What is Apple iPhone 4S' Siri, iOS5, and will anyone use her? www.drmobiles.co.nz

The Apple “Let’s Talk iPhone” event has concluded. Tim Cook and a slew of Apple execs have taken it in turns to tell us about the latest and greatest Apple goodies, and rather underwhelmingly there’s no iPhone 5 and just significant takeaways: a cheaper and faster iPhone 4S, and an interesting software package called Siri. You can read all about the iPhone 4S on our sister sites Geekand PC Mag — here we’re going to talk about Siri.

If we look past the rather Indian (and feminine) name, Siri is a portable (and pocketable) virtual personal assistant. She has a speech-recognition module which works out what you’re saying, and then a natural language parser combs through your words to work out what you’re trying to do. Finally, an artificial intelligence gathers the possible responses and works out which one is most likely to be accurate, given the context, your geographical location, iOS’s current state, and so on.

Siri is, in essence, a computer that you can interrogate for answers, kind of like a search engine that runs locally on your phone. If you’ve seen IBM’s Watson play Jeopardy, Siri is basically a cut-down version. She isn’t intelligent per se, but if she has access to enough data, she can certainly appear intelligent. Siri’s data sources are open APIs, like Wikipedia or Wolfram Alpha, and in theory there’s no limit to the number of sources that can be added (though it does require significant developer time to add a new data set). For now you can ask Siri about the weather or the definition of a word, but in the future, if Apple links Siri up to United Airlines, you’ll be able to book a plane ticket, just by talking. Because Siri runs locally, she can also send SMSes or set reminders, or anything else that Apple (or app developers) allow her to do.

Artificial intelligence isn’t cheap in terms of processing power, though: Siri is expected to only run on the iPhone 4S, which sports a new and significantly faster processor than its predecessors, the A5. Siri probably makes extensive use of Apple’s new cloud computer cluster, too, much in the same way that Amazon Silk splits web browsing between the cloud and the local device.

Noise

That’s enough about what Siri is and how it works. Let’s talk about whether anyone will actually use Siri, which is fundamentally a glorified voice control search engine. Voice commands have existed in some semblance since at least as far back as the Nokia 3310, which was released in 2000. Almost every phone since then has had the ability to voice dial, or in the case of modern smartphones, voice activate apps and features.

When was the last time you saw someone talk to their phone? Driving and other hands-otherwise-occupied activities don’t count. When was the last time you walked down the street and heard someone loudly dictate “call mom” into their phone? Can you really see yourself saying “Siri, I want a kebab” in public?

It might lose its social stigma if everyone talks to their phone, but isn’t it already annoying enough that people swan down streets with hands-free headsets, blabbing away? It’s not like voice recognition is at the stage where you can whisper or mumble a command into your phone, either: you’re going to have to say, nice and clearly, “how do I get to the bank?” in public. Now imagine that you’ve just walked past the guy who’s talking to Siri — is he asking you for directions, or Siri? Now imagine what it would be like if everyone around you is having a one-sided phone conversation or talking to Siri.

Finally, there’re practical implications to consider, which Apple usually ignores in its press events. For example, will Siri only recognize my voice? What if I leave my phone in the living room and my girlfriend shouts out “honey, we should go to that Italian restaurant” — will Siri then make a reservation? On a more nefarious note, will my wife be able to say “Siri, show me my husband’s hidden email.” When walking down a street, will Siri overhear other conversations and react accordingly?

Siri will be fantastic in the car, that’s for certain. She will also be very accommodating when you’re on your own — imagine shouting across the room “Siri, do I need to wear a jacket today?” or “Siri, download the latest episode of Glee.” Siri will be unusable in public, though, while on the move — and that’s the one time where you really don’t want to be looking down at that darn on-screen keyboard.
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5 Siri-like apps for your Apple iPhone 4, iPod, and iPad (power user tips for iPhone 4S users)

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One of the biggest puzzlers surrounding the release of iOS 5 is the iPhone 4S’s exclusive ability to use Siri, the voice-controlled virtual assistant. At first we had assumed that Siri requires special hardware — the A5 processor and oodles of RAM, perhaps — but it turns out that the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 are virtually identical. Then there’s the fact that Siri, the standalone app that Apple acquired earlier this year, worked just fine on every iOS device, including the iPhone 3GS and 4, and iPod touch. Still, Apple undoubtedly has its reasons, and who are we to question a higher power?
Fortunately, thanks to a thing called the App Store, there are a few Siri alternatives that you can install. By virtue of being apps, rather baked into the OS like Siri, these alternatives won’t be quite as smooth or fast as Apple’s new wunderkind — but they should be more than capable of sending an email or text while driving, or looking up directions while on the move.

