The Best Waterproof Phone Case You Never Heard About

Filed under Articles, iPhone Cases, Smartphone, Tablet by on July 30, 2012 at 1:28 am {no comments}

As an Android Smartphone owner the last thing on my mind was buying an iPhone or the thought of a waterproof case for that matter.

That was until I saw a display with a working iPhone sitting at the bottom of a fish tank. Immediately I asked the sales rep if they had phone cases like the one in the display for Android phones. Sadly they did not, so I walked away.

But the thought of this phone, playing music under water, kept dancing around my mind for the rest of the day. So I decided to delve a little deeper into the technology to see what I could find.

What I was expecting to find was the typical waterproof scam notices or the usual fraud alerts that I have seen over the years.

Instead what I found was something called a Lifeproof case with a pretty decent reputation. The claim was water, dirt, snow and shock resistance and there were videos like the one above in support of their claim.

It was becoming more and more obvious to me that this is no average phone case.

Truly Water Resistant

Being that we are on an island, having a phone case that is truly water resistant can be a vital asset to our technical arsenal. As I watched the videos I thought initially that they were edited with Adobe or Final Cut or some type of camera trick because I didn’t have the volume turned up. Then I played it again with the volume on and thought “Amazing. How can I get this type of protection for my phone?” (By the way, I owned an ancient HTC Google G2 at the time).

If you have ever had this happen, then you are a little like me, interested but still a little skeptical. Unable to satisfy my insatiable sense of curiosity about this case, I still had to “read-up” a little more about it online. With the plan being to buy it through Amazon if I could find one for my phone and all seemed okay, I began reading the through the reviews.

Time and again their positive reviews overwhelmed their negative ones and the pluses outweighed the minuses. You can Click Here to read some of the reviews for yourself.

Thinking I was ahead of the game I asked my brother who is a roofer carpenter, if he had heard about this type of case. To my surprise he laughed and said he already has a black Lifeproof case on his iPhone and had accidentally put it through the washer once. Showing me that his phone is still working.

To help give you a better perspective of the type of mobile phone user my brother is, he is the type of person who goes through two or three cell phones a year.

My brother has dropped a phone in the toilet, in the shower, in a puddle near a job site. He has also dropped his phone off of a roof he was working on (evidently many roofers have done this quite often).

But the classic all time best I have ever heard of was the time he put his phone down next to my baby nephew while he was changing his diaper and my nephew had an extra burst squirt out of the diaper right on to my his phone. That was probably the funniest.

In any event, this is a really good option I’m considering, but for me the end result seems a little compounded by the fact that no matter how hard I have tried to find this case for my current phone, it does not seem to exist.

Probably because as great as this case is, unfortunately it is currently not available for anything but iPhones at the moment (there will soon be covers for iPad Tablets though). As a result, I have to go without one or finally use it as a great excuse to go out and get myself an iPhone once and for all.

Status Update 12-21-12…

Went ahead and got an iPhone after all these years cutting corners on cheap phones and low grade telephone services. Now I am going to go ahead and purchase the case. I was going to go to BestBuy and buy the LifeProof case locally, but they charge a whopping $79 full price with a “discounted” price of $69. Meanwhile, Amazon and eBay are pricing it at a steady $43 to $45 depending on the color. If you include a few dollars for shipping, that is still cheaper than getting it from a retailor. I’ll add another update once I get my case.

2013 STATUS UPDATE:

So… I finally went ahead and got an iPhone 4s. Although I got it brand new at a pretty decent price, I am not too happy about having to sign up for a two year contract.

But it was a toss up between a two year contract or a life of dropped calls, missed calls, and having to go outside my house whenever I needed to use the phone at Home. That is what the $40 a month plan I was on had me doing. Not fun at all.

Once I purchased my iPhone, I went to Amazon.com and purchased the Lifeproof case. I have no room to complain about the fact that the two cases I ordered arrived on different days, reason being it was my fault that I didn’t notice I was purchasing from two different Amazon Sellers.

In any event, here is a video of me un-boxing my Lifeproof case shortly after it arrived…

Once I finished un-boxing it, I read the instructions which were pretty good I must say. They recommend testing your case for water resistance prior to putting it on your phone. As well as not testing your case by throwing it or subjecting it to unnecessary force.

Follow The Instruction Manual

Had I not followed the instructions, I would have immediately put the case on and began dunking it in water and throwing my phone around. Just to see it if was truly “Lifeproof.” I was that kid who attempted to break his Toy just because my mom would say it was supposed to be indestructible, go figure.

The next thing I will do now that I have tested my case and installed my phone in it is go out and take some the pictures I’ve always wanted to take. At the beach, hiking, in the stream, in the rain et cetra. Ill be sure to post them here once I do.

Status Update 02/09/2013 - Just returned from the beach. As promised, here is the video I took in the water with my Lifeproof case on. Needless to say I am really happy with it. Apologies for the slim image, I always forget to turn my iPhone sideways when shooting video.

I Stumbled Across One Negative Attribute

I have recently found the only negative attribute that I don’t like about this case. It has substantially limited charging capabilities.

