iPhone 13 Screen Replacements Can Break Face ID, a Repair Restriction iFixit Calls 'Completely Unprecedented'

[toomasjoamets]

I would compare screen replacement on an iPhone to an engine swap on a modern hybrid car. Most people would agree that they want their car back in mint condition. Nothing broken during the disassembly and reassembly, nothing disconnected, nothing wrongly connected, no yellow lights in the dashboard and so on. For that to happen you choose a workshop who knows all the specific car related details, they have the knowledge from manufacturer, they have the proper tooling, not selfmade tools that can screw things up and so on. Your iPhone is no different from that. You want your phone back everything working, secure (in the context of physically in place and infosecurity), watertight, no errors. You want it to happen as manufacturer intented and phone back in mint condition. For that to happen you have proper tools and knowledge. What's wrong with that? The current rant in my opinion is more like "I know nothing about my car, I don't have tools, but I want to swap the engine anyway myself or have someone else do it, who is cheap, because they also don't invest in knowledge and tooling". Doesn't sound logical to me.

 

[beerseagulls]

Someone should consider proofreading this article. Typos galore.

they tried to repair the typos....

unfortunately, the Webster dictionary people insisted that Macrumor must send their website's server to Webster dictionary people to have typos removed and replaced with correct spellings.

 

[Ubuntu]

No, Apple did this so you can't spoof FaceID.

Apple doesn't give a **** about third-party repair services, they care about ensuring the security of their devices.

Then they could find a way to decouple FaceID & the screen when doing repairs or make the third party repair provider experience much less draconian. This is greed.

 

[HughRR]

View attachment 1902655I don’t know if anyone has picked up on this yet, but many moves Apple makes seems to be in order to make it more difficult for the likes of intelligence agencies and their vendors to tamper with devices. There’s a reason that even the connection between components in FaceID are encrypted on device.

To cut down on practices like this towards high profile targets: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...tory-show-cisco-router-getting-implant/?amp=1

Quoting an early post. I’m somewhat an expert on this as I used to be responsible for analysing stuff like this. We regularly got compromised and tampered equipment delivered. It got to the point that we’d actually charter our own aircraft and staff to collect equipment directly from the manufacturers.

20 years later I’m working in security in fintech and there are targeted attacks all the time and we’re small fry in the scale of things.

I hope apple make it harder.

Im also not a proponent of right to repair. It puts repairs in the hands of morons quite frankly and opens up a black market for bad quality parts and repairs and a new market of completely unknown devices. You have no idea what you are getting from a third party repairer or second hand device. I have many horror stories there including a friend who on breaking her Sony phone the second time found that the previous repairer had epoxied the whole thing solid. We should be legislating for mandatory care and software updates from the manufacturer for the entire lifespan of the device (government decided min 6 years) with mandatory buy back at any point for recycling proportional to the device’s usable life left.

The right to repair absolves the manufacturers of their warranty obligations which are ridiculous at 1 year in some consumer unfriendly territories. It creates environmental waste and customer dissatisfaction to prop up a rapid product cycle.

Regarding the practicality of repair as well, past basic FRU replacement we have such a high level of integration now it’s not practical to do anything more with respect to repair. We need to consider this. The likes of Rossman put a disingenuous ease over the whole proposition without considering if the repairs they are doing are fit for purpose or not.

I implore people to stop crowing about right to repair and start chasing the manufacturers to support their customers in a cost effective way for the entire lifetime of the device. It’s better for the environment, the consumer at the end of the day.

But we also we need security and that comes with very tight integration between components to stop interception and implants. The FaceID integration here breaks the entire trust chain of the device when tampered which is a good thing.

 

[Denzo]

No, Apple did this so you can't spoof FaceID.

Apple doesn't give a **** about third-party repair services, they care about ensuring the security of their devices.

Not the sharpest screen on an iPad

 

[MRrainer]

AFAIK, iPhones are these days stolen just for the value of their spare parts.

This step renders more spare parts worthless, thus provides a disincentive to steal/rob iPhones.

It's a double-edged sword, for sure.

But it's basically the same procedure as dye-bombs in cash-vaults.

People used to complain (before activation lock), that stolen iPhones could not be deactivated and just reset and resold.

So, this is where we are.

 

[xserret]

This is bad, clearly... one thing is to ensure costumers at not cheated out with fake replacement parts (Which is quite common) another entirely different is this sh*t DRM policy.

