and they’ve lost some or all of their data during transfer.

You’re at a greater risk for data loss on a new computer right out of the box then one that has been in use for more than 90 days.

With all hard drives (and new hard drives in NEW computers) there’s a 30 to 60 day “burn-in” that if the drive is going to give up on you there’s a pretty good chance that it will fail in that time frame. There are almost no DOA hard drives, so the ones that have issues are the ones that develop one in that first 30-60 days. If a hard drive comes off the line at the factory and it’s got an issue, they catch those, and destroy them. In fact, it’s been quite some time, since a hard drive has arrived here at MacMedics “Dead On Arrival”. In a few cases we see them dead, when they have been improperly packaged for shipment. We cannot afford to have one of our client’s computers to have a sick hard drive installed in it, so if a batch of hard drives comes to us and they were shipped by an idiot, then back they go. Thankfully we buy by the case, so the factory shipping container is usually very sturdy, so this is not an issue very often.

See my website at http://www.HardDrivesDie.com. Yeah! It’s that common of an issue that I made a website all about it. It has my TOP 5 list of data protection-preservation tips. Also see my Friday the 13th Blog post on topic of hard drives.

So we’re at it again! This time we’re helping a client get his money back from eBay and PayPal in a case of a counterfeit iPhone 3G S.

The side-by-side unboxing, package contents analysis, and real iPhone 3G S vs. fake iPhone 3G S video from MacMedics is coming soon.

Here’s some preliminary photos to get the story started. I also wanted to warn folks that to the untrained eye, you could easily get stuck with a phony iPhony on the street. The look, the feel, the weight, and even the Apple like retail iPhone box are all pretty convincing. iPhones make great gifts during the holidays, but don’t grab one too quickly. be sure to check it first. See my handy guide in six photos below. Links to large size photos taken with real iPhone 3G S are at the bottom of this post.

Here we go:

Real iPhone 3G S box for White iPhone 3G S is in foreground. Fake box which is taller and wider is behind it.

Again, real box is in foreground, fake box is behind it.

Smaller iPhone 3G S box is on the left. If you look closely you can see iCal and clock are set to same date and time. Fonts and icons vary, but all in same place.

Box contents from fake iPhone. Note stylus, old style iPhone power brick, battery booster, funky headphone, and free protective case!

Box contents from real Apple iPhone 3G S

The real iPhone 3G S is on left, the fake one on the right. You can see that it's pretty different. Note Internet Explorer icon in place of Safari.

Large size photos can be found here:

http://www.macmedics.com/images/Counterfeit-iPhone-LG-1.jpg

http://www.macmedics.com/images/Counterfeit-iPhone-LG-2.jpg

http://www.macmedics.com/images/Counterfeit-iPhone-LG-3.jpg

http://www.macmedics.com/images/Counterfeit-iPhone-LG-4.jpg

http://www.macmedics.com/images/Counterfeit-iPhone-LG-5.jpg

http://www.macmedics.com/images/Counterfeit-iPhone-LG-6.jpg

Update: 8/29/10

See all of our iPhone “Do-It-Yourself” warnings posts at this link. They have become some of the most popular posts on the MacMedics Blog because they are true. Check’ em out!

So we’ve been over this before, but well meaning folks are still trying the Do-It-Yourself route on iPhones.

By our calculations you might save about $40 by doing the repair on your own, when trying to fix an iPhone 3G. If you make a mistake it’s going to be more. Also, if you’re considering this route, be sure to factor in all the costs.

1. Parts (are they real or copies?)

7. What’s the risk factor of doing a complex iPhone repair you’ve never done before.

The people that sell the parts are often the same people that make the step-by-step videos. Yes! it looks easy on video, because they edit out all the re-tries to remove the broken glass, the part where they get cut, and where they crack the LCD and/or destroy the iPhone’s frame.

When you take apart an iPhone the first few times, you’re going to mess something up. We know because we’ve seen the end results. Even if you bail on your DIY repair and come to us, our service might end up costing more if we have to un-do a previous repair attempt. MacMedics has performed the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S screen/lens/glass/digitizer repair thousands of times, so we know what we’re doing, and we can do it fast!

We had to share this e-mail and photos with you. The names have been removed to protect the innocent.

“Hi, I wanted to contact you to find out if you can help me fix my iPhone 2g.

Thank you.”

See this photo in a large size

Needless to say, this iPhone is likely beyond our help. As this is really bad and it does not appear to be disassembled in a static safe workspace to boot.

Here’s our current iPhone and iPod price list. Click on it to see it large size.