damage

If you were one of the millions following along today (hopefully on CNET's Live Blog) as Apple released its latest iteration of the iPad and have now decided you must buy it, be sure to add AppleCare+ to your order (pricing has not yet been made available).

First, everyone should know what sort of coverage is offered with every new iPad purchase. For included coverage, Apple shows that it truly believes in its products. Your new iPad will get one year of hardware coverage against manufacturer defects and malfunctions. That means, if your hard drive dies, some of your … Read more

When a 32-year-old man crashed his all-terrain vehicle without wearing a helmet, he slipped into a coma for three weeks. Though his initial CT scans revealed bleeding and swelling, and an MRI scan a week into the coma revealed bruising and swelling in the same area, neurosurgeons had no way of knowing precisely how the man would be affected if he did come out of his coma.

Three weeks later, the man awoke without the ability to move his left leg, arm, or hand. Only then were doctors able to begin planning rehabilitation.

Fortunately for the patient, a novel imaging … Read more

One of the most common and damaging threats that portable electronics face is exposure to water and other liquids. Dropping an iPhone or iPod into a pool, or spilling a glass of water or coffee on a laptop is a sure way to render the device useless in a heartbeat.

Water damage is unfortunately not covered under many basic warranties, and in many of its devices Apple places liquid sensors to determine if a device has been exposed to water or other fluids if it's being serviced. As a result, many times if you've dunked or doused your … Read more

Apple announces the iPhone 4S with Siri and a new 8-megapixel camera, the iPods get a slight refresh and price drop, and AppleCare+ finally gives customers accidental damage protection.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

From the "Department of Is That a Joke?" comes ExRated, the new site where you can review your exes. As in, ex-lovers, ex-wives, ex cetera. It is one of the most hurtful, immature things I've seen on the Web, and I've reviewed about 2,000 startups.

Briefly, ExRated (that's .co; the .com is actually an X-rated site) lets you rate the people in your life who are no longer in your life. You must identify these people by name (otherwise, how could their next potential connection find the review?), but you, as a reviewer, hide … Read more

Oracle is seeking $2.6 billion in damages from Google as part of its patent infringement lawsuit over Java.

In a document filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Oracle cited the $2.6 billion figure based on estimates by the company's damages expert, Iain Cockburn, a professor of finance and economics at Boston University.

That specific figure runs contrary to Google's interpretation, which is far broader in range. In a June 18 filing from Google and documented by FOSS Patents, the search giant came to the conclusion that if it were … Read more

According to French Apple site Hardmac, Apple's infamous (to some) Liquid Contact Indicators--sensors responsible for allowing Apple technicians to determine if your device has had substantial contact with liquids--are not present in the newly released iPad 2.

Many problems have come about because of Apple's liquid sensors, even resulting in lawsuits, and causing Apple to adjust how it handles indicators that have been activated.

As a manager in an Apple Store a couple years ago, when the first Liquid Submersion Indicators, as they were named then, were included on the original iPhone, we were told that the sensors … Read more

Are you the proud owner of a new iPad 2? Let's talk warranty.

Apple backs the tablet for a year, of course, and for $79 you can add an AppleCare Protection Plan that extends the coverage to two years.

However, neither policy covers the most likely scenario: accidental damage. I'm talking dropping the iPad in the bathtub, rolling over it with the car (don't laugh--it happens), getting sand in the dock connector, spilling your coffee on it, and so on.

Enter SquareTrade, which offers an extended warranty that includes "accidental damage from handling" (or ADH). … Read more

Microsoft Office handles so much business that eventually two things are bound to happen: 1) critically important files will be corrupted or damaged, and 2) there will be no backup. You'll then have two choices: 1) panic, and 2) attempt to recover the file. That's where Advanced Office Repair (AOFR) from DataNumen comes in. It's an enterprise-class tool for recovering and repairing not only Word, Excel, Outlook, and Outlook Express files but also Access databases. It can repair files on damaged or corrupted media like floppies, Zip drives, and CD-ROMs and handle legacy files, including Access 95, … Read more