He usually only cries when he takes the time to read between the lines and find out that it's BS.
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Apple Expanding Device Repair Programs for Consumers and Independent Shops
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I don’t get the problem here… just get AC+ or pay for a proper repair?
Why buy a 1k+ iPhone if you can’t afford a repair?
Why buy a 1k+ iPhone if you can’t afford a repair?
The "Geniuses" at Apple Store damaged my phone on 3 separate occasions of battery replacements. Next time I am going to take the chances and do it on my own with their parts.
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I live in EU, and will buy my next Apple device when replacing a simple display change doesn‘t cost 279 Euro for my iPhone mini.
There is a government Repair Bonus program which makes repair of old devices almost cost free for the custumers, to avoid throwing away older devices. But Apple Store doesn‘t parcicipate this program, that‘s the Reality of Apples Mother Nature.
There is a government Repair Bonus program which makes repair of old devices almost cost free for the custumers, to avoid throwing away older devices. But Apple Store doesn‘t parcicipate this program, that‘s the Reality of Apples Mother Nature.
People/businesses have been stealing, moving, using stolen cars and parts of them for decades before the iPhone was an itch in its daddy's pants.
There are plenty of programs that expose shady tradesmen/businesses sand what's to say they aren't using stolen parts.
They're also known to use second hand parts from previous repairs as new. Now, if a repair shop replaces your alternator knowing it's not needed and uses that part on a repair for another customer, have they stolen it?
That's kind of your problem. It doesn't mean Apple's hostility towards the people who would like to repair or modify their devices is justified in any way.
As of yet, I do not know of any mobile phone manufacturer who has allowed their products to be licensed by others for the purpose of spare parts being manufactured under license by a 3rd party. Therefore as it stands, every mobile phone spare part is either counterfeit, original but taken from faulty phones, original but taken from stolen phones or original direct from the manufacturer who has a spare parts program.
A lot of what is out there already is counterfeit, counterfeit batteries, counterfeit charges and counterfeit touchscreens/LCD's but yet many of the Independent repair shops do not tell their customers that counterfeit parts are being used to repair their mobile phone. This is one good thing about the Right to Repair bill in that it forces Independent repair shops to inform their customers where the origin of the spare part. This will allow the customer to know if the spare part they are paying for is an original OEM part or a fake/counterfeit part (tends to go faulty after a few months).
The Right to Repair bill will causes prices to rise because Independent repair shops will be required to get their spare parts from legit sources or face the prospect of having to tell customers that the parts they are using are counterfeit, used or stolen. Now how many shops are going to do that? not many in my opinion and because it will be law, they will face heavy fines if the flout the law. I doubt many Independent repair shop of the financial resources to go to court over the suspect origins of their spare parts.
A lot of what is out there already is counterfeit, counterfeit batteries, counterfeit charges and counterfeit touchscreens/LCD's but yet many of the Independent repair shops do not tell their customers that counterfeit parts are being used to repair their mobile phone. This is one good thing about the Right to Repair bill in that it forces Independent repair shops to inform their customers where the origin of the spare part. This will allow the customer to know if the spare part they are paying for is an original OEM part or a fake/counterfeit part (tends to go faulty after a few months).
The Right to Repair bill will causes prices to rise because Independent repair shops will be required to get their spare parts from legit sources or face the prospect of having to tell customers that the parts they are using are counterfeit, used or stolen. Now how many shops are going to do that? not many in my opinion and because it will be law, they will face heavy fines if the flout the law. I doubt many Independent repair shop of the financial resources to go to court over the suspect origins of their spare parts.
Personally I support right to repair - which is to say, market-driven access to parts, tools, documentation and software necessary to repair property that is lawfully purchased with reasonable expectation of maintaining.
Apple takes profitability very seriously. It's their right and their obligation to shareholders. I don't believe they had a “change of heart.” As a company, Apple pretty much defines hubris - that lack of acceptance that they could be doing a wrong thing. Even when they cave under public pressure, it's clear they believe they're victims of customer misunderstanding. That aside, there are few points to consider:
Regardless, Apple will not want to squabble with 50 state legislative bodies. Duh. And Apple has irrational amounts of cash squirreled away in foreign tax shelters. A couple day's interest alone is more than enough to buy federal politicians on the right committees. If the Drumph administration taught Timmeh anything, it is that all three branches of federal government are totally for sale. THAT’S how they fix it once. We'll know when Goopplesoftsung closes that deal because steadfast RTR opponents will suddenly share an epiphany about now great it now is. For the American People.
