Strange iPods May Be Difficult to Repair

Knockoffs among the iPod ilk come in many shapes and sizes, and their only real advantage appears to be price. That said, the real challenge might be fixing them when they break.

You might have already heard about the “iPods for Democracy” program, a distribution of iPod knockoffs as some kind of goodwill propaganda effort sponsored by an American organization called Voice for Humanity. This bellicose-related fit of mind flu is ostensibly a showcase for American idealism, a benevolence dubiously demonstrated on the backs of angry donkeys and Arabian horses trekking through isolated regions of rural Afghanistan bearing pink iPods as gifts to curious Afghan women eager to leap burka-first into the twenty-first century. This supposedly invaluable stepping stone toward literacy is genuinely gender-conscious; being pink, but otherwise only resembles a real iPod. Aid workers dutifully distributed 65,800 of these customized digital audio recorders, which cost $50.00 each – an iPod knockoff manufactured in China and loaded with public service messages on topics such as human rights, women’s rights, Afghanistan’s election process, and reproductive health.

Incredibly, dozens of these have been turning up lately broken in various ways, sometimes brought in by family members of Afghans now living in the United States, especially to independent repair shops specializing in cell phones, and electronic gadgets, including pseudo-iPods. A few were turned in with bullet holes lodged in their cheaply-assembled LCD screens. Perhaps ill-advised gifts in the first place, being remote Afghan villages, technicians at a number of independent shops have described the little pink gadgets being recycled as “scary” and very difficult to repair. “I’m not sure what they’re supposed to contain,” admits one less than impressed expert service technician who was soon seeing pink.

From the island of Taiwan, iPod knockoffs have been flying off the shelves fast enough to prompt repeated warnings from Apple. These Chinese substitutes can cost as little as a third of a genuine Apple, and come in various storage capacities from 512 MB up to 2 GB. These knockoffs look like the real Macintosh except for a less clearly delineated “menu” and have a play button in the center of the dial that is typically the first component to break. “I hate those things too,” said one service technician working at an independent repair shop who refused to be identified.

Jeff Gasner is with CPR-Cell Phone repair. The leader in Cell Phone Repair and iPod repair offering cell phone repair services nationwide. To learn more about Cell phone repair, ipod repair, cell repair services, visit Chicagocellrepair.com.

A Mesh of Cell Phone Gaming & Transformers, but What Happens When It Breaks?

The Cool8800C is a Nokia knockoff with kewl features that seem oddly matched, but it may be surprisingly easy to repair.

Cell phone gaming and transformers were a marriage that was bound to happen, sooner or later. One smart electronic gadget is morphing into another. This Cool8800C, a Nokia Smart Phone knockoff, is the newest techno-entry from Solomobi, a Chinese manufacturer and distributor of mobile phones. The thinga-gizmo is delicate, in the sense of cardboard, because it opens up into a PlayStation portable mode, complete with a d-pad. But its features are amazing for a hybrid, including trendy innovations that seem increasingly indispensable: E-book reader, FM radio, MP3/MP4, and an attractive LCD screen. When it works, the E-book reader is a real page-turner, the FM radio speakers are tiny but can be clearly heard up to six feet from their source, MP3 recordings sound tinny but are impressive considering that we’re still in the midst of the War on Terror and can’t be greedy, MP4 recordings are fainter but still barely audible-- and that’s a good thing -- and the embedded LCD screen comes in several flavors, including tutti-fruity.

But this level of performance can’t always be depended upon with the Cool8800C. Even the LCD screens can lose their luster when the knockoff is knocked around a bit. Other features of the thingee are even more impressive. NES games, also described as “old school” Nintendo, are mentioned, although titles don’t appear and there’s no clue about how to actually access them during “the best of times,” as Dickens might have said.

This hybrid contraption is a heck of a lot better than any Sony-made genuine PSP phone, especially when you consider that Sony does Skype which doesn’t really count. It’s true that this “C” thing barely functions when you look at it from a naysayer’s vantage, but what is really worrisome from Pollyanna’s perspective is what happens if your treasured little knockoff (still selling at $140.00)crashes completely?

The independent cell phone repair shops are the only place you can dare bring it to, when the unthinkable happens. Soon enough, your Cool8800C will be nifty again, and you’ll be able to turn the pages of any E-book of your choice. You’ll be so engrossed in the text by then that you won’t want to do anything else.

Jeff Gasner is with CPR-Cell Phone repair. The leader in Cell Phone Repair and iPod repair offering cell phone repair services nationwide. To learn more about Cell phone repair, ipod repair, cell repair services, visit Chicagocellrepair.com.

