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Why does Lovefone blog?

As the Lovefone team grows and our expertise deepens, we want to share as much of our knowledge with you. We’re passionate about technology – just as the vast majority of our customers are. Us Apple users are well known (infamous, even) for our dedication to our devices. So we want to make sure that we help people get the most out of their devices, by informing, educating and entertaining our fellow Apple users in any way that we can. Through doing so, we hope that we’ll discover new things ourselves, and even learn how we can create better products and services for you. We want to do three things: share our knowledge so you can get the most out of your Apple products; keep you informed about important technology news and updates; and let you how, as a business, we’re developing ways of supporting you. All members of our team – Adina, Alex, Andrei, Cosmin, Iulia, Pete, Ronan, Silviu and Youssouf – hope we get to share our knowledge and passion for technology with you.We hope you enjoy it! Follow us on Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook to stay updated!

Selling your broken iPhone? Repair it first!

Are you thinking of selling your broken iPhone? Think twice before you sell it as it is! As you would expect, mobile phone recycling companies pay more for fully functioning iPhones than they do for damaged or non-functioning iPhones. But does it make financial sense to repair the device before selling it? We’ve taken a look at eBay and some recycling websites (www.o2recycle.co.uk, www.mazumamobile.com and www.fonebank.com) to see how the numbers stack up. We used an Apple iPhone 4 (16GB) as the basis of our pricing comparison, and it does seem that repairing your device is worth it. If you’ve got a broken screen, o2recycle.co.uk will pay you £33.75 for your iPhone, whereas they will pay you £135 a fully functioning iPhone. So, with the cost of a repair (a Lovefone screen replacement costs £69), your repaired iPhone will net you an additional £32.25 (after repair costs, £66 in total). The figures get even better for an iPhone with a faulty home button or a broken back case. Again, o2recycle.co.uk will pay you £33.75 for your faulty iPhone and pay you £135 for a fully functioning iPhone. As the home button repair costs £34, repairing your iPhone before you sell it will mean you receive £67.25 more than you would for selling the faulty phone (after repair costs, £101 instead of the £33.75). With the back panel replacement costing £25, you receive £76.25 more than you would for selling it with a broken back. It seems that it is a similar story with other recycling companies too. Whether the damage is major or minor they simply pay out a low flat rate, but will pay significantly more for fully functional device. If you want to use eBay, it’s even better! For a functional iPhone, eBay buyers will pay in the region of £200–£220, but will pay only around £30 for a damaged one. Have you ever sold a damaged iPhone? If so, how much did you get for it? (Prices are correct on 23 November 2012.)

#iphone

See the actual reception strength of your iPhone using this little trick

Ever since iPhone 4 antennagate, many iPhone users have wanted to know how good the reception of their device is. Of course, there are the standard bars at the top of the display that represent the strength of the signal. However, if the reception is not great and you're having to move your iPhone around to find a better signal, this only gives you very limited information on the actual strength. When this is the case, the trick below means you can replace the bars with decibel numbers to gain a much more accurate indication of the signal strength. Here's what you need to do to replace the bars with decibel numbers: Step 1: Dial *3001#12345#* and press Call.

This will open the Field Test app. Here you can see information about the SIM card and the network towers in your vicinity. You will also notice that the bars have disappeared and you can now see the reception in decibels. Step 2: Press and hold the power button until you get the option to slide to power off. Do not turn off the phone. Step 3: Press and hold the home button until the iPhone returns to your home screen. By pressing the home button you force quit the Field Test app but you keep the decibel measurement. You can now tap the numbers in the top right corner to switch to the bar representation of your reception. Tap again and you'll see the decibel measurement again. So what do the numbers mean? The numbers you see represent the signal strength in decibels above a reference level of one milliwatt. The nearer the number is to zero, the better your reception is. A signal strength of -50 means that you have full reception while -130 means no reception at all. If you would like to get back to just displaying the bars, go into Field Test app and quit it by pressing the home button.

#iphone

New Lovefone workshop open in The City

We're pleased to announce that we have just opened a new workshop in the heart of The City, in response to the needs of our customers in the Square Mile. The new iPhone repair workshop is on the first floor of 111 Cannon Street, EC4N 5AR, just across the road from Cannon Street station and only two minutes away from Bank station. Previously, customers from The City would either book a slot at our workshop in the West End, at 64 Charlotte Street, or use our door-to-door courier service. While the courier service is still available for people who don't have time to leave their desk (simply select a repair and then leave your device at your office reception), you can now visit us in The City to get your iPhone fixed in less than 30 minutes. We have a comfortable sofa and some magazines for you to enjoy while we take care of your device! Please visit www.lovefone.co.uk to book an appointment, or give us a call on 020 7078 4341.