Vlingo (Free)

By far the closest comparison to Siri is Vlingo, an app that has its own voice-recognition engine, a powerful cloud-based back end, and almost all of Siri’s functionality, including booking restaurants. The two caveats are that it can’t set reminders (though a new release might fix that), and unlike its Android brother there doesn’t seem to be a voice-activated mode for hands-free in-car mode.
As an added bonus, there’s also a Vlingo app for just about every platform under the sun, including BlackBerry and Nokia phones, and even Windows; but not Mac, unfortunately.

Google Search (Free)

You probably already have it installed, but the Google Search app for iOS includes the same Voice Search feature found on Android devices. As the name suggests, the app only lets you search using your voice, and there’s absolutely no integration with any other services — but it’s a nice stopgap until Safari innately supports voice searching. Just like mobile website, the Google Search app uses your location data to make sure that the results it returns are contextual, too.

Dragon Go! (Free)

Here’s a fun one: Siri herself doesn’t actually manage voice recognition — a module provided by Nuance does that, and then hands your utterances along to Siri once it’s worked out what you’re trying to say. Dragon Go is made by Nuance, and thus it is just as accurate as Siri… but it’s no where near as polished or full-featured.
Dragon Go is basically a voice interface to a bunch of web services, including Wolfram Alpha, Google, Yelp, Google Maps, and so on. It also interfaces with Pandora, Spotify, and Netflix if they’re installed. There’s also Dragon Diction, which is all about dictating messages or longer notes. You can then send your voice-recognized musing via email, Twitter, Facebook, or SMS.

Built-in Voice Control (Free)

If you want to make (almost) hands-free calls in the car, iOS’s built-in Voice Control is your best bet: press and hold the Home button (or the equivalent on your headset), you’ll hear a beep, and then speak your command. If you want to call someone, say “call” or “dial” followed by their name or number, or you can even initiate a FaceTime connection by saying “FaceTime” and then a name and location (iPhone, home, and so on).
Built-in Voice Control can manipulate your music playback, too (but only the iPod app). Use “play” followed by the name of a song, album, playlist or artist — and you can also “what” and “who” to find out what song/artist is currently playing, or “genius” to have your iDevice pick a new, similar song for you.

Voice Camera Pro ($1.99)

Finally we have the only non-free app on the list: Voice Camera Pro, which does exactly what you think, plus a little bit more. First, you can say “camera” to turn the camera on and “shoot” to take a photo, but you can also say “double,” “triple,” and “quad” to take a series of sequential photos.
You can’t avoid the fact that you have to launch the app before you can use it, though — this isn’t going to let you whip your phone out and magically take photos from the lock screen by shouting “TAKE A PHOTO!” Also, it doesn’t seem to have the ability to shoot video, which seems a little weak for an app that costsmoney.

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Apple iPhone, iOS 5: Hidden gems and features (iPhone 4 repair, drmobiles.co.nz)

Apple has just released iOS 5. If you have an iPhone 3GS, 4 (or 4S), iPod touch 3rd or 4th generation, or an iPad, simply plug it into your computer, make sure iTunes is updated to version 10.5 (iTunes > Check for Updates), then just select your device on the left hand side and click “Check for Update.”
By this stage, if you regularly frequent technology websites like ExtremeTech, you will already be intimately familiar with the key features that adorn iOS 5: Siri voice-controlled assistant, Notification Center, iMessage, Reminders, deep Twitter integration, access to the camera from the lock screen, and perhaps most importantly PC-free activation; you no longer have to plug an iOS 5 device into iTunes to set it up, and you can also sync via WiFi, too. You will also know all of the ways in which Android 4.0 beats iOS 5, and vice-versa.
All told, though, iOS 5 includes more than 200 new features, many of which you would never notice unless you knew where to look. Fortunately, we moles here in the ExtremeTech bunker have been playing around with beta builds of iOS 5 for months, and we’re more than happy to point out the few hidden gems that we’ve discovered.

