This is new — like, as of today. ‘Google’ now plans to provide genuine replacement parts for all ‘Pixel‘ phones via ‘IFixIt‘.
But the price being quoted for the Pixel 6 Pro screen is not cheap — NOT that you would expect it to be. [Also note that the screens are currently NOT available!]
Google is charging me $259 (already paid by credit card) to replace the damaged screen on my 6-month old Pixel 6 Pro — & that included FedEx shipping both ways. That looks like a bargain.
If you nominally allocate $20 for the FedEx shipping (both ways), they are only charging around $40 for the cost of repair. I know that they do a full, automated test to make sure the phone is 100% after the screen is installed. We couldn’t do that at home. Having them fix it for $40, at least to I, sounds like one heck of a DEAL.
Click to ENLARGE.Click image to access this post from last October. My prior phone mishap on the ‘Bold Coast‘.
Yes, yes, I KNOW. I can get the screen replaced — & I am. I am sending it to ‘Google’, via ‘FedEx‘, for the repair & it is going to cost me $259. So, yes, in theory, I didn’t have to get one — just use one of my old phones in the interim. Yes.
But, I have kind of attached to the amazing camera on the Google Pixel 6 Pro & would have missed not having it — & as you must know, it isn’t as if I don’t use it everyday. We have proof. Plus, as ever (contrary to what anyone thinks or believes) there is ALWAYS impeccable method to my madness. Given my early background in mainframe computers I am a rabid believer in hardware redundancy — e.g., we have 3 generators, 2 snow blowers, etc. SMILE. So, I, for the last four years or so, always have a backup for my main phone. I typically keep my previous phone as that backup. So, I DID have a Pixel 5 (from last year) as my backup.
But, Teischan wanted my Pixel 5 as a backup for her Pixel 5. She loves her Pixel 5 & dreads having to get something other than another Pixel 5! I have tried to get her a Pixel 6 but she refuses. She plans to continue using a Pixel 5 as long as she can. So, she wanted the Pixel 5 & she already has it. So, I don’t have a backup (& you can’t count my old ‘Pixel 2‘ as one, because I use that purely as my ‘Audible‘ playback device).
So, now the old Pixel 6 Pro, when fixed, will serve as my backup — for now. Come December I will trade it in for a Pixel 7 Pro and my new 6 will become the backup. SMILE. Remember, I no longer buy 2 to 3 cameras per year as I was wont to do. I just use Pixels.
I did have a ‘plastic’ screen protector on the phone. But, that did NOT have a chance. The phone fell face down onto pebbles & one just went straight through.
MIRACLE. The phone has kept on working! Even the icon beneath the HOLE (which happens to be the ‘Bank of America’ APP) still works! That is impressive.
I broke the phone on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 — my 1st day on the ‘Bold Coast‘ on this most recent trip. But I have managed to use it, without any undue trouble, till today — 2 weeks. The only that is problematic is the fingerprint reader — & to be fair there are cracks on the reader.
It had just stopped raining & it was windy. The phone was slightly damp. The wind blew my hat off. I went to catch it & the phone slipped out. Yes, I have learned.
This as you can see is NOT my first phone mishap on the Bold Coast. I dropped my Pixel 5, at ‘Cutler Coast‘, two trips back. I learnt from that. I now make sure that my phone will NOT accidently fall off.
Learnt another lesson. I now have a GLASS screen protector. That might help. But, I am also going to TRY using a lanyard when I am at the Bold Coast. That might or might not work. I trip quite often, on the Bold Coast, on my many hikes. If the phone is attached to me it could get hurt! What can I say. In the Bold Coast book I am now writing I point out that the Bold Coast can he hard on phones. I speak from experience.
I had been using a 5-bay ‘Drobo’ enclosure, configured for RAID-1 storage, with two 3TB hard drives, since 2017. I had got it used — but it worked fine. I really never had any trouble with it though over the last few months it would go into automated data recovery mode more often than I would like.
I had read ‘all’ the negatives about relying on a local RAID-1 for backup. Yes, I could see the drawbacks. My local PC guy wasn’t big into RAID-1 either.
Also to be fair my needs for backup had changed DRASTICALLY since 2017. In 2017 I was still using cameras for my daily photography and their images were on SD cards. I did NOT upload the images from the SD cards to the cloud. I kept them on the Drobo.
These days 99% of the photos I take (daily) are with a Google ‘Pixel’. The images are automatically backed up on ‘Google Photos’ (& I do have a paid subscription in addition to the free storage I get as a Pixel owner). So, all these photos are already backup on the cloud. So, my need for local RAID-1 backup more or less has gone away.
My other documents — for my book & blog — are backed up on Microsoft ‘OneDrive’. So, I don’t need to back them up locally either. So, push come to shove I really couldn’t justify nursing along my aging Drobo or getting a replacement.
Plus, I wanted to move to SSD; more reliable & faster — & the prices are affordable.
So, that is what I did. I got rid of the Drobo (but kept the 3TB drives). I got myself a 2TB & 1TB portable SSD drives. Now I do my backups manually — knowing that 99.5% are already backed-up, automatically, on the cloud.
I had signed up for ‘CodeGuard‘ backup for this Website/blog when I got my hosting package with ‘HostGator‘ in June 2021. I got a bundled deal (or sorts) at quite a promotional discount. HostGator (& their sister outfit ‘BlueHost‘) as most people know likes to ‘encourage‘ you to get CodeGuard & ‘SiteLock Security‘ as part of your hosting. Yes, I had done my research BUT my main priority was to get this Website/blog up & running ASAP — & then worry about exactly how I wanted to refine, optimize & finetune offerings. And that is exactly what happened with Backup.
I had got the ‘basic’ CodeGuard offering — which is what I had been steered towards. It only comes with 1G of storage. I blew past that this weekend. I deleted a month worth of backups. But, I was still above 1G. I pruned it down to just 3-days of backups. Still not enough. Yes, it was easy enough to upgrade BUT I realized that I would be on a slippery slope. 3-months down the road I would have to upgrade again. This Website/blog is NOT getting any smaller. So, I looked around again.
I already had WordPress’ ‘JetPack‘. It was one of the first plugins I installed. I have been with ‘WordPress.com‘ for 13-years. Though it had never been all plain sailing, on the whole, I had managed to get what I wanted accomplished. I do know the differences & tie-ins between the ‘.com’ & ‘.org’ arms. But, I already had Jetpack & as such I was already dealing with the ‘.com’ even though I was self-hosted. Plus, push come to shove, who better to backup a WordPress site than WordPress itself?
But the kicker was, & I sought confirmation from them via e-mail, the UNLIMITED backup storage. Pay for a year & DONE. No constant harassment to upgrade (at least for more storage). It wasn’t exactly cheap, BUT it wasn’t outrageous either. For what they offer, it was fair. So, I did the deal.
