iPhone

How To Easily Remove, Install & Replace an Apple iPhone 4S Battery (Video)

by Michael Sheehan on May 7, 2013

in Apple, Cellular, Consumer Electronics, Fix It, Gadgets, General, Hardware, How To, HTD Tech Tip, iPhone, Mobile, Video

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I’m such a heavy user of my Apple iPhones that it really seems like about a year after I get one, I’m doing a how-to article on replacing the iPhone’s battery. I now have an iPhone 4S and this past weekend, I replaced the battery. Other smartphone users may scoff at the fact that Apple has made their hardware quite proprietary (e.g., a closed design). Actually, it seems to me that Apple has actually now made it much easier to replace the iPhone 4S battery, especially in comparison to the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS process. This article (and video) shows you how to replace an Apple iPhone 4S Battery.

iPhone 4S Back Case Off

iPhone 4S Back Case Off

WARNING: Before I go into this How-to, I do need to emphasize that this processes is risky. For starters, it WILL void your warranty, especially if you mess something up in the process. Also, there are lots and lots of tiny screws and pieces that are incredibly easy to lose, break or knock loose. If you don’t take time reviewing the installation process, you could seriously damage to your iPhone 4S. You should only undertake this process if you feel like you know what you are doing and promise to not hold me responsible for anything bad that may happen to your device. Anything good that does happen, I’m happy to be responsible for that! And don’t drink any coffee before trying any repairs!

With all the disclaimers aside now, let’s take a look at the process. It is, actually, quite easy but be sure to watch the video below as I did actually almost screw something up. But as of this writing, my iPhone 4S is quite happy with its replacement battery.

The Tools

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How To Fix a Broken iPhone Home Button – A Free & Easy Software Fix

by Michael Sheehan on March 13, 2013

in Apple, Cellular, Fix It, General, Hardware, How To, HTD Tech Tip, iOS, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mobile

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Yesterday I received a panicked call from one of my daughters – “Daddy, my iPhone’s home button is broken!” Tears and wailing ensued. But, as with any broken gadget, I was up for the challenge, knowing that I could either replace the iPhone home button myself or figure out some other way to breath a few extra days or weeks of life into her iPhone 4 so that she could still use it. As it turned out, the “temporary” fix (which could be permanent), it quite easy to do and actually a pretty neat function that not too many people know about. And, it’s built into all iOS devices.

Broken iPhone Home button

Broken iPhone Home button

Normally, when hardware components fail on my iOS devices, I turn to the super-handy iFixIt.com guides. I have done anything from replacing batteries on iPhone 3GS & iPhone 4′s to replacing the power button on an iPhone 4 (let me tell you, THAT one is really hard!). So, I quickly scanned through the steps in the iFixIt guide and realized that even though the part itself was about $15 only, the level of effort to physically replace the button was HUGE. (Here’s the daunting fix-it guide.) So, I needed to find another solution.

Luckily, I remembered in the past reading about how you can reassign a button or create a gesture on a jailbroken phone so I knew there was a software solution out there. However, I didn’t want to jailbreak my daughter’s iPhone. There had to be another solution. And then I found it. What follows are the quick and easy steps on how to fix a broken iPhone home button.

How To Fix a Broken iPhone Home Button

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Apple Posts iOS 6.1 Release – Here’s What’s New & How to Update!

by Michael Sheehan on January 28, 2013

in Apple, Cellular, Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, General, How To, HTD Tech Tip, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Software, Tablet

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After releasing iOS 6.1 beta 5 to developers this past weekend, Apple released iOS 6.1 to the public today (Monday Jan 28, 2013). Updates can be obtained directly via your iOS update or via iTunes. You can also download the .ipsw directly from Apple. Details on these processes are below.

iOS-6.1-update

So what is new in this iOS release? Honestly, there aren’t that many visible features but there are plenty of behind the scenes fixes and updates. Specifically:

  • Support for more LTE carriers
  • The ability to purchase movie tickets using Fandango coupled with Siri (US only)
  • If you use iTunes Match, you can now download individual songs from iCloud
  • Reset the Advertising Identifier via System Preferences (General > About > Advertising)
    HTD-reset-ads
  • Security Updates
    • Fixed –> Authentication relying on certificate-based Apple ID authentication may be bypassed
    • Fixed –> Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to a cross-site scripting attack
    • Fixed –> A user-mode process may be able to access the first page of kernel memory
    • Fixed –> An attacker with a privileged network position may intercept user credentials or other sensitive information
    • Fixed –> JavaScript may be enabled in Mobile Safari without user interaction
    • Fixed –> Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
    • Fixed –> Copying and pasting content on a malicious website may lead to a cross-site scripting attack
    • Fixed –> Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to a cross-site scripting attack
    • Fixed –> A remote attacker on the same WiFi network may be able to temporarily disable WiFi

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iOS Apps & Backups are Hogging Up Your Hard Drive – How To Easily Free Up Disk Space

by Michael Sheehan on January 9, 2013

in Apple, Application, Fix It, General, Hardware, How To, HTD Tech Tip, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Software

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I don’t know about you but I am always looking for ways to clear up my laptop’s precious free hard drive space. I have tools that clean caches, temporary files, language files, logs and files in my trash. But I never seem to get ahead of the game. I probably never will but a periodic cleaning is always an important thing to do.

One place that I have neglected is one that may seem incredibly obvious to many. It wasn’t to me until I spent some time doing some hard drive cleaning. And this is an area where most cleaning applications will NOT look – within iTunes.

Fat iTunes icon

I must admit, I’m not only an iOS device junkie, but also an iOS application addict. I install apps regularly, test them out and then delete them from my iPhone or iPad. That is great for my iOS device in terms of keeping it relatively clean (although I have several pages of folders filled with apps) – but it doesn’t help the “mother ship,” my laptop where I sync my iOS devices.

iTunes has made the process of getting and updating iOS apps (as well as managing your iOS device) pretty darn easy. The problem is, if you back up lots of devices and/or download lots of apps, you are consuming a massive amount of hard drive space, probably without even knowing it.

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Add a 10X Physical Zoom to your iPhone or Smartphone

November 20, 2012
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Camera phone technology has gotten pretty good over the past few years with some of the cameras on smartphones rivaling digital cameras. In fact, on the photo-sharing site Flickr, the iPhone was the number one camera source. It’s much more convenient to carry one device around (a smartphone) than two (smartphone and digital camera). But [...]

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How Apple Should Market the iPhone 10 – with Help from Disney

September 14, 2012
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So there is now a meme going around after the launch of the iPhone 5 with its longer body (now with 5 rows of icons). The meme shows new pictures of the iPhone “10″ which shows a huge number of rows of icons. And there are other ones popping up as well… So, I was [...]

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7 Unique Ways my Kids Use the iPhone

September 14, 2012
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The Apple iPhone is a necessity in our household, at least my kids tell me it is. It seems that the iPhone is practically grafted to the hands of my children as they walk around the house. I almost think that they are going to grow another appendage for them to simply carry it and [...]

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Dropcam HD is the Ultimate Home Monitoring Webcam Now with HD Video, Night Vision & 2-Way Audio

July 20, 2012
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Almost two years ago, I reviewed a new wireless webcam that I felt was a clear winner, especially for families – the Dropcam. It was by far the easiest to set up and use, wireless web-connected video streaming camera that I had used. Over the past 2 years, I used it pretty much every day. [...]

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