Now that the iPad has been unveiled to the public and in the hands of an elite few, what more speculation can we conjure about those crazy kids at Cupertino?  It just so happens that I got a call from Aaron Vronko at Rapid Repair.  As the service manager, Aaron and his team dissect roughly 500 iPhones and iPods per week.   Who better to speak on mythical Apple products than someone who rips their guts out all day?

He has a few thoughts on what the blogosphere has been creating, have a read after the jump.

MM: Hey Aaron, thanks for taking my call today, can you give me a bit of background info on you and Rapid Repair?

AV: Hey Fabrizio, I’m the service manager for Rapid Repair, our company was founded 6 years ago and we repair mobile devices, gadgets, ipods, iphones, zunes, video game consoles and handheld consoles. We get shipments from all over the world and repair close to 500 a week. We also contribute to our general knowledge-base by buying the latest gadgets, taking them apart, and putting out repair guides on our website.

MM: That’s great, thanks. So lets get down to business, what do you think Apple will do with the iPhone 4G?

AV: I think that the big changes to expect for the iPhone 4G (4G meaning 4th generation, not the network), in contrast to the iPhone 3GS, will be the exact opposite. The iPhone 3GS changes were focused on the hardware, the horsepower, the core of the device and the kind of performance it can offer. It was basically 95% the same phone as the 3G, just a faster version of it. With the iPhone 4G it will be more or less with the same hardware capabilities, but totally revising the design of it and heavily tweaking, revising and adding to the software functionality but not necessarily in the core applications, but in the most common periphery apps.

MM: Can you tell me more about what you think the direction will be with software?

AV: The thing that made the iPhone successful in the first place was that it did about four applications that everyone who wants a smartphone wants, and it did it better than anyone else ever had. Those four or five applications will be about the same, its just the next 80 or 90 they will improve functionality on.

MM: How do you think the iPhone 4G will be compared to the iPad in terms of platforms and hardware? Will there be any cross-platform integration?

AV: I think its interesting to see to what extent they want to integrate iBooks, they probably most likely want to avoid that. They’ve got another market they are trying to create with the iPad, trying to offer the same functionality on the iPhone, and with that small of a screen size is not that effective for reading books (even though I think they might bump the screen size on the iPhone 4G). I wouldn’t be surprised to see it more focused on reading periodicals, daily news, weekly news. Perhaps expanding on the content delivery that the iBooks content delivery will use. Which I think is a great move, that’s one big piece that the iPad is missing is just one killer app and that it’s not way better than any other device that has come before it.

MM: Well we don’t know that for sure just yet.

AV: Yeah, based on what was shown. It’s not a better e-Reader than Amazon’s Kindle, its not a better computer than the MacBook Air, so far there is not one thing that’s better than everything else.

MM: How about hardware?

AV: I do think the iPhone 4G will use the same processor that is in the iPad. The new Apple A4 as they call it, or it may be called the A3, when it comes down to the hardware it will be the same basic design. The CPU inside that application processor will be an ARM Cortex-A9, the graphics processor will be a PowerVR SGX, probably a 535 or 540. But what they will do, instead of running that CPU at the same clockspeed as the iPad, they will just underlock it to about 600Mhz on the iPhone 4G. The reason they would do that is to save significantly on power.

By comparison, the processor that is in the iPhone 3GS is also running at 600Mhz, the new processor set could easily be 25% more powerful even if they ran it at the same clock speed. In fact, they could even slow it down to 500Mhz and it would still be a more powerful processor set, and it would use maybe half the power as the iPhone 3GS processor and still get just as much done. And thats a result of using a newer and more powerful processor design. Largely due to using a smaller manufacturing process.

MM: Do you think Apple would open up the iPhone 4G for multitasking?

AV: No, I would say not. They didn’t indicate it in the iPad so I would think not. They won’t want to change it from the iPhone 3GS. They have a pretty good history in doing this with the iPods. In one cycle they change the design, the next cycle they beef up the hardware with kind of the same design, and then the next cycle they change the design again. The really good reason for that, which makes a lot of sense for phones, is every 2 or 3 years peoples contracts expire and they can get a new phone when that expires. So it makes sense for Apple to make a device with substantially different capabilities, but nothing more than that. If you make phones with substantially different capabilities every year, then you end up with too many classes of applications and too much confusion of compatibility.

MM: What do you think about these “touch-sensitive case” rumors?

AV: The touch sensing case rumors are interesting. A design concept I think Apple might be playing with, but not an enhancement that would be in the next iPhone, this sounds like something what would more suit the iPad. I believe they will however tweak multi-touch, so you can come up with new gestures, but nothing changed at the core. The case should be an aluminum uni-body.

