With the release of the new S9, there has been a bit of controversy about the changes made, or rather how few there seem to be. Physically the S9 has remained largely unchanged from the S8. With the same screen and almost identical body size, the biggest changes take a closer look at the S9 to see where the importance is.

These changes are mostly small ones that together make the difference. Starting with the camera, the S9 got an improvement in the rear camera, while the front camera remains unchanged. the S9 now supports 960fps slow-motion capture @ 720p, which is on par with current flagship phones. Also new on the video side is 4K recording @ 60fps compared to the 30fps of the S8. Shifting to photography, the S9 is 12MP like the S8, but now supports dual aperture of either 1.5 or 2.4 F-stop. This is an automatic feature that can be manually toggled for those photography enthusiasts. Next to the rear camera is, of course, the fingerprint sensor; which on the S8 was awkwardly placed in line with the rear camera. Samsung learned from this and has relocated it below the rear camera instead, as is the case with most rear-mounted fingerprint sensors. The rest of the changes Samsung made to the S9 were largely suggestions from the community. You’ll find the S9 Now has slightly faster LTE capabilities than the S8. The S9 also supports expandable memory up to 400gb where the S8 had 256gb. Finally, there is an almost imperceptible change to the physical dimensions of the S9: it is 1.2mm shorter, 0.6mm wider, 0.5mm thicker, and 8 grams heavier in comparison to the S8. So why the slight change? Samsung decided to bolster the structural integrity of the phone. With thicker front glass and aluminum in the bevel, the durability of the phone has actually taken a significant improvement. The small change results in greater drop and bend resistance.

So is the S9 worth the upgrade? These numerous small changes don’t seem like much in the grand scheme of things, and perhaps they’re not. When it boils down to it; unless you need more expansion than the already good 256gb, or are a photography enthusiast whose main camera is their phone, this probably isn’t worth it to you. The relocation of the fingerprint sensor is nice, but with Iris Scan and Face Recognition that doesn’t carry as much weight. When it comes down to it, as long as you’re happy with your S8 you may want to wait for the S10 to be released, which will most likely be in February of 2019. Whether your interest is in the S9 and the price drop that will eventually follow the release of the S10 or the S10 itself.

Hi Guys and Gals,

It has been a while since my last post about anything tech related but, everything has been running pretty smooth so… “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. Well something has broke and it started with the screen on my iPhone 8. After much chagrin I fixed the screen and everything was working fine until I updated to iOS 11.3 and my touch stopped working. Research was conducted and I found that iOS 11.3 made aftermarket digitizers (the thing that registers where your fingers are) on any iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X inoperable. luckily I had my cracked original iPhone 8 screen and put it back on until May 1, 2018 when the issue was patched by Apple. The aftermarket screen now works as it should.

This is not the first time we have seen this with Apple.  Take for example iOS 11.0.3 where the touch screen was not working on the iPhone 6S as well as earlier where the iphone 5S and iOS 9.

If Apple fixed the issue why am I writing this. Well, some issues still exist. Take for example the home button on the iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 8 and 8 Plus. These cannot be repaired or replaced if damaged. Apple could easily fix these issues and allow aftermarket home buttons to work but they refuse to do so, hence my title.

In the United States the people and repair shops are rapidly moving forward with a “Right to Repair” bill however in Canada no such legislation exists. I am suggesting putting forward some sort of a right to repair legislation in Canada that would allow Canadians to change, repair and modify electronics that we own. This would deal with everything from fixing our own devices and choosing what shop to use to unlock and jail breaking software but not including anything that infringes on intellectual property rights. We bought it , we should be able to do what we want with it. Imagine not being able to take your car to a local garage to be fixed.

I want to get a consensus on this and see what people think. Let me know with a thumbs up or write me with your thoughts.

Now that the dust has settled on the recent news that the CRTC will be making carriers unlock phones for free, I have decided to write about what other announcements were over shadowed by this good news.

The CRTC announced that the following will take effect on December 1, 2017:

No cancellation fees after 2 years

Remains in effect: You can cancel your contract after 2 years with no cancellation fees – even if you have agreed to a longer term.

Limit on data & roaming charges

Remains in effect: Extra data charges and data roaming charges are capped to prevent bill shock. The account holder, by default, is the only one who can consent to data overage and data roaming charges beyond the established limits.

Unlocked cellphones

Mobile devices unlocked free of charge, upon request, and all newly purchased devices unlocked.

Trial period
Use up to half of your monthly usage during the trial period.

