Sandwellnews
Considering our reliance on smartphones and tablets, and their susceptibility to being cracked, it’s surprising there hasn’t been more of an outcry over why they are so difficult to fix.
I was crest-fallen when my iPad 2 fell on to a hard floor and the screen smashed so one day I tweeted idly asking whether I could fix it myself.
There it would have ended, except one of my followers tweeted me a link to a screen replacement kit for £15 – much less than the £200 I was quoted at the Apple Store.
I clicked, bought the replacement screen then realised I had committed to a mission to fix my own iPad.
So I visited iFixit.com – a crowdsourced website packed with tutorials on how to fix equipment.
The guide to how to fix an iPad 2 looked well laid out, but complicated and intricate. It was rated “very difficult”.
But I was determined that that wouldn’t deter me.
I’d spent £15 after all. Further research revealed tales of broken glass and an almost certain guarantee of breaking something. Not exactly encouraging.
My next port of call was the Restart Project – a group of volunteers who give amateurs advice on how to extend the life of their gadgets.