MM: How about hardware specifics, what will be inside this iPhone 4G that we haven’t talked about?

AV: Memory will be at 512MB, the cost is right and I couldn’t see Apple staying at 256MB for the cost differences. I think storage capacity will be in the options of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. No removable battery, if the iPhone is thought of as having a 2 year life cycle. On a 2 year basis most people are reasonably happy with their battery life.

MM: When do you think Apple will release the iPhone 4G?

AV: I would expect it to be close to the typical annual release, unless there is something groundbreaking that no one would expect there’s no reason that it couldn’t be out. The iPad is going to be out in March with that processor already on display, so processor production shouldn’t really hold them up. But they will need more for iPhone’s, I would say early June to mid-July. Whoever the fabricator is for the iPad A4 chip, will be the fabricator for the iPhone A4 chip. OLED screens are already available in the size Apple would want to use, the only thing they may want to be waiting on is Samsungs newer generation of OLED screens which are 25% brighter. They are in the mobiel handset form factor where you might get a reasonable level of performance in direct sunlight.

MM: What will it cost?

AV: It’s going to be the same or less. Certainly not more, $99, $199 and $299 are the most likely targets. Going any lower to that doesn’t net them any additional sales and thats the price point for most mobile phones, and they could make a killing on it because they are not upgrading most of the hardware inside, its a year later and a year cheaper and for the same price.

MM: There are rumors of video conferencing, what are your thoughts on that?

AV: I don’t think Apple is convinced that the customer they design for (North Americans) demand this feature.  Our mobile networks, (especially the beleaguered AT&T) are nowhere near ready to handle the heavy network demand and usage of these technologies, meaning it would be a WiFi only app and Apple doesn’t want to make their headline feature one that “just works… sometimes.”

MM: Anything else you might want to touch on, perhaps gaming, whats it all really about?

AV: I think its more about design and form factor, not performance on this. They are using newer chips, but thats mainly to increase battery life. Thats the trade off, you can increase battery life and increase performance with some level of trade off. I think you could see some pretty awesome games and battery life. If they use an OLED screen with the A4 chip, clock it all the way down to 500 or 600MHz, you could double the battery life in pretty much all applications from what the iPhone 3GS was. Or they could make the battery smaller and take it off the size and weight of the device with still a 50% increase.

MM: Well Aaron, thank you for your time and our readers will definitely appreciate your thoughts on this.

The original article can be found here.

The original article can be found here.

Apple posted details of its iPad battery replacement service earlier this week. Mind you,the iPad isn’t even expected to hit the stores until April 3rd. Perhaps Apple has learned something from the battery life backlash that continues to plague its iconic iPhone.

“The iPad’s typical use scenario is sans power cord, whereas the power cord travels with the laptop,” says Aaron Vronko, CEO of Raid Repair, which services broken iPods and iPhones and replaces worn-out batteries. “It’s the biggest device to be used off the power cord most of the time. That makes the battery a huge factor in the success of this device and how it’s received by its audience.”

Apple’s iPad $99 battery replacement service is a bit of a misnomer; Apple will replace the entire iPad, not the battery.

Already, the iPad battery has come under fire. The iPad’s 10-inch LCD display requires a battery that’s more than five times the capacity and size of the iPhone 3GS battery. The screen alone consumes roughly 2 watts per hour, Vronko says, and will drain the large battery in 12 hours by itself.

Apple, which claims the iPad has a 10-hour battery life, doesn’t want the iPad to face the kind of vitriolic complaints regarding battery life that the iPhone has endured since its debut.

Bad News: Your iPhone Battery Is Dying

Every time you go through a charge cycle on your iPhone, you’ll permanently lose anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute of battery capacity. Typically, you’ll get 250 to 500 charge cycles before a lithium ion battery has outlived its usefulness, Vronko says.

(A charge cycle covers the entire capacity of the battery. For instance, if you drained a third of the battery and recharged it, and then used two-thirds of the battery the next day and recharged it, this would still be considered a single charge cycle.)

Using your iPhone in extreme temperatures—below 40 degrees Fahrenheit or above 95 degrees—will degrade the battery capacity faster, he says. Also, you shouldn’t regularly run your iPhone battery completely down before recharging it. Doing these things will shave maybe a minute and half off the total battery capacity per charge cycle, Vronko says.

However, it’s a good practice to run the battery dead before fully recharging it once a month to keep the chip on the battery and the chip on the device that measure the current flowing back and forth in sync . This is one of Vronko’s six tips for cleaning and caring for your iPhone.

There are ways to improve battery life of a single charge cycle. Here are three tips for getting more juice:

1. Disable power-hungry features such as Wi-Fi, Notifications and Location Services.

2. Buy a battery pack, especially if you plan on taking your iPhone to places that don’t have a ready power outlet like, say, a golf course. (Check out my review of iPhone app Golfshot GPS.)

