Where mp3 players and tablet computing are concerned, there really aren’t any worthwhile alternatives to Apple’s iPod and iPad, but where smart phones are concerned, the iPhone is great, but its not the only exceptionally awesome device out there. We at Milliamp have certainly taken note of the latter point, there are a wealth of impressive (and popular!) smart phones available on a multitude of networks! These devices’ offerings vary in form, function, color, size, interactive style, etc etc, but there is ONE thing that binds every single smart phone out there… THEY BREAK! Whether a touch screen, an LCD, a failing battery, water damage, or a worn key pad, smart phones will encounter human inflicted damage! So, with all of this in mind, we have begun to explore the myriad devices that need repair and are considering expanding our Award Winning repairs services to those devices.  Are you excited yet Milli-Fans!?!?! You should be! but don’t go and change your Facebook status (at least not yet) to proclaim to the masses that “You can’t believe it, but Milliamp will finally fix my HTC EVO’s broken glass!” because we haven’t completely settled on the devices for which we will begin to offer repair services. However, we can tell you that we are seriously considering expanding our services to different devices in the very near future, so stay tuned to our website and blog for information regarding these new services, you could even use a comment on this blog post to suggest a device for which we should offer services! It’s definitely worth noting that even though we have visions of smart-phone repair grandeur dancing through our heads, we still have our feet firmly planted on the ground and have not forgotten where our business so humbly began 5 years ago, DIY repair kits. It’s been a while since we have offered new DIY repair kits, complete with tools and instructions, for sale, but that, too, is about to change. We have already completed the photo shoot for the new instruction manuals and are in the process of carefully planning out the instructions themselves. So, I’ll leave you with that juicy morsel and the suggestion to look out for EIGHT brand-spanking-new DIY repair kits. Commence to jumping for joy.

In my earlier post, you saw us picking up the first of many iPads from Apple for our popular iPod and iPhone repair business. I had the chance to use the iPad all weekend, and today, several of our “milliamperes” had a chance to play with it as well, as shown in this photograph taken around 8am today:

8am iPad Party

Well, we gently disassembled our iPad after hours today, and man this is not an “Anyone Can Fit It” project! The iPad, like the more recent iPod nanos and iPod touch devices, is very delicate inside and going to take a LOT of hands-on experience for us to get familiar with it and to learn all the little quirks of its’ design. But our technicians are good, very good, and I have no doubt that they will be zipping around the inside of an iPad as easy as if it were an iPod Video.

The iPad battery is a crazy little beast – looks nothing like we have ever seen before in an iPod or iPhone. Here we find two batteries tethered together and placed inside a plastic tray to keep them both in place:

ipad-battery-top-and-bottom

And here is a picture of the inside of our iPad backplate, a single sheet of metal and sturdy as hell:

ipad-backplate-exposed

Fortunately, the iPad LCD (the part that displays images) and the glass iPad Digitizer Screen (the part that you touch) are NOT fused together as we have seen in the first generation of the iPhone. The two parts DO come apart, but they have this sticky adhesive that secures the two pieces together, and presumably helps keep dust out:

ipad-repair-lcd-digi

We will keep posting our iPad service thoughts on this blog, so bookmark us and stay tuned for more, lots more.

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

P.S. Look for more amazing iPad surprises from milliamp.com coming your way!

First, we have exciting news: milliamp.com is now taking pre-orders for iPad screen replacements. Why place an order now, weeks before the new Apple iPad comes out? Because if you pre-order now, you will save 10 percent off your order total when the times comes to buy your new iPad replacement screen, that’s why! Head to this page to learn more about this exciting offering that any future hard-core iPad user needs to know. You and I both know that people are going to drop their iPads on Day One and afterwards, and sending it to milliamp.com for a quick screen replacement is going to be THE way to go when that time comes.

Second, we managed to get a slab of glass some are calling an iPad digitizer screen. Now, the jury is still way out on if the iPad digitizer will be separate from it’s underlying LCD like it is on all three generations of the Apple iPod touch, and the iPhone 3G and 3GS. Personally, I am leaning more towards the digitizer and LCD being one fused piece, much like the First Generation iPhone (aka iPhone 2G). Since the iPad parts that are trickling out of China seem to have v1.0 written all over them, no one will really know the answer this question until the iPad hits the street on April 3, 2010 (and yes, we do have our pre-order placed for our brand new iPad).

The big thing we noticed on this piece of iPad glass is there is a small, circular opening in the black border at the top of the screen. Some of the techs here immediately thought ‘proximity sensor’ and some of them thought ‘opening for camera lens’ – it was almost as contentious as the occasional “mac-versus-pc” discussions (well, arguments) we sometimes still have over here.

After looking closely at the iPad frame part and now this screen, I have to agree that it looks like a camera on the iPad is imminent. I am just not sure if we will be seeing one April 3, 2010, or in the 2nd Generation iPad and beyond Besides, the proximity sensor on today’s iPhones are currently tucked behind the semi-transparent black border and require no such “cut-out” in the black border in order to function, and who’s going to hold an iPad up to their head like an iPhone anyways?:

iPad Repairs at milliamp.com

Best regards,

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

It takes a lot of effort to develop a great brand and reputation for your iPod repair business. Sometimes, it takes years. But we try to do lots of things to help get the milliamp.com name in front of people who suddenly need Apple iPod repairs and Apple iPhone repairs. We tweet, our pages show up when someone “bings” or “googles’ us, and we get a lot of referrals from the AT&T shops and Apple stores.

