Month: October 2012

I repair iPads*

*but Jony Ive would cry if he saw what the finished product looks like.

I stepped on my iPad in France and crushed the glass digitizer this summer. Luckily, thanks to the brilliance of Corning, NY’s own Corning glass, that stuff is strong. Other than the ugly break pattern, the iPad continued to work…

20121023-193240.jpg

…until I dropped it again. Then it started acting like I was constantly pressing on a seemingly random spot on the shattered screen. It was time to act.

I found an amazing local business that would come to you, replace your screen while you wait and send you off with a perfect iPad or a mere $199. But I decided I wanted to do it myself for 40 bucks and a few hours of my time.

I won’t bore you with details, BUT… I’m clearly an electronic genius. A few YouTube videos to light the way, a glass kit from Amazon via some place in Jersey and I’m tapping out this post on a totally functioning iPad with its new screen.

But I’m too chicken to glue the screen down. There’s literally no way I trust that this can work long term without some itty bitty circuit coming undone in there, so instead of making he final seal in the perfect fit and finish of an Apple product, the screen’s locked down with easily removable electrical tape. Black bezel and black tape camouflages it ok:

20121023-193334.jpg

See it? Jony Ive would. But only when he wiped away his tears…

So, I humbly declare that I fix iPad screens!

I hate to say it, but iOS 6 Maps sucks (right now)

The ATL in iOS MapsI’m not a hater by nature… I really rebel against the trite negativity, particularly put out by vast stretches of the tech and political press (which I happen to read a lot, despite my professed rebellion). That said…

iOS 6’s Maps app just doesn’t work right now. It kinda sucks here in October 2012.

I didn’t have too many problems in DC or WV (the places I split my time) but on a quick weekend trip to Atlanta, the Maps app showed how being a little off can be really bad. Essentially every single trip I had… Airport to hotel, hotel to wedding reception location, back to hotel, then hotel to breakfast spot the next morning… all of them were off by a little bit. A turn here or there, an address off by a block. It all added up to a big mess when you’re in a place you’re not familiar and you’re banking on the data behind the app to work.

So, let me be a little more refined than shake my fist at the sky and declare suckage… the app is slick. Siri… well, she can direct you. But the underlying data is smelly, stinky, sucky. Google Maps was far from perfect, and was clearly missing turn by turn directions in iOS, but I don’t remember the consistency of misses like I just experienced in the new Maps app.

But… it’ll get better. I can use Waze or any number of other options until the underlying data mess gets fixed.

And by the way… Atlanta? You keep staying weird. We like that:

Eat More People

Update… edited to correct the fact I apparently can’t differentiate between “iPhone5” and “iOS6.”