3. Get it tested by an Apple Genius, because anecdotal evidence suggests there are a lot of iPhone 3GS lemons with poorly performing batteries on the market.

Time to Replace Your Battery?

Eventually, though, you’ll need to replace your iPhone battery.

Vronko says the battery-replacement demand curve starts with a 10-month-old iPhone. “That’s when we get the first run of customers,” he says. These customers are often heavy iPhone users who may have lost up to 30 percent of the original battery life—and 70 percent of the remaining battery is not good enough for them.

Next, Vronko sees a pick-up in demand for battery replacement with 12-to-15-month-old iPhones. The peak age for battery replacements is 18 months.

Rapid Repair charges $20 for just the iPhone battery, although you’ll have to be brave enough to put in the new battery yourself. Or it’ll cost $50 for the battery and Rapid Repair to do it.

For do-it-yourself folks, swapping in a new battery on an iPhone 3G or 3GS isn’t terribly difficult. The units have tiny screws for removing the outer shell, and the battery has a pluggable module. This wasn’t the case with the original iPhone, which had a battery that was soldered to the unit.

Vronko hasn’t seen the iPad yet, although he figures battery replacement won’t be easy given the iPad’s unibody design. Another sign is the fact that Apple itself plans to replace whole iPads rather than batteries.

“My guess is that the iPad is going to be more difficult for end users to open up the case without damaging it, in order to replace the battery,” Vronko says.

Tom Kaneshige is a senior writer for CIO.com in Silicon Valley. Send him an email at tkaneshige@cio.com. Or follow him on Twitter @kaneshige. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline.

The original article can be found here.

Aaron Vronko

With all the hype over Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s iPad announcement now behind us, Apple-eyes have now turned their attention to what might be on the docket for the anticipated release of iPhone 4G. We’ve torn down and rebuilt thousands of iPhones over the last few years and talked with scores of customers about how they’re using it and what’s important—and not important—to them. Based on Apple’s past patterns of gadget refreshes plus the design and hardware unveiled in the iPad, here are our predictions for what we can expect from the iPhone 4G, which is likely to drop sometime early this summer.

Redesigned aluminum unibody styling

Starting with its iPods, Apple has settled into a fairly predictable pattern of releasing a physical redesign one year and hardware performance upgrade the next. The venerable iPhone 3G embodied the total design overhaul (while keeping hardware performance nearly unchanged.)  A year later, the 3Gs came as an identical twin, but with a surge in performance due to a faster CPU, graphics processor and upgrades to even the minor chips. Since third-party iPhone apps and users are just starting to really take advantage of the new power from the 3Gs, it’s unlikely Apple is ready splinter it’s market again by upgrading performance in the 4th generation iPhone (aka iPhone 4G.)   The 4G’s new cutting edge energy sipping chips will instead be used to make a slimmer and sleeker exterior design of the Mac unibody styling, similar to the iPad with a single piece of aluminum casing with single glass front panel.

Chip change

Apple will likely integrate its new A4 chip into the iPhone 4G, albeit a clocked-down version to meet performance demands without unnecessarily sapping battery power. The 1Ghz A4 for iPad will likely be underclocked to around 600Mhz—ample horsepower for a device that doesn’t support multitasking. Besides, from a marketing perspective, Apple must leave a market segment for the iPad to have a unique purpose. To launch an iPhone with nearly identical hardware capabilities would undermine the company’s own market leadership and complicate the app store with three tiers of iPhone/iTouch app performance.

OLED screen

As much as they might have liked to put an OLED on board the iPad, the technology and manufacturing was at least six months away in displays of 7 inches or more. For the iPhone 4G, however, an OLED screen makes perfect sense. OLED screens up to 5” have been popping up in most of the latest class of new gadgets since late 2009.  While the current class of OLEDs can be hard to view in direct sunlight, Samsung has announced the first production runs of its new Super AM-OLED screens that are 25% brighter and may finally be a solid option for daylight use. Samsung has been a major supplier for Apple’s mobile devices in recent years and may be keen to preserve that revenue stream and showcase their lead in OLED screen tech with Apple as the first OEM customer with its new screen.

Improved secondary/tertiary app performance

The iPhone’s 4 or 5 headline functions (docked apps) likely won’t change much on a 4G version, but we are likely to see some changes to the secondary apps (the ones that come with every phone, but aren’t docked.)