One other way we plan to help promote our business is to include a removable sticker or pad with our milliamp.com logo on the back of every iPod and iPhone we repair. The idea here is that people with iPods and iPhones know other people with iPods and iPhones, and we can use their assistance in getting our name out there.

We are still beta testing the designs and materials and sizes, but we have it narrowed down to either a vinyl sticker that can get removed easily and a small patch that magically adheres to the surface of an iPod or iPhone with a front face that is perfect for cleaning the smudges from the front of the device. I particularly like the latter since design since its’ functionality (cleaning the screen) should give it longer life and thus, help promote the brand for a longer period of time.

Little Sticker Could Make Big Impact

What other clever ways can we use to promote the milliamp.com brand name? Shoot me an email to owner@milliamp.com or give me a telephone call and let’s discuss!

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

Having finished a great strategy session for milliamp.com in 2010, I found myself thinking about how far this company has come in the five years we have been fixing iPods and iPhones and offering do-it-yourself iPod battery kits. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work with some great people (and others who have challenged the sh!t out of me!), but the goal from the very very very beginning has been to provide exceptional customer service to those who have encountered unexpected issues with their Apple iPod or iPhone.

At the same time, one of my personal goals this new year is to convert all the aging DV tapes we have of the kids to digital media – something I have wanted to do for years, but as anyone that has kids knows, lots of things get put off for more pressing matters. On one of the videos, I came across a fleeting glance of the area of our house where I started this business oh so long ago:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI4N-3efOtc[/youtube]

While I cannot say that I never thought we would grow as big as we have (currently hovering around the 20 employee mark), I am constantly amazed at our growth, and the hard-working people that make up our fine company. For those that are not in the repair business, you have to work very hard to gain people’s trust, and work even harder to provide them with excellent products and services. And if you fall short in either of these two areas, your customers will let you (and others) know about it faster than you can say ‘complaint department’.

Well, we have come a long way from that card table, and if you haven’t see this already, here is a great video that shows our operation as a device moves through our repair facility as it looks now:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDegUAxdkOs[/youtube]

Hope you enjoyed the videos, and thanks for helping me reminisce!

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

Well, it’s common knowledge that, when you send your device to milliamp.com for a repair on your Apple iPod or iPhone, we will void any warranty that you may have with the manufacturer. Oftentimes, this is not an issue, since most of the devices we work on our outside of their warranty coverage, or are so damaged, Apple will not cover the device under their warranty terms. Therefore, this shirt i received as a gag gift had a certain resonance with me, and i thought you might enjoy seeing it as well:

Warranty Voider

P.S. Notice the row of different type of screw heads? That’s freaking cool…

The new 6th Generation IPOD NANO’s low-power consumption and feather-light-weight design makes this Apple’s most creative IPOD ever.

We are pleased to get our hands on two prototype 6th Generations NANOS, shown here in this exclusive photo:

Sixth Gen IPOD NANO Repairs Available

Interestingly, the battery inside Apple’s Six Generation IPOD NANO does not have a wired connector that attaches to the motherboard, nor is it soldered in like all the nanos before it – actually, it has absolutely no battery to speak of! Yep, this device is solar-powered.

We found that the display on the new IPOD NANO lacked a great deal of visual acuity, more so than the previous NANO models, including the monochrome first generation nano screen. But if this is the trade-off for a greener, more eco-friendly IPOD, then we can accept that.

The small form factor of the new device is simply amazing – it has the exact same weight as U.S. nickel – and it is so thin that you can literally see through it in some areas. We believe that these small holes actually help keep the unit’s core temperature cool, but we have yet to officially confirm this in our tests (more details on this to follow in another blog post).

While the device lacks the touch-screen functionality that is seen in the ubiquitous IPHONE and IPOD TOUCH, the new IPOD NANO has more than 20 headphone jack ports all over the face of the device where you can plug in your earbuds, making this the most unexpected added convenience we have seen in an IPOD NANO to date.

Of course, we can repair the sixth Generation IPOD nano, and you will start seeing parts and services for this model any moment now, so bookmark that page and check it regularly until we get it updated.

P.S. This was a joke. Just a bit silly after all the Cyber-craziness over the past few days.

All the best,

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com

We are so very proud to announce that the glorious new milliamp.com logo has entered the registration process with the USPTO – and we have been permitted to add the trademark symbol ™ after it now. I have always loved the new milliamp.com logo – green leaf to bolster our green attitudes towards keeping aging devices out of landfills, and the sleek blue-fading-to-white text.

Lots of other companies seem to like the logo, too.

Start looking for the milliamp.com logo to appear in all sorts of new places and websites – we are milliamp.com and we are proud!!

Anthony Magnabosco, Owner
milliamp.com
Your Source for Repairs to Your Apple IPOD or IPHONE

iPod Instruction Site Conducts Interview

The site started out selling ipod battery kits, and now does apple ipod repairs and even iphone repairs. They still sell the batteries, but have found the need to also offer repair services, as the iPhone and later iPod models are increasingly hard to open for the average iPod user.

The interview is pretty in-depth, which says a lot about the ownership behind the iPod Instruction site ipodinstructor.com. Their site has a ton a great information for the iPod consumer, and should probably be a bookmark on most people’s browsers for an occasional dose of iPod and iPhone-related news.

-Anthony

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN0SVBCJqLs[/youtube]Just came across this video of Steve Jobs introducing the 1st Generation Apple iPod – very cool. Enjoy. Laugh. Reflect.

- Anthony, Owner