Text macros and improved formatting

In Settings > General > Keyboard you can now specify Shortcuts. Shortcuts are simply text macros: you enter a short phrase (btw, omg, etc.) and the iOS 5 input editor (SMSes, emails) will automatically expand those short phrases into full sentences. Whether this will prevent kids from typing in txtspk is another question entirely.
When composing an email, you can select a word or phrase and apply bold, italic, or underline formatting from the pop-up menu.

Safari is faster, tabbed, and more secure

Except for the Notifications Center, the most noticeable change in iOS 5 is a significantly-improved Mobile Safari. You’ve probably heard about Reader and Reading List — own-brand versions of Instapaper — but Safari is faster (rendering- and JavaScript-wise), has a new Private Browsing toggle that works as you’d expect, and on the iPad you can now use tabs!
There’s also an interesting option that forces links to open in the background, which is handy if you’re reading through an article and want to check out the pages it links to later, once you’re finished.
Finally, Mobile Safari is now by far the most HTML5-compatible smartphone browser — though we’d be surprised if the Ice Cream Sandwich stock browser doesn’t at least match it.

More finger-crippling gestures on the iPad

Actually, they’re no where near as bad as the five-finger-pinch-and-flick that OS X Lion uses: with iOS 5 and iPad, a four- or five-finger flick up reveals the multitasking bar. Pinch returns you to the home screen. Swiping left and right switches between apps (at last!)

Improved security

No doubt as a reaction to the odd and iffy security record that smartphones have had over the last year, iOS 5 includes more granular control over which apps can access Location Services (Settings > Location Services), and the General > Restrictions area now lets you set a password for in-app purchases.

Custom alerts and improved accessibility

Also joining the “at long last!” club is custom alerts: you can now pick a different ring, bleep, or tune for new mail, sent mail, tweets, calendar alerts, and more.
In General > Accessibility you can now make the camera’s (rather bright) LED flash when you receive a message, call, or alert — and there’s also a neat feature called Assistive Touch, which lets you create a custom gesture on the screen, and then bond that gesture to an action, such as turning off the screen.

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iPhone 4S: Tips & tricks for your new phone, iPhone 4S repair and unlock, drmobiles.co.nz

If you’re one of the million lucky souls who has spent a few minutes today tenderly lifted an iPhone 4S out of its lovingly-crafted, pearly white packaging, perhaps after spending hours in the driving rain outside an Apple Store, you might be stuck with a rather odd question: what now? Except for Siri — which, admittedly, you will be playing with for weeks to come — there really is nothing new. Yes, iOS 5 has a ton of neat features, and iCloud is awesome — but you would’ve had access to those even if you hadn’t handed over a fistful of dollars for an iPhone 4S.
There are still a few things that you can do to make the most of your new, super-fast iPhone, however.

Tell Siri who you’re related to

No, not so that Siri can tell your wife that you’ve been saying inappropriate things to your new, cutesy assistant — but rather so that you can tell Siri to “call my wife.” Pull up Contacts, edit a contact, click Add Field, scroll down to Related People, then add yourself and your relation (see right). Alternatively, you can simply tell Siri “Mary Poppins is my wife,” “My brother is John Smith,” and so on; a much more Applesque approach, admittedly.

Set up WiFi Sync

Not only can iOS 5 devices stand alone and be activated without iTunes, but you can now sync the contents of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod via WiFi. To do this, just plug in the cable, open up iTunes, select your device from the left, and scroll down to select “Sync with this device over Wi-Fi.” You’ll be walked through a simple setup process, and that’s it.
If you want to copy large amounts of data you’ll still want to use USB, though: it’s faster, and WiFi sucks up quite a lot of battery power.