A revamped developer’s kit

Apple’s been wise about cultivating the app industry it’s created, so last year Apple was careful not to alienate older iPhone users when they unveiled apps with superior performance on a 3Gs.  This cautious step forward left many developers content to code for the lowest common denominator (iPhone 2G) for an easier. The iPhone 4G launch will likely bring with it a focus on tweaking the developer’s kit and store so that app developers are empowered and encouraged to leverage the 3Gs and 4G capabilities for more powerful, engaging, and useful apps.    This year Apple will be keen to retain its leadership position by putting the focus on apps that require a 3Gs or better for full function.

Not going to happen

No discussion of predicted iPhone 4G features would be complete without the one it likely will not have: a front-facing web cam. Yep, you read that right: despite lots of rumors that video chat is coming, it just doesn’t seem plausible—yet. The fact is that North American networks simply are nowhere near capable of handling the demand. AT&T (NYSE: T) already takes considerable heat for its lack of capacity to handle iPhone traffic. When it debuts, video chat will be a headline feature for the iPhone, but Apple won’t do that if, “it just works… sometimes.”

There is, however, much greater demand and capacity for video chat in the European and Asian markets to the extent that phones without it may be seen as old tech. This begs the question: could an international version of the iPhone be on the horizon?

Editor’s note: We’ll know more about the iPhone 4G – or whatever Apple decides to call their next-generation iPhone – in the coming months. Stay tuned!

About the Author

Aaron Vronko is the founder and service manager at Rapid Repair, the most well-known and reputable national online repair service for digital electronics, including the iPhone, iPod and more. The company dissects more than 500 devices every week at its repair shop in Kalamazoo, Michigan. For more information, visit www.rapidrepair.com.

The original article can be found here.

Rumors abound as to what sort of hardware and software features this new iteration will pack. Earlier today I had a chat with Aaron Vronko, CEO of Rapid Repair. He gave his predictions for the iPhone 2010 aka iPhone 4G.

While many analysts are expecting high-end processors and massive hardware improvements, Vronko was much more reserved. He expects the iPhone 2010 will pack a similar (if not identical) chip to the iPad. However, he also predicts that the iPad’s processor will be underclocked, down to around 600 MHz.

“It is not going to be much faster than last year’s 3GS. I think we’re talking about a 25% increase in hardware speed. The reason they’re doing this is for battery life.”

Vronko believes that, with the same size battery, the iPhone 2010 could almost double the battery life of the 3GS. Even if they cut the overall size of the battery, the iPhone 2010 will almost certainly see a substantial leap in battery life. Boosting the iPhone’s battery life would be a much more worthwhile endeavour than adding a 1Ghz processor.

“…Apple doesn’t want to move the target again, they do not want to turn app development into a hardware racing game.”

A massive jump forward in hardware would effectively add a partition to the App Store. Apple generally prefers to update hardware one year, and design the next.

“I think what we should really expect, hardware wise, for this next generation of iPhone is a design overhaul. The size, style, and some app functionality may change… Focus will be on second tier apps, as well as on the style of the phone.”

And what changes can we expect for the design of the iPhone itself?

“I think it will most likely have a Mac unibody look. Overall it will have the appearance of being one piece of glass, and one solid piece of aluminium. The most likely [design] will be an even thickness all around.”

There’s a pretty good chance that screen will be OLED, according to Mr. Vronko. He was unwilling to call it a total lock due to the strain on battery life, as well as the issues OLED has in sunlight.

“They could be the first company to use Samsung’s super OLEDs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple be the first OEM to implement that, since Samsung and Apple have a strong working relationship.”

Vronko was doubtful the memory size categories will change. He does think it is likely that the iPhone 2010 will see a RAM upgrade, up to 512 MB. The camera will almost certainly bump up to 5 MP.

I closed the interview out by asking Mr. Vronko when he felt Apple would finally implement multi-tasking.

“If Apple enables multitasking, I doubt it will make it in until mid-2011. Apple is loathe to create ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ in their user base. The 3GS is capable of handling multitasking, but the 3G and 2G are not. Once you’re in 2011, you’ve eliminated those handsets from your mainstream users and Apple can afford to intro multitasking.”

The original article can be found here.

Next week, Apple (AAPL) unveils a tablet about which rumors have been swirling for the past year. Unlike Microsoft’s (MSFT) tablet, no images or specs have been leaked. What will it look like?

If you’re the betting type, here are some more good odds: the tablet will be called an iSlate, have much more capability than simply an e-reader, boast a 10-inch touchscreen and sell for less than $1,000. That’s all well and good—but at least one technologist isn’t convinced.

Not about a 10-inch touchscreen, anyway.

Aaron Vronko, CEO of Rapid Repair, an iPod and iPhone repair shop, took a hard look at hardware options for a tablet that would impact system performance, battery design and power capacity. His key conclusion: An Apple tablet won’t debut with a 10-inch touchscreen, which has been widely predicted.

