Before playing with the new iPhone, we were unsure about it’s purchasability at this point: there were rumors of screen defects and reception issues. Well, we’re writing this post from the Cherry Creek Apple Store sitting right next to the iPhones… and we can’t replicate the reception issues.

Most of the information that you’ll find online says that it doesn’t happen with every phone. We’re wondering if it has something to do with the way your body is grounded? We don’t know the answer to the reception problems, but we do know that we can’t replicate the issue with any of the iPhones here in Cherry Creek.

Now for the yellowing of the screens.

There have been countless reports of people watching their yellow spots disappear with use. That means, we thought it was an LCD problem, but it’s more likely that it’s an adhesive issue with the screen assembly. Someone familiar with the adhesive (he pitched it to Apple) has been talking in the AppleInsider Forums explaining that the adhesive needs ample drying time before it looks clear. That makes perfect sense to us: the adhesive isn’t completely dry yet, people start using the phones and the yellow spots disappear. Perfect. If you’re one of the unlucky people who are seeing those yellow spots, leave your screen on full brightness and use the phone for a while… let us know if you see the spots disappear. We’re betting that you will.

Here’s the quote:

Apple is using a bonding agent called Organofunctional Silane Z-6011 to bond the layers of glass. Apparently, Apple (or more likely Foxconn) is shipping these products so quickly that the evaporation process is not complete. However, after one or two days of use, especially with the screen on, will complete the evaporation process and the yellow “blotches” will disappear. How do I know? I was involved in pitching Z-6011 to Apple.

***Update***

Apple has officially responded to the reception “issue.” I completely agree with them. Just don’t hold it in that one specific way that causes problems… it’s not like you hold it that way normally. We already told you that we couldn’t replicated it on any of the phones at the Apple Store, what more do you want? Seriously though, here’s the quote:

Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.

If you’ve been paying any attention to the iPhone 4 news as of late, you’d know that a lot of people ended up getting their iPhone a wee bit early. Obviously, some of the bigger reviewers like Walt Mossberg, Joshua Topolsky and more have been putting it through the paces. They like them a lot.

The problem comes with the iPhones that were delivered prematurely today by the delivery companies: they aren’t doing that well. Screen issues, reception issues, and scratches — oh, my! In all seriousness, we’re hoping that no one expected the phone to be unbreakable… the video below shows it isn’t. The manufacturing defects are the main cause for concern at this point. There are a lot of phones with bad displays (the infamous yellow tint is back).

Reception seems to be a hit or miss problem: holding the phone in your hand seems to create a loss of reception. Wireless experts have questioned the use of the iPhone 4′s bezel as the antenna since it was announced. Improper grounding — i.e. holding it in your hand — can definitely interfere with the wireless signal of the device. That seems to be happening to a lot of users who have already received their iPhones.

We’re not saying you shouldn’t get the iPhone 4; it looks pretty amazing. Carefully vet your decision, it may come back to break you… or your iPhone. Fixing the iPhone 4 will not be cheap. Definitely not the cheap glass replacements we’ve come to expect from the iPhone 3G and 3GS. You can pretty easily expect to pay $200 or more, just to replace the screen assembly. The assembly includes the glass, LCD and digitizer because they’re all glued together in the new iPhone. The labor to replace the parts will also be substantial… so don’t break it. Go get one of Apple’s bumpers, or a full case. Now.

Repair shops like Rocky Mountain Mac Repair have been waiting anxiously for any reference to the repair options for the next generation iPhone. In it’s Monday address to attendees of the WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) Apple gave us our first look at what they’ve coined “iPhone 4.” It looks to be an amazing device. iPhone 4 will address numerous concerns that have cropped up since the original iPhone and it adds great new features that many people weren’t expecting. Let’s take a look at what that means for you, the consumer, and the breakability of the device.

