Apple Walks Back iPhone 13 Display Repair Restriction That Disabled Face ID

[newbmacuser2021]

iPhone 13 notch repair seems complicated. You could buy a new phone ($1,099) or send it to Apple for $329. $199 with Apple Care. Free if under warranty (see terms).

For iPhone 14, iPhone 15, and iPhone 16, I expect the notch to get slightly smaller year-over-year, while improving the lens on the front camera. This will result in clearer, brighter selfies.

 

[MrHydeEdward]

A stolen iPhone with iCloud is useless but however, thieves can still sell the display which is worth hundreds of dollars in some countries. An iPhone 13 display can be sold for more than $400 outside the US and that is when the chip comes in handy, to prevent that from happening.

 

[anshuvorty]

Would you look at that! Apple backtracking...seems to be happening quite frequently these days with Apple:

• walked back on the minimalistic and Jony-Ive designed thin MacBook Pros with TouchBar with a lack of ports and a new keyboard design that didn't need innovation in the first place
• walked back on the trashcan Mac Pro
• walked back on the debacle that was the Child Safety features
• ...and now, walking back on this!

Crazy what a threat of government regulation can compel a company to do!

I say, do more government, do more!

 

[JCCL]

Where is the guy that said that "We don't own our phone, Apple does and can do anything they please with it, you just buy a slab of metal and glass".

Good thing, that's why public needs to put pressure and remain vocal when companies pull these stunts.

 

[Rocko99991]

Apple only lifted this because of pushback-not because they are nice people. Keep pushing when they decide to do the wrong thing.

 

[newbmacuser2021]

I’ve done a few iPhone display repairs.

iPhone 4s is the easiest. It’s just $49.99 for the LCD and then the hourly rate of the Apple engineer. $99 total? $129?

iPhone 5s is complicated because of TouchID. It’s $59.99 for the LCD and probably 2 or 3 hours Apple engineering. You have to make sure not to sever the ribbon cables. $129? $169?

iPhone 6s and beyond is where things get tricky because of the glue. Glue + TouchID + ribbons. It might take 4 or 5 hours. $89.99 for the LCD + 5 hours = $349?

The issue is after iPhone 5s they started using glue and adhesives (iPhone 6 and beyond)

And the reason iPhone 6s refurbished is $199 on Amazon is:

1. They have used extras that work without repair (battery is at 70% capacity and display has minor scratches)
2. They have people in China and India buying them for $50 broken and repairing them for $150 USD

So that doesn’t help when you need your phone repaired right now, because shipping alone will take 3 weeks to China.

 

[newbmacuser2021]

If you’re laughing and saying an iPhone 6s doesn’t take 5 hours to fix, try doing it.

 

[Wanted797]

Wow. Never in the world did I think I’d see this.

This and Google releasing display calibration software is great. I really hope the tide is shifting on right to repair.

 

[Shirasaki]

I remember those days, clones absolutely killed Apple machines when it came to price performance ratio.

Yeah, laser 128 got their Apple clone machine so much better than Apple II people flocked to buy it as Apple II substitute. Good days.

 

[newbmacuser2021]

If you know a “teen girl” who keeps breaking their phone and buying new ones, it’s sort of a joke.

I was a software engineer in SF making $120k.

I’ve done:

- 4 MacBook Pro repairs
- 2 MacBook Air repairs
- 3 iPhone 5s repairs
- 2 iPhone 4s repairs

Because the economics, even on $120k in SF, prevent me from buying new $1,000 phones or $3,000 Macs at my leisure.

 

[Shirasaki]

say, do more government, do more!

While I agree that government should heavily regulate mega corps and tax them hard, I dunno for this issue specifically how much pressure government has applied here.

Where is the guy that said that "We don't own our phone, Apple does and can do anything they please with it, you just buy a slab of metal and glass".

Many people has said variations of this same sentence, and I already assume Apple is assuming they own every single iPhone iPad Mac even after selling them to customer and they work really hard to make sure “phantom ownership” is the case for eternity.

 

[jlc1978]

Wow. Never in the world did I think I’d see this.