It’s going to take a lot of juice to light up a 10-inch touchscreen for extended periods, such as when you’re reading a book, he says. And poor battery life has been the bane of the iPhone, so it’s unlikely Apple will make the same mistake with a tablet.

Other technologists agree that a 10-inch touchscreen would be quite a feat. NextWindow product marketing manager Geoff Walker, who has been involved with mobile computing and touchscreen technology for two decades, says a 10-inch touchscreen costs four times as much as a 3.5-inch iPhone touchscreen, thus it would jack up an Apple tablet’s price tag.

If anyone should know about the technical workings of Apple mobile devices, it’s Vronko. He literally wrote the book on caring for your iPhone 3GS and even has tips on how to improve battery life. Vronko was one of the first technicians to take apart the iPhone 3GS and author a repair guide.

Vronko talked to CIO.com and offered his predictions on the iSlate.

Aaron Vronko, CEO of Rapid Repair, loves taking apart Apple iPhones.

What do you think the widely rumored Apple tablet will look like?

Vronko: I expect this tablet device will be the next major step in the convergence of mobile technology, combining cell-phone convenience and simplicity with computer-like productivity, multi-tasking and flexibility in usage.

While the iPhone has broad consumer appeal and made major progress toward serving all our mobile and computing needs, it still lacked much of the productivity and multi-tasking of even a MacBook Air. This was due to limitations of form factor, user interface methods and hardware performance. The Apple tablet, maybe called iSlate, will probably mirror the attractive, simple and easy-to-use iPhone yet have dramatically upgraded hardware and system performance. Hopefully, the tablet will also have a better means of interacting with the device, like an innovative keyboard that’s faster than current two-thumbed typing.

Even with a much larger display, the tablet will still be highly mobile—that is, you’ll probably be able to hold it in one hand—while being productive as an e-reader or document and photo editor.

What kind of display screen will it have?

Vronko: There has been a steady stream of rumors from various sources indicating both a 7-inch and a 10-inch screen size. While the 10-inch is doubtful for the first half of this year due to insufficient availability or production of key components, a 7-inch could be ready by the rumored March or early second quarter ship dates.

A 7-inch tablet would have four times the screen area of an iPhone. A conventional mobile LCD display easily consumes more power than any other component of the device and would severely hamper battery life—maybe only five hours of video—given Apple’s preferred design constraints.

How can Apple get around the battery life issues that have plagued the iPhone?

Vronko: Look for Apple to follow Microsoft, Samsung and HTC in using an AM OLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) display in their 7-inch tablet because of its ability to reduce power consumption. This could extend the battery life anywhere from 40 percent to 75 percent, depending on your usage.

While the technology suffers in sunlight, it shines more brightly and vibrantly than an LCD indoors. With clever software programming that emphasizes dark colors over light ones for large areas, AM OLED could save even more power, perhaps giving 25 hours or more when used as an e-reader.

The other good option would be a new hybrid technology, which has been developed by Pixel Qi. The technology works by stacking e-Paper technology made famous by the Amazon Kindle onto a mostly conventional LCD screen.

This technology saves battery power by reflecting ambient light in two of its three display modes instead of making its own. You have a low-cost, bright and full-color LCD when you need it and a limited-color or high-contrast monochrome display that is smartly controlled by the application. All of which could allow e-reader functionality for maybe 30 hours!

What will power this tablet?

Vronko: Apple will have to beef up the hardware inside this tablet from what the last iPhone offered in order to provide the kind of multi-functional power people expect from a device in its rumored price range, $700 to $1000.

Thanks to its April, 2008 acquisition of startup processor designer PA Semi, I think Apple has the team and skill to do just that.

It has been long speculated and even hinted at by company representatives that the PA Semi team is working on a System-on-a-Chip (SoC) application processor to serve as the heart of future Apple mobile devices. Expect the SoC platform in a 7-inch tablet to include twin CPUs of ARM’s latest high-speed and power saving design, the Cortex-A9.

The device will also need significantly improved graphics processing power to drive up to a million pixels in the display and still render 3D games and applications without problems. After recently buying a long-term design license with mobile GPU designer Imagination Technology, expect this to be the recently unveiled PowerVR SGX545 or possibly SGX540.

Altogether, the highly integrated application processor will likely feature seven to 10 different processor cores, including HD-video encoder/decoders for playing and recording content in 720p or higher. (720p refers to 720 pixels of vertical resolution, while the letter p stands for progressive scan.)

The dual CPUs, other upgraded cores and improved design could give the tablet two to three times more horsepower than last summer’s iPhone 3GS, while keeping effective power consumption of the core system nearly unchanged. All of this contributes to longer battery life.

Do you foresee replaceable batteries?

