Devices run several programs simultaneously. The data is stored in the RAM (Random Access Memory). RAM is a temporary form of memory, which can read and write quickly.

When two programs in the RAM conflict, or an item is corrupted, or the memory is simply full, you'll start experiencing crashes or glitches.

When you turn a device off, it wipes the RAM; killing all background processes.

When you turn a device on, it goes through a pre-programmed series of start-up processes, whereby software from the internal storage (hard drive or memory chip) is loaded into the RAM.

You're greeted with a clean user interface, and everything works smoothly again.

It's a reset.

We humans do this too.

Going to sleep at the end of the day, i.e. being unconscious for 8 hours, is the human equivalent of restarting a computer.

Imagine that you're coming back from a heavy night out, and you take a wrong turn. Now you're completely lost and stressed out. You've made some regretful decisions, and perhaps seen some things you wish you hadn't. Life sucks right now. Tired and unable to think clearly, you manage to find an empty bench, on which you take a quick nap, only to wake up back home feeling safe, refreshed and content, with a very faint memory of the previous night. You complete your usual morning routine and go about your day.

Sound familiar? 

Humans evolved from basic single-cell organisms. Computers were designed and built by intelligent organisms - Hence their system is more logical, efficient and effective, ergo the robots will soon take over.

They say a good magician never reveals their secrets, but we've grown tired of being hailed as Tech Gods, deserving of worship and praise for our ability to resurrect a machine from the dead, simply by turning it off and on again.

They don't like to admit it, but people that work in Tech Support - this is like 75% of their job. 

In this day and age, all of our devices are connected and working 24/7. Therefore, it's good practice to periodically restart your electronic devices. Not only does it clear the RAM, it also installs software updates, which can include bug fixes and security patches. Once per week will typically suffice. Or, like a baby that needs a nap, just whenever it starts playing up or annoying you.

You may recall early touchscreen smartphones, which utilised a soft plastic material over the display. These screens responded well to a stylus, but not so well to a finger.

Resistive touch screens respond to pressure: The screen is pressed; the outer layer is pushed into the next layer, which detects where it was touched. These screens are versatile because they can be operated with a finger, fingernail, stylus, or any other object. They are cheap to make, but do not work when damaged. Examples include old LG and Sony Ericsson phones, the Nintendo DS, cash machines, and self-checkout screens.

Capacitive touch screens sense conductive properties rather than pressure. This means that they are a lot more responsive to swiping and pinching gestures, and can detect several touch points simultaneously. They also allow for better colour reproduction.

Here we are testing a touch screen during an iPad repair. 

Many of our elderly customers struggle to get to grips with the concept of a capacitive touch screen - pressing their fingers into the screen with tremendous force for several seconds at a time. A quick, gentle tap is all that's needed, Doris. 

Now for the issue of fragility.

Glass is glass, and glass breaks. Fortunately, clever people use chemistry to ensure that our phone screens are more resilient than your typical untreated piece of glass.

Tempered glass is simply regular glass which has been subjected to extreme heat. When we temper glass, we make it harder. Tempered glass fractures into small shards, as opposed to regular glass, which breaks into big jagged shards. Windscreens use laminated glass, which involves a similar process, but with the inclusion of a transparent layer of plastic between two layers of glass.

Most modern smartphones use Gorilla Glass, which was developed by a company called Corning. Your phone screen looks like a normal layer of thin glass, but it has actually been chemically treated to make it tougher and more resistant to breaking. The glass is immersed into a hot potassium salt-bath. In here, sodium ions are exchanged for larger (stronger) potassium ions.

The result is a more resilient piece of glass, which is less susceptible to scratching or breaking. Crucially, it maintains its integrity when cracked. Think about normal glass: when it cracks, it quickly leads to further damage along the fault line, whereas Gorilla Glass maintains structural integrity by keeping damage localised. This is why people can often continue using a phone with a cracked screen for a long time.

Corning claims that Gorilla Glass can survive 2 metre drops on to hard surfaces, and is 4x more resistant to scratching compared with the next best alternative - aluminosilicate glass - which will typically break when dropped from just 0.8 metres.