#iphone #lovefone

Where do most iPhone accidents happen?

According to a survey released yesterday by Squaretrade, most fatal iPhone accidents happen in the kitchen, in the living room or in the bathroom. Surprisingly, 9% of phones went down the toilet, while 6% of iPhone owners left the phones on the top of the car and driven off. It seems there is nowhere that an iPhone is 100% safe. If any of these happen, please get in touch with Lovefone.

We recently received some beautiful flowers from a very happy customer – thanks Jon! It's got pride of place in our office.

#customer service

iPhone 4 home button not working? Try this troubleshooting tip first...

Every device has its common issues and, as we repair a lot of iPhones at Lovefone, we get to see a lot of them.

A while ago we started seeing a lot of iPhone 4 devices with an unresponsive home button. It is very common for the home button to stop working or become sluggish after about one year of use.

Sometimes this can be just a software problem and you can quickly try the fix below as it sometimes helps.

1. Open any application (try Settings).

2. Press and hold the power button (top right corner) until the phone shows "Slide to power off".

3. Release the power button and press and hold the home button until the "Slide to power off" message disappears and the software returns to the home screen. This might take 10 seconds or more.

4. Try the home button and see it if responds any better.

If this doesn't help then the home button flex cable might need to be replaced – a repair that we can do for you at Lovefone.

The home button itself is just a piece of plastic which pushes the flex ribbon underneath it, shorting the circuit so that the phone then registers the action. The flex ribbon can be damaged over time by corrosion, rust or simply because of the poor quality of the part.

We can replace the home button flex ribbon about 30 minutes and it costs £34. You can book an appointment to visit our workshop, you can send the phone to us by mail or, if based in London, we can arrange a courier pickup and return.

#iphone 4 #home button #repair #iphone 4 home button repair

Saturday repair hours extended

Due to popular demand, we've extended our opening hours on Saturday. We're now available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch repairs from 11am to 5pm! If you'd like to pop by for a repair, it's easy to book a dedicated slot.

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The amazing bloated battery

In the last few weeks we've had the pleasure of twice witnessing a bizarre phenomenon – iPhone battery bloat. Due to gas build-up, some old iPhone batteries can swell up to such an extent that they damage the phone. On this customer's phone, the spectacularly bloated battery even pushed the screen assembly out from the back case. Fortunately, there was minimal damage and a battery replacement restored the iPhone to fully working order. It looks like it's an issue that Apple is well aware of and is tackling through engineering changes.

#iphone battery #bloated iphone battery #iphone

Great customers

There are good businesses and, more importantly, there are great customers. Finding the right customers for your business – customers that you can satisfy successfully – is a challenge facing all service companies. You know you've found that perfect match when a customer goes far beyond the call of duty and does something great, completely unsolicited. That's just what Michael Chung did this week, when he sent us this email below – including a very special Lovefone photo. We asked Michael if we could reproduce it on our blog.

Hello! Lovefone.

Thank you so much for fixing my wife’s iphone 4, yesterday.

She was so upset when she lost it and we found it in the middle of the major road as cars and lorries was driving over it.

I went to the apple store in Regent Street and they said they couldn't help us as the unit was beyond repair.

Your team at Lovefone was so helpful, understanding and promise they could restore it back to life with a unbelievable turn around time of just 40 minutes.

The biggest Wow factor was the price of £109.00 including a new camera and all in white.

I have enclosed a BIG thank picture ibefore and iafter....Steve Jobs would be very proud of you guys saving one of his favourite products. From broken to new and I am in my wife’s good books.

Keep up the excellent service and your neighbours next door Saatchi & Saatchi...they are right nothing is impossible.

All the best for the future.

Hope to see you soon...but not too soon.

Michael Chung

Thanks so much for this Michael! This was completely unexpected. Here's a few details about Michael, requested by us.

Michael Chung Creative Director and Partner of The Chung Partnership advertising and Print. The Chung Partnership promotes positive brand development and communication using creative solutions. It offers a range of advertising, marketing and designservices. The Chung Partnership is located at 121d Cleveland Street, London.