Install some juicy games, play them on your lounge TV

Hardware-wise, by far the most stand-out feature on the iPhone 4S is its SGX 543MP3 graphics processor: it’s seven times faster than the iPhone 4, and almost twice as fast as the next smartphone(Galaxy S II). In everyday use, though, you won’t really notice the new GPU: the whole phone will just feel a little bit snappier… Unless you install some hardcore, bleeding-edge iPhone games!
Rage HD simply flies on the iPhone 4S, and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and Galaxy on Fire 2 are good options too. Presumably the best game that will really show off the new graphics chip is Infinity Blade II, which was demonstrated at the iPhone 4S press event — but unfortunately it won’t be available to download until December 1.
It’s worth noting that you can hook these games up to your big-screen TV by way of Apple TV andAirPlay, and while the iPhone 4S isn’t quite as powerful as a video games console, it’s getting there…

Get a cheaper SIM card

While the iPhone 4S is being advertised as a “world phone,” the situation regarding its replaceable SIM card is a little murky. According to PC Mag, it sounds like Verizon users will be able to switch out their micro-SIM for another — and Sprint customers might be able to as well. AT&T customers will be forced to use the installed SIM card.
What this means is that Verizon (and possibly Sprint) users can a) switch in a SIM that gives you cheaper international calls, and b) when you’re actually travelling around the globe with your world phone, you can use a prepaid SIM card to make cheap local calls. AT&T customers will sadly have to pay for an “international package” and then suffer through extortionate roaming costs.
Of course, if you wait until November, you’ll be able to pick up an unlocked iPhone 4S for $449. Whack in a prepaid T-Mobile SIM and off you go!

Make sure iCloud is set up on your Windows or Mac PC

Finally, it goes without saying, but because it requires an update we’ll say so anyway: To take full advantage of iCloud you need to install an app on your Windows computer, or update your Mac machine to OS X 10.7.2 or later. The setup process is easy enough, but the first synchronization will take some time if you’ve taken a lot of photos and movies on your iDevice.
You may also want to customize exactly what gets uploaded to and downloaded from iCloud, which is under Settings > iCloud on your device, iCloud in System Preferences on your Mac, or iCloud in Control Panel on your Windows computer.

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Apple iPhone 5 Begins Production as Hardware Details Leaked!

25 October, 2011--China Times reports that the iPhone 5 has entered a trial production phase and will feature a larger screen. Purported iPhone 5 parts have already leaked that seem to match the claim of a four-inch screen. The iPhone 5 itself is expected to have a similar form factor as the current model, with the display reaching all the way to the edge of the device.

The rendering above by Piotrek Photos shows how a larger iPhone 5 screen might compare to the current iPhone 4 display. This news comes as the New York Times has confirmed Apple is working on near-field communication (NFC) technology so that future iPhones can easily make wireless mobile payments at specially equipped cash registers. The NFC hardware would be integrated with the iPhone processor and linked directly to the owner's iTunes account.

Although Apple is working on NFC technology it's not clear whether or not the feature will make its way onto the iPhone 5. The company could be saving this functionality for a future model iPhone, as there are many different versions of the e-wallet concept currently entering the market. Competing Android phones are already getting into the act, with the Samsung Nexus S already equipped with NFC.

Other highlights of the iPhone 5 design include the switch to a metal back, much like the original iPhone. Apple could completely redesign the iPhone 5 with a curved aluminum back, to bring it more in line with the iPad 2 and recent iPod touch designs. More recent information points to a next generation device much more similar to the iPhone 4, except replacing the back glass panel with metal. A redesigned antenna would be integrated into the smartphone to help prevent the reception issues that were cited by Consumer Reports when they refused to recommend the iPhone 4.

According to China Times, the iPhone 5 is on track for a summer 2011 release. This contradicts some reports that the iPhone 5 could be delayed until September. Apple typically updates the iPhone every year in late June to early July. Plenty of time left for more rumors, leaks and speculation before an official Apple announcement.
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11-year-old girl became a mother during her wedding!

 11-year-old-wife and mother of new born baby girl Kordeza has to grow up fast and learn new responsibilities. Shortly after her 11th birthday she became pregnant by her 19 year old boyfriend. The couple’s marriage was celebrated by the birth of their daughter during the ceremony. It is unclear if the State will file charges against the 19-year-old Adult.

Years ago and still today in a few countries, marriage to a girl under the age of 18 is still the norm. Bulgaria however frowns on such a thing, especially when the groom is a legal adult. The case gets a little more bizarre with a twist when an 11-year-old girl became a mother during her wedding.