While we fix every possible problem your iPhone could have, our top repairs are the glass replacements for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G[S]. In every generation — 1st, 2nd, and 3rd — Apple used tempered glass that was scratch-resistant but far from unbreakable. In the 3G[S], they introduced an oleophobic coating that helped prevent fingerprints and smudges… but it was just as breakable as the previous generations. iPhone 4 is more durable and unbreakable than any device Apple has ever introduced.

Starting with the stainless steel bezel of iPhone 4: it’s impressive from every standpoint. One part acts as your antenna for your GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi… the other acts as your antenna for your cellular signal. Any future reception issues will not be Apple’s fault; they made it very clear that iPhone 4 will have the best reception of any smartphone on the market. So, we can finally blame AT&T or other international carriers without any doubt.

Apple created a new, solid and very durable metal for the new iPhone. Apple explained it well in the iPhone 4 introduction video, “We developed an entirely new grade of stainless steel that, after machining, is incredibly strong but also remarkably precise.” Apple previously used a chrome bezel for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G[S]: it was the primary cause for broken glass in those generations. There was never enough ‘give’ or ‘flexibility’ within the bezel during a drop and, more often than not, the metal pushed into the glass and forced you to come knocking on our doors. In addition to the rubber gaskets found along the glass edges, Apple introduced three flex points around the bezel in iPhone 4. They define the different antennas in the phone and offer us a little more give if we ever drop the device.

Taking it a step further, Apple introduced a new manufacturing process for the Glass of iPhone 4… it’s nearly unbreakable. Referencing the introduction video, Apple states that it’s “comparable in strength to sapphire crystal and about 30 times harder than plastic.” We did a little bit a research and found that the sapphire crystal reference is absolutely amazing… we won’t bore you with specifics but if you’re interested in how durable it really is, take a look at this Wikipedia article. With the added give of the stainless steel bezel and the ridiculously durable glass, we may never need to repair the iPhone 4. Of course, that’s heavily dependent on how well we take care of our devices.

As an iPhone repair center, we do everything we can to keep our prices as low as possible… but with these technological advancements, we cannot imagine that glass/LCD repair will remain inexpensive. Apple reverted to 1st generation manufacturing practices with the screen assembly on iPhone 4: it’s all one piece.

Apple laminates the LCD, digitizer and glass together making them impossible to separate. Repair centers like us will be unable to save you the extra cost by replacing just the glass… we will have to replace the whole screen assembly. Apple currently charges $199 for screen assembly replacements while we can replace the glass for $99 (some repairs centers can offer this even cheaper due to bulk glass purchasing). Due to the new manufacturing process, the iPhone 4 screen assemblies will take a considerable amount of time to replace and the parts will be much more expensive. We’ll give you an update on pricing options once we’ve heard more from our suppliers. We don’t know what Apple’s accidental damage charges will be, but we’re not expecting it to be very cheap.

Overall, we feel as though Apple has taken tremendous steps in durability after receiving copious amounts of feedback from the last three generations of the iPhone. Is it unbreakable? No, but it’s pretty darn close.

In an effort to bring you more content and helpful information, we’ve created a YouTube channel where we’ll host all of our videos and embed them here. We’re starting off the video frenzy with our iPad interview from January. We were lucky enough to be chosen by CBS 4 Denver to explain why the iPad could be the next revolutionary product from Apple. The video was taken from a screencast of their website because they don’t offer an embeddable video feature… maybe we should help them understand the necessity for such things. Anyways, we’ll be continuing the video trend with great tips and information in the very near future. So, check the blog often to see what we have for you!

See all of our videos at YouTube.com/rmmrdenver

We had a customer ask us why it costs so much (oddly, we’re cheaper than every other repair shop in Denver) to replace a 15-inch MacBook Pro LCD when we’re able to offer the 13-inch MacBook LCD replacement for $199. It’s a great question and hopefully this explanation will help people understand why there’s a difference between the two prices.

