Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Bans iFixit Developer Account and Removes App After Apple TV Teardown

RickInHouston said:
apple can be such a *ick sometimes.
Click to expand...

Why, for upholding the rules set forth of an NDA agreement that iFixit initially agreed upon and KNOWINGLY ignored and has even admitted too?

No, this isn't Apple being d*cks, this is iFixit being greedy and trying to use their lucky opportunity of receiving a device to score the "first" breakdown of the new Apple TV hardware before anyone else. They played with fire and got burned, it's not the fire's fault.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PrimeMatrix, Goldarn, Davelfc and 14 others
"reproductions"... really..!

How can opening the box in any way compromise apple ?
They created an app, how has it been wasted giving them a device. I suspect when APL looked at the app they thought it was worth providing them with a device to develop it in the first place..

As a developer you could have applied,
 
  • Like
Reactions: Atlantico
Ban this, Ban that.... Apple the Locked Down Walled Garden.

Certainly no surprise but more of a blatant in your face thing.

("thing" replacing the word I really wanted to use :D)

Freedom?
 
One thing I like about Apple is they are sweeping when it comes to not bending for ANYONE. All rules apply to everyone. No exceptions.

iFix It clearly broke those rules and this is the result. I love how they throw in their jab at the end about their app has not been update and it's "riddled with bugs caused by iOS 9". Lol. Nice jab there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Goldarn
Thanks iFixit for taking my AppleTV I wanted to develop apps for and rip it apart in the name of ad revenue. We all know very few people actually buy those tools anyway. Just another click whore that content blockers will fix(it) soon...
 
  • Like
Reactions: PrimeMatrix, Goldarn, HEK and 3 others
modemthug said:
Apple was just looking for a reason to ban iFixit, they finally had one
Click to expand...

That's completely untrue and is only your point of view. If Apple had iFixit on their proverbial **** list they wouldn't have selected them to receive a dev unit at all. The people who received one where picked, by Apple, so your argument holds no water. Stop trying to make Apple the villain here, iFixit screwed up by not honoring the NDA, which they clearly have admitted.
 
  • Like
Reactions: secretbum, DynaFXD, Night Spring and 9 others
zorinlynx said:
This is incredibly petty of Apple. It's not like iFixIt showing us the guts of the Apple TV hurt them in any way.

It sounds like this is them "making an example out of" iFixIt to scare other devs into following the agreements to the letter. Still, pretty petty in my opinion. iFixIt contributes a lot to the community.
Click to expand...

NDA is just that NDA, I mean they are basically saying yes we agree gimmie gimmie gimmie, then oh yea screw this we dont care so thats what they get for violating the terms...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Goldarn, Night Spring, HEK and 1 other person
iFixIt is part of quite a nascent movement of makers and fixers. There's a groundswell building up of people who aren't happy with the disposable culture we have here in the west.

This movement may come to nothing, who knows, but it'd be a mistake to write off iFixIt as a bunch of cranks or geeky specialists pursuing a narrow agenda.

I think iFixIt is invaluable in exposing how Apple puts its hardware together, and showing that it again goes against this tide of people wanting to fix, repair and reuse, rather than dispose of. Who knows, maybe Apple might like to tune-in and take onboard some of the criticisms rather than taking such a hard line. Maybe this is why Apple banned them -- they can't handle the truth!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Atlantico, thewap, SirCheese and 1 other person
zorinlynx said:
They didn't do anything that hurts Apple. They received a developer unit, then posted a teardown. They likely reassembled it and it probably still works fine, so I doubt they "destroyed" something they were given for free to show the teardown.
Click to expand...
They potentially did. Prerelease hardware may have components inside it that are still under NDA. Not Apple's NDA to the developers, instead possible NDAs Apple may be under with their suppliers. What shipped to developers may not be the final hardware, and final components.

This gets into tricky legal territory beyond the basic NDA and contract laws too. Leaking of a component to be used in a possible mass consumer product could lead to investors making different stock buying decisions. The situation would then involve the SEC and other stock market regulators.

I've seen a number of dev only prerelease kits, mostly in the video game console space. At times these devices ship well ahead of any regulatory testing as well. They come with very strict guidelines for a number of both legal and contract reasons such as the examples I've provided.

Should iFixit's app be a casualty of this situation? Thats a different aspect to this, and I personally don't think it should have been.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Twimfy, Night Spring, markfc and 2 others
I love iFixit, but they are dead wrong here. I work for a company that does a lot of work for Apple, and they have you sign NDAs all the time. Not a blanket NDA mind you, but an NDA for every single project that comes through. They are very strict when it comes to enforcing the terms of these NDAs, and iFixit chose to ignore the deal. Only they can say if the scoop was worth it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Goldarn, Night Spring, Cooee! and 4 others
I like iFixit, but this just feels like they did it to make a viral news story.

I always used the website anyway...their app was clunky and incomplete.
no doubt the consumer apple tv hardware will be slightly different.
 
tombiscuit said:
iFixIt is part of quite a nascent movement of makers and fixers. There's a groundswell building up of people who aren't happy with the disposable culture we have here in the west.

This movement may come to nothing, who knows, but it'd be a mistake to write off iFixIt as a bunch of cranks or geeky specialists pursuing a narrow agenda.

I think iFixIt is invaluable in exposing how Apple puts its hardware together, and showing that it again goes against this tide of people wanting to fix, repair and reuse, rather than dispose of. Who knows, maybe Apple might like to tune-in and take onboard some of the criticisms rather than taking such a hard line. Maybe this is why Apple banned them -- they can't handle the truth!
Click to expand...

Way to totally contort the story to meet your agenda. This has nothing to do with repairing and reusing and everything to do with not releasing information about pre-release equipment after signing an agreement saying you wouldn't.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Goldarn, DynaFXD, Night Spring and 5 others
For those of you defending iFixIt, they have no ground to stand on. The new Apple TVs were being provided for Developers to develop apps and not other things like what iFixIt was doing. iFixIt was clearly wrong in their actions and I'm glad Apple has a disciplinary structure in-place for those that clearly violate the NDA agreements that they willingly agree too ahead of time.

Well done Apple. Shame on you iFixIt.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Goldarn, Krizoitz, Night Spring and 9 others
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back