Samsung Galaxy S7 Pink Line Defect

It’s not often that wireless manufacturers have to issue a statement or recall of one of their devices, but just months after the Exploding Samsung Note 7 Debacle of 2016, Samsung devices are under scrutiny again. This time, consumers are reporting what is referred to as a pink line display problem, pictured here:

While device owners once thought the pink line display issue was a software defect, Samsung claims it occurs because of damage to the device. According to a Tech Times article detailing the Galaxy s7 display issue, Samsung reported that the pink line appears randomly as a result of being dropped, regardless of whether the screen breaks or not. “Samsung has shared that the reason behind the appearance of the vertical purple stripe is because of damage to the device’s internal circuits, which are responsible for controlling the screen’s direction,” says reporter Anu Passary. However, many Galaxy S7 users insist they haven’t dropped or damaged their devices; the pink line showed up randomly during regular usage.

Until the real cause is determined, Fix It Fast wants customers to understand that this is a manufacturer defect. If you experience this issue, and your device has NO PHYSICAL DAMAGE, we recommend that you take your device back to where you originally purchased the it for a manufacturer warranty/exchange. On the other hand, if you’ve dropped or damaged your screen, our expert technicians can replace the screen and offer warranty for the new replacement screen. Please note that even with a new replacement screen, there is a possibility that the pink line can return if the cause is software related. If you do experience the pink line display issue again, remember, this IS NOT an issue with our repair or with the technician. The good news is, we can replace the screen through our warranty program if there is no damage to the digitizer and keep you going until Samsung offers a resolution.

Still not sure what to do about the pink line on your Samsung Galaxy s7 screen? Fix It Fast techs have all the details and can help you with next steps. Visit the nearest Fix It Fast location for your personal consultation.

*Image re-posted courtesy of Andriod Authority: http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-edge-pink-line-display-problem-issue-744845/

Many of us rely on our mobile phones on a daily basis. Whether it be for work, entertainment, shopping or traveling, our phones are here to make life easier…until they break. Read up on these three common dilemmas and learn how to address them before breaking the bank for a new phone:

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Once again, the back-to-school season is here, and kids and parents are getting ready for a new onslaught of schedules and homework. This year, try these mobile apps as new tools to help you through.

Of course, if you need to get your iPhone screen fixed, get that done first at a local Fix it Fast location.
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With June in full swing, it’s safe to say that summer is upon us and the fun can begin! Whether you’re mountain biking or scuba diving, vacationing or beach bumming, you’ll want to take your phone to capture the moment. However, with all the excitement of the season, we tend to see customers in need of device repair now more than ever.

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You’ve probably been told all kinds of things about your laptop and cell phone batteries – for some reason, there’s tons of confusion about the right way to get the most out of your battery life. We’re here to set some of the myths straight and give you a better idea of how you can make those batteries last as long as possible.

Myth 1: You should always discharge your battery completely before recharging it. A big myth going around was that if you didn’t let your battery discharge fully before charging, the battery’s memory wouldn’t know how much room it had, and you’d lose battery life (or at least the battery would lose the ability to tell you how much life it had left).

The truth: Discharging to about 50% and recharging is actually best for your phone. What you’re looking for is the best ratio of cycles to usage time, and 50% charged is the optimal point to plug back in. BUT, about once per month you should fully discharge your phone – there is some truth to the idea that the battery will “forget” how much capacity it has if you don’t ever fully discharge it.

Myth 2: You should charge your device while you sleep. That way, it has the chance to fully charge all night, and you’ll be ready to go the next morning.

The truth: Once your device hits 100% (which, ideally, wouldn’t happen regularly at all), you should really stop charging it. It’s harmful to your battery’s health to keep it charging once it’s full. It used to be much worse for a battery, but it’s still not the best idea. If you absolutely must charge it overnight, you can purchase a device to cease charging once the battery is full.

Myth 3: You shouldn’t charge your device with a third-party charger. Only use the manufacturer’s charger on any device.