The exterior look and form will attempt to marry the best elements of its extremely popular iPhone and Mac unibody designs. Expect Apple to help meet design goals by sticking with a non user-replaceable battery that’s only about half the size of an average netbook power pack.

Battery times for most functions will be on par with the latest iPhone but improve dramatically for apps that make use of the new tech, such as an e-reader.

The original article can be found here.

As an expert in the technology used in Apple’s products, Vronko has gleaned information from various sources — including component suppliers, industry trends, and just plain rumors — and has come up with his best estimate of what we’ll see in an Apple tablet.

What will it be used for, and what kind of OS will it run?

Aaron’s comments in this area mirrored my personal thoughts about the tablet. “It just doesn’t make sense as a ‘larger iPhone’,” said Vronko. “Considering the size and the expense of the device, the tablet will need to converge towards light productivity functions and replace a netbook or compact laptop. To do this, the device must be able to run Office-type apps that are accessed in a meaningful way, and the only way a tablet can do this is through easy user input. People buy solutions, not devices, and the tablet is going to have to fulfill a need that the target market has.”

Aaron continued, saying “User input will have to be the biggest surprise from Apple. Perhaps we’ll see 3D gestures for more useful input, or some sort of split on-screen touch keyboard. The virtual keyboard was the real innovation of the iPhone; the tablet needs to bring this to the next level.”

The original article can be found here.

Leading iPod/iPhone Repair Company Pays Top Dollar for Fully Functional, First-Generation iPhones; Guaranteed Prices, Shipping Included KALAMAZOO, Mich., Oct. 14

KALAMAZOO, Mich., Oct. 14 /PRNewswire/ — Rapid Repair, the most well-known and reputable national online repair service for portable electronics like the iPod, Zune and iPhone, has unveiled its iPhone Buyback Program, giving first-generation iPhone owners a new option for generating the
funds needed to trade up to the new 3G Apple iPhone — or just for turning their iPhone into cash.

“Lots of 1G iPhone owners are excited about the 3G — but they don’t know what to do with their current device,” said Aaron Vronko, CEO, co-founder and service manager of Rapid Repair. “Our iPhone Buyback Program is a unique alternative to eBay, Craig’s List or other self-directed sales channel. It’s fast, simple, and best of all, our prices are both fair and guaranteed.”

Rapid Repair’s iPhone Buyback Program pays top dollar for fully-functional iPhones. Current prices range from $100 for the 4GB model to $200 for the 16GB (prices subject to change). Upon contacting Rapid Repair and qualifying for the program, an overnight shipping label is immediately sent to the seller to cover the cost of mail-in.

Furthermore, Rapid Repair guarantees its buyback price for up to 14 days. “If for any reason our price changes, either up or down, during the two weeks after the seller contacts us, we will still pay them the higher price,” stated Vronko.

Currently there is no trade-in option for iPhone owners at any iPhone retailer. “Apple and AT&T do not accept trade-ins. Best Buy is not expected to accept 1G iPhones either,” said Vronko. “To our knowledge, Rapid Repair’s Buyback Program is the only such program from a reputable company.”

To take advantage of the Rapid Repair iPhone Buyback Program, interested individuals should go to the program Web page at http://www.rapidrepair.com/iphonebuybackprogram.html. After filling out a
short form, a Rapid Repair sales associate will contact the individual with the information he or she will need to mail in their device. Rapid Repair will accept all standard accessories included with the original iPhone device; no offers are currently available for aftermarket accessories.

For those individuals with a broken or damaged iPhone, Rapid Repair offers an iPhone repair service as well as a full line of iPhone replacement parts. The company also buys damaged iPhones and will soon begin selling used, fully-functional iPhones equipped with 90-day unconditional warranties. To
learn more about Rapid Repair’s sales and service programs for iPhones, iPods and other handheld devices, go to http://www.rapidrepair.com.

About Rapid Repair:
Rapid Repair is dedicated to the service, repair, and modification of all iPod, iPhone, Zune, and other small electronic devices. The national company specializes in small electronics repair, with quality workmanship, speed and efficiency, and offering customer service that is second to none. Rapid
Repair is headquartered in a 3,000 square foot building in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with 15 employees.

iPod and iPhone are registered trademarks of Apple. Other products and trade names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Rapid Repair

http://www.earthtimes.org

The original article can be found here.

