Giving a biological analogy because the technical details seem to be confusing people...
How can it be saved in the camera module you keep saying doesn't have any logic? You do see that you're arguing against yourself, right?
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iPhone 12 Camera Repairs Require Apple's Proprietary System Configuration Tool
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How can it be saved in the camera module you keep saying doesn't have any logic? You do see that you're arguing against yourself, right?
I took my 6s into the Apple store a replacement battery under warranty, when I got home the Home button didn't work. I took it back and they checked it out and found out the technician had broken the connection to the push button, got a new iPhone on the spot. I have worked on electronics since I was a small boy (I'm 76 & father worked at home), if I had attempted to replace the battery myself and did that, I would be totally out of luck. I don't blame Apple as a corporation, it was human error at the store. I would still take my products to Apple for repair. I fix most everything else myself, but if it is a job that requires complete familiarity with the device, car or motorcycle and a level of skill I don't have, then I have a pro fix it.
Let me translate. He doesn’t repair the camera. He wants to just swap it out for another one.
I never heard of someone breaking their camera! I had a 5S for 5 years & it never needed repair (yes I did drop it on the concrete but ... it bounced!). I have had to attempt repairs on 2 devices. My GF's phone (iphone 6) I took into a chain fix-it store in a mall, and ... sorry guys ... they really messed it up. Multiply that times so-called "right to repair" and ... forget it.
You're showing me a 12 thousand pixel image of a 12 million pixel sensor to prove there is no data processing on the camera module? You understand that you can't see the logic at that scale, right? This is the part of the device that truly is microscopic, without hyperbole.
But I'm not sure why we're even arguing that point as I never said there was any processing happening on the camera module in the first place. In fact, I think I said that there were a ton of callibration parameters that need to be handled by the phone itself, and perhaps learned through the neural engine, to support the computational photography in iOS which is one possible reason why you can't just swap modules and expect it to work.
The harder you argue that the module itself is dumb, the more credence it gives to my suggestion...
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Again, what are you arguing about here? I said there is no T2 in an iPhone as a few words at the end of a much longer comment to someone else. Do you think there is a T2 chip in the iPhone? If you do not think there is a T2 in an iPhone then it seems like one of the few points we actually agree on, so why are you now linking me to 2018 Macbook repair articles?They also said 'essentially' and I am well aware that T2 is a Mac specific chip. I am assuming they were referring to this article wrt t2, and are drawing a comparison to this scenario with the iPhone
Apple’s Secret Repair Kill Switch Hasn’t Been Activated—Yet
Well, stop the presses. Turns out, ‘Apple makes your MacBook inoperative if you get it fixed at local repair shops’ isn’t quite true—not yet, no matter what The Sun says. Our lab testing has found…www.ifixit.com
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The lower in numbers is partly because Apple start selling iPhone in China at a lower price since iPhone 11 hence lower Gross. ( And higher R&D is another contribution )
But Gross Profit Margin is no longer the focus of Apple any more. Apple is now optimising for Stable "Net Profit" Margin, which just happens to be 19.9% year after year.
So you like having Frankenstein devices? At any rate, having the ability to Frankenstein devices is what makes the stolen iPhone parts black market profitable.
I get your average mall "tech" gets screwed, but in the end its a win for you even if you don't see it as such. If you need your phone repaired, take it to an Apple authorized service repair; you don't need Apple repairing it.
Also, the whole DIY your repair is cute until you accidentally your phone.
Not sure that's true.
I can buy an OBD reader and in some cases very high level software, (MB Star diagnosis). Don't need to be online. hat are you talking about? I'm going to suggest a modern car especially a high performance one is way more complex than an iPhone.
That first statemnt you made is hugely over simplified and presumptuous.
At least here in the U.S., our Supreme Court may strike such law down as unconstitutional now 🤔
I'm not sure what makes me cringe more, Apple further stamping out device repair and reuse with every generation or the masses of users who either don't care or respond with "it doesn't affect me, I'd rather go to the *Genius* bar".
Very few people working the "Genuis" bar have deep technical competence about the devices they work with. My knowledge on this is a few years dated, but as I understood it, a large number of "fixes" at the genius bar were simply device swaps... I have no reason to think this has gotten any better with the advent of all the adhesive sealed enclosures in recent years. To contrast this, I know some people who run an independent mac repair shop and they genuinely are geniuses around an Apple motherboard.
Say what you will of Apple's reasons - be it privacy or (more likely) money. The end result is more e-waste, gouged customers, and limited ability to repair at home.
Very few people working the "Genuis" bar have deep technical competence about the devices they work with. My knowledge on this is a few years dated, but as I understood it, a large number of "fixes" at the genius bar were simply device swaps... I have no reason to think this has gotten any better with the advent of all the adhesive sealed enclosures in recent years. To contrast this, I know some people who run an independent mac repair shop and they genuinely are geniuses around an Apple motherboard.
Say what you will of Apple's reasons - be it privacy or (more likely) money. The end result is more e-waste, gouged customers, and limited ability to repair at home.
We all seem to want honesty. An iPhone that works honestly for us. We want the honest condition of the battery. We want to to know when it's getting old, causing our iPhone to slow down. We want to know by simply checking in the settings 'about this iPhone' function which parts are genuine or not.
Why is Apple making phones which deliberately conceal important details from us? Why does Apple want to stop third party repair and parts? Why can't they be honest about their behavior?