The truth: Well, this one’s a little bit true – you should only use reputable third-party chargers. If you use poor-quality knockoffs that aren’t licensed, they can damage your battery or even cause a fire. But any high-quality third-party charger will be just fine.

If you have any questions on battery life or any other device issue, reach out to us at Fix It Fast. We’re happy to help.

Every year, we tell ourselves we’re going to stick to a budget, and every year so far, we’ve failed. But this year will be different, because we’re ensuring accountability via the best of the best budgeting apps. We’ve done our research, and these three look like the apps to beat:

Spendee:

Pros: Colorful, simple, and intuitive. This might be the simplest app to grasp and use immediately.

Cons: Manual transaction entry. Each purchase you make needs to be manually added to your budget here, rather than logging automatically.

Mint:

Pros: Automatic entries. All of your accounts link to Mint, and each purchase is automatically logged and categorized. It’s one less thing to worry about – you can’t forget to add a purchase to your budget.

Cons: Charges are occasionally miscategorized (it’s going to happen with a computer categorizing your purchases for you), and accounts sometimes have trouble updating.

You Need a Budget:

Pros: Exhaustive, great for planning, and great for teaching budgeting newbies.

Cons: May have a lot of excess features if you aren’t new to budgeting. Manual transaction entry might be helpful if you struggle with sticking to a budget, or it might prevent you from using it.

You’ve probably heard that you can use your computer to track your phone if you lose it, but do you know everything your Android can do to help you out?

If you can’t find your phone, navigate to https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager and log in with your Google account to check out your options.

First things first: before you assume your phone is stolen or at the bottom of the lake, make sure it isn’t in your living room.

1) Use the location tracker to narrow down where your phone might be. This will help you figure out the general area, but won’t specify, say, that your phone is between the couch cushions and not in the pile of dirty laundry.

2) If you’re pretty sure your phone is in your house (or wherever you’re located), use the ring function to nail it down. This is basically a much-improved version of “can you call my phone so I can find it”. Your phone will ring for 5 minutes at its highest volume, regardless of whether it’s set to ring, vibrate, or silent. Warning: side effects might include driving everyone around you nuts.

3) If your phone doesn’t appear to be in your house (or somewhere you’re familiar with), your next step is to lock the phone remotely – this will immediately lock the phone, even if somebody is currently using it. Right away, you’ll at least have peace of mind that you’ve stopped someone from viewing any personal info.

4) If you’ve done all of the above and still haven’t gotten your phone back, and you’re pretty sure it’s not coming back, use erase device to factory reset your phone. If your phone is off, this will happen automatically once it’s turned back on. This will completely clear everything off your phone, so it’s a last resort. Once the info is gone, you won’t be able to retrieve it from Android Device Manager either. But at least you’ll know that nobody can access your info.

If you have any questions or fixes you can’t handle yourself, reach out to us at Fix It Fast. We’re happy to help.

The dreaded “Storage Almost Full” notification. You’ve taken 4,000 iPhone photos of your dog, and it finally caught up with you. You can’t take another shot until you clear up some space. But every single one of those pictures of Fido is crucial, and deleting them is clearly not the answer. What to do?

• Delete any apps you aren’t using. If you think you use every app you’ve ever downloaded, you’re almost certain to be in for a surprise when you look through them. And if you take a look at your storage management, you’ll see that you probably have a significant amount of space consumed by that game your friend told you to download, or 5 different weather apps accumulated over time.

• Turn off your Photostream and iCloud Photo Library. Sure, it’s nice in theory to access all your photos on all your devices, but if you use your digital camera for Fido’s photo shoot and upload the photos to your desktop, do you really need all 500 photos on your phone, too? Probably not. Additionally, if you use your iCloud library, it does save you some space by saving full copies of your photos to the cloud, but it also prevents you from taking photos off of your phone and storing them on your computer. If you’re looking for space, it might be a better idea to turn it off and move some photos somewhere else for storage.

