Personally my DIY skills are just about limited to switching on the blender for some freshly crushed ice for my cocktail, but I know there are some of you out there a lot handier with their hands and for whom the thought of sending a gadget off for official - expensive - repair makes you half choke. Over at iPhone Atlas they've been looking at options for when cellphone calamity strikes: a cracked iPhone screen.
Sending the iPhone off to Apple for an official repair job will set you back a not-insubstantial $199 for the 4GB version and $249 for the 8GB (plus $6.95 for shipping and handling); that's assuming they don't call upon their "service may not be available if your iPhone has been damaged due to accident or abuse" disclaimer.
The alternative is trying to fix it yourself, using third-party replacement components (costing from $150 to $200) and in the process well and truly voiding your warranty. PDAParts offer a video guide to the operation, shown below:
Let's face it, you'll need guts to try to do it yourself. This is one of those occasions when it might be better to stump up the money and let the pros take care of it; or, more sensibly again, invest in some protection with an iPhone case, such as the range available from the MY iTablet Store.
a great place that will repair water damaged or any other type of damage to the iPhone
they work with AT&T and Apple with non warranty repairs
you can mail it in or if you are in the San Francisco Bay area they are up 101 north of the Golden Gate
http://www.northbayelectronics.com is the website i was in the bay area and just called and they fixed my phone the same day
I recently had a similar situation where I dropped my phone and picked it up only to find that the screen had been cracked! Really frustrating! I was told by apple this repair would be $199. After searching around for a little bit, I found http://www.iphone3gscreenrepair.com on google. They had the same repair available for only $69.99! The better part is that I sent my phone in on monday and had it back by wednesday! I really recommend them.
-Frank