So you’ve got your hands on a shiny, Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus from Samsung. You’ll probably need a case, because one drop can do all sorts of damage to these all-glass phones. But in case the S8 does take a tumble, how easy is it to repair? iCracked CEO A.J. Forsythe did a teardown with us to find out.
iCracked, if you’re not familiar with it, is a repair service company that has thousands of certified technicians in more than 600 cities in the United States. If you’ve shattered the glass on your device, you can set up an appointment for a technician to come to your home or work to repair your phone.
The company also has do-it-yourself guides, though Forsythe suggested the S8 might be best taken care of by someone who knows what they are doing. That’s mostly because the rear glass cover is prone to break during the teardown process.
One difference we found in the teardown is the battery — it’s housed in a “battery bay” to protect it from the rest of the electronics. This new change is likely an extra precaution after the massive recall of the Galaxy Note 7 last year, which spontaneously exploded due to battery defects. The battery on the S8 also has extra adhesive, so it’s incredibly difficult to remove.
From the vibration motor, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, and the internal storage, Forsythe points out all the cool components that make up the Galaxy S8 in our video, in case you’ve never seen what the inside of a smartphone looks like.
iCracked technicians will be able to repair the S8 and S8 Plus within the next two months, and the estimated cost will be $200. The price is expected to go down as S8 parts become more prevalent.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.