squaretrade
Latest
Watch Samsung's Galaxy Fold fall woefully short of 200,000 folds
After a lot of hype and some notable delays, Samsung's Galaxy Fold is now available in the US. Even after upgrades to make the phone more durable, Samsung has cautioned users to be extra careful. So this week, CNET decided to put the phone to the test.
Samsung fights fears of Galaxy S6 bending with a video
Sadly, the he-said-she-said disputes over bending smartphones aren't ending any time soon. Samsung has responded to SquareTrade's allegations that the Galaxy S6 Edge is easily bendable by posting a video that shows the official stress tests for both the Edge and the regular S6. As you might expect, both devices hold up in this company-sanctioned clip -- they can withstand up to 79 pounds of force at three different points, which is enough to snap five pencils in half. Supposedly, this is more pressure than you'd put on your phone if it was in your back pocket. The Korean firm also notes that SquareTrade only tested on the front, not the back where tolerance levels are different.
Where do most iPhone accidents happen?
The most common place to destroy an iPhone is not in your car or even the bathroom. According to a survey from Squaretrade, most fatal iPhone accidents (21 percent) happen in the kitchen, with the living room (18 percent) and bathroom (16 percent) following closely behind. Surprisingly, only 9 percent of damaged phones went for a swim in the toilet. The majority of accidents (69 percent) are caused by the owner and happen inside the home (51 percent). The survey also showed that water is the leader when it comes to liquid damage, with soda, beer and coffee/tea rounding out the list. Have you killed an iPhone? Share your tale of woe with us in the comments. [Via CNET]
Americans reportedly spent $6B on broken iPhones
Warranty provider SquareTrade queried 2,000 iPhone owners and discovered that they have dumped an estimated US$5.9 billion into repairing their iPhones over the past five years. This figure includes repair costs, insurance deductibles for phones with a warranty and full-cost replacements for iPhones that are broken beyond repair. The company looked at how owners were destroying their iPhones and found that most people damaged their phone when it dropped from their hand. The second most common accident is a plunge into a toilet, sink, hot tub or other body of water. Rounding out SquareTrade's top five list are a fall from a lap, a drop from a table and a liquid spill. Interestingly enough, a small percentage of iPhone owners (11 percent) don't get a replacement and use their iPhone with a cracked screen. Some owners even tape their iPhone as a makeshift repair. Even though I've dropped my iPhone plenty of times, I've never damaged it because I use an OtterBox case. Have you ever cracked or broken your iPhone? If so, share your story in the comments. [Via Orlando Sentinel; image from Flickr member DaveOnFlickr]
Daily Update for August 15, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
SquareTrade study shows why iPhones and iPads dislike Mississippi
If you're an iPhone or an iPad making your way from a factory in China to the United States, just hope that you're not going to end up in the clumsy hands of someone from the state of Mississippi. A new SquareTrade study shows that some the highest levels of accident damage to both iPhones and iPads occur in the Magnolia State. The two graphics you see here show that an iPad or iPhone in Mississippi has a projected accidental damage rate of 30 to 35 percent over two years. Simply stated, that Apple product has a one in three chance of being damaged in 24 months. Ouch. Where are iPhones and iPads relatively safe from accidental damage? If you're an iPhone, you want to live in Iowa, where there's only a 5 to 9 percent chance of being hurt by your clumsy owner. For iPads, the safest places to live are Hawaii, Montana, and West Virginia, which also have a 5 to 9 percent two-year accidental damage rate. SquareTrade offers independent warranties to purchasers of consumer electronics, and the statistics on clumsiness were based on customer claims.
SquareTrade torture tests the iPad 2 by dropping it on cement
Personally, I wouldn't deliberately drop my iPad 2 on cement, but the folks at SquareTrade were crazy enough to let not one, but two iPads fall to a sidewalk. The first drop was waist-high and included both a bare iPad 2 and one encased in a Smart Cover. As expected, the naked iPad suffered a cracked screen so bad that it will make you cringe. The iPad with the Smart Cover, though, survived unscathed. Taking the test one step further, the group dropped the Smart Cover iPad from shoulder height, which is about a 4 to 5 foot drop. Sadly, the second trial ended poorly for the iPad 2. The Smart Cover popped off from the impact, and the screen suffered some peripheral damage. It wasn't a total loss as the screen was not shattered, but the cracks on the edge and in the center would make it difficult to use. Read on to check out the video of the tests in action.