BTW: I'm an original IT Security DRM infrastructure architect from the 2000s!

 

[KindJamz]

This is clearly a business decision. I understand the backlash but Apple is under no obligation to look after the interests of the small/independent repair shops. That's just not what Tim Cook was hired to do and customers at large don't necessary care about that as long as Apple continues to provide hardware/software that is appealing to them. I wish that wasn't the case since more choices would make repairs cheaper for consumers but that doesn't seem like a priority for the majority of consumers otherwise more people would vote with their feet.

The fact, as sad as it is, is that the days of the independent, small repair shops are over. Guys like Louis Rossmann and iFixIt are just frantically protecting their own interests since they benefit directly from being able to repair these devices.

It’s about apple locking down expensive repairs for themselves. Or buy apple care. Either way. Locks out everyone else except apple.

 

[KindJamz]

Really? A major portion of their profit is repairing screens? Most of which happens under Apple Care? Really you truly think that this is a 'profit' issue? Could it maybe be related to how they manufacture/the size of the device/the way they want it to work? No? You think it's a deep plan to soak up more of that screen repair money? I'm just surprised you would put forward and hold an opinion that has, as far as I can see, no logical underpinnings. I would guess there are dozens of reasons on why they build the devies the way they do and very little of it comes from the perspective of whether or not your Uncle Dan can replace the screen in his home workshop or not. BUT there is a HUGE security issue on having people replace components and items that could easily lead to spying ETC. Which do you seriously think is more likely?

Apple care is free? They are making money hand over fist with repairs and apple care. They make repairs so expensive you really need to buy apple care.

I swear there are people here who defend apple asking for their first born child. In the name of security or the children. Lol

 

[Mockletoy]

Try toning down your angry hyperbole and listen to what I'm saying.

Again, paraphrased... If I was as outraged as many here claim to be with Apple, I'd easily find alternatives to my Apple computers, phone, tablet, watch, wireless ear buds, music, and health data.

Would I be as happy as I am now with Apple products and ecosystem? Likely, not.

But if I was truly outraged with Apple's policies it would be a very easy decision. Life goes on. My accumulated Apple Watch exercise data is not critical for going forward. And there are plenty of other streaming music services.

That you're not able to understand how I'd be able to easily walk away and do that in order to not being beholden to a corporation at the expense of my principals, really says something about you.

Perhaps it's you who needs to calm down and actually listen to what people are saying, and why they are saying it.

The problem you're choosing to overlook with your blithe "go somewhere else" nonsense is both simple and obvious: all the other vendors an Apple refugee might flee to are just as bad or worse. Sure, some might be better than Apple in some ways, but in others they'll be worse, often far worse. There's nowhere for the disaffected to go.

Indeed, Apple was supposed to be the refuge people flee to, not the soulless corporate monster they seek to escape. That was how Apple billed itself for decades, how they thought of themselves, and it showed. They were the oddballs of the tech world. They went their own way, did their own thing. It was baked right into their corporate DNA: they "Think Different." They do the right thing for customers, even if that's not the most profitable thing right now, because in the long run they'll build up loyalty and trust that pays dividends.

And it worked. Apple built itself a loyal following indeed. Loyal to a fault, in many cases: witness those who can find no fault with Apple, ever, and who will brook no dissent. You talk about those "outraged" with Apple, but if you actually stop and look, here is what you will see: someone says something like, "Apple really needs to do better in this particular area," and a great screeching is heard as the Apple faithful converge on her, as if she has spat in the face of their beloved mother. It's bizarre to watch, to be frank. It smacks of religious fervor, or some sports nut losing his mind because you just insulted his team.

Someone says: "I think it's wrong for Apple to make repairs so egregiously difficult and expensive, causing a lot of otherwise salvageable devices to end up in the landfill because the repair costs more than the device is worth."

A half-dozen outraged retorts: "IF YOU HATE APPLE SO MUCH, GET OUT! GO! DON'T LOOK BACK! BYE!"

That's just so silly, and yet it's what happens over and over again.

It's literally impossible to have a calm, reasoned, nuanced discussion within these pages because the Apple faithful show up to gatekeep what is and is not allowable criticism and shout down anyone who disagrees: "Apple good. Shut up end enjoy the Apple bliss or leave." Clearly, the faithful want us to know, if we aren't blindly and deliriously happy with Apple then we and anything we have to say are unworthy of consideration.