#iphone 4 repair #great reviews

Mobile unlocking: the giffgaff "unlockapedia"

Mobile phone unlocking is a hugely confusing grey area. Is it even fully legal? Does it void your warranty? Where should I go to get my phone unlocked? And what about blocked phones?

Fortunately, we just stumbled across this great guide by giffgaff, a popular new sim-only network. If you want to switch to a new network, check out the giffgaff unlockapedia for the complete lowdown.

#unclocking mobile phones #iphone unlocking #giffgaff unlockapedia

Customising the iPhone 4

iPhone customisations, like buses, often come in twos. In just one day we were asked to do two virtually identical iPhone 4 customisations, using a gold mid-frame. See if you can spot the difference (OK, it's not that difficult). As people's iPhone 4 one-year Apple warranty expire over the coming months, we're sure these requests will increase! They look pretty cool, even even we do say so ourselves...

#iphone 4 #iphone customisation #iphone conversion

iPhone 4S disassembly – what it looks like inside

We thought it might be nice to show people what the iPhone 4S looked like inside. Here are some images of it being taken to pieces and the screen removed.

As you might expect, there are some similarities with the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4S is all about improving what was already a remarkable smartphone. Apple have solved the signal issue that plagued the iPhone 4, and inserted the iPad 2 A5 chip, making the iPhone 4S over twice as fast as its predecessor. And with Siri, we can all get that Captain Kirk experience: "Beam me up Siri". If you've a spare moment, why not try Siri’s Greatest Hits: 10 Witty Comebacks from the iPhone 4S.

The iPhone 4S in one piece.

The iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S side by side. The 4S mid frame has been modified to solve the signal issue.

The beautiful new iPhone 4S 8-megapixel camera

With the logic board removed.

The iPhone 4S vibrator as found on the US Verizon iPhone 4.

And, finally, the screen is off.

If only I could remember how to put it back together again...

#iphone 4S #disassembly #repair #iphone teardown

Next generation giant iPhone stolen – reward offered

Just six hours after its debut, a next generation iPhone has been stolen from a pavement in central London. The iPhone 60 was produced exclusively for Lovefone by leading designer Marius Istratescu (http://decoartist.co.uk). Specifically designed for the larger person (60-feet tall), its 3.5 foot retina display means that it has the largest touch screen ever produced.

On 4pm Thursday 29 September, only hours after its unveiling on the pavement outside 64 Charlotte Street in central London, it was gone. In an unfortunate oversight, the 'Find My iPhone' app hadn't been installed. If anyone has any information leading to its safe return, Lovefone are offering a free repair or £80 worth of iTunes vouchers.

Four feet long, the iPhone is immediately recognisable, and so may be being hidden in the thief's home. It's now blocked from use on all networks. If you see anyone acting suspiciously with a giant iPhone, please get in touch with us at [email protected].

Some iPhone 60 firsts

Designed for use by by 60 foot giant – provided with 500kg metal case crafted in military grade titanium

Largest touch screen on any Apple product – with a 130.4 million pixel retina display

Two months in the making – design team scrapped two prototypes before selecting final design approach

Engineered plexiglass – the same type of plastic used in high speed train urinals and helicopter staff canteens, more scratch resistant than polystyrene

Necklace camera – lens and flash bulb 'borrowed' from wife's jewellery makes the iPhone 60 the perfect fashion accessory

Bike tube headphone jack – cut from a the designer's own bicycle (which can now only to be used at extreme personal risk)

On a serious note, we really do miss our beloved iPhone sign so lovingly crafted by Marius – and we really do offer an £80 iTunes reward for information leading to its return! Thanks for your help.

Troubleshooting connection or call issues

Having trouble making or receiving calls, or sending or receiving text messages? Or having difficulty accessing the internet? This Apple troubleshooting assistant could help you isolate and fix the problem.