Report: iPhone 4 "more prone to physical damage"
SquareTrade, a company that provides extended warranties for iPhones, is reporting that the iPhone 4 is "more prone to physical damage" than the iPhone 3GS, according to the warranty company's iPhone reliability report. In the report, SquareTrade compared over 20,000 iPhone 4 claims, from the first four months of its release, to the equivalent for the iPhone 3GS. They found that the overall reported accident rate for the iPhone 4 is 68% higher than the 3GS, and that iPhone 4 users reported 82% more damaged screens than the 3GS. The report goes on to say that "the aluminosilicate glass seems to crack at least as often as the old [3GS] glass, and there is now twice as much surface area to break," despite Apple claiming that the glass used in the iPhone 4 is 30 times harder than plastic, according to its website. However, SqaureTrade's report says that accident rates need to be taken into perspective, and that overall, the iPhone has a much lower non-accident malfunction rate than compared with most other consumer electronics. SquareTrade also notes that in its last smartphone reliability study, it found the iPhone to be "far more reliable" than Blackberry and Palm Treo phones, though, this was compiled in November 2008. Having just received my iPhone 4, I'm debating whether to get a case for it or not. I did purchase a highly rated case for my 3G, but it was more of a hassle than its worth, especially since I was particularly careful with the phone. I guess it boils down to how well you look after you gadgets. Nevertheless, accidents do happen. You can download a PDF of SquareTrade's report here. [via International Business Times]
Are higher iPhone 4 accident rates really something to worry about?
A report that surfaced from SquareTrade a couple days ago claims that accident rates are higher on the iPhone 4 than its 3GS sibling. SquareTrade says that in the first four months of the iPhone 4 being out in the wild, there is an 82 6 percent increase in reported broken screens over the rate on the 3GS. Thing is, SquareTrade counts the back of the iPhone as a screen, not just the front display, and reports that broken glass on the back of the iPhone accounts for 25 percent of the issues they've run into. One thing to take with a large grain of salt -- SquareTrade makes its living by selling warranties. It culled its numbers not from AppleCare, but the company's own warranties that it sells. Far more iPhone 4 users most likely have AppleCare or no extended warranty at all on their iPhone and this study, which has grabbed a good bit of media coverage, seems to have been created to sell more of SquareTrade's warranties. There was also a pent-up demand for the iPhone 4 as evidenced by the numbers sold compared to those for the 3GS. Many people, myself included, waited to upgrade from the original iPhone or iPhone 3G and never got a 3GS. The phones are also constructed differently. So, take double the amount of glass in a phone, add the fact that there are more phones out there, and you're going to have more accidents. Read through the report and make your own decision. If you're still worried, slap a good case on your iPhone and don't use it as a hockey puck or bottle opener. [Via MacObserver]
Study: iPhone 3GS more reliable than 3G
Poor little iPhone 3G. You are my first iPhone, my first smartphone, my first "I got it the day Apple released it" device. I love you so, and yes, I will miss you when you are gone, replaced by the shiny iPhone 4. Apparently, I was one of the lucky ones. First off, the iPhone 3G is forsaken by several of iOS 4's new features (wallpaper, multitasking, etc.). As an added bonus, warranty provider SquareTrade has released a report showing their repair rates on the iPhone 3G and how it compares to the 3GS. In short: the iPhone 3GS is more reliable than the 3G across the board. I'm guessing this is because the 3GS was an evolution of hardware, so they had a second "model year" to make refinements and changes. However, the 3GS had more power and battery related issues in the first year than the 3G did, so it wasn't flat-out superior hardware. But the 3GS did have less overall trouble in year one the the same period in the 3G's history. [via Macsimum News]
Laptop reliability survey: ASUS and Toshiba win, HP fails
Boy, do we have a nice slab of data for you to sink your teeth into today. The 3-year service history of more than 30,000 laptops has been pored over, analyzed, and reduced to gorgeous comparative charts, which you know you're dying to know more about. We should note, however, that the service was provided by SquareTrade, whose primary business is selling extended warranties, but that shouldn't completely prejudice us against reaching conclusions on the basis of the presented facts. Firstly, netbooks have shown themselves to be on average 20 percent less reliable than entry-level laptops, which in turn are 10 percent more likely to break down than premium machines. In other words, you get what you pay for -- shocking, right? The big talking point, though, will inevitably be the manufacturer comparison chart above: here ASUS and Toshiba (rather appropriately) share the winners' spoils, while HP languishes in the ignominious last place, with more than a quarter of all laptops expected to suffer a hardware fault of some kind within three years. So, does your experience corroborate / refute this info? Keep it gentlemanly, okay?
