So my name is Zack, and I run a YouTube channel called JerryRigEverything, and I just passed
a quarter million subscribers so I figured it was high time that I do a Q and A to answer
any questions that people might have.
I did initiate the Q and A on Twitter so if you’re not following me over there…head
over there, follow me, and then you can ask questions for the next Q and A…whenever
I decide to do that.
The most popular question that I seem to get on YouTube and Twitter is this one: “What
Smartphone do you use as your daily driver?”
So I’ve tried out a lot of different phones and my current favorite is the Samsung.
I have the Galaxy S7 Edge that I use as my daily driver.
I’m not a huge fan of the edge feature to be honest with you.
I prefer a flat screen phone like the Note 5; that one was fantastic.
I did just buy the Note 7 to use as my daily driver as well.
I bought a second one, not the one I’m using in my tests.
So, we’ll see how that goes.
So I actually get a surprising amount of questions about this as well: “What color is your
hair and can you show us a photo of you with hair?”
So this is a picture of me with hair.
It should be interesting.
I’m at a construction site.
And then here is another picture of me with hair.
This is after I wrecked my truck.
That’s a story for another time.
So is this the type of hair that you pictured me with?
Let me know what you think down in the comments.
But like I always say, you can’t grow hair and brains at the same time.
Is that right dad?
(Dad) That’s exactly right.
(Zack) Great minds think alike.
“So why did you make your first video?”
So this happened about 4 years ago.
I had a really old jeep that broke down and I’d never really worked on cars a whole
lot at this point and I went to a shop to ask them how much it was to fix and they wanted
1,000 dollars for it.
And I was like there’s no way this jeep is even worth 1,000 dollars.
So I jumped on good old YouTube and watched some videos on how to fix it and I found one
that had the exact same problem that my jeep did.
And I ended up fixing it for 80 bucks instead of 1,000.
So I messaged the guy who made the video and I was like, you know, thank you so much for
helping me out and why do you make videos?
And so the channel that I watched was BriansMobile1 so check him out, he is freaking awesome.
But he responded back and he said the reason that he makes videos is to decrease world
suck…to make the world a better place.
And I thought that that was the coolest thing.
And so putting that in addition to the fact that you can make money with YouTube with
the little ads that play in front of the videos, I was like that is my dream job right there.
So I started doing YouTube about 4 years ago and it kind of just took off after that.
I had about 2,000 subscribers my first year after making videos.
And now we’re sitting just over a quarter million.
So hard work and perseverance pays off.
“Do you do meet ups?”
I have done some conferences in the past, not like meet ups specifically, but I was
in Ireland with Casey Neistat, What’s Inside, Sean Duras and so we hung out with some fans
up there.
And actually in October I will be in LA here in the United States and I will be doing another
conference called Vid Summit.
I’ll put a link for that information down in the video description if you’re interested
in that.
But yeah, if you’re anywhere in California come out and hang out with us at Vid Summit.
There are going to be a bunch of other big YouTubers there as well.
“Do you have a job other than YouTube?”
Right now I do not.
YouTube is my main thing.
It actually takes a surprising amount of time to make YouTube videos.
Like a tear down, you know, like with the HTC 10, that probably took 8 hours to film
the video, tear it down, edit the video, do the voiceover and everything.
So it really is a fulltime job with full time hours.
I actually get a lot of this question as well: “What is your favorite phone of the year
durability wise and which phone is your worst?”
So if I had to pick, I’m actually planning on making a video about the durability of
all the phones in 2016 at the end.
I keep all of my phones that I do a durability test on.
And if I had to pick one right now, you know, in the middle of the year, I think the HTC
10 is really rocking it as far as durability goes.
And then the worst phone durability wise…um, you know the mi5 was surprising the way that
it broke.
And then as far as like just you know, poor quality of the phone, not to dig on LG G5
or anything, but that one, when they claim that the phone is metal and it’s not, it
has a thick layer of plastic or primer around the surface, that was pretty disappointing.
So those are probably my two least favorite phones.
“Do you plan on expanding your channel to more than just smartphones?”
Actually I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.
I love doing repair videos on smartphones and durability tests, but it was actually
really fun to go up to my grandpa’s cabin and film that video about me getting rid of
the mice problem.
So in the future I would definitely like to do more videos like that where it’s a bigger
project and I can compile it down in just a short little interesting video.
So be on the lookout for some more of those.
“How do you know how to tear down a new Smartphone?
Do you read instructions online or do you proceed by guesses?”
It’s actually a little bit of both.
If I’m the first person ever to make a repair video on a particular Smartphone, I’m going
in totally blind.
There are no guides or anything.
Manufacturers actually don’t like it when you get inside to repair your own smartphones.