And so people like you come along, saying, "If you criticize Apple about anything, ever, then you should just GTFO of Apple-land," because if Apple has done this thing that annoys you then that thing must perforce be good, since Apple did it, and if it wasn't good, they wouldn't have done it! A neat tautology, that. It all comes across as so silly to me. As if Apple, this multi-trillion-dollar globe-spanning juggernaut, is your close, personal friend and you feel compelled to defend its honor. How deeply strange and sad. But I digress.

Apple, as I was saying, is supposed to be different. I'm reminded of the time a few years ago when that activist investor took a large stake in Apple and confronted Tim Cook over how much money they "waste" on building industry-leading accessibility features into their products. The guy's argument was, basically, that those requiring accessibility services make up such a tiny fraction of Apple's customers that spending so much time and money catering to them is not a financially sound decision. And Cook's response was perfect: he basically told the guy that not everything Apple does is solely about money, and that if he couldn't understand that then maybe he needed to find a new stock to invest in.

That is the Apple I grew up with, the Apple I root for, the Apple that is slowly being hollowed out from the inside, replaced by just another giant corporation behaving and looking like all the others.

I suppose there are some who would say that's quite untrue, and I wouldn't even argue with them, if I had a lick of sense, because you can't argue with a zealot about the object of his zeal. It's a fool's errand. You cannot make someone see what they have decided they will not see.

So, we come back to folks like you, who keep suggesting to people that if they're unhappy with the way Apple does things now they should "leave."

And go where, exactly?

That's the whole point. That's why people find this sort of thing so frustrating. Since the 80s, people chose Apple because they were different. They chose Apple because they weren't just another coldly calculating, money-grubbing corporate monster. They were the scrappy underdog. They were principled. They were Apple.

And yet over the last 10-15 years we've watched, if we had eyes to see, the Apple we grew up with turning into just another interchangeable corporate machine just like all the rest. However controlling and monopolistic Microsoft was back in the day (and likely still remains, given the opportunity), Apple is just as bad and worse, and getting worse every day.

Back to the topic of this article, which the Apple faithful have steadfastly refused to allow any real discussion of in this thread: Apple claims to be great a steward of the environment, then it turns around and makes it so expensive and difficult to do even the simplest of repairs to its devices that those devices, which could be saved, end up in the garbage, polluting someone's groundwater somewhere.

Where I live Apple would charge me over $600 to replace the screen in my 4-year-old iPad Pro if it broke. That's not much less than I paid for it new, and it's quite a bit more than I could sell it for, so if the screen breaks, it's garbage. I'd be an idiot to pay $600 to fix it when that would buy me a whole new iPad, after all -- and that equates to more e-waste in the garbage and money for Apple, despite all their moralizing about how environmentally conscious they are.

The Apple I grew up with would never have engaged in that sort of hypocrisy. Or maybe it would have, and I was a silly zealot myself in my younger days, like so many others, then and now.

To be clear, I don't expect much of a response from you beyond your usual knee-jerk Apple apologia. I'll save you the trouble:

Apple did it, so that makes it good, and if I don't like it I can go 🤬 myself. I get it. You don't have to remind me.

 

[bluegt]

Does anyone actually know how much money Apple makes from repairs??

Think about it… do you see long queues at Genius Bar? is it hard to get an appointment?

Let’s use some common sense here people. Repairs barely make any money for apple. I would be surprised if it even makes them any money after considering the cost of the tech support people on the phone, in store, expensive real estate, massive amount of parts they need to stock…

 

[himanshumodi]

The screen repair on my iPhone 6S Plus broke my Touch ID. Don’t know if it’s an edge case/user error, or a known issue, though.

I think precisely the kind of press apple wants to avoid, that user experience suffers when non-apple people try to repair apple phones. I cannot believe that Apple is finicky and worried about losing repair revenues.

That said - I think Apple will benefit a long long way if they open up repairing. A lot more people would buy Apple phones, especially in developing countries.

 

[SFjohn]

I like this new feature on Apple’s iPhones, love it actually. Anything making it harder to steal iPhones for parts, is great!

 

[Mockletoy]

Does anyone actually know how much money Apple makes from repairs??

Think about it… do you see long queues at Genius Bar? is it hard to get an appointment?

Let’s use some common sense here people. Repairs barely make any money for apple. I would be surprised if it even makes them any money after considering the cost of the tech support people on the phone, in store, expensive real estate, massive amount of parts they need to stock…

It's not the repairs that makes them money, it's the lack of repairs that does it.

