Fast forward 10+ years, my four teenage siblings have cell phones and good old dad is footing the bill. Change…it happens.

The phones that Chris and I started with at 18 sure are different then the ones we have now. And you all know that. If your reading this (from your phone I’m sure) you’ve all watched the evolution of cell phones. 

So which cell phone did Chris start tinkering with & learn to repair? Just a little side note about Chris, as a child he was constantly taking apart his toys to see how they worked. His success rate of putting back together what he took apart, and it actually working, has greatly improved. 

The Motorola Razr phone, was the start of it all. Chris was so excited when they hit the market, he bought us both one. He learned how to fix these and resold them on EBay.

Then, Steve Jobs and Apple changed the mobile technology market forever. In 2007 the first iPhone was released. We all know Chris bought one (it took a few years before I’d let him get me one). Chris also figured out how to repair these phones. He did it more as a hobby after work or on weekends. 

We were married right in the middle of the rescession. There were no jobs that he could get that would support us while I finished college. So technically he was unemployed when we married (we both were). However, he told me he’d make the money we needed to allow me to finish nursing school. He started his repair business in the spare bedroom of the house we rented. And he kept his promise. 

Of course when the iPad came out, he learned how to fix that also. And now he does anything Apple as well as anything else. (But not PCs, don’t bring him one of those. It’s like a foreign language to him.) There was not a ton of competition when he started the business. It was fabulous. He didn’t have to stress nearly as much as he does now about competition. 

Even though the competition is always changing. The technology market is always changing. There is a rarity that you will find with iMaster that is hard to find in any other mobile device repair company. 10 years of experience. Chris knows his stuff. If you ever get a chance to talk to him about repairs and his wealth of knowledge, you will see that he really is a master in the repair world. 

You won’t be sorry you brought your business to him. 

Like any poor college kid, Zack was in need of a job. So Chris outfitted him with a custom iPhone repair kit. I nice portable one, with a snazzy alarm system. 

Zack is now ready to repair those broken iPhone screens. At no doubt, the best deal in town! (And if you really do live in Pocatello, his contact info is on that business card)!

This was our backyard at the height of the snow. Just your average 6′ fence.

It’s never felt so good to be able to walk outside! We are beyond grateful that our business structure, as well as our home, weathered the storm and no damage occurred. Many around us are still trying to recover from collapsed buildings.  

So even though it’s already March…we hope you all had a wonderful new year! Chris has some great ideas for the business this year & we hope to get them off the ground! Can’t wait to share when we do!!

The good new is he’s off to college! And we are excited for him. Zack has worked for us for three years and has really become a valuable employee and friend. 

We couldn’t let him take off without a thank you. Chris closed up the shop a couple of weeks ago and they hit the slopes. 

Good luck Zack! We wish you the best at college!

So I thought I’d share a new service that Chris is offering. We have great repair prices, can’t get much better. It happens often, a customer loves the price for a repair, well as much as you can love paying to get things fixed anyways. And then they back out and don’t complete the order because of shipping costs. 

We’ve had customers say they will have to pay $20-$25 to ship their device in. What shipping service are you using?!?!

Now when you checkout, there is a new option. You can now pay for your shipping  right there at checkout. You’ll be prompted to print a label and shipping instructions will be provided. All for $8.50! 

You are welcome! And thank you for your business!!

How is it different than the iPhone 6s?

The 7 has a higher megapixel camera. There is no headphone jack. Why? Apple added a bigger camera module and Taptic Engine. The Taptic Engine is what creates the vibrate response. Headphones do work, you will need a pair that plug into the charging port. You will also be able to get a little more volume, the ear speaker projects sound now. Not just the speaker at the bottom. And that’s about it.

I have not noticed too much of a difference. And Chris has had his for all of three days and is sending it back. The T-Mobile deal to get a free 7 didn’t have terms that worked for us (we still have their service though). So he’s going to save money, instead of upgrading. So was it worth it? If you have a 4 or 5, there is quite a difference. But going from a 6s to a 7, not enough of a difference for us.

Where the bigger upgrade comes in is with the new iOS 10 software.

Chris’ favorite new features of the phone are the texting upgrades. He sends me all kinds of visual texts. Shooting stars, fireworks, you know, keeping the romance alive via technology.

His second favorite feature is the sleep app. When your employee uses it, their productivity, particularly first thing in the morning, increases!! In fact one morning he was even waiting for Chris to get to work. Thank you iOS 10.