We all want an honest iPhone. If you only want genuine Apple parts fitted by a Genius we must have the freedom to choose that. What if you want our cousin to fix our 4 year old iPhone with non-genuine parts? Why is Apple trying to stop that choice? And why is Apple so dishonest with their intentions? Apple has become the enemy of freedom and truth.
Why is Apple making phones which deliberately conceal important details from us? Why does Apple want to stop third party repair and parts? Why can't they be honest about their behavior?
We all want an honest iPhone. If you only want genuine Apple parts fitted by a Genius we must have the freedom to choose that. What if you want our cousin to fix our 4 year old iPhone with non-genuine parts? Why is Apple trying to stop that choice? And why is Apple so dishonest with their intentions? Apple has become the enemy of freedom and truth.
Another one of these "Apple is the devil" "They're greedy" "They're screwing their customers".
If ... you ... don't ... like ... it ... buy ... a ... different ... product
Nobody is forcing you to buy an iPhone.
Y'all want to clever phones, with the clever camera's and the nifty this and cool that.
But always the complaining about price, greed, apple tax, etc.
Give me a break.
If ... you ... don't ... like ... it ... buy ... a ... different ... product
Nobody is forcing you to buy an iPhone.
Y'all want to clever phones, with the clever camera's and the nifty this and cool that.
But always the complaining about price, greed, apple tax, etc.
Give me a break.
An argument can be made that making iPhones unappealing to thievery gives more value to the customer. The value proposition would be "your iPhone are less likely to be stolen for parts". Not sure if this is what is happening here, as Apple didn't make any kind of statement in this regard. And I'm not able to tell if this value is actually more value given how it makes life harder for third party repair shops, and repairs potentially more expensive to customers.
If this is about "calibration data" it's a bad move as I can't imagine a calibration profile that wouldn't fit on the camera module itself. How much data do you expect it to be? A few gamma parameters (a few bytes)? Custom curves (kilobytes)? A small NN model (a few megabytes)? It would be very cheap to embed on the module. Doubt that's the reason.
(Yeah, phone cameras do fail. It's not that unlikely after a fall)
If this is about "calibration data" it's a bad move as I can't imagine a calibration profile that wouldn't fit on the camera module itself. How much data do you expect it to be? A few gamma parameters (a few bytes)? Custom curves (kilobytes)? A small NN model (a few megabytes)? It would be very cheap to embed on the module. Doubt that's the reason.
(Yeah, phone cameras do fail. It's not that unlikely after a fall)
No, that's not what's happening here. Swapping the camera for a genuine Apple camera shouldn't require anything other than swapping the camera. The whole "sophisticated" mumbo jumbo is just something they hide behind so they don't have to say "yeah well we just wanted to make sure people can't get their phones repaired anywhere other than with us because that makes us more money". There is nothing about the camera module that requires any kind of software cloud based authentication crap.
And just because auto manufacturers are doing this doesn't mean it's okay. They're doing the same thing and they should stop. Forcing people to go to the manufacturer for repairs "just because we said so" should be illegal.
Maybe people actually want Apple to do good things because their products are quite good. Instead of just leaving them, maybe give them a chance to improve first. Yes, you could just leave but what if you want them to change so that you didn't have to leave? What's wrong with that? Saying "just don't buy it" to every problem is not a solution. Your car is rusting? Don't buy that brand again. Phone locks you out when you repair it for no reason? Just buy another brand. Yeah, it's a great way to say "You have a problem? Keep it to yourself, let the company keep making bad products." How about: you have a problem? Let the company know so maybe something can be done about it. Right to repair won't sign itself if people don't talk about it. This is not about personal preference, it's about trying to get companies to do the right thing if they have any intention to do so. I mean, if you don't like to read people complaining, why not just close the browser? Same logic, annoying isn't it?
Yeah, I remember watching a youtube video of an ifixit tech opening or repairing a MacBook Pro and she was a hack. It was so unprofessional.
Apple's sole purpose is to extract as much money from its customers as the law will allow. They are not a beneficial entity. They are a 100% profit driven machine run by a man that only cares about money and share value. This is nothing new and until they are reigned in they will continue to abuse the system and their customers to put another cent on the bottom line. I'm not suggesting for one minute that they should not do this, but it stinks up my feelings towards them. This is another example (no cables or power adaptors) of their intent and it is plain as the nose on your face. You all can put this camera issue down to whatever reasons you like but IMO this is just another way of making money by leveraging their customers' problems. Funny reading all the pro Apple voices here defending yet another blatant money grabbing move.
I fully agree, my brother is a mechanic with decades of experience including many years as a Chrysler Sr. tech. He has his own shop now for a decade or so. He was saying that there are now so many things that can only be done be a dealer or a shop with immense money. If you break the windshield and you car has a "stop itself before hitting the car in front of you because you were texting system" the calibration requires a system that costs 10's of thousands of dollars.....and requires a 30' x 30' space to do it in......not to mention you don't get it perfect and it fails to operate correctly and you hit the car in front...the law suit will be amazing.
Sure, and unless you want to go into a deeper political discussion, there is some nuance to this fact.
"Extracting money from customers" might or might not mean that the customer is getting something back. As a basic exchange, customer is getting a working phone for money. Phone might or might not be durable. Phone might or might not be repairable. And so on. But Apple has an interest into getting people keep coming to them, and investors happy with growing profits. Which means that not every move can be characterized as hostile to the customer.
This is what this discussion is about. Given it will limit the repairability of the phone, so it will indeed put the customer in a worse position: is this an entirely hostile move, or do we, as customers, get something in return?