CPR Technicians Say Yes to Nanos and Pinkies

CPR’s expertly trained service technicians can fix the Nano or “repair the Pinkie” no matter how tough the troubleshooting gets.

It wasn’t long ago when the first iPod Nano knockoffs were brought naked into our unsuspecting repair shops, one after the other. They came from China, maybe Taiwan, maybe the mainland. Who actually manufactured them and sold them to gullible but thrifty Americans in the United States is anybody’s guess. One prominent distributor being mentioned was a bizarro referred to only cryptically as ‘Nanohead.’ He looked a little like ‘Eraserhead’ from that classic film of the same name, circa 1980, but this is innuendo, since no CPR employee has ever actually seen him.

An iPod Nano is constructed with several capacities, but the worst of the Nano nonos are these: 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB. Each is ugly as sine, as in critical function, a gadget reeking of cheap construction with little attention paid to detail. On the iPod Nano’s dial, this knockoff is made to resemble a genuine Apple, one suspects, until one of CPR’s observant technicians happened to notice that instead of “Menu,” a Nano customer has to settle for an “M,” while the gadget’s “play” button is in the center of the dial, gazing back at you like a Cyclops arrived fresh from the junker heaps in Hades. Greek mythology aside, volume is controlled at the dial’s bottom, why, no one really knows, unless it has something to do with a spanking. With that instruction in mind, sometimes a CPR technician’s well-placed little tap made the Nano “M” hum again.

Another fake iPod got their start as part of a U.S. government giveaway program. A group called “Voice for Humanity” began passing out customized digital audio players that looked like the trendy iPods, only they were pink—the hue having something to do with the gadgets intended as literacy tools for Afghan women inhabiting remote villages. Several of these “pinkies,” as they came to be called by our clever service technicians always at the ready, made their way through the doors of selected CPR storefronts.

We were as adept at fixing these as we’d been at repairing the Nanos, even if our service technicians instinctively recoiled from their litany of National Public Radio-like sounds, primarily public service messages on topics including human rights, women’s rights, Afghanistan’s elections, and reproductive health, in other words – what went on under the burka. Fortunately, these too were relatively easy to fix.

To learn more about Cell phone repair, ipod repair, cell repair services, visit Chicagocellrepair.com.

Bring Your Gaming-Transformer Hybrids to CPR

Morphed creations such as the Cool8800C can play their old school Nintendo games again when expert CPR service technicians crack them open.

Solomobi makes them. The electronic gadget is called the Cool8800C and it’s a mix of cell phone gaming and transformer, a pretty smart machine made smarter theoretically when it’s combined with a way to play Nintendo games via dual sim cards. This foldable PlayStation Portable comes complete with a d-pad, and does everything it’s hawked to do – read E-books, play its FM radio or an inserted MP3 or MP4, when it’s functioning. The problem is it’s so cheaply made; the “C” only works to a certain extent when it does function. But while NES games are mentioned, no titles ever appear or even information to find titles should they miraculously turn up. This device ‘made and marketed in China’ doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. What “functioning” of the Cool8800C really implies is a slow page-turning for reading E-books that can drive users to distraction, an FM buzzing that emits fuzzy sound in a radius of about six feet from the source and no further, MP3 or MP4 recordings that come out sounding like Alvin and the Chipmunks rescued from pop music antiquity land, and if a user ever tries to learn what to do from the manufacturer, a company called Solomobi, they are out of luck unless they speak a hybrid strain of Mandarin & Cantonese Chinese quite fluently.

Enter CPR. Imagine a scenario when a customer saunters into one of our independent repair outlets, and drops a malfunctioning Cool one, an 8800C, on the counter. “Can you make it work?” the owner of the peculiar little device might ask in a very plaintive tone.

“Sure, I’ll crack it open,” our intrepid and expert service technician might offer bravely. There is no swagger but we will try, as a song from “The Impossible Dream” blends with a selection from “The Miracle Worker” on the thing’s tiny FM radio.

The next day the customer returns to CPR. “Well, is my Cool8800C working again?” he asks, still sounding as plaintive as ever.

“I have good news,” our expert technician says, “Yes, it’s functioning as well as it ever did.” He turns it on like you would begin playing a Nintendo game back in 1978. Strains of music begin emanating. What is heard if you listen very closely is the high-pitched squeals of chipmunks. The customer smiles slowly, satisfied, a bit like the Mona Lisa.

To learn more about Cell phone repair, ipod repair, cell repair services, visit Chicagocellrepair.com.