Now I have to laugh at the fact that I’m sitting here typing from the new iPhone, and Chris, for some reason, does not have his yet. Chris is way more excited for this than I am. Not unlike the time when I got a minivan. Chris=super excited. Me…well I don’t like change. So when things change it takes me a while. 

So here is me, doing my best to take a picture of the new phone, with the new phone. Let’s face it, walking to another room to get the camera, then upload the pictures…lots more work. I added the baby, not for picture quality, but to save her from a bouncer ride from her brother. 

Amendment of the last blog post. I had written that Chris is very careful with his money. He was quick to point out that the money he earns is our money. I’m very blessed he feels that way and that he values my role as a stay at home mom. He was also very impressed when I told him some of the subject manner was about the new iPhone 7. When he started spouting off very specific facts and asking me for details, he was just as quickly chuckling at the fact that I didn’t know any of what he was talking about. 

I started blogging to let people, hopefully customers, know that we are in fact real people. We offer a real service, and no our business is not a scam to get you to mail in your device so we can keep it. 

If Chris had the time to blog, you’d know he really knows his stuff. We are going to make a better effort to do some blog post featuring Chris’ knowledge. Now I say that very loosely…let’s see if we can get it together to make it happen! 

Then comes the question. To upgrade or not? Chris doesn’t usually choose to skip the mortgage payment to foot the bill for the rumored $800-$900 price tag of the new phone. So there will be no immediate upgrades in this household. (Hope you get the sarcasm, he’s very careful with his money).

So what’s new with the iPhone 7? The rumors are that it will have a better camera, among other things. When Chris does get his hands on it I can guarantee that he will be testing that right up against the Smasung he keeps going back too, because of the camera. Although right now he currently has an iPhone…I think… couldn’t tell you which one though. 

I personally am not too hyped up about it.  Chris manages the phone upgrading around here. Currently I have a 16gb iPhone 6. However, I am hyped over the fact that my grandmother upgraded her flip phone to an iPhone! 

She has perfectly sailed right in to texting, taking pictures (no selfies yet though), sending pictures and a few days ago we ventured into the google maps app. When she returned from vacation  she was also proudly sporting her Fitbit and whipped out the app on her phone to see which of my relatives she was ahead of for the day! 

So for those of you anxiously awaiting the release of the iPhone 7, I suppose that I can relate. I am anxiously awaiting for the day my dad will upgrade to a smart phone! But I love to hear him and my grandma bicker. She tells him he needs a smart phone to “keep up with the times!” If that statement coming out of the mouth of an 80 year old woman doesn’t impress you, her gun collection will.

As an adult, I’ve become a planner. In fact, when I bought my 2016 planner (an iPhone just can’t replace writing things down), Chris couldn’t believe that you could actually buy a planner for $30. So I’m a planner now, but when we were teens, other than going to nursing school, I didn’t plan much beyond that. 

So to look at our lives now and see our three beautiful children is amazing. We are grateful, blessed and still can’t believe that we are now outnumbered! 

Chris has done his best to juggle work and help me out in these first couple of weeks. He’s done an amazing job on the homefront and hopefully all our customers feel the same about the service they have recieved since we had the baby. 

When I am having a conversation where the topic involves what Chris does for a living, I often get asked if I work at our repair business as well. The short answer to that is no. The long answer would be that once upon a time I did help quite a bit with the business. I’ve never done repairs, I helped with packing, unpacking, shipping, tasks like that.

While we have a storefront now, we started the business at home with the “repair shop”located in a spare bedroom. At the time we also had no children. On my days off from work I would help out when Chris needed it.

Fast forward 5 years and 2 children, soon to be 3, I no longer have days off from work. Now I tote around two little children who quickly become a hazard to an already hazardous workplace. Not purposefully hazardous, just the nature of the toddler years.

Most of the time when we make a visit to “Dad’s work,” we sit in the car and he comes out to see us. Last week when we went to visit, we actually ventured in and I was quickly reminded why we don’t go in very often. However, it is great to see the kids admire their dad as he works and be able to see what he does.

After watching Chris scrape glass off a broken iPad for about 30 seconds (flying glass and children just don’t mix well) we ventured into the office. So many fun buttons to push and computer icons to click on! All the while my boy is asking me to get the popcorn down from storage.

One day, I’m sure all too soon, they will be able to go learn their dad’s trade better. But for now we will keep our visits to Chris coming out to visit us in the car. While we are parked the kids can watch the workers busy on the new dollar store going up next to our building.