11-year-old Kordeza Zhelyazkova was taken to the hospital in a wedding dress and tiara. There she gave birth to her baby daughter, who was named Violeta.

The Schoolgirl, from the town of Sliven in Bulgaria, became pregnant just two weeks after she turned 11 years old. The girl became a mother when childbirth started right during the wedding of the young groom, 19-year-old husband Zheljazko Dimitrov.

Kardeza says that she is not going to play with toys anymore because she now has a new duty. “She’s so beautiful, I love her very much. Violeta is my child, and apparently, it’s time to for me to grow up.” It is doubtful she will return to school, because now she just wants to be a mom.

The 11 and 19 year old met on the playground of his Roma School, he saved her from bullies.

Kordeza admits: “We have not had sex education, and I did not know how I got pregnant. I had never been a friend and I had never heard of condoms. I did not know I was pregnant until my grandmother brought attention to something, I strongly attested I thought that eaten too many hamburgers.”

The young couple united by marriage in the traditional Gypsy wedding, However Zheljazko under the laws of Bulgaria, faces up to six years in prison for seducing a minor.

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True Story of people who really cheated death!

But what would you really do if faced with death? How would you react to being dropped out of a plane without a parachute, or buried alive? Well these people survived all of that and more, slapping Death in the face and telling it to go make them a sandwich.

 

Alexis Goggins, Invincible Girl

Just an ordinary first grader, attending classes, hanging with her friends. She had to save her mom from some crazy dude. She did this by jumping in front of him and taking six bullets, point blank, including a couple to the head.  It started when some lowlife kidnapped Alexis and her mom (OK, the lowlife was the mom’s boyfriend). The mother tried to stall the bad guy and managed to call 911, but the cops said they couldn’t send anyone. Apparently they were all busy with more messed up situations than a man holding a child hostage at gunpoint.

It was at this point that the gunman decided he should stamp his passport into hell and started shooting. Two bullets struck the mother before little Alexis dove between them, begging the shooter to stop. Without hesitation, he shot six times, little Alexis taking the bullets that would have killed her mother. By this time the cops arrived, as they figured things were getting really serious because now someone was actually shooting.  Alexis thought about dying for a second then decided she still had something to do.

Death could only watch as she grabbed her stuff and headed back to the land of the living, despite some serious injuries that would have killed most of us twice and some of us three times.  This would be jaw-droppingly impressive for a 250-pound Marine combat vet, let alone a seven-year-old girl. And while we would like to cling to our original theory that she’s actually an immortal Highlander, the truth is this seven-year-old girl is simply more man than we’ll ever be.

Poon Lim, Cast Away

He was steward on a British ship during World War II, with an unfortunate first name, at least by Western standards. The ship he was working on was blown up by the Germans. Being total assholes, the Germans did this while the ship was far away from land. Surviving the explosion was no biggie for Poon, but it forced him to climb into a life raft and hang out until he was rescued … 133 days later.

At first there was water in the raft and a few boxes of biscuits. But these ran out quickly and Poon had to get all MacGyver and make himself some fish hooks out of nails and tin cans to catch fish to survive.  Between doing awesome stuff like catching sharks and drinking the blood of birds he caught, he also had to deal with sunburn, seasickness and storms that wrecked his food and water supplies. Eventually he figured he needed to catch more food. For us that would mean more fish. For Poon it meant catching a shark. For Death it meant Poon was not going down easy.   Toothy death or lunch?

Depends on who you are.  He could have been rescued sooner but another German U-boat that spotted him offered no help. It was at this point that Poon began to suspect that the Nazis were dicks.  He finally sailed near Brazil and was rescued by some fishermen, and these days the US Navy teaches his survival techniques to its sailors.

Jim Thompson POW and Legendary Bad egg

Jim was just a store clerk, until he decided he could probably impress more girls by telling them he was a Green Beret, which he became. During the Vietnam War, Jim was captured and held as a prisoner of war, at which time he was beaten and tortured. The time we’re speaking of by the way was a period of nine years, giving him a pretty bittersweet record for being held as a POW.  His plane was shot down in 1964, with Jim taking a bullet and breaking his back in the process. Surviving that part would have been enough of a harrowing story for most people to tell for the rest of their lives. But it was a long way from over for Jim.