Or I could be all wrong and capitalism is actually gentle, supportive system, and politicians are virtuous servants of the public good, and people aren't a species that prevailed over amoeba by evolving into self-interested jerks, and Apple Cars will usher in a golden age of style and reliability.
Apple takes profitability very seriously. It's their right and their obligation to shareholders. I don't believe they had a “change of heart.” As a company, Apple pretty much defines hubris - that lack of acceptance that they could be doing a wrong thing. Even when they cave under public pressure, it's clear they believe they're victims of customer misunderstanding. That aside, there are few points to consider:
- Apple does make arguably best-in-class gear which is expensive and status-setting.
- Apple does provide solid, if not always consistent, service under warranty, even better with AppleCare and so-called “Geniuses”.
- If they have made out-of-warranty repair a profit center, they should not be expected to voluntarily give it up.
- The human and logistics factors involved with out-of-warranty repairs (i.e., you'd rather stab yourself in both eye sockets with broken, splintery, wooden pencils) is a rather compelling sales tool for new gear.
- Apple embeds intellectual property in sub-components using pairing chips that intrinsically contain IP in the form of networking and signing certificates.
- display, camera, charge port, battery, speakers?, glass panel, hinges, trackpad, top cover, etc, etc.
- This gets immediate coverage under the DMCA - yes, for a pane of glass or a hinge or a cable.
- There's no extraordinary threat of personally violent burglery/robbery overtly centered on iPhones, iPads and MacBooks. This ain't hypothetical; this all happened.
- Does anyone remember the years long wave of blatant violent crime centered on iPods and early iPhones?
- Does anyone remember when police departments said to hide iPods/iPhones and use only BLACK corded earbuds?
- Does anyone remember stupid kids getting jacked up, thug realizes they been punk'd and its really a crappy 'Droid, and then beating the victim to death for pranking?
- Does anyone remember how some big city jurisdictions publicly blamed it on Apple for making such desirable and conspicuous gizmos?
- Does anyone remember how some big city jurisdictions asked Apple to solve the problem of iCrimes and Misdemeanors?
- As a social experiment, Apple could revoke its pairing lock requirements on parts.
- Quit pretending you don't KNOW what would happen.
- Need I bring up catalytic convertors?
- Capitalism.
- People suck.
Regardless, Apple will not want to squabble with 50 state legislative bodies. Duh. And Apple has irrational amounts of cash squirreled away in foreign tax shelters. A couple day's interest alone is more than enough to buy federal politicians on the right committees. If the Drumph administration taught Timmeh anything, it is that all three branches of federal government are totally for sale. THAT’S how they fix it once. We'll know when Goopplesoftsung closes that deal because steadfast RTR opponents will suddenly share an epiphany about now great it now is. For the American People.
Or I could be all wrong and capitalism is actually gentle, supportive system, and politicians are virtuous servants of the public good, and people aren't a species that prevailed over amoeba by evolving into self-interested jerks, and Apple Cars will usher in a golden age of style and reliability.
The real problem is not legislating the spare parts or selling them to the independent repair shops. The real problem with most Apple's devices (Macs especially) is the fact of active prevention of the computers being repaired or upgraded.
Some examples are:
- Inability to upgrade or replace SSDs on aarm devices (which are wear-out parts of the system). Even taking into account the difference in the architecture of the storage system (NAND chips and controller being separate), it is still technically possible to allow the use of the "classic" SSDs in Macs. For example, if macbooks had m2 slots and the real m2 slots on Mac Studios would allow the SSDs being installed, currently you cannot even upgrade the storage on a Mac Studio even if the spare part comes from another Mac Studio but has a different size.
- Various software locks on apple devices. You can't even interchange the original parts between the iPhones or macbooks because there's either a software block, preventing the use of any of the spare part except the one installed on factory, or inability to access the software, required to configure the newly installed part.
This problem is not that Apple doesn't cares if their devices are upgrade-able or repairable, but they are actively trying to prevent any possibility to make your devices better or fixed.
Still there are great engineers working in Apple, who design cool stuff, I personally love my base model MBA and was considering purchasing the m2 mac studio, but it is inadequate that such a computer for such a price is not expected to be maintained by the customer.