I first noticed this when my battery was running low and I was at a family members house. The only device that they had with an iPhone adapter was a iPod docking station. To charge my phone I would have had to take apart my case and place the phone on the dock.

I did not want to remove my case, because it is not recommended by Lifeproof. Sort of like if you keep opening and closing a door, eventually the hinges get warn out. So, I just sucked it up and waited until I got home to recharge my phone.

The second time I ran into a charging issue was when I only had access to a third party 32 pin cable. It would not fit in my case let alone the charging slot. Here are a few photos of the two different size in adapters.

 Third Party 32pin Lifeproof ChargerThird Party 32pin Lifeproof Charge

As you can see here on my wife’s phone, the larger form factor cables will not charge an iPhone while the case is on. Once again I had to wait until I got home to recharge my phone.32pin Lifeproof Charge

32pin Lifeproof ChargerShould I come across anything good or bad, I will be sure to post any new updates I here.

Have you had any experiences with this waterproof phone case yourself? If so let me know, I would like to hear about it.

RMA – Return Merchandise Authorization

Filed under Articles, Computer Literacy, how to by on May 5, 2012 at 9:21 am {no comments}

What is RMA

If you are wondering how to RMA an item, there is no reason to feel intimidated by the acronym at all. All it stands for is Return Merchandise Authorization. A term universally used by product manufacturers for the return or exchange of a product that is either defective or no longer deemed operational in exchange for a working item. This process can save you a lot of money if applied with a little bit of patience and know how. Feel free to refer to this page as a guide if you need a refresher on the subject in the future.

How to RMA

Now that you know what an RMA is the next step is to learn what the qualifying criteria are to receive an RMA for an item you have. Generally speaking, an RMA is granted if the product is not functioning appropriately and within the manufactures covered warranty period. In this example I will discuss a product that I have had to do several RMA returns over the years, a computer Hard Disk Drive.

Where Can I Find RMA Information

To find RMA there are numerous sources. Normally what I like to do is type the word “support” in front of the manufactures website (domain) name. Below are a few computer manufactures support site links (feel free to let us know if you know of any we are missing):

Once you are on the manufactures website, look for RMA through the manufactures “search” box if you are not presented with the option right away.

Here is how the Western Digital RMA site looks…

Western Digital Support Page

How to Initiate the RMA

Using Western Digital as an example, I followed the steps outlined on the page. This meant finding and entering the serial number and product number to register my device. Once my hard drive was registered, the warranty status was confirmed and I was presented with two options.

WD RMA Guide

One option was to pay for an overnight shipping label; the second was to accept a free shipping label that would take 4 to 6 days for my hard drive to get there. They did not include the return shipping time into the calculation because most manufacturers will pay return shipping costs.

RMA Shipping LabelRMA Approved Shipping Label

Shipping

Once you have located the correct manufacture and shipping address the next step is to place your hard drive or other device into a shipping box. It is always a good idea to protect the component as much as possible in the box because you never know what can happen during shipping. I have seen boxes come back deemed unqualified to RMA due to damages incurred during shipping.

RMA Packaging

RMA Boxing

It would really suck not be able to have an item repaired under warranty for something that you did not have anything to do with. Shipping takes 3 to 7 days depending on your shipping method and when the RMA is complete they will ship it back to you

Once you receive your RMA exchanged device, unpack it and installed it. From that point you should have product that works appropriately. If what you receive is not working the way it is supposed to, immediately initiate an exchange.

Please keep in mind some manufacturers have slightly different shipping process than the example here. But generally the process is the same with most manufacturers doing an RMA. Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns, and or stumble across any noteworthy issues doing an RMA. We are interested to learn new ways of resolving any complications that may arise, and hope you have found this information helpful to you.

In the Quarantine Part 3

Filed under Anti Virus Software, Articles, Internet Security, Virus Removal by on April 22, 2012 at 9:40 am {2 comments}

Virus Identification and Removal

In this part of our series we are going to discuss virus identification and removal. I am not going to quote any sources or send you off on an info-chase to cross reference what we go over here. But instead, I am going to give you a sort of show and tell based upon some of the experiences we have documented over the years.

Please note, there are a wealth of different interpretations and acronyms for the various types of virus’s and malware variants in the wild today. The differences between Trojans, Rootkits, Adware, Scareware and the many variant’s out there are sometimes vast, and sometimes almost identical depending upon what you stumble across. It is quite easy to end up in the middle of a digital debate if you use the terms interchangeably in front of the wrong person. So for the sake of this part of the series we will be going over one of the newer TrojanFake.Alert variants.

Playing in the Lab

Back in the day I was among a few others who would get into all kinds of trouble with my teacher for experimenting with viruses in the lab (we called it “The Matrix”). He would tell me “Do not create viruses because you cannot quarantine them with 100% certainty!” But the ignorance of my youth would overwhelm good sense, and I ended up creating experimental boot sector viruses’ for analytical purposes.