After being captured, Jim was held in a jungle camp and jammed into a wooden cage too small for him to sit up or fully stretch out. For months his captors wanted him to sign papers saying that he was treated well. Jim told them to get off and in return was beaten and tortured some more.

As a reward, he was moved into solitary confinement for four years. He was finally moved into a prison with other prisoners which was great, except that the beatings and torture continued, which pretty much blew. At one point during his captivity, he became so weak that he suffered a heart seizure. Realizing he needed his heart to live, Jim survived that scare and even managed to escape five times.

The time took its toll on Jim though and it looked like Death would win this one. Another prisoner who saw Jim reported that he thought the enemy had placed a corpse in the cell next door. However, Death forgot the fact the Jim was a Green Beret and he held on until he was finally released in 1973. He weighed 90 pounds.  Thompson unfortunately succumbed to death shortly after his release. And by “shortly” we mean 30 years later, of natural causes, in Florida.

Aron Ralston Hacks Off His Own Arm

A mechanical engineer at Intel. You know those engineers are renowned for being tough guys. No biggie, all he did was take a hike in the woods and came out five days later, missing an arm, which he had to cut off himself.  Seems Aron was big on mountain climbing, which by itself is pretty manly, but not enough to get him on this list. Except during this particular hike a boulder fell on him, pinning his arm. For five days he worked to push the rock off and finally realized he would die unless he took drastic action.

Because the prospect of cutting off your arm may not impress some of you hardcore readers, we need to point out that he first had to break his arm by snapping it against the same rock pinning him down. Then came the hard part, cutting through the flesh.  Lucky for Aron he had a multi-use tool. Unluckily for Aron it was a piece of crap knock-off that he probably got from an aunt at Christmas.

Plus saying that he was lucky to have the tool to cut through his arm is kind of like saying you’re lucky to have Chapstick on your lips while your head is on fire.  Death wasn’t about to give up easily though, and after cutting through the flesh, Aron had to use the pliers to cut through the tendons that the knife couldn’t cut.

7 ) Vesna Vulovic 1, Mountain 0

Vesna Vulovic was a stewardess back in the ’70s working on a Serbian airline. Except for surviving countless ass gropings during her time as a stewardess there was really nothing special about this lady. Oh yeah, except for the fact that she fell 33,000 feet and lived to tell the tale.  On January 26, 1972 our gal was working an extra shift due to a clerical error. She took the shift anyway to earn a little extra scratch, probably to supplement her bear-wrestling hobby or something. Anyway, some terrorists decided to blow up her plane and succeeded in doing so at the worst possible time, when the plane was really high up in the air.

Not only did she survive the explosion that blew the plane into pieces, but she was the only person to live after hitting the side of the mountain. Normally this would totally suck by itself, but it was winter so the mountain was also frozen which probably made it feel like she hit it after falling 33,000 and 10 feet.  Now because we’re talking about reality and not a cartoon, she did in fact break a bunch of bones and fell into a coma, but when she woke up she looked around and asked for a cigarette.

Apparently flipping Death the bird really gives you cravings.  Not convinced? Did we tell you she was left paralyzed … but then regained her ability to walk through sheer force of will? She also didn’t suffer any of those New Age, sissy boy “psychological effects” either and continued to fly like nothing happened. As a bonus she collected a Guinness World Record for her troubles.  Want to see if you’re as tough? No problem all you have to do is jump off the equivalent of 26 Empire State Buildings.

In case you’re wondering, a fall like that takes about three minutes, which should be plenty of time to contemplate death (and every single bad decision you’ve made in your life) and after that, don’t forget to live, break your back, fall into a coma, become paralyzed and then recover, which we figure is the hard part.
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1 Huron Street, Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel: (09) 551-5344, Mob: (021) 117-2222

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Why Dr Mobiles Limited?
> Repair while you wait
> Free insurance calims report
> Free inspection on faulty phones|
> Free 30 minute off-street parking
> 45 mins to fix iPhone 4 scree
> 30 mins to unlock 3G and 3GS
> 25 mins to replace 3G/3GS screen
> 10 mins to unlock iPhone 4