Its the classic conundrum of supply side capitalism: If you make an awesome thing, and let it stay awesome forever, you'll never sell enough over time to keep the lights on.
This didn't used to be a practical concern for manufacturers. In most lines of consumer goods, it wasn't even possible to build a thing that COULD last forever, even if you did promote service and repair. Materials decay in one form or another, through rust, dry-rot or fatigue. Motor brushes, bearings and switches wear out. Wiring corrodes. Switches get gummy. And then new features and styling encourage abandonment. This cycle is generally tied to the physicality of the item, and used to run just a few years for cars, appliances and tube-era electronics. The majority of consumers are just itching for an excuse to get new stuff. Acquisition is in our DNA; our brains are tricked into feeling bored with older things, even if they're working and serviceable. We're like Ferengi without the rules.
It's different with the digicalated electronicalized gizmoids backstopped by webification. They CAN be designed in such a way that actual valid use cases could be sustainable for really looong periods of time. I've had an iPhoneX for longer than a lot of 2017 Hyundais lasted, and I still can't rationalize ditching it for a 15. (In fact, I sorta feel like Apple is daring me to wait.)
So imagine you manufacture fancy phones and tablets and desktops and laptops and polishing cloths. Your earnings calls depend on sales. However everyone wealthy enough bought them already. Well, obviously, you need to repeat-sell within that customer base. That means you need to do three things:
This didn't used to be a practical concern for manufacturers. In most lines of consumer goods, it wasn't even possible to build a thing that COULD last forever, even if you did promote service and repair. Materials decay in one form or another, through rust, dry-rot or fatigue. Motor brushes, bearings and switches wear out. Wiring corrodes. Switches get gummy. And then new features and styling encourage abandonment. This cycle is generally tied to the physicality of the item, and used to run just a few years for cars, appliances and tube-era electronics. The majority of consumers are just itching for an excuse to get new stuff. Acquisition is in our DNA; our brains are tricked into feeling bored with older things, even if they're working and serviceable. We're like Ferengi without the rules.
It's different with the digicalated electronicalized gizmoids backstopped by webification. They CAN be designed in such a way that actual valid use cases could be sustainable for really looong periods of time. I've had an iPhoneX for longer than a lot of 2017 Hyundais lasted, and I still can't rationalize ditching it for a 15. (In fact, I sorta feel like Apple is daring me to wait.)
So imagine you manufacture fancy phones and tablets and desktops and laptops and polishing cloths. Your earnings calls depend on sales. However everyone wealthy enough bought them already. Well, obviously, you need to repeat-sell within that customer base. That means you need to do three things:
- Lock customers into services that are good enough to be habit-forming, and super irritating to replace.
- Build in artificial obsolescence, in the form of feature blockage and targeted disruptions in performance (because organic obsolescence won't be quick enough.) Apparently, Apple has determined it needs more repeat sale money at the six year mark.
- Keep customers from repairing or refurbishing devices, as hobbyists or tradesmen (because the urge to acquire new stuff is dulled). Apple does this by pairing parts to software an firmware with signing certs, and by contractually locking OEMs out of third-party sales. Furthermore, it is illegal to attempt to replicate parts because the necessary signing certs and internal networking protocols would be considered proprietary IP under the DMCA.
- Note that, perhaps as a beneficial side effect, there is nearly zero benefit to criminals in stealing Apple gear to resell to breakers. Mostly, stealing Apple stuff is an incidental snag, in case it works for a bit, maybe sell to identity thievs with access to the right hacking tools. Or revenge, of course because lots of crime results from petty interpersonal BS.
- Consistently invest in advertising to engorge the acquisition gland with FOMO.
- Tap dance around any congressy legislator people who know things, or might accidentally learn things, usually with the aid of lobbyists who know where the dark-money drop boxes are located in various jurisdictions.
- Purchase legislation and judicial concurrence that protects your interests in market share and repeat sales, as opposed to interests of filthy, wretched, anti-capitalist, non-consumers who pretend they should have a right to control and sustain gear they paid for and which might be construed as perfectly operational (Maggots).
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nearly $700 to get a new battery from Apple's DIY repair programme for a MacBook Pro 16" M1 as they only sell it as part of the top-housing. Now that the batteries use pull-tabs glue strips it makes it so much easier to remove than before, yet Apple still won't allow me to replace the battery myself so I have to source a dodgy one from eBay or AliExpress. Thanks for nothing Apple.