This and Google releasing display calibration software is great. I really hope the tide is shifting on right to repair.

Unfortunately, the right to repair is different from the repairability of the device. You can have all the repair manuals and access to parts you want but if teh device is not designed for repair and parts are expensive it means nothing.

I'd like to see Apple move to a cloud based registration system for repairs. Make the subscription cheap enough so independent shops can use it, serialize parts that have high value in teh stolen market, much like VINs on parts in cars, and check when a device is repaired to see if the part corresponds to a stolen one. That would reduce the value of stolen parts, especially if a non-registered device periodically reported it was not registered properly.

If you know a “teen girl” who keeps breaking their phone and buying new ones, it’s sort of a joke.

I was a software engineer in SF making $120k.

I’ve done:

- 4 MacBook Pro repairs
- 2 MacBook Air repairs
- 3 iPhone 5s repairs
- 2 iPhone 4s repairs

Because the economics, even on $120k in SF, prevent me from buying new $1,000 phones or $3,000 Macs at my leisure.

I fixed a busted MBP screen cover (not the LCD) with a cheap replacement from AliExpress. Plastic, not glass, and I need to restick it periodically but for $25 it salvaged an otherwise perfectly good MBP for a few more years of life.

 

[gregmancuso]

Waiting for all the people that are going to try to spin this somehow.

Was it a good decision to put in this protection, no. But are they doing the right thing, yes. Definitely something not expected out of apple and I’m glad they are doing the right thing.

I wonder what the reason between the screen and Face ID sync is. There has to be a reason especially since they developed a micro controller that syncs the display with the phone. I understand why they did this part but to add Face ID into the mix doesn’t make sense. For Touch ID under the screen I can see this making sense and I fully support it but for Face ID that has nothing to do with the screen, I’m very curious why they did this to begin with.

Wondering if this is them testing screen id (Touch ID under screen) and it just made it into the iPhone 13 and Face ID happen to be a causality.

Who can say? This being a byproduct of testing a new screen for embedded biometrics does seem more plausible than "let's design and build a new microcontroller chip just to screw with FaceID." But, anything is possible - including Apple disabling the chip check.

 

[Shreducator]

Let’s be real they wanted to see if they could get away with it.

 

[6h0s1]

sounds more like hardware design that they are now going to opt-out of. One doesn't usually make their own costs more expensive by adding unnecessary circuitry without an actual reason*.

* blah blah, I know someone from the "profits" department forced the hardware team to add the microcontroller pairing API because everyone knows repairs are the bulk of Apple's revenue and unauthorized shops were taking a huge cut out of that.

Risk management saw this and had a heart attack because there are already so many anti-consumer and anti-repair lawsuits out there and this was too blatant. Who adds a chip that the only function is to prevent 3rd parties from repairing a product? Actually I shouldn't ask that too many are doing this but Apple knows they'll be the first ones targeted in a lawsuit.

 

[ElRojito]

Apple deserves no praise for this. I would understand if they had a hardware limitation that caused this, but the fact that they can send an update to the phone to make screen replacements work is just asinine. They shouldn't be given a gold star for not being shi**y.

 

[no_idea]

Whichever senior director thought this was a good idea to begin with needs to be let go. Amazing how a simple software update will “fix the glitch”

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Just like the CSAM stuff

The only thing -- the only thing -- that works with Apple is public pressure and backlash

And they are reacting quicker too. Remember how long it took them to back down from the relentless backlash to the Butterfly keyboard! Looks like we are successfully training Timmy to follow our instructions. We aren't quite there yet, but making good progress.

 

[jonblatho]

Can’t stand that bloke!

He has not spent even a fraction of a second caring about whether you can.

Making devices more repairable and repairing devices that are fixable instead of throwing them in the garbage are both good objectives. He might not be the best messenger, but he’s right.

 

[ACHD]

and you would want to get your phone repaired by an unqualified shop why?

Unqualified in this context is... The repair places you consider "qualififed" are like the vehicle dealerships adn their mechanics... Vs the mechanic that the entire town and neighborhood uses and seeing these guys as the unqualified people.

