My Problem
My 9 yr. old dropped our hand-me-down iPad 3 once about a year ago, and it made a minor dent. But she dropped it again just recently (Butterfingers!) and that did it, shattering the glass almost completely. I was considering an outright refurb'd unit from Apple but I wasn't in any mood to pay $300 for it, being out of warranty and long since expired AppleCare, so I decided to take a stab at fixing it myself.
My Fix
Pretty straightforward repair. Interestingly enough, this iPad was already cracked right around the edges where you would normally use the iFixit tools to pry open the case, so it actually made removal of the front panel simpler than it normally would have been. The longest and most tedious part of it was removing the glass right around the edges of the iPad itself. And even though I tried to be as careful as I could, sure enough I wrecked the wifi antenna around the home button (Everyone says it's gonna happen, and believe me, they're not joking, so plan on it happening and order the part). Beyond that, the most difficult part was lining up the new glass panel over the iPad frame. At first it looked like it wouldn't fit, but with some very judicious manipulating, it eventually went into place. (Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to snap a photo of the completed project, but once I placed it into an Otterbox Defender case, it looked as good as new, and to boot, it worked, too!)
My Advice
Pretty much what everyone else has been writing all along on these pages, but I'll add in my $0.02:
1. Paitence! Don't rush it. Just take your time and eventually you will get it open.
2. I would not attempt repair on a mission-critical iPad, for example, an iPad that your employer paid for. In my case, I didn't really mind if I did end up trashing this one because all it pretty much gets used for is playing Minecraft and watching videos.
3. It's been stated of plenty times here, but it cannot be overemphasized: WEAR PROTECTIVE EYEWEAR! and DEFINITELY cover the broken digitizer with clear packing tape. You most likely will be working with tiny glass shards that are going to fly everywhere.
I've disassembled a lot of electronics over the years, and this still was quite a challenge for me. I don't want to even think about the newer iPads or the iPad Mini. It's not something I would particularly look forward to doing again anytime soon, but if you're up to the challenge, good luck!
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