We need to have a serious chat about iPhone repairability. We judged the phones of yesteryear by how easy they were to take apart—screws, glues, how hard it was…
[ifixit] We Are Retroactively Dropping the iPhone’s Repairability Score::We need to have a serious chat about iPhone repairability. We judged the phones of yesteryear by how easy they were to take apart—screws, glues, how hard it was…
Ever the innovators, Apple introduced a new dimension to repair that our scorecard simply didn’t account for: namely, that you could take a highly repairable design like the iPhone 14, install a genuine Apple replacement screen or battery, and then… it fails to work. Following the correct procedure was no longer enough.
Today, you need one more thing: a software handshake, using Apple’s System Configuration tool. It contacts Apple’s servers to “authenticate” the repair, then “pairs” the new part to your system so it works as expected. Of course, it can only authenticate if Apple knows about your repair in advance, because you gave them the exact serial number of your iPhone, and they’ve pre-matched it to a display or battery. This is only possible if you buy the screen or battery directly from Apple. Forget harvesting parts—which is a huge part of most independent repair and recycling businesses. It’s also impossible to pair any aftermarket parts—which means only Apple-authorized repairs can truly restore the device to full functionality.
I can understand Apple refusing to do repairs under warranty, or even invalidating a warranty, if someone has broken their phone after digging around inside without knowing what they are doing, but bricking a phone the person owns through a software lock is absolutely insane and stinks of attempts at service capture and fighting right to repair laws.
I can't even imagine that. Modifying your device DOES NOT void your warranty. The burden of proof is on the manufacturer to prove that the modification caused the failure.
I get that, and I don't want to use cars as a good example because they aren't, but even car manufacturers have less restrictive policies than Apple is pushing here.
It would still be wrong to invalidate the warranty for the reasons you give, but it's still better than this.
Almost everything apple does nowadays is a marketing front, repairability, privacy, not including chargers, accessories and removing the headphone jack for the sake of the environment, and more to come.
Actually, the whole Privacy part is one of the biggest gimmicks Apple has ever pulled.
Sure, it doesn't allow Meta and Google to not allow data collection, but research indicates Apple continues to collect the same amount of data. In the long run, I'm sure that Apple would also use this data to serve ads in their own way, just that they'll call it "iAds", and fanboys would cream their pants
Privacy wise, Apple marketed its move as preventing apps from tracking you, when in reality what it did was make the Unique advertising id they have Made themselves Available to Apps Null if you opt out of tracking. It is like removing the harm they put in place by themselves .
(+) it doesn’t prevent app tracking as it can be done using other means and unique identifiers. They have lied about the scope and potency of this measure. while average Joe doesn’t care to verify their claims.
for now, we are only rescoring the iPhone 14. We are not retroactively rescoring earlier iPhones at this time. If we did, their scores would also likely decline.
I don't get it. They finally recognized that the score does not reflect reality, leads to wasted money and frustration, and then they don't apply there newfound insight to products already affected? To me that seems somewhat dishonest.
Seems to me that it took a huge amount of time and resources to reach the new score, and I'm guessing they don't have the budget to do the same for every model
How does forcing a company like Apple or John Deere to allow their customers to repair their own products lead you to think China isn't already ripping off every bit of tech they come across?
DRM does not prevent them stealing the technology they are only there to maximize profit. Everything is basically manufactured in China so the know-how is already overseas. Copyright laws already exist to prevent complete rip-offs.
If a shock absorber of my car breaks I have the freedom to choose the quality/type of the spare part (Genuine/OEM/used or aftermarket supplier) and who performs the repair (Dealer/local repair shop or myself). That's healthy competition and it should be the same for electronics.
It was at 7/10 because the iPhone 14 introduced a repair-friendly design that made it, in theory, easier to repair than most competing high-end smartphones. However, the fact that there is a software DRM on the parts you install makes this repairable design completely useless for the end user, it just makes repairs cheaper for Apple themselves, thus adding insult to injury.
They even have DRM on the Hall Effect sensor that detects when the lids closed on their newer laptops, so you cant take one from one laptop and put it in another.
The fucking hall effect sensors.
Its nothing but a fancy magnet that turns your screen off when you close the lid, a thing that costs pennies, and they had to engineer their own version to have DRM and bullshit.
Honestly, Apples entire business model always meant they should rate a zero. It's been about making tech disposable for 20 years. Any "repairability" by them is at best a marketing strategy.
Mate, don't get your knickers in a twist... You're getting riled up over nothing here...
The iPhone 14 getting a repairability score of 4 shouldn't affect you or your life... Neither should some random person online thinking it deserves a much lower score...
I'm not doubting this is true given the source, but there are phone repair shops all over my town that repair cracked iPhone screens all the time. How do they make that business work if they have to register something like a screen replacement?
I work as a repair tech for Batteries Plus, on the X and above what usually happens is a notification in the settings app about being unable to verify whatever part is an OEM part and that the service log for the device has been updated. If it's the battery that is being changed and it's not paired, it will lock you out of viewing Battery Health information, and if the repair shop doesn't copy over some data from the original screen then the replacement screen can cause the loss of True Tone. Haven't experienced a phone completely brick itself because of third party repairs but Apple certainly forces a loss of functionality simply because they want all repairs funneled through them.
Because there are a lot of people out there who don't know about or understand all this, and I don't think a regular consumer should be expected to know about weird software quirks to be protected from a company's rapaciously anti-consumer policies.
I've been trying to convince myself now that the iPhone uses USB C to swap from Android since Google and the whole DRM bit. To be fair I'm a Firefox user and I know Apple uses a chromium wrapper for Safari or what have you but I am afraid of Graphene OS installation.
With this I just can't do Apple. Alright all you Lemmies telling me just to try it and so being a wimp, I'm gonna do it.