See, if they make it so that it's super hard for me to get my device repaired anywhere but Apple, and then they make the cost of that repair prohibitively expensive, what am I going to do?

Am I going to pay the more than $600 they'd charge where I live to replace the broken screen in my 4-year-old iPad Pro, which is still a lovely and extremely capable device, or am I going to toss it in the garbage and take that $600 and put it toward a shiny new one that's faster and comes with a warranty?

That is why they don't want me getting a new screen put in at the repair shop down the street.

And they pull crap like that while talking about how environmentally conscious they are, which just makes it that much more craven and gross.

 

[SFjohn]

It's not the repairs that makes them money, it's the lack of repairs that does it.

See, if they make it so that it's super hard for me to get my device repaired anywhere but Apple, and then they make the cost of that repair prohibitively expensive, what am I going to do?

Am I going to pay the more than $600 they'd charge where I live to replace the broken screen in my 4-year-old iPad Pro, which is still a lovely and extremely capable device, or am I going to toss it in the garbage and take that $600 and put it toward a shiny new one that's faster and comes with a warranty?

That is why they don't want me getting a new screen put in at the repair shop down the street.

And they pull crap like that while talking about how environmentally conscious they are, which just makes it that much more craven and gross.

You don’t need to throw your old iPhone away, give it to Apple to recycle everything. If you throw it away, you’re the one that’s putting it in a landfill.

 

[HacKage]

Imagine every single item you bought that ended up having an issue, you could only have it sorted by the manufacturer?

Your trousers get a rip? Think again about going to the local alterations place, you have to send them off to Levis to get fixed. How about your car needs a service or something like an oil change? You can't use the local garage that's always been there, you have to goto the dealer and pay 3x the price.

It's horrible behaviour.

And for people saying this will mean iPhones are worthless. They aren't. The people that steal iPhones will still steal them, and sell them to people who will still sell the parts. The screen isn't worthless. Anyone with a rework station and a steady hand can change the display IC.

The ONLY thing this does, is hurt the end user. It doesn't affect criminals or shops with a technician with any sort of experience with a rework station. But keep drinking the Apple kool-aid, thinking it will keep you safe and that they actually care about you...

 

[Mockletoy]

You don’t need to throw your old iPhone away, give it to Apple to recycle everything. If you throw it away, you’re the one that’s putting it in a landfill.

First of all, electronics "recycling" doesn't work the way most people think it does. It's mostly a PR scam the tech companies pull so they can pretend to be environmental conscious while maximizing profits. Perhaps you should read up on it a bit. Here's a good place to start.

Second of all, that's hardly the point. The point is that the device doesn't need to be turned into garbage at all. Apple makes repairs difficult to get from "non-authorized" vendors and makes the authorized repairs prohibitively expensive, which encourages people to throw away perfectly salvageable devices and buy new ones.

As I said, they'd charge me over $600 for a simple screen repair on my iPad Pro. I'd be a fool to put so much cash into a 4-year-old device with no warranty, but if the repair shop down the street would fix it for a hundred bucks or so I'd pay it.

That's what I did with another iPad a few years back with a broken screen. That device went on to provide years of service to my parents and never gave them a bit of trouble -- precisely the outcome Apple is hoping to avoid by making third-party repairs impossible and first-party repairs comically expensive.

 

[0423MAC]

You don’t need to throw your old iPhone away, give it to Apple to recycle everything. If you throw it away, you’re the one that’s putting it in a landfill.

“Recycling” to any large computer company is nothing more than increasing their bottom line.

Cut away from the cute promos they cut in their keynotes, pretty environmental reports they post online & pay attention to their business practices. Apple isn’t nearly as green as their loyal customers believe.

 

[joshdammit]

An inability to replace the iPhone 13's display without breaking Face ID could have a major impact on companies that offer iPhone repairs, iFixit said today in an article advocating for Right to Repair laws.

iFixit first pointed out this repair issue in its iPhone 13 Pro teardown, and has confirmed it with multiple tests. Replacing the display of the iPhone 13 renders Face ID non-functional, so at-home repairs are not an option. Swapping an iPhone 13's display with a display from a new iPhone 13 results in an error message that says "Unable to activate Face ID on this iPhone."

An iPhone display repair, which could previously be done with hand-held tools, now requires a microscope and microsoldering tools or access to Apple's Independent Repair Provider Program, which repair shops have criticized for its "draconian" contracts and requirements.