It was not until my teacher conveniently found an infected blank “test virus” floppy disk that I inadvertently misplaced, did I realized how right he was. As a consequence I spent the next day or so scanning every floppy disk in the lab to ensure that none of the disks had been cross contaminated.

I am able to laugh about it now looking back on the situation, yet at that time it was not funny at all. Yet the reason I even mention the lab event at all is to highlight one very important fact. Once a computer virus is created by someone for whether for benevolent or malicious purposes, if it is released into the wild, it becomes extremely difficult if not impossible to quarantine the problem.

Do You Know How to Remove a Virus?

This is a common question customers ask when they call us. Although the simple answer is “Yes.” There are a few other questions we ask as well. For example, we often ask:

  • “What type of symptoms are you experiencing?”
  • “How long has this been happening?’
  • “Did these symptoms happen all at once or did the change happen gradually?”

The answer to each of these questions can quickly help us determine what actions to take in removing the virus from the infected computer.

Fake Virus Alerts

Over the last four or five years there have been several variations of Trojan.Fake Alert Viruses released in the world wild web. One of the more recent detections is the Security Shield Fake Alert (pictured below).

Security Shield

If you are an average to mid-level user, this program may seem harmless and even helpful. But that could not be farther from the truth. This is a screen shot of an actual Trojan.Fake Alert variant.

This virus was injected in to the coding of another website. What that means is, all you would have to do is log on to the infected website and you will almost immediately receive the following alert.

Fake Alert Notice

Whether you click “No” or “Yes” you will still receive the following pop-up (this photo was taken with a camera and not a screen shot because the computer had already been taken over at this point):

Fake Alert Infection Notice

If you are reading this, there is a good possibility that you have already read Part 1 and Part 2 either because you think you have a virus or you are pretty sure you have a virus. If you have not covered the first two parts, you may want to consider going over them before the follow steps .

Being that you are assumed to have already tested all of your hardware at this point it is pretty safe to say that you do have some type of virus in your system. The next logical step in the process is to begin your virus removal. Again, we are proceeding under the assumption that you are pretty sure that you have a virus and all of the hardware on your computer has passed hardware testing.

How to Remove a Virus

There are a variety of different techniques you may hear about, but this technique to me, is one of the easier ones to implement. If you have another computer, you will need to need to download a boot disk of some sort. You can download AVG or Kaspersky rescue disks or whichever recovery disks you are most comfortable with using. You can find direct links to their downloads here http://computercornerhawaii.com/wpp/free-anti-virus-sofware/

I will be removing the “Internet Security” fake alert from a computer for this example. The following video is what it looks like when infecting a PC…

Once you have downloaded the recovery disk and burned it to a bootable DVD, the next step is to restart your computer with the bootable recovery disk or rescue disk inside. You may have to tap the escape or F2 or F12 to access the Boot Options and select the DVD/CD option.

Be sure to select the DVD/CD Drive during your boot option prompt. The objective is to get your computer to boot to the bootable disk you created, and not the infected hard drive in your computer. Once you have selected the DVD/CD drive and began the startup process you should see the rescue program beginning.

If you get an Error like this, no worries, it only means you need to check which boot disk you have downloaded.

Whatever program you choose, the main idea is to be comfortable with using it. In these example videos I am using Microsoft System Sweeper it is still available for download but you must create a Hotmail account to download it as of this posting. But please note that each video is just one step in the overall process, as such if you are following along, it is recommended that you watch each in sequence.

Once your boot disk has loaded completely, look for the option to update the software. This is extremely important. Some of the newer viruses in the wild are not detected by antivirus software unless it has been updated. Updating your antivirus software on your rescue disk will ensure that you are removing all of the latest threats. In addition it can literally mean the difference between spending a day removing the problem or spending a week or two of downtime trying to get your computer back up and running like normal again.

Once you have updated your antivirus software on your rescue cd, run your scan as soon as possible as it may take several hours to complete the scanning process.

When the scan is complete and you are able to see the results, be sure to look for any noticeable system files infected. Reason being if you delete a system file you may inadvertently render your PC incapacitated.

If you do not know what a system file looks like, or you are unsure whether or not you should remove the threat. You may want to ask someone who knows what these types of files look like. Or you could call us. Either way, your computer will still remain infected unless you remove or disinfect the threat.

Once you have removed the virus, when you restart your computer you should have a more stable system without the Internet Security pop-up or icons on your desktop.

I must add that once you have completed your scan from your boot disk, have removed the viruses found and restarted your computer it is always a good idea to start one more scan from within Windows. You can use your currently installed anti-virus software if you so choose. Either way I would recommend updating the software prior to running your new scan, at a minimum.

Or another option is to uninstall your old antivirus software and install a different one so for example if you originally had a version of Norton Internet Security Suite installed when you initially caught the virus, you could uninstall it and install Microsoft Security Essentials (or another antivirus software program of your choosing).

What I like to do is install, update and then run MalwareBytes and ESET. Once both have completely scanned my computer I then like to install update and scan with Microsoft Security Essentials. Then last but not lease I like to scan with CCleaner to clean out my system of any broken file associates, temporary Internet files or no longer active virus components.

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