Clear language

Remains in effect: Your contract and related documents must be provided to you in plain language.

 

This is a massive win for consumers across Canada and it is good to know that some one is looking out for us.

For more information you can visit the CRTC web site.

 

I have a bone to pick! Time and time again I am running into locked phones. I don’t mean the front pass code on the phone or the icloud lock or even the restriction locks that parents but on phones. I mean the lock that carriers but on phones to prevent you from taking your phone to another carrier.

OK’ I get it, if the customer signed up for one of those “Pay $0.00 for this kick ass phone” then you should have to sign a contract to that carrier and completely pay for the phone, but the customer should have the option to either buy that phone out, or when they are done paying for the phone it should be theirs with NO unlock fee.

We need to ensure that the CRTC is acting in the public’s best interest. So what are they saying about it. Well, I looked it up;

So what can we do to stop being held hostage. Go to the CRTC website and and make a complaint.

Sales statistics for smart phone have arrived for Q1 of 2017. They are as follows:

Huawei, Oppo and Vivo look to be gaining some ground and Samsung is running away with the game. Why is this?

Some speculate that iPhone sales are down as they are less expensive to repair and therefor people keep their iPhones longer. For example, you can have an iPhone 6 repaired for C$99.99 however the Samsung 6S will run you C$349.99.

As per the above, it would be economically feasible to repair the iPhone but not so with Samsung S6. You can run this test with any comparable versions of iPhones and Samsungs and the results remain the same.

Statistics show brand loyalty as being high with most users as  they don’t want to learn a new operating system.

Another speculation is that consumers are waiting for the next Apple device to come out.

Either way the Chinese devices are well built and user friendly and not to mention less expensive.

In conclusion, lets see what Q2 brings.

In my opinion, some areas of the “plain language” wireless code lack a certain clarity, however the area of bill management which touches on information relative to travelers outside of Canada is crystal clear. Some of that relevant info for mobile usage abroad is as follows:

1. A service provider must notify the customer, at no charge, when their device is roaming in another country. The notification must clearly explain the associated rates for voice, text messaging, and data services. Customers may opt out of receiving these notifications at any time.
2. A service provider must suspend national and international data roaming charges once they reach $100 within a single monthly billing cycle, unless the customer expressly consents to pay additional charges. A service provider must provide this cap at no charge.
3. A service provider must suspend data overage charges once they reach $50 within a single monthly billing cycle, unless the customer expressly consents to pay additional charges. A service provider must provide this cap at no charge.

In summary, the smartest thing to do is take your SIM card out and just use wifi from areas that provide it.

Have you ever tried to sell your used phone well after your contract has expired and your phone was paid for in full but found that it is locked? What do you do? You call the carrier and find that it costs $50+ and a week to unlock, but you paid for this phone and it is yours.

The Government of Canada has introduced as of November 14, 2014 the wireless code. This helps consumers understand exactly what their rights are in this circumstance.

In my opinion, upon review of this code the carrier must unlock the phone for a charge within 90 days of the plan being provided to the customer. The customer will have to pay the lesser of the retail price of the phone or the price of the phone negotiated when the contract was started.

If you have any further questions check me out in Nanaimo at the 120 256 Wallace Street, also known as The Network Hub.

 

CellPro Repair Solutions has been repairing iphones in Nanaimo for some time now. The warranty on the 6 series phones are almost all but gone. As we do not cover the Apple warranty we are starting to see a lot of 6 series phones come into the shop.

With the flood of 6 series phones we are starting to notice a flaw in the 6 & 6 Plus that looks to be corrected in the 6S & 6S Plus iphones. The flaw in questions that I am referring to is the homes button cable connection on the heat shield.

The heat shield home button cable connection for the iphone 6 & 6 Plus is notoriously hard to remove and you run a 10% chance in damaging it. If damaged the home button and touch sensor will still work if replaced but this is not a problem repair shops want to have.

In order to reduce the chances of damaging the cable, heat the front screen up to 90 degrees and let it sit for 2 minutes to allow the heat to be absorbed into the glue on the heat shield cable. DO NOT APPLY HEAT TO THE HEAT SHIELD OR BACK SIDE OF THE SCREEN AS IT COULD DAMAGE THE CABLES.

I would then work with your tool under the connector where the home button connects to the heat shield. The home button should be separated before this process begins.

I hope this blog helps some people as on Youtube they either skip the removal of the heat shield or do not apply heat to the heat shield connector at all. A good example on home not to remove the heat shield is as follows as they use metal tweezers to remove the cable and do not apply heat.