At issue is a small microcontroller that pairs the iPhone 13 to its display. Apple does not have a tool that allows iPhone owners or repair shops not affiliated with Apple to pair a new screen to an iPhone 13. Authorized technicians who do work with Apple need to use Apple Services Toolkit 2 to log a repair to Apple's cloud services, thereby syncing the serial numbers of the iPhone and the display.

Some repair shops have found a workaround, but it is difficult and work intensive. A soldered chip must be moved from the original screen to the replacement, which iFixit says is "completely unprecedented" as screen repair is "incredibly common" and accounts for a good amount of the revenue that independent repair shops bring in.

iFixit says that Apple's decision to disable Face ID with a screen repair could cause small repair outlets to shut down, spend thousands on new equipment, or lose out on Apple repairs. The site also does not believe that the Face ID repair issue is an accident, as Apple has previously introduced similar repair restrictions for Touch ID, True Tone functionality with display repairs, and iPhone 12 cameras.

Other independent repair shops that iFixit spoke to believe that Apple has implemented this change in an effort to "thwart a customer's ability to repair," directing iPhone owners to Apple retail locations or Apple Authorized Service Providers for help with their displays.

With the iPhone 12, camera repairs initially required Apple's proprietary system configuration tool to function properly, and cameras that were replaced were non-functional. Apple addressed this issue with an update that notifies customers that the camera in their device might not be genuine, but doesn't disable it entirely. Apple could do something similar for Face ID in a future update, but it's not clear yet if that will happen.

An inability to replace the iPhone 13's display without breaking Face ID could have a major impact on companies that offer iPhone repairs, iFixit said today in an article advocating for Right to Repair laws.

iFixit first pointed out this repair issue in its iPhone 13 Pro teardown, and has confirmed it with multiple tests. Replacing the display of the iPhone 13 renders Face ID non-functional, so at-home repairs are not an option. Swapping an iPhone 13's display with a display from a new iPhone 13 results in an error message that says "Unable to activate Face ID on this iPhone."

An iPhone display repair, which could previously be done with hand-held tools, now requires a microscope and microsoldering tools or access to Apple's Independent Repair Provider Program, which repair shops have criticized for its "draconian" contracts and requirements.

At issue is a small microcontroller that pairs the iPhone 13 to its display. Apple does not have a tool that allows iPhone owners or repair shops not affiliated with Apple to pair a new screen to an iPhone 13. Authorized technicians who do work with Apple need to use Apple Services Toolkit 2 to log a repair to Apple's cloud services, thereby syncing the serial numbers of the iPhone and the display.

Some repair shops have found a workaround, but it is difficult and work intensive. A soldered chip must be moved from the original screen to the replacement, which iFixit says is "completely unprecedented" as screen repair is "incredibly common" and accounts for a good amount of the revenue that independent repair shops bring in.

iFixit says that Apple's decision to disable Face ID with a screen repair could cause small repair outlets to shut down, spend thousands on new equipment, or lose out on Apple repairs. The site also does not believe that the Face ID repair issue is an accident, as Apple has previously introduced similar repair restrictions for Touch ID, True Tone functionality with display repairs, and iPhone 12 cameras.

Other independent repair shops that iFixit spoke to believe that Apple has implemented this change in an effort to "thwart a customer's ability to repair," directing iPhone owners to Apple retail locations or Apple Authorized Service Providers for help with their displays.

With the iPhone 12, camera repairs initially required Apple's proprietary system configuration tool to function properly, and cameras that were replaced were non-functional. Apple addressed this issue with an update that notifies customers that the camera in their device might not be genuine, but doesn't disable it entirely. Apple could do something similar for Face ID in a future update, but it's not clear yet if that will happen.

Customers with an iPhone 13 would be best served by visiting an Apple Authorized Service Provider or an Apple Store for any kind of repair due to the difficulty of display replacements and the potential for Face ID failure. Without AppleCare+, display repairs are expensive, priced between $229 to $329 for Apple's iPhone 13 models.

Article Link: iPhone 13 Screen Replacements Can Break Face ID, a Repair Restriction iFixit Calls 'Completely Unprecedented'

This isn’t news. Every iPhone with FaceID does this. Clickbait more, MacRumors.