Prolonging your iPhone Battery life

Long battery life is very important to an avid iPhone user. You can view your battery statistics in settings but here are a few tips to get the most out of your battery life:

1) Turn off push data: Applications such as mail can be set to fetch new data manually. The more frequently the application fetches new data, the faster the battery will drain. Also, you can reduce the amount of email accounts that are checked automatically. Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Fetch New Data

2) Lower brightness: Lowering the brightness is a great way to extend battery life. Alternatively, enable auto-brightness so the brightness will adjust depending on your current lighting conditions. Settings -> Brightness

3) Turn off bluetooth: Bluetooth should only be on if you are using it for things such as a hands free headset or a wireless keyboard. Settings -> General -> Bluetooth

4) Turn off location services: Applications that use GPS, such as camera and Twitter, will rapidly drain the battery. You can turn this off in settings. Settings -> General -> Location Services

5) Quit background apps: According to Apple, background apps are not actually running and don't use battery however, by quitting the 30 something apps you may not even know are running, you can extend the battery life slightly. This only affects iPhones with multi-tasking. Double Tap Home Button -> Hold on an app logo until they start to shake -> Tap the red circle in the top left

6) Turn off notifications for apps: This reduces the amount of apps needing to constantly monitor your iPhones status. Unless you like receiving Facebook notifications at 3am, this should be off anyway. Settings -> Notifications

7) Update with the latest iOS: Those Apple guys don't release updates for their own benefit. Apple engineers may find new ways of optimising battery performance so it is important to keep up to date with new iOS updates. Check for updates on iTunes

8) Store as close to room temperature as possible: Heat rapidly degrades the iPhones battery lifespan and can damage the internal components themselves. Don't store the phone in direct sunlight or even the glove compartment of a car. Heat will degrade the battery the most.

9) Use the iPhone regularly: It may seem stupid but to make full use of the lithium polymer batteries, it is important to keep the electrons moving frequently. Make sure to fully charge the phone at least once a month.

10) Use airplane mode in low or no-coverage areas: Airplane mode automatically turns off wi-fi and 3G and so extends battery life. Settings -> Airplane Mode And there you go. Ten tips for improving battery performance. Optimising your setting is very important and can help you get the most out of your iPhone. It is very hard to find high quality batteries for the iPhone 3G and 3GS so Lovefone don't replace these. We do replace iPhone 4 batteries for £39.

Latest rumours on the iPhone 5

As an iPhone repair company, we need to keep up to date with new Apple technology. As the release of the iPad 2 is done and out of the way, everyone's attention has turned to the possibility of a new iPhone 5 in September.

This new device could be a major opportunity for Apple to put themselves above the competition such as Windows Phone 7 and Android with features such as video chat (FaceTime) over a cellular network, a dual core processor, 4G network capabilities or even the fabled flash capability.

As well as new features, Apple would need to address some of the problems of the iPhone 4, to ensure they do not happen again. Loads of people complained that the location of the cellular network antenna meant that you couldn’t hold the phone normally when making a call. There was also the problem of the fragile glass back that broke whenever you dropped it and the poor quality of the cameras.

Various rumours have suggested that a new iPhone design will place the antenna directly behind the Apple logo on the back of the phone. You may think that this seems strange as surely your hand will block the signal and worsen the problem; you would be correct in thinking that. However, last August Apple announced an exclusive partnership with Liquidmetal Technologies who were to develop a new alloy for the phone casing. The new metal does not block the phone signal and is 2.5 times stronger than a titanium alloy and 1.5 times harder than stainless steel. This means that the back casing of the phone is less likely to break or scratch and won’t affect the phone’s antenna.

There is also the possibility of a new iOS 5. Rumours have suggested that the new iOS will be able to sync to iTunes and update without a wired connection, similar to Microsoft’s Zune.

There is also the possibility for a larger screen, A5 dualcore processor and even HD cameras. From previous experience, we have learnt that the name of the new iPhone reflects its new technology. The iPhone 3G was such called because it supported AT&T's 3G technology, the iPhone 3GS reflects the device’s greater device "speed" (which is what the “S” stands for). The iPhone 4 was not called 4G because it did not have 4G capabilities.

A few weeks ago Peter Misek, a research analyst of Jefferies & Co., said that Apple's supplier for the 4G LTE chipset, that was to be used in the iPhone 5, was not achieving the necessary yield needed to fulfil the estimated sales demand of the new iPhone. He said that the new device will probably be called the 4S and only include minor cosmetic changes and an improved camera and processor.

So what does this mean for the iPhone 5? Well from what we’ve gathered, the iPhone 5 probably won’t be released until next year. Instead, Apple will probably release an iPhone 4S in September, as a chance to test out new features and technology before the larger release of the iPhone 5. This may be a let-down to all you hardcore Apple fans but who knows what the next few years will bring. We’ll just have to wait and see.

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