Yes, your screen will break at some point if you keep dropping it - but consider how impressive it is that a lightweight, 1mm piece of touch-sensitive glass can withstand years of daily use. Try carrying a wine glass around with you all day; see what happens...

There is a trade off however. It seem likely that whilst harder glass is more drop-resistant, it is actually more susceptible to scratching.

Upon the release of the iPhone 12, Apple switched from Gorilla Glass to Ceramic Shield. An interlocking structure of small ceramic nanocrystals are embedded in the glass matrix. Apple claims that Ceramic Shield is much tougher than Gorilla Glass. However, there isn't really any evidence to support this claim.

One thing we can say for sure it that it is significantly more susceptible to cracking during screen removal. Removing the screen from an iPhone 12 is like peeling an egg or transplanting a spider web.

More glass, means more to break, means more to repair.  

At the beginning of the project, Apple's design team settled on a plastic touch screen to cover the display. They figured that people will drop their phones all the time. Glass breaks; and we don't want a fragile device. Plastic was, at the time, the near-universal standard. It was an easy decision.

The first iPhone was debuted and teased several months before it's official release. For months, it sat behind glass enclosures as hype continued to build.

Tech reviewers, journalists and experts started to ask specific questions about the product, including the screen. They seemed somewhat dubious or disappointed with the prospect of a plastic touch screen.

Whilst all this was going on, test models were coming back with scratched screens. This confirmed that plastic screens are more susceptible to scratching than glass screens. Whilst this wasn't exactly a shock for the design team, CEO Steve Jobs saw it differently.

Jobs shifted his perspective - from the utility of the product, to how the customer would feel about the product.

If the phone goes in people's pockets with coins and keys (i.e. normal use), it will get at least a little scratched. If we designed the product, we chose to use a plastic screen. If the device comes out scratched as a result of our design, then it's our mistake. With glass however, if the customer goes out, drops their phone and it cracks, it's their fault. Customers are less likely to complain or be dissatisfied with the product because they were part of the failure.

Plastic will scratch. Glass can break.

A heavily scratched plastic screen will be perceived as poor quality and a shortcoming in design. A cracked glass screen is a user error, so it doesn’t raise questions on the quality of the product.

Better to make the customer feel partially responsible for the limitations of the product. 

It's true, right? You see someone using a phone with a cracked screen, and you assume that they dropped it because they're clumsy or careless. Now imagine that you splashed out on a premium product, which you treated with respect and care. If after some time it's covered in scratches, you would question the quality and design.

Jobs' uncanny ability to put himself in the shoes of consumers long before anyone else enabled him to build products and market them methodically in order to make people feel a certain way about the brand.

He then had to sell his vision and the reasoning behind it to the design team and manufacturers - somehow convincing them that switching from a plastic touch screen to a glass touch screen was so vital to the iPhone's success, that it had to be done, just three months before the official launch.

With the team on board, Apple, along with their manufacturers, were able to pull of a last-minute transition.

15 years on, the original iPhone is still regarded as the biggest, most influential, most successful tech product launch of all time - blowing it's competition out the water and setting the world of tech on a new trajectory.

Exactly how much of the iPhone's success can be attributed to the original version having a glass touch screen is impossible to quantify. It's one of a myriad of features; of human decisions; which would eventually make Apple the first trillion dollar company, and put a smartphone into the pockets of over 5 billion people.

Imagine having the courage and conviction to make that last-minute change, but also the foresight to understand how customers would feel about the product. Then, to single-handedly persuade the entire team to adopt and execute on the same vision...

Quite incredible.

It's Christmas Eve Eve.

It's pay day.

It's the busiest day in supermarkets.

It's present-wrapping day for Mum and present-buying day for Dad.

It's send best wishes to extended family day.

It's the 3rd shortest day of the year.

For some, it's the last day of work in 2022.

Then there's us: Just three wise men doing the Lords work.

Non-stop iPhone Battery Replacements & iPad Charging Port Repairs to keep us going today and tomorrow.

Keep 'em coming... We're saving up to buy a Turkey crown.
(it doesn't serve 6-8 btw)

Phone stocks are running low, and there's only a few repair slots remaining: Visit Our Store

A portion of all proceeds goes towards feeding hungry technicians this Christmas.