They are young alumni who met as coworkers and soon became roommates. But it was inconceivable that Ben Levy, BBA ’04, and Aaron Vronko, BBA ’06, would still be together today as founders of a multi-million dollar iPod repair business. “It all sort of happened by accident in 2003,” says Vronko. “It was my junior year in college and Ben’s senior year. We had both been laid off from a local pharmaceutical company. I moved in with Ben and slept on the couch … we were broke,” says Vronko. “Ben’s iPod was in need of repair, and we were hard-pressed to find a service to fix it. We soon realized that other iPod owners were in the same boat. To save money, we tore apart the device to see if we could fix it ourselves.” Their inquisitiveness paid off as they managed to repair the unit. Then through discussion forum postings on the Internet, and as they searched for further information on parts and repairs, they
began to draw interest from even more iPod owners and businesses who were searching for help with iPod repair. At the
time, the devices were still fairly new— so no one really knew where to go for service. “Within a month, the whole thing
snowballed from repairing 3-5 devices a week to 20-25,” says Levy, “and it wasn’t long before we converted a second bedroom in the apartment to a work area. We both had our brothers working for us to keep up with the rising demand. It was quite evident that we had struck an opportunity in this niche market,” says Levy, who developed the concept that would become iPodMods, and later, Rapid
Repair.
The new company grew 50 percent in its first year and the duo moved the business out of the apartment to an office on West Main St. in Kalamazoo. Last year the business realized between $2.5 and $3 million in sales. Levy serves as the president and CEO and focuses more on the purchasing aspect of the business and scoping out new products to sell. Vronko handles the day-to-day operations. The two have learned a lot firsthand about running a business over the past four years. Levy worked particularly hard in the beginning by reaching out to others and forming relationships with clients. “Some of the clients ended up being some pretty big companies that we still work with today. Back then, there was slim to no competition, but now it’s an everyday battle with 50 to 100 competitors.”
Vronko talks about the important skills required of today’s entrepreneur – adaptability, persistence and passion. “We recognized early on that business environments change quickly and this means we have to have the ability to adapt to markets at the speed of change,” says Vronko. “We expanded to include other devices such as iPhones, Zune, and video game consoles like PlayStation3, Nintendo

Wii and PlayStation PSP.” And as new devices are rolled out, you can be sure that Rapid Repair will be upto-date on what’s out there. Last year, 12 hours prior to the latest iPhone release in the United States, Vronko flew to Paris to be one of the first to pick his up at a midnight iPhone release event—only to tear it apart to see how it was assembled. “Today, there is a real demand for the ‘doit-yourself’ market,” says Vronko. “We could have viewed this as a lost opportunity, but you’ve got to get your head out of the clouds, figure out a way to make operational changes and have the courage and persistence to adapt a plan until it works for you. Through our online assistance, we now sell parts and accessories for these do-ityourselfers.” Vronko says the passion to be an entrepreneur is the most intangible requisite. “If you can’t get up in the morning and be excited about making something happen for your business, you’re in the wrong place,” says Vronko. “You have to wake up knowing that every day you are ultimately responsible for sales, finance, labor, expenses, and every other facet of your own success. While most people understandably prefer the comfort and security of having a limited scope of functions of the company, an entrepreneur sees this responsibility as the  call to arms of each new day.”

As business continues to grow, Vronko and Levy are moving the business to a 4,300 square foot building in early fall. Rapid Repair employs 15 people. The Web address is: www.rapidrepair.com.

Aaron Vronko, BBA ’06
Aaron Vronko’s inquisitiveness was evident at an early age. He admits to always questioning how things worked while growing up and credits his parents for putting up with the question “why” a million or so times. A highly energetic individual, Vronko attended
classes at Grand Valley State University to obtain a Microsoft Systems Engineering certificate while still a junior in high school in Grand Rapids, Mich. He entered WMU as a freshman undecided in his major and admits he “bombed out” the first semester. He took the next semester off and landed a job at the help desk of a local pharmaceutical company where he worked for 2.5 years before losing his position, along with many others, through a merger. “I soon realized that I had to get my life back on track, so I enrolled in
classes at a local community college for a year before transferring back to Western as a management major.” He graduated magna cum laude in 2006 and from then on he began to devote all of his time to the business. Vronko credits his professors at the Haworth College of Business with “teaching me the sound fundamentals of running a good business,” and for “showing me how to advance business development.” Vronko married fellow WMU alumna Lindsay Scott, BS ’08, this summer.

Ben Levy grew up in Kalamazoo, but spent his high school years in Grand Rapids, Mich. Ben was an all-state wrestler. “My coach, Dave
Mills, helped me excel in the sport and also taught me many things about life and ethics,” says Levy. Levy chose Western because
he had a lot of family and friends in Kalamazoo, and it was far enough away from home to live on his own. He started as a computer science major, and then switched to computer information systems. Levy graduated with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration in 2004 with a major in computer information systems.

The original article can be found here.

Earlier this year, reportedly faulty exploding iPhones in Europe caused a whole lot of finger pointing at Apple and its suppliers-but more often than not, iPhones get sent to the repair shop because of user slip-ups.