• Turn off HDR settings for your camera. By default, your phone takes a range of photos with different exposure settings to ensure you get the best shot. What that usually means in practice, though, is that for each photo you want to take, you’ll have several more taking up space.

• Take the time to delete duplicate photos AND recently deleted photos. Did you know that when you delete a photo, it doesn’t actually get deleted? Instead, it goes to a recently deleted folder and must be manually removed to save any space.

• Delete your old texts. If you’re like us, there probably isn’t much worth saving in those old texts, and they can take up lots of space, especially if your friends are sending you lots of selfies or memes. Don’t believe us? Check your storage – you could have several gigabytes of text messages stored on your phone – that’s a lot more Fido pics.

If you have any questions or fixes you can’t handle yourself, reach out to us at Fix It Fast. We’re happy to help.

Closeup on young woman writing in notebook list of christmas purchasings

‘Tis the season for running out of gift ideas! Mobile phone accessories are a fantastic gift, since almost everyone has a phone these days.

Below, we’ve focused on some gift ideas that will help their phone stay safe from liquid and drop damages, and plain old leave-behinds!

Can’t decide between these items? Just drop by a Fix it Fast location and chat with one of our friendly staff members to select the perfect gift. Most of these products are available at Fix It Fast locations in North Texas and Nebraska.

For the Phone Dropper: Tempered Glass Screen Protectors

These protectors are the next generation in screen protection—a step above the plastic protectors of the past. The glass protector doesn’t change your every day user experience much, since it’s another layer of glass to your touch. These protectors are scratch resistant, but it’s upon dropping that they really earn their worth – the glass almost completely absorbs impact, usually cracking so your screen doesn’t. Replacing a glass protector is far cheaper than replacing the screen!

For the Scatterbrain: Combo Wallet/Phone Case

Know someone who is always misplacing their phone and/or wallet? Help her combine the two for one hard-to-lose package. This combo is usually best for women, who can use the entire thing as a wristlet purse. A word of caution—this direction requires having a sense of your recipient’s fashion taste. If you know her favorite accessory brands, that’s a great place to start searching.

For the Mom Taxi: Car Mount

These are fantastic for folks who are always on the go, and using their phone’s GPS. Models range from vent clips, dash mounts, and even cup holder mounts. The best part? Most car mounts are universal for all of today’s phone models.

For the Nomadic Texter: Grip Helper

For people on the move who do a lot of texting while walking, and for moms that are always chasing kids and snapping phone pics, grip helpers are tops. These grip mechanisms range from plastic to metal to elastic, and come in a variety of price points and looks. Most of them anchor to the back of the phone or case with adhesive.

For the Swimmer: Waterproof Case

These are great for those who swim a lot – or whose phones do! We see liquid damage all the time at our cell phone repair locations, so it seems almost every phone could fall in this category. While these can be bulky and pricy, these cases are the best protection against liquid—which is one of deadliest threats to phones today. If you want to splurge, upgrade to a case meant for taking photos and videos underwater. Their selfies will never be the same!

For the Serial Thing-Loser: GPS Tracker

These trackers are wonderful for those on your list who are prone to leaving their phone places…or those with toddlers fond of hiding things! Some trackers use Bluetooth, others use GPS. The options go on—colors, shapes, longevity, press-to-ring alarms, and more. Many of these are sold in combo packs, so you can give the gift of tracking all their various losable items.

Disney’s Frozen taught us a lot of great life lessons. We could go on and on about patience, friendship and true love. But the best lesson to apply to your precious holiday time with the family is simple: Let it go. It, being your iPhone or your Samsung Galaxy or your Nexus Tablet. Bottom line: give up technology and live in the moment this holiday. We have some simple Do’s and Don’ts to get you started connecting in REAL TIME.

DON’T Facetime; DO visit with relatives

DON’T play CandyCrush; DO play board games

DON’T stream music; DO sing carols

DON’T take tons of photos; DO make lasting memories

DON’T watch YouTube videos; DO play charades