Apples current repair system prevented anyone who DOES NOT PAY APPLE TO REPAIR ****... to well not be able to repair anything.
That's qualified vs unqualified right there.

When using the apple repair program, all repairs go through a system and they ARE ONLY allowed to REPLACE parts. They can not FIX anything that could be fixable with a cheaper option. Like replacing a known faulty transistor that has a mfg defect and recognized by the mfg for its defect but apple keeps ordering them anyways because they are dirt cheap with an item thats maybe half a penny more that is known to be reliable... Apple does not allow anyone "qualified" to do that.

Matter of fact the system would lets say force someone to replace the entire back of the phone and prevent a transplant of the camera modules and instead force the customer to pay for that piece to when all they needed what the case replaced. Or even though apple has the touchID module in phones transplantable they would not do so and instead charge a cx for a display replacement including the touch ID module. When a 3rd party shop can use ACTUAL apple displays and just move over the touch ID module to the new display and boom you saved money.



People who repair things do not just swap parts. UNQUALIFIED REPAIR technicians just swap parts.
Apple does not want their devices repaired they want swaps only. thats the thing. So its BS to say many 3rd party shops who do true repairs are to be called unqualified.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

LOL at the entire thread of Apple defenders and armchair security experts I read here on MacRumors last week 🤣

They are eerily quiet today. Aaaah, they sounds of silence, so peaceful.

 

[Will Tisdale 🎗]

A stolen iPhone with iCloud is useless but however, thieves can still sell the display which is worth hundreds of dollars in some countries. An iPhone 13 display can be sold for more than $400 outside the US and that is when the chip comes in handy, to prevent that from happening.

That makes a hell of lot of sense actually. I didn’t really think about the stolen parts market when I was musing above.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Picking and choosing their battles better these days.

It's been nothing but defensive retreats lately. Trench by trench, mile by mile.

Eventually they will reach Nirvana and become the Buddha. And then, finally, Apple greed will be eradicated, all their products will be created with loving intentions only, and reach ultimate perfection. As a side effect, to their surprise, sales, profits, and the stock price, will go through the roof.

 

[ACHD]

I’ve done a few iPhone display repairs.

iPhone 4s is the easiest. It’s just $49.99 for the LCD and then the hourly rate of the Apple engineer. $99 total? $129?

iPhone 5s is complicated because of TouchID. It’s $59.99 for the LCD and probably 2 or 3 hours Apple engineering. You have to make sure not to sever the ribbon cables. $129? $169?

iPhone 6s and beyond is where things get tricky because of the glue. Glue + TouchID + ribbons. It might take 4 or 5 hours. $89.99 for the LCD + 5 hours = $349?

The issue is after iPhone 5s they started using glue and adhesives (iPhone 6 and beyond)

And the reason iPhone 6s refurbished is $199 on Amazon is:

1. They have used extras that work without repair (battery is at 70% capacity and display has minor scratches)
2. They have people in China and India buying them for $50 broken and repairing them for $150 USD

So that doesn’t help when you need your phone repaired right now, because shipping alone will take 3 weeks to China.

Genius staff take less than 20-30 mins for display repairs. If its taking 4-5 hours something's seriously wrong.

They put the device into a rig, unscrew the 2 screws holding it on. The Jig will pry the display up with the glue.

THey undue 4-7 screws depending on model of device.. Disconnect ribbon cables.
They use plastic scrapper to scrap the glue.. Then Apply a glue template/adhesive template then reconnect the cables and screws, then close the device in the jig. then put the 2 case screws back in then plug into the lightning port for an auto calibration that takes less than 4-5 mins now.

Total time should be less than 20-30 mins for a display change.


For the devices with touch ID the genius staff did nothing different.

For 3rd party's they would do 2 screws to remove the touch ID if its good still from old display then reapply to the donor/replacement screen.... there is no added time because 3rd party's wont use the auto calibration machines as apple won't sell them but its not needed anymore as there's no force sensor now.

The time it takes to replace stuff is not much and hasn't been much for a long time.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Wow! That’s impressive. Looks like It’s a well thought process by Apple. Very good move by APPLE.

macrumors demi-goddess? Or demi-bot?