Win a Square Trade accident-coverage iPhone warranty from TUAW
Two weekends ago, Diet Coke was accidentally spilled onto my MacBook Pro Keyboard. The machine, a Core Duo 15" that was among the first of the Intel Macs rolled out, suddenly didn't work the way it used to. Luckily, damage was restricted only to the keyboard: caps lock, shift, b, h, and num lock didn't function. Not being able to type the word "butt" was a pain in the "utt." While I've since repaired the keyboard -- on my own, thanks to iFixit's instructions -- it made me question, again, the value of an extended warranty. Had the damage been worse, I may have had to get a new machine. While AppleCare is certainly compelling for many (phone support and timely repairs of manufacturer defects by Apple-authorized technicians, among its values), its defect is that hardware repair coverage is restricted to manufacturer defects. And in my case, even if this had been a new machine still under AppleCare, it wouldn't have been covered. So, if you accidentally drop your iPhone in the toilet (it happens) or if, while looking up your Tiramisu recipe in MacGourmet, you happen to spill Kahlua all over your MacBook, you won't be covered by AppleCare. While researching third party extended warranties, I stumbled upon Square Trade. In addition to covering manufacturers' defects, Square Trade's warranty covers accidental damage. In effect, it's a warranty with an additional safeguard for dings, drops and drenching. Although the Square Trade warranty covers accidental damage, consider all your options before proceeding with a purchase -- Is it worth its cost? For example, claims for accidentally damaged items (as opposed to manufacturer defects) require a $50 deductible. In the case of the MacBook and MacBook Pro, this narrows the price gap between AppleCare and the SquareTrade price.
New study finds close to one quarter of Xbox 360s fail within two years
Sure, it's not exactly news to hear that the Xbox 360 is the most unreliable console of the big three, but just how unreliable is it? Now there's a point of contention. The good news for Microsoft, of sorts, is that a new study from SquareTrade found that just 23.7% of Xbox 360 consoles failed within the first two years of ownership, which is actually a fair bit better than some of the previous numbers that topped 50%. The study also found that 10% of PlayStation 3 users reported a system failure, compared to a mere 2.7% of Wii owners. The Wii actually fared the worst when it came to power and remote control issues, however, while the most common problems with the Xbox 360 and PS3 were disc read errors and output issues. For its part, while Microsoft hasn't responded to this particular study, it has previously pointed to its "best warranty in the industry" to reassure its users and, of course, to its more recently-produced consoles, which are less likely to buckle under the pressure of a marathon Call of Duty session.[Via InformationWeek]
SquareTrade Study: iPhones more reliable than BlackBerry, Treo
Independent warranty provider SquareTrade has released a report showing that iPhones are more reliable than either BlackBerry or Palm Treo devices.The report, titled "iPhone More Reliable than BlackBerry, One Year In", analyzes failure rates for more than 15,000 new cell phones covered by SquareTrade warranties. SquareTrade found that after one year of ownership, iPhone owners were half as likely as BlackBerry owners to have a phone failure, and one-third as likely as Treo owners. After 12 months, slightly over 16% of Treo owners had experienced a failure, while just less than 12% of BlackBerry owners had their smartphone die on them. Only 5.6% of iPhone owners had a critical failure.SquareTrade's report also shows the types of failures most common for the various devices. The iPhone's Achille's Heel appears to be the touchscreen, while other devices saw problems with keyboards, software, and call quality.When it comes to problems not caused by handset malfunctions, the iPhone is much more prone to accidental damage. 12% of iPhone owners reported failure due to dropping accidents, which SquareTrade attributes to the small size and slippery case of the iPhone. Apple has made no comment on the report.
Report cites 10% of all 360 failures due to RROD
Earlier this month, we mentioned that the total Xbox 360 failure rate was found to be somewhere around 16% and now new details from warranty testing firm SquareTrade is telling us just how many were the result of the dreaded RROD.SquareTrade released a report today detailing their warranty tests and out of the 16% failed 360 total, roughly 10% of them were due to RROD general hardware failures. The other 6% were attributed to things like disc read errors, hard drive freezes and disc tray malfunctions all of which would not be covered under Micrsoft's extended warranty. SquareTrade also mentioned that due to the Elite and Core test subjects not having enough warranty claims, they removed them from their statistical analysis and based their numbers on the more problematic Pro SKUs.We're not certain if this is good or bad news seeing that SquareTrade still found 16% of all Xbox 360s to be problematic, it's just only 10% of them red ring. Nothing to get excited over, it's still way too high of a failure rate and way too many headaches to deal with. Fly Falcon fly and send us our RROD relief!