They kind of lose money from it.
Plus there aren’t very many channels on YouTube that are doing teardown videos on
cell phones.
It’s pretty much just me and iFixit and a couple other smaller channels here and there.
You know, they do a pretty good job, but usually I’m going in blind.
But if you think about it, it’s not that big of a deal just because with the iPhone
5, the 5S, the 5C, the 6, the 6S, all of those have the same basic design.
So if you’ve opened up the 5, you already know what to expect in the 6S.
And the same thing with the Samsungs.
You know, with the Samsung Galaxy S6, the S7, the Note 5, the Note 7; those are all
the same basic design as well.
So I kind of have a basic idea of what to expect when I get inside so I’m not too
shocked.
“So how do you handle allegations against you like the Nexus 6p and now Corning Gorilla
Glass 5?”
So this is actually a good question.
I am not a person that loves confrontation so my favorite videos to make are my repair
videos where there’s a positive outcome, I’m showing people how to save money and
how to fix their own stuff…that’s what I really like to do.
What shocked me a lot was the extreme amount of hate that I got for that first Nexus 6p
video.
I understand that my presentation was a little bit extreme in that video, so I ended up buying
a second phone and doing a second test on it just to explain myself a little bit better,
and that one went over a lot, you know, smoother than the first one did.
But just like the unrealistic amount of hate I got from the first one.
You know, people saying that I faked the test, that I was a liar, you know, to go kill myself…like
that’s…nobody enjoys that kind of stuff.
With Gorilla Glass 5 it’s not that big of a deal.
You know, scratching is a very minor deal compared to the severe catastrophic damage
that the Nexus 6P had.
And I have no hard feelings towards the Note 7 at all.
I actually bought a second Note 7 to use as my daily driver.
I think Samsung is a fantastic company and Corning has done a great job with their glass.
You know, shatter resistance is still a fantastic attribute even if you do lose a little bit
with the scratch resistance.
“Have you ever injured yourself while filming a durability test or teardown video?”
Not that I can remember.
I mean I do use a razor blade in a lot of my teardowns and stuff which probably isn’t
the smartest tool to use.
But the only time I can remember stabbing myself was in one of my wood carving videos
where I was carving out a ball-in-cage wood project.
And I think towards the end of that video you can see some blood if you watch close
enough.
It might have been edited out during the time lapse, I’m not sure.
But I definitely did cut my finger during that.
The scar you see on my hand in most of my videos is actually when I was 8 years old
working on a wood working project.
And that was way before I started YouTube so that scar is from a long time ago.
“Do tempered glass screen protectors help in case your phone drops?
If so, how much?”
I love tempered glass screen protectors.
They are a little bit harder to install when you have a curved screen like the Galaxy Note
7 or the S7 Edge.
But the tempered glass really does add a layer of protection.
It’s kind of like body armor.
Like if you’re going paintballing and you have a plastic shield over your chest and
you get hit with a paint ball, you almost don’t feel it because that impact is spread
out over more area.
Same thing with the tempered glass screen protector.
If you drop your screen and it hits a rock or something, the impact is spread out over
more area than just your glass screen of your phone; it has that shield in front of it.
So tempered glass is definitely the way to go if you get a screen protector.
With the curved screens, it’s probably better to get one that wraps around the edge of the
curve just so you get that little bit of padding around the edges of it as well.
“Who is your favorite YouTube tech channel?”
Now this question is actually pretty hard to answer cuz there are so many awesome YouTube
tech channels out there.
I would have to say that my favorite channels are the ones who teach how to do something,
you know, instructional videos, or do it yourself videos, or showing how a project is done.
I went to college and I graduated from college, but one thing I hated was going to college
that I was paying for and my professors would pull up a YouTube video that they got for
free to teach us what they were supposed to be teaching us.
And I was like, you know, why am I paying for this when I can just watch YouTube on
my own.
You know, any time that I need to learn something of how to edit a video on Adobe Premier or
Photoshop, having a tutorial online is just so helpful.
So those are the channels that I love the most; instructional, do it yourself for free
videos.
If you have any more questions leave them down in the comments below.
I do answer questions quite often in the comments.
After I post a video I’m usually around for an hour or two just kind of responding
and making sure that everything is going smoothly and all the questions have been answered.
Thank you so much for watching and subscribing.
I could not be doing all of these videos without you guys, my subscribers, coming back so often
and watching every video that I make.
You guys are awesome.
I post most of my behind the scenes stuff on Instagram and Twitter; those are where
I’m most active.
I do a little bit on Snapchat as well.
So make sure you follow me on those.
And thanks for watching.
Hope to see you around.
So here’s another question I actually get a surprising amount of…
(ka-Boom-Shakalaka)
...whoa!