Aaron Vronko, CEO of Rapid Repair, an iPod and iPhone repair shop, and one of the first technicians to take apart the iPhone 3GS and write a repair guide, has seen his fair share of reasons why broken iPhones need emergency surgery. Here are his six favorites, along with advice on how to triage the problems:

1. “My iPhone went through the washing machine.”

Liquid is public enemy number one of the iPhone. One reader wrote to me that Apple refused to fix her broken iPhone because the Apple technician saw a red line on the base of the phone where the charger attaches. “It’s some kind of liquid submersion indicator,” she says, adding that her new iPhone was never exposed to water, rain or humidity. “They insisted I must have somehow submerged the iPhone in water, voiding all warranties.”

When an iPhone gets caught up in the washing machine, you’ll probably have to kiss it goodbye. “This all-too-common cause has a high mortality rate due to the thorough and prolonged penetration of the water,” Vronko says.

2. “I plugged my iPhone into my car charger, and it started to smoke.”

Chances are you’ve fried iPhone circuits because of a power surge. The 12 volt electrical system of cars used primarily for headlights and interior lights was not designed to handle the loads of modern cars with their big stereos, myriad gadgets and electronic features. “It’s common to have power surges simply because we’re overloading a small capacity system,” Vronko says.

The good news is that the iPhone probably can be repaired cheaply, unlike the iPhone in the washing machine. In the iPhone, the dock connector acts as a kind of protective layer to the main board, and so a power surge will likely fry just the dock connector. You’ll need an inexpensive dock connector replacement, Vronko says. Of course, you’ll still have to go a couple of days without your iPhone.

A big power surge, of course, can make it to the main board. In these cases, it’s bye-bye iPhone. “It wouldn’t make economic sense to fix it,” Vronko says.

Vronko doesn’t make many recommendations about iPhone accessories, save one: Buy brand-name chargers because they’ll have a better fuse to protect the iPhone. A brand-name company will also be more likely to help you out if its product causes damage to your iPhone.

Also, if you’re intent on using a car charger, try not to have the iPhone plugged in when you’re starting or turning off a car. That’s usually when electrical spikes occur, Vronko says.

3. “I dropped the iPhone and the screen cracked.”

You may pull an iPhone from your pocket or bag 40 times in a day. Its thin shape and slippery plastic shell is a disaster in the making. I’ve probably dropped my iPhone once every other week, luckily on carpet, and thus had to replace the screen’s protective film or live with the scratches on the back. With a drop on concrete, though, it’s easy to see the potential for cracked screens.

A cracked screen is fixable, says Vronko. The combined LCD-digitizer screen module on the iPhone 2G will need to be replaced. On the iPhone 3G and 3GS, only the digitizer usually needs replacement, Vronko says.

4. “My iPhone won’t charge.”

When an iPhone won’t charge, consumer fears may turn to the highly publicized iPhone battery lemon phenomenon. More often than not, however, the problem is far less dramatic. “This is usually the result of a misaligned dock cable or a foreign object being forced into the dock connector, causing damage and requiring that this module be replaced,” Vronko says.

The advice is simple: take care when plugging the cable into the iPhone. Also, make sure it’s the right cable. Yes, people often try to force in a wrong cable into the socket.

Along these lines, some iPhone owners complain that their iPhone won’t charge fully-that is, the iPhone indicates a less-than-100 percent charge. Yet the problem might be that the chip on the battery and the chip on the device measuring the juice flowing back and forth are out of sync.

Vronko advises customers to run the iPhone completely dead and then charge it until it can’t take anymore charge. Repeat this process, “and this should sync up the chips,” he says.

5. “I tried to repair my iPhone myself, and now it doesn’t work.”

This common response often is accompanied with a bag full of parts and screws, says Vronko. Chances are, if you play Dr. Fix-It, you will do additional damage to the iPhone.

While we all took apart bikes or computers when we were kids, a person must know his limitations. Seek professional help when dealing with high-tech devices like the iPhone.

6. “My son (or daughter) says nothing happened, it just stopped working.”

There are just two kinds of parents, Vronko jokes: the parent who believes the teenager, and the parent who knows better. It’s a good bet that the son or daughter let water get into the iPhone, dropped it, or jammed the wrong cable into the iPhone dock connector.

Earlier this year, an 18-year-old French teenager complained his eye was injured when his girlfriend’s iPhone overheated and the device’s touchscreen shattered, according to a report by the AFP news agency.

After researching the case, Apple responded: The glass cracked “due to an external force that was applied to the iPhone,” and not internal heat, Alan Hely, a London-based spokesman for Apple Europe said.

The original article can be found here.