MacMedics is proud to be a sponsor of the Washington DC area InDesign User Group’s Adobe CS 5 release event for the third time!

The DC-Area InDesign User Group is once again holding an all-day, special event heralding the introduction of the latest version of Adobe’s leading creative software, CS 5. The featured presenters are:

CHRIS CONVERSE, author of the new book “Bringing Your Web Design to Life”

NOHA EDELL of Adobe Systems

MICHAEL MURPHY, creator and host of “The InDesigner” podcasts

The all-day event will be held TUESDAY, MAY 25 At the U.S. Navy Memorial Auditorium, 701 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC.

This year’s venue is smaller then the Shakespeare Theatre where it was held for the CS 4 roll out event, so reserve your seat early! You can register right here!

Are You Snowed In Baltimore Or Washington DC Today? This Would Be An Excellent Time To Check Your Time Machine Or Other Macintosh Backup System.

Are you snowed in the Baltimore-Washington area? A snow day is an excellent time to review your Mac’s back up plan, add an extra layer of protection, or test the back up you already have running! Don’t forget, there’s no such thing a set-it-and-forget it backup plan! (This post has links to all my other posts on this topic. Read, learn, and protect your data.)

We also see a rise in data loss that can be attributed to folks moving data or computers around during bad weather. If you are moving your data, switching back ups, or upgrading to a new computer, or doing ANY type of data housekeeping, please read this Blog post first.

MacMedics Case File: White MacBook With Spectacularly Broken LCD.

This white, plastic Macbook came into the MacMedics shop via one of our institutional Macintosh repair contracts. It looks like someone dropped something on the top of the unit to puncture the screen back (the part with the Apple logo on it) and broke the LCD hard enough that a convex lump is visible on the front of the LCD.

See this picture large size here.

See this picture large size here.

See this picture large size here.

No problem! We have the parts to fix it in-stock so we had it fixed same-day.

If your MacBook or MacBook Pro has a broken LCD, MacMedics can fix your laptop! The Apple Store charges as much as $1200 in some cases to fix this problem. We can usually fix most LCDs from $349 to $549. All commonly used LCD are in stock. WE stock over a dozen different types and sizes.

MacMedics has also become quite well know for our MacBook and MacBook Pro Uni-Body glass repair. We can fix this issue as well, and again for hundreds of dollars less the Apple Store.

If you are in the Baltimore or Washington DC area, just stop by our Millersville or Lanham office and we can get your Apple laptop repaired and back to you very quickly (most cases are handled in 24 hours). If that’s not fast enough, MacMedics does offer low-cost MacBook rental units to keep you up and running is you’re headed out of town or on a deadline.

A new client in our Washington DC office, brought us a MacBook that had a dying hard drive. He needed the data, so Mike H, one of the talented MacMedics in Lanham was able to recover it all.

Folks, this would be so much easier if everyone had data back ups. I promise you that even without countless “Data Recovery” cases coming in every day, we’ll still be able to stay in business. If you don’t have a tested, working, and automatic backup working for, it’s TIME to get one. We can help if you need guidance.

If you have a back up, then test it, and please consider a clone back up and an off-site back up to boot. You can never have TOO MANY back ups.

Our client in Washington DC sent this:

“Dear Mr Stibolt

Steven S.”

When MacMedics performs an Apple Warranty or AppleCare repair for one of our clients, Apple sends a follow up e-mail to ask how we did. These are some of the mini-reviews that we have received.

#1 The service I received at MacMedics was very good and they always called me and left messages updating the status and progress of my computer.
—–
#2 I loved being able to walk in talk to a rep and have the work started right away. They have great customer service they always keep me up to date on their progress and explain their work and my service options every step of the way.
—–
#3 They were awesome. Nuff said. Dana runs a great show there.
—–
#4 They were fantastic. The service was quick the people were friendly and willing to answer all of my questions.

These are anonymous comments, so if one of these Apple Warranty or AppleCare reviews for MacMedics is yours, thank you!

If you need Apple Macintosh please consider visiting MacMedics in Millersville or Lanham instead of trekking to your local Apple Store. You never need an appointment, we’re 10 steps from your car, We’re cheaper, we’re faster (most warranty repairs are completed in 24 hours), and above all we’re accurate! We only fix what needs fixing.

