Changing Your iPhone Color Yourself? 3 Tips To Tip The Scales Toward Your Success

Yes, the most beautiful red, yellow, and especially electric blue colors are available for the iPhone 4 and 4S (among other colors). Yes, you can mix and match colors. Parts are readily available for anyone to buy. No, your chances of successfully getting the parts installed without damaging your iPhone are slim. However, if you must do it yourself, you'll find the following tips will help you up the odds of your success.

TIP #1:

If you get cold feet, but you already have the parts, find help. Find a reputable repair (brick and mortar) iPhone shop (a shop which just fixes iPhones, iPods, and iPads) and ask how much it would cost to install your parts. Be aware that all parts are not made equal. The possibility exist that your parts won't fit correctly, or may have a finger print on the screen which can't be removed (this would have been put there in China on the assembly line). BEFORE you let the shop change the parts for you, ask the tech to examine them and see if they think your parts will work.

TIP #2:

You probably believe you can watch a video on You Tube and you'll be able to change the parts on your own. Don't watch just one video. Find six and watch them all. Re-watch the best video over and over before you start on your phone. THEN, watch that video in segments as you actually spread your iPhone pieces all over the table.

TIP #3:

Determine right now, to have the lightest touch you have ever had in your life while fixing anything. The iPhone 4 is delicate, and it is really easy to rip a ribbon from its' connection or to simply knock a resister off its' connection. As you remove the mother board (logic board in Apple speak) don't put your hand on the three tiny (really tiny) resisters which just sort of hang out the back edge of the mother board because it isn't hard to knock one or more off.

You're reading this and thinking, "this guy just doesn't want people saving money doing their own repairs." That's not true. This is true: There is no such thing as Apple Certification for iPhone, iPod or iPad repair. iPhone shops repair iPhones, iPods and iPads which are owned by certified Apple technicians (who are certified to fix Apple computers), all the time. Ask any shop that specializes in iPhone repair, and they'll tell you it is true. It takes time and critical practice to get good at repairing these tiny devices.

By all means, if your goal is to be good or great at repairing them, start today with your own phone. Just take a deep breath, work slowly and lightly and remember where each of the 18 screws goes, because if you get the screws wrong, your iPhone won't work.

What should you do next?

We'll gladly answer any question you have about any Apple device. It is our pleasure to answer it for you, for free and without any obligation of any kind. We have done thousands of repairs. We are a family run business with two locations in Southern California. You can contact Kort, Julie or Scott Linden at http://www.itechrepairplus.com/

Thanks for reading this - Scott R. Linden

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Innovation is step toward digital graphene transistors

ScienceDaily (Sep. 7, 2011) — Researchers are making progress in creating digital transistors using a material called graphene, potentially sidestepping an obstacle thought to dramatically limit the material's use in computers and consumer electronics.

Graphene is a one-atom-thick layer of carbon that conducts electricity with little resistance or heat generation. After its discovery in 2004 -- which earned a Nobel Prize in physics -- it was touted as a potential replacement for silicon, possibly leading to ultrafast devices with simplified circuits that might be less expensive to manufacture.

However, graphene's luster has dulled in recent years for digital applications as researchers have discovered that it has no "band gap," a trait that is needed to switch on and off, which is critical for digital transistors.

"The fact that graphene is a zero-band-gap material by nature has raised many questions in terms of its usefulness for digital applications," said Purdue doctoral student Hong-Yan Chen.

Electrons in semiconductors like silicon exist at two energy levels, known as the valence and conduction bands. The energy gap between these two levels is called the band gap. Having the proper band gap enables transistors to turn on and off, which allows digital circuits to store information in binary code consisting of sequences of ones and zeroes.

Chen has led a team of researchers in creating a new type of graphene inverter, a critical building block of digital transistors. Other researchers have created graphene inverters, but they had to be operated at 77 degrees Kelvin, which is minus 196 Celsius (minus 320 Fahrenheit).

"If graphene could be used in digital applications, that would be really important," said Chen, who is working with Joerg Appenzeller, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and scientific director of nanoelectronics at Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center.

The Purdue researchers are the first to create graphene inverters that work at room temperature and have a gain larger than one, a basic requirement for digital electronics that enables transistors to amplify signals and control its switching from 0 to 1.

Findings were detailed in a paper, "Complementary-Type Graphene Inverters Operating at Room-Temperature," presented in June during the 2011 Device Research Conference in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Thus far graphene transistors have been practical only for specialized applications, such as amplifiers for cell phones and military systems. However, the new inverters represent a step toward learning how to use the material to create graphene transistors for broader digital applications that include computers and consumer electronics.

To create electronic devices, silicon is impregnated with impurities to change its semiconducting properties. Such "doping" is not easily applicable to graphene. However, the researchers have potentially solved this problem by developing "electrostatic doping," which makes it possible for graphene inverters to mimic the characteristics of silicon inverters.

Electrostatic doping is induced through the electric field between metal gates, which are located 40 nanometers away from graphene channels. The doping can be altered by varying the voltage, enabling researchers to test specific doping levels.

"This will allow us to find the sweet spot for operating the device," Chen said.

Further work will be needed to integrate the prototype into a working graphene circuit for digital applications.

The research is based at the Birck Nanotechnology Center in Purdue's Discovery Park.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Purdue University. The original article was written by Emil Venere.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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