Forget your charger on that long trip you just left for? Stop in at any gas station or corner drug store and you’ll be sure to find chargers for only a few dollars. But what makes them cheaper than the chargers or cables you find at Best Buy, Target or Walmart? Which charger would you trust your expensive smartphone with? 1 – Surge Protection Some wall adapters have surge protection built in. This helps prevent excessive amounts of electrical current from hitting your phone all at once causing it to fry. Many generic or gas station chargers lack [...]

Optical Zoom vs Digital Zoom. Optical zoom physically magnifies the subject without negatively impacting photo quality. (Photo by Michael H) We’ve all endured it. Looking at our Facebook newsfeeds after a holiday or big family event: Grainy photos and videos are the bane of our social media existence: photos that should not exist but are far too common in our daily lives. When everyone has a smartphone with amazing cameras, why are there so many terrible photos? Well for a lot of them, the culprit is using Digital Zoom. To spare your eyes this holiday season from blurry [...]

Tech Talk is a series highlighting a member of the Gophermods Family. We presented each of our technicians, managers and employees with 10 questions. These are their answers. Today our guest is Casey O'Connor: Regional Manager for Gophermods Apple Valley, Eagan and Plymouth.   1.Where are you from? I grew up in a small town called Elkhorn in Wisconsin and have been living in St Paul for the last handful of years.   2.What do you do at Gophermods? I am the Regional Manager at the Apple Valley and Eagan stores.   3.What is your favorite phone to repair and why? [...]

  Technology and the Holiday shopping season go together like Chocolate and Peanut Butter. You can’t have one without the other(these days it seems). If you are struggling to find a good gift without making your wallet cry, I’ve got 5 gift ideas under $50 for your Smart Technology world. All pricing is current as of Sunday Nov. 27, 2016.   Amazon Echo Dot - $39.99(Sale) – Reg. $49.99 – Amazon.com Amazon Echo Dot. Photo by - PC Magazine Amazon’s Smart Assistant Alexa arrives in a more affordable package. This allows you to “Add Alexa to any room.” Featuring [...]

Apple quietly started offering repairs for the Touch Disease that has been affecting large numbers of iPhone 6's and 6 Plus. Photo by: iFixit While Apple has not officially called it that, and has denied claims that they are at fault for the issue, they have begun offering the repair at $149 for iPhone 6 Plus for those who are affected. This is much cheaper than the original cost of $329 for the 6 Plus. Anyone who has already paid for a replacement relating to this device issue can go and receive a refund of the difference at an [...]

This is an opinion about Apple's direction with Pro Consumers with the revelation of the New Macbook Pro. Apple unveiled their new line of Macbook Pros with much fanfare. After having Adobe among other content creation companies step forward and show their wares, many were left scratching their heads about Apple's direction and vision for professional users. The new Macbook Pro features an OLED Touch Bar(photo by: Apple) First the good: The Macbook Pro features Touch Bar and Touch ID. These replace the normal function keys that have been at the top of [...]

Tech Talk is a bi-weekly series highlighting a member of the Gophermods Family. We presented each of our technicians, managers and employees with 10 questions. These are their answers. Today our participant is Matthew F, assistant store manager at Gophermods Woodbury and guest blog contributor. 1. Where are you from? Matt F operates his HTC Vive VR Headset I grew up in Plymouth, MN. I spent most of my formative years in the city, So upon graduating from high school I decided to attend college down in Mankato for a Bachelors in Media Arts. It was an interesting [...]

UPDATE: Samsung has concluded their investigation determining the cause of the Note 7's battery malfunctions. You can watch the video here.  If you have a Note 7, Gophermods is not offering repairs on Note 7 and encourages you to return it.  With Samsung officially taking Galaxy Note 7 off of life support, the saga of 2016's largest tech debacle is over. The FAA has banned the phones from being brought on planes, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a complete recall of both the original and replacement units. Samsung has urged consumers to power off their Galaxy Note [...]

This article was written by guest contributor Matthew F, Assistant Manager of Gophermods, Plymouth Google’s largest hardware reveal has come and gone. And it has given the tech world a ton to talk about. But what does this all mean for you? Someone who isn’t skipping Monday night football to read the latest in tech journals. Well, here are a 3 things to take away from Google’s fall event so you can impress your techie friends! 1. Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence has been a key part of Google’s business strategy over the past few years. The latest in their artificial intelligence efforts [...]

Tech Talk is a series highlighting a member of the Gophermods Family. We presented each of our technicians, managers and employees with 10 questions. These are their answers. Our 2nd Tech Talk Participant is our owner and founder; Casey P. Where are you from? I am originally from Franklin Park, IL but I was raised in South Eastern Wisconsin in Brighton, WI. What is your Job at Gophermods? I am not sure I would classify what I do as a job at Gophermods, because everything I do is so much fun and I enjoy everyone I interact with throughout my day. I [...]