MacMedics is no longer offering iPhone, iPod, or iPad repairs. See http://www.macmedics.com/iphone for more info.

Fly-By-Night iPod-iPhone Repair Startups Can’t Keep Their Hands Off Off Our Images

I fancy myself to be a pretty good photographer, but I’m NOT winning any awards or anything like former MacMedic Evan Bishop (If you’re looking for a GREAT Professional Photographer in San Diego, CA, please do look him up). As an amateur photog, I take a fair amount of of the pictures here at MacMedics. One of my images has been repeatedly ripped off for use by other iPhone service firms.

Why do less scrupulous iPhone/iPod service concerns keep ripping this image off? Well, here’s the reason: In order to take a picture of the highly reflective iPhone (shooting directly at the iPhone glass), you have to jump through some hoops to get the cracks to show up in focus. We then “lightly” edited the image of the broken iPhone in Photoshop to show off the cracks and make the image really “ad worthy”. We actually put quite a bit of work into just this one picture!

There’s quite an abundance of these “Fly-By- Night” businesses operating in the dark, murky waters of the Internet. A favorite place to hang up a shingle seems to be on-line classified giant, Craigslist. In most of the postings I’ve seen, there’s no website and no physical address to visit. So in essence, you’re going to hire a guy off Craigslist, who’s not part of a long-term reputable business, and invite him to your house to fix your iPhone? You might as well just wander over to your closest open-air drug market to see if you can find some small electronics repair help. Okay I’m sure that some of these guys are just trying to break into the biz, but really folks, people have been killed by people they have hired from Craigslist (and other on-line classified ads services).

If the repair you have done has a problem, do you really think this guy will come back and re-fix the problem? Where are his parts coming from? Are they real deal or just “high copy” foreign counterfeit replacement parts that came from eBay?

In the long run, do you really want some guy who ripped off his advertising artwork from someone else working on your iPod or iPhone?

In the case mentioned in this Blog post, the Craigslist poster did not even bother to try and crop our logo out! I guess that might be good for us, as it’s advertising for MacMedics. Here’s a link to a large size picture of the Craigslist ad posting so you can get a close look at our logo.

Here’s a link to another instance of the SAME image being ripped off by someone else from a previous post about this topic from the MacMedics Blog.

MacMedics is no longer offering iPhone, iPod, or iPad repairs. See http://www.macmedics.com/iphone for more info.

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.

One of our MacMedics Washington DC clients just submitted this review for MacMedics:

“My Procedure: Installs of 8GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive in a MacBook Pro 13″ about a month ago.

I highly recommend you visit them for anything Apple-related!”

Floyd W.
Glenn Dale, MD

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

MacMedics is pleased to now offer MacBook Unibody and MacBook Pro Unibody broken glass/lens and LCD replacement service for our clients. If you’re located in the Baltimore-Washington area, there’s really no faster way to have your broken glass or LCD repaired. No shipping your unit away to who knows where, and no putting your unit into the hands of someone you don’t know or don’t trust. MacMedics has been in business for 20 years, and we revolutionized On-Site Macintosh Service in the Mid-Atlantic area. Let us provide our award-winning Mac Service to you.

If your MacBook Unibody or MacBook Pro Unibody LCD and/or glass/lens is broken, MacMedics can fix that for all sizes of the MacBook Pro Unibody family (also the original MacBook Unibody). Get in touch with us to make arrangements, drop it off in our Lanham or Millersville office, or just mail it into us in Millersville using this form. If you have questions just e-mail us, or call 1-866-MAC-MEDICS

Most repairs are completed within 24 hours, and all sizes of MacBook/MacBook Pro Unibody LCDs and glass are in stock.

MacMedics is also pleased to offer iBook, PowerBook, MacBook, and MacBook Air LCD replacement service in about a day. In cases of older units, MacMedics may also be able to offer you a used LCD panel to save you even more money. All MacMedics LCD and glass replacement service is covered by our full one-year “no-hassle” MacMedics Service Warranty!