 

[laptech]

I know people would rather see it as Apple being the bad guy and thus doing all it can to screw out as much money from it's customers as possible but there is another side to this which seeing how members have repsonded in the past over similar issues, they will immediatly dismiss this version BUT there is a side to this that could be Apple's way of getting it's customers to look after their iphone, rather than treating it like crap.

Lets look at it from this perspective. Apple see's it's products as being in a league of their own, quality above all the rest and as such would like to see it's customers treat their products with more care than they actually do. Would you treat a Rolex watch in the same manner as that of a $20 watch? no you wouldn't so in some respect, why would you treat an expensive iphone in the same manner as that of a $60 mobile phone?

Having something that is easily fixable has the ability to change a persons perspective on how they go about using the iphone and treat that iphone. If the iphone gets dropped, so what, it's easy to replace the screen because there are many repair shops that can fix it for a cheap cost. If they spill liquid on it, so what, it can be easily fixed by a repair shop, and the same goes on and on depending on what action caused the iphone to break/go faulty. Now, Apple could be seeing how many iphones are being repaired by repair shops (how they check this i do not know) also checking their own repairs carried out under the Apple Care policy. It is possible..i say possible that people within Apple could be concerened that customers are not treating the iphone with the care and attention it deserves.

So, how do you get your customers to make sure they take better care of their iphone? you make it more difficult and more costly to get it repaired. Many nice things in this world comes with expensive price tags and it is therefore common sense to look after those nice things because you know it is going to be expensive to repair the nice item if were to ever get damaged. So what do we do? we say 'becareful, we don't want to damage it'. This is usually applied to nice looking expensive furniture or ornaments or paintings. We tell children to becareful not to run around in the house because they may damage nice expensive items in the house. We tell people to control their pets because they do not want the pet damaging nice and expensive things. We do it all the time without thinking with stuff we own but yet when it comes things like iphones, the same principle is never applied because people always want to hate on Apple.

 

[KindJamz]

Perhaps it's you who needs to calm down and actually listen to what people are saying, and why they are saying it.

The problem you're choosing to overlook with your blithe "go somewhere else" nonsense is both simple and obvious: all the other vendors an Apple refugee might flee to are just as bad or worse. Sure, some might be better than Apple in some ways, but in others they'll be worse, often far worse. There's nowhere for the disaffected to go.

Indeed, Apple was supposed to be the refuge people flee to, not the soulless corporate monster they seek to escape. That was how Apple billed itself for decades, how they thought of themselves, and it showed. They were the oddballs of the tech world. They went their own way, did their own thing. It was baked right into their corporate DNA: they "Think Different." They do the right thing for customers, even if that's not the most profitable thing right now, because in the long run they'll build up loyalty and trust that pays dividends.

And it worked. Apple built itself a loyal following indeed. Loyal to a fault, in many cases: witness those who can find no fault with Apple, ever, and who will brook no dissent. You talk about those "outraged" with Apple, but if you actually stop and look, here is what you will see: someone says something like, "Apple really needs to do better in this particular area," and a great screeching is heard as the Apple faithful converge on her, as if she has spat in the face of their beloved mother. It's bizarre to watch, to be frank. It smacks of religious fervor, or some sports nut losing his mind because you just insulted his team.

Someone says: "I think it's wrong for Apple to make repairs so egregiously difficult and expensive, causing a lot of otherwise salvageable devices to end up in the landfill because the repair costs more than the device is worth."

A half-dozen outraged retorts: "IF YOU HATE APPLE SO MUCH, GET OUT! GO! DON'T LOOK BACK! BYE!"

That's just so silly, and yet it's what happens over and over again.

It's literally impossible to have a calm, reasoned, nuanced discussion within these pages because the Apple faithful show up to gatekeep what is and is not allowable criticism and shout down anyone who disagrees: "Apple good. Shut up end enjoy the Apple bliss or leave." Clearly, the faithful want us to know, if we aren't blindly and deliriously happy with Apple then we and anything we have to say are unworthy of consideration.

And so people like you come along, saying, "If you criticize Apple about anything, ever, then you should just GTFO of Apple-land," because if Apple has done this thing that annoys you then that thing must perforce be good, since Apple did it, and if it wasn't good, they wouldn't have done it! A neat tautology, that. It all comes across as so silly to me. As if Apple, this multi-trillion-dollar globe-spanning juggernaut, is your close, personal friend and you feel compelled to defend its honor. How deeply strange and sad. But I digress.

