Gizmodo: replacement

Brando's iPhone Kit Lets You Replace Busted Screens Yourself

Kit Eaton — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:00:00 EDT

Bless Brando for coming up with something that sounds amazingly useful at last: a "replacement LCD Display for your iPhone 3G." That's all the info there is, strangely, but assuming it's a good quality LCD with touchscreen, it'll no doubt be massively handy if your new toy has had an unfortunate screen-snapping incident. There's also the "iPhone Opening Tools Kit" with screwdrivers and prising gizmos which will certainly help you out. The screen costs a cheap-sounding $85, while the toolset will set you back an extra $11. [Brando via Reg Hardware]

$7.29 iPhone Replacement Battery Kit Could Be a Bad Plan

Jason Chen — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:10:00 EDT

Look, you already spent hundreds of dollars on an iPhone. Unless your battery has run low because you've been cycling it like a baboon, you don't need a new battery. And if you do, it's not June 29 yet, so you're still in your first year of warranty. Go down to the Apple store and get it swapped out. What you probably shouldn't do is buy a $7.29 iPhone battery + toolkit and replace it yourself. Seriously, you like your phone right? Don't do this. [Dealextreme via Gear Diary via Coolest Gadgets via Boing Boing Gadgets]

T-Mobile Sending Out HTC Wing Replacement Batteries

Jason Chen — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:30:00 EDT

T-Mobile is replacing all HTC Wing batteries, swapping the default Dynapack battery for a newer Celxpert one. The note attached to the replacement says, "T-Mobile and HTC are providing a replacement for the T-Mobile Wing battery made by Dynapack at not charge to you due to rare occurrences of the battery overheating." Ask for yours before your phone asplode. [WMexperts via Boy Genius]

RadTech ProCable iPhone Headphones Are a Cheap Alternative

Jason Chen — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:30:00 EDT

If the $100ish V-Moda iPhone headphones are slightly out of your price range, RadTech's got a cheaper alternative for your iPhone listening and talking needs. It's essentially the same as the V-Modas or the default iPhone headphones: a pair of earbuds with a microphone on board so you can take a call. For $24.95, we don't expect great quality audio, but they look similar enough to the V-Modas in appearance and much more comfortable than Apple's standard ones. So what's our recommendation? As long as this doesn't suck in terms of audio quality (wait for a review), you should probably pick one up. [RadTech]

Microsoft Offering Disc Replacements For Scratched Halo 3 Limited Edition

Jason Chen — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:42:19 EDT

If your Halo 3 Limited Edition discs are scratched—like ours were—you can get a replacement disc by filling out a form and sending your disc back to Microsoft. Of course, this will take up to two weeks for delivery—not counting the time it takes for your disc to get to Microsoft—which may be too long to go without your Halo fix. Either way, it's free until 12/31/07. [Xbox - Thanks Joseph M!]

iPhone Battery Replacement Plan Details

Jason Chen — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 11:31:11 EDT

You probably know by now that the iPhone only lasts about 300-400 charges —and that's most likely full charges, not topping it off from 80% to 100% at night—before you have to send it into Apple for a replacement.[Updated: That's wrong. Here's proof.] Apple's just thrown up a page saying it's going to be $79 with $6.95 shipping, which is $85.95 per phone when you send yours in.

Sending it in also wipes out all your saved data, so you'll have to resync it (but it also wipes out your text messages and email, which you may not be able to resync). Hopefully nobody will have to deal with this for another year or two. Apple Battery Replacement Program [Apple]

Renew Your iPod: Fastmac iPod Batteries

Jason Chen — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 13:15:04 EST

When our 3G iPod was getting only two to three hours battery life from a charge, we decided that it was time to try one of those third party iPod batteries people have been talking about for years.

They said the iPod was fairly easy to pop open the iPod and change the battery despite the lack of any physical openings. Well, whoever "they" are, they totally didn't account for our lack of manual skills. It took us a total of an hour and a half and two people to get this thing open.

The problem comes from the fact that the metal back and the plastic front to the iPod are flush, so there's no easy way to pull the two apart. The Fastmac battery kit comes with two blue prying tools in order to do so. Because these tools are plastic, and thus, wear down easily when shoving it up against the iPod's metal, if you don't get the iPod open on the first few tries, your tool becomes less and less useful. You wouldn't want a metal tool, because it'd scratch up your precious MP3 player's finish. Thus, it takes a long ass time to get the iPod open.

Once that was done, everything else was cake. Take out the hard drive, disconnect the cable, and replace the battery. You'll have to exercise a bit of care, as the connectors are pretty fragile, but nothing you can't do in less than four minutes.

The new battery got us about seven or eight hours of battery life, around the same as the original battery. An iPod as good as new—save for all the dirt and scratches from years of use—for just $19. Definitely a good deal.

Be prepared to set aside a block of time in order to get your iPod open if you're not quite so handy. And don't be afraid to use a lot of force when prying. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Fastmac]

Image courtesy Apple Links