One of the questions that came up was this: “Why am I paying so much more for the LCD when it’s just a couple inches bigger?” The answer to that lies in two parts: the manufacturer and the screen resolution. All LCDs vary by price depending on the manufacturer… each model of MacBook or MacBook Pro could potentially have different part numbers depending on which LCD ended up in your machine. Your friend might have the exact same model laptop but your LCD might cost more. Our rates depend on those numbers. We are always trying to find the best deals so we can bring you the best prices, and if we can make it cheaper, we will.

Part two of that question is screen resolution. There may only be slightly more material in a 15-inch screen versus a 13-inch screen, but the manufacturing process is completely different. A 13-inch MacBook screen resolution is 1280 by 800, while the MacBook Pro is 1440 by 900 or higher. The MacBook Pro can go up to the 1920 by 1080 resolution. In reality, the 1280 by 800 LCDs are very inexpensive to make: I actually had a Dell machine about 6 years ago with a higher resolution LCD… so there’s nothing fantastic about Apple’s MacBook LCD. As soon as you get into higher screen resolutions like the MacBook Pro, the manufacturing costs go up as does the price we pay… which makes its way to you.

The other factor we need to consider is the amount of labor we have to put into each screen replacement. Thanks to trade secrets and the skills we’ve developed over the years, we can replace a 13-inch MacBook LCD in about 30 minutes (sometimes less). We can’t — and no one can — replace the MacBook Pro LCD in that same amount of time. There aren’t any shortcuts with the MacBook Pro LCD as it is glued into the display bezel. To properly remove it, we have to disassemble the whole machine and heat up the broken LCD to pull it out and put the new one in. That labor process takes anywhere from 1.5 hours to 2 hours… depending on how cooperative the display is. If you consider that our labor rate is $65 an hour, you’ll see that the price would increase by $100 just from the labor itself. That still doesn’t take the higher 15-inch display cost into consideration.

So, don’t be surprised by our discounted price on the 13-inch screen. We guarantee you won’t find a better price for that model in Denver, or our other LCD replacements for that matter. We just want you to understand that screen replacement cost is always dependent on the specific machine, not the screen size. We’ll also stress that our “Deals” are “deals” because they’re “deals.” Our suppliers have given us a deal because they got a deal and in return we get to give you a deal on the repair. We can’t make everything the price you want it to be, no one can… but we certainly do our best to try.

Josh Carr
Owner, Rocky Mountain Mac Repair

If you’re thinking about purchasing an iPad, please educate yourself and see if it’s really for you. You can do so by reading our honest, pros and cons posts on Cocoa Touch Apps. Just click the blog name and it’ll take you straight to the posts you need to read. If you’re looking at this outside of January 2010, you may need to search the blog for the term “iPad.” That will show you all of the related posts. Go educate yourself.

We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to comment on today’s Announcement of the Apple iPad. It’s a new tablet computer designed by Apple. It’s a cool little device. Please read more about it at Cocoa Touch Apps. You can also read the site’s coverage of the keynote on their Live-Blog.

The spot will air sometime tonight during the 10 o’clock news on Denver’s CBS4. There will also be a teaser airing during the evening news. I will link or embed the video file as quickly as I have access to it for you all to watch. We shot about 20 minutes of actually footage, talked for about an hour, and it will all be cropped down to 2.5 minutes of air-time. Here’s to hoping that Josh doesn’t look too nervous or silly. He’s been on TV before, but never an up-close and personal interview. It was a great time, a lot of fun, it’s nice to be recognized for what some people would consider fanboy knowledge Have a great evening, and check back for that web-link… better yet, watch it live on CBS4!

Did you or a family member get a 27 inch iMac for Christmas?  We should check it out for you.

Having experienced tremendous issues myself, I’d strongly recommend anyone who has purchased a new 27 inch iMac this holiday season to bring it into the shop so I can take a look at it for you. Here’s why: a good amount of iMacs are being shipped with some pretty major issues. It’s been covered in many places but the summary is that the new iMacs could experience issues like screen flickering, yellow tint to the screen, noisy screens (buzzing) or broken components due to poor shipping.