Apple, as I was saying, is supposed to be different. I'm reminded of the time a few years ago when that activist investor took a large stake in Apple and confronted Tim Cook over how much money they "waste" on building industry-leading accessibility features into their products. The guy's argument was, basically, that those requiring accessibility services make up such a tiny fraction of Apple's customers that spending so much time and money catering to them is not a financially sound decision. And Cook's response was perfect: he basically told the guy that not everything Apple does is solely about money, and that if he couldn't understand that then maybe he needed to find a new stock to invest in.

That is the Apple I grew up with, the Apple I root for, the Apple that is slowly being hollowed out from the inside, replaced by just another giant corporation behaving and looking like all the others.

I suppose there are some who would say that's quite untrue, and I wouldn't even argue with them, if I had a lick of sense, because you can't argue with a zealot about the object of his zeal. It's a fool's errand. You cannot make someone see what they have decided they will not see.

So, we come back to folks like you, who keep suggesting to people that if they're unhappy with the way Apple does things now they should "leave."

And go where, exactly?

That's the whole point. That's why people find this sort of thing so frustrating. Since the 80s, people chose Apple because they were different. They chose Apple because they weren't just another coldly calculating, money-grubbing corporate monster. They were the scrappy underdog. They were principled. They were Apple.

And yet over the last 10-15 years we've watched, if we had eyes to see, the Apple we grew up with turning into just another interchangeable corporate machine just like all the rest. However controlling and monopolistic Microsoft was back in the day (and likely still remains, given the opportunity), Apple is just as bad and worse, and getting worse every day.

Back to the topic of this article, which the Apple faithful have steadfastly refused to allow any real discussion of in this thread: Apple claims to be great a steward of the environment, then it turns around and makes it so expensive and difficult to do even the simplest of repairs to its devices that those devices, which could be saved, end up in the garbage, polluting someone's groundwater somewhere.

Where I live Apple would charge me over $600 to replace the screen in my 4-year-old iPad Pro if it broke. That's not much less than I paid for it new, and it's quite a bit more than I could sell it for, so if the screen breaks, it's garbage. I'd be an idiot to pay $600 to fix it when that would buy me a whole new iPad, after all -- and that equates to more e-waste in the garbage and money for Apple, despite all their moralizing about how environmentally conscious they are.

The Apple I grew up with would never have engaged in that sort of hypocrisy. Or maybe it would have, and I was a silly zealot myself in my younger days, like so many others, then and now.

To be clear, I don't expect much of a response from you beyond your usual knee-jerk Apple apologia. I'll save you the trouble:

Apple did it, so that makes it good, and if I don't like it I can go 🤬 myself. I get it. You don't have to remind me.

That’s the only thing he/she has. That and the usual post about complaining and feeling good. Lol

 

[KindJamz]

I like this new feature on Apple’s iPhones, love it actually. Anything making it harder to steal iPhones for parts, is great!

Can I take a breath master is next. IAir.

 

[MauiPa]

Maybe iFixit should hire an Apple certified repair person, you know trained!. all they have shown is that they have no clue how to change the screen. The solution is probably as simple as having someone trained run some calibration software on the pane which registers the new components. Oh wait, having someone trained to work on your phone and use original parts is so draconian, I forgot. My bad

 

[WhatUp?]

Sounds more like iFixit is worried about the sales of their overpriced screw-it yourself toolkit.

 

[jlc1978]

Do you like giving away your money for free?

It's a risk / reward trade off. If something goes wrong I know I can get it fixed, and if I damage it I know what the repair cost will be.

Why can’t we just pay a reasonable price when something actually breaks? Why must it be a gamble on how durable we think our devices are?

AppleCare is a steal if you regularly destroy your phone. If you’re generally careful then it’s basically a monthly subscription for possibly nothing.

Another way of looking at it is Apple could offer a 3 year warranty out of the box but would have to raise prices to cover the repair liability. Offering it a la carte means consumers get to decide if the value the extra warranty or not. I am generally not a fan of extended warranties as they are really just a profit center; but in the case of my Macs I get them. For phones? No.

For me, who uses my Mac for work, the ability to get a repair or replacement is worth the extra cost. When a power supply dies in Dubai all I have to do is go to the Apple store for a replacement. In addition, now that Apple allows you to extend AppleCare I can extend the replacement time for my Macs accordingly.

Imagine if this was your car? Changing your oil will disable your heater. Lol... Apple fans will defend this too.

In the e90 series BMW's, replacing a battery required reregistering it with a special tool to get the charge profile correct.