I actually just purchased a 27 inch iMac myself and have had to return it to the store twice for these issues.  My first one flickered randomly and my second one had a yellow tint to the bottom half of the screen.  The yellow tint is a minor issue for me… but for a professional photographer, that’s a complete deal breaker.  Honestly, who wants to pay $2000 or more for an awesome machine only to find that it’s having some pretty major issues?

I’m not saying that I can guarantee that you won’t have any issues in the future if we take a look, but it’s better to find out now instead of later.  In fact, some users are reporting that their issues developed 3 or 4 weeks after the purchase.  Within the first 14 days, Apple will swap out a machine for any issue… as long as it can be shown to the sales staff.  You’re not gonna walk in and say, “Hey, my screen’s yellow. I want a new machine.” No, you’ll probably have to pull it out and show them the difference in color.  I didn’t have any problem doing so.  I walked in, explained the flickering situation and walked out with a new machine.  Unfortunately, the new machine had the yellow tint on the bottom half of the screen, that’ll take some explaining when I get back and return this one.  Thankfully, Apple did postpone shipments of many iMac this last month in hopes to address the issues… so if you’ve received your iMac in the last day or two, it’s likely that you will be problem-free.

It’s better to take care of this now instead of later.  After the 14 day grace period, Apple stores will insist on doing a repair instead of replacing the unit.  That will cost you valuable time away from your machines.  Some stores are more generous with this exchange period than others, but it’s better to take care of the issues right away.  I strongly encourage you to question any issues that seem odd to you…  It’s really the only way to make sure you’ll be good in the future.  And do yourself a favor, purchase AppleCare: it’s cheap for an iMac — only $169. Give me a call and tell me what you see, or bring it by so I can take a look.  iMac diagnostics related to the above issues are absolutely free due to the fact that I can usually find them in a couple minutes.  If we need to look at other issues, there could be a diagnostics fee.

Update:

It appears as though these issues are still plaguing the newest production line… thank goodness for AppleCare. If you haven’t bought it for your new iMac, you should probably do that. Like now.

So what’s the story with iMac G5 capacitors? Let’s start by addressing the issue as a whole.  The iMac G5 suffers from a couple different manufacturing defects.  The first being poor quality capacitors on the logic board.  The second: bad power supplies (in most cases, this actually relates to bad capacitors as well).  The capacitors in some models of the iMac G5 will swell and possibly leak with time.  There’s really no way to predict it… Apple had released a set of serial numbers several years back that could have been ailed by this issue.  As time has passed, I’ve realized it isn’t limited to those serials.  Any iMac G5 could be affected.  I’m not saying that you should go out and have all of your iMac G5′s capacitors replaced with good quality capacitors… I’m saying that there are a few things that you should look out for.  First, you can always visually inspect the capacitors by removing the back panel.  Second, watch for these symptoms:

• Video distortion
• Video freezing (you can still connect to your system externally, the display just doesn’t change)
• Complete system lockup
• Trouble shutting down
• Trouble booting up
• Weird, unexplainable crashing with applications
• And more… basically, if your iMac G5 is acting up — check the capacitors

I have an iMac G5 capacitor replacement on the bench right now… after I replace the caps it will be in great shape! Don’t let other companies charge you for a new logic board. It’s a lot of labor, but you shouldn’t be paying to much for the repair. At RMMR, we’ll do the capacitor replacement for a flat rate of $199.  If you feel comfortable with a screwdriver, it never hurts to check the capacitors and make sure they’re okay.  Lay the iMac G5 on its front and loosen the three screws that are at the bottom of the display. Gently lift the back panel away from the display. If you see swollen or leaking capacitors like the ones pictured below, they need to be replaced. Bring your G5 in and we’ll get you taken care of right away!

We also accept mail-in capacitor repairs. You are responsible for shipping it to us, but we’ll cover shipping on the way back! Just include a note explaining your name, address, phone, email, as well as the symptoms you’ve experienced thus far.