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Sixth-Generation iPad Teardown Details 'Repair Nightmare' for Education-Focused Tablet
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i found this article surprising.
Until last week, I had no experience repairing an iPad. However, I replaced the batteries and digitizer in a 4th gen. Took about a half hour. Granted the adhesives are a small pita, as is inserting the ribbon connectors. But if I can do it, certainly the IT staff at a school can.
Until last week, I had no experience repairing an iPad. However, I replaced the batteries and digitizer in a 4th gen. Took about a half hour. Granted the adhesives are a small pita, as is inserting the ribbon connectors. But if I can do it, certainly the IT staff at a school can.
You know, repairing an unrepairable device just means more work for the Apple repair guy at the mall. There are only two ifixit scores: end-user or geek. And nothing Apple makes is end-user repairable at all. What does repair mean anyway? Installing a new screen? Changing the battery?
Using those criteria how repairable is a TV?
Using those criteria how repairable is a TV?
I dunno about this. All computer hardware has an expiration date. How one disposes of things is another matter. You can take a perfectly serviceable laptop and still need to replace batteries. All devices eventually fail or become outdated and need to be replaced. One could make the case that an iPad is no worse for the environment than anything else, depending on how long it lasts and how it is disposed. Thinner and lighter means less materials consumed, right? And considering it’s likely a very small percentage of people that will even attempt their own repairs, I can understand why Apple would instead just design products around the idea that people will just take the product somewhere for service—if they have any desire to fix it at all. I’d actually be curious to see if we’ve reduced electronics waste since the “box box PC” era in the late 1990s-2000s, where there were multiple PCs in the home. I bet so, as recycling the components was much harder, and the cases themselves were laden with metal and plastic and spinning drives.
Most people don't want to fix stuff by themselves, but I'm sure they would like to pay a cheaper price for repairs from a 3rd party instead of Apple's prices.
Similar to how most people don't fix their cars when problems arise but take it to someone else to repair. They don't just buy a new car right away.
The FIFTH generation iPad was called iPad Air. The SIXTH generation iPad was called iPad Air2. That makes this the SEVENTH generation iPad, not sixth. It helps to keep a list (and it would have been great if Apple would number their products sequentially).
Name me one other thing besides a human face at about 1 ft. distance that the front camera will ever be pointed-at. The front camera doesn't need to have any more resolution than a 1st generation webcam, sorry. And at Apple's quantities, "not much higher" adds up pretty darn fast.
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I assume there was a missing Sarcasm tag?
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They generally throw them in a pile to be sent out for repair during the Summer, or at best, a few times during the year.
That does not explain why Apple put 7MP camera on iPad Pro line and 12MP camera on the back of iPad Pro.
I read that whole article and it was pretty much constant blaming of the tech manufacturers. Funny really isn't it that all but one of the pictures with piles of illegally dumped eWaste was in China and even though the government could put measures in place to reduce or even eradicate the problem they haven't done anything about it for years. I wonder why that wasn't mentioned in the article?
I didn't say anything about the Rear cameras. They have to be as high-resolution as the price-point will allow.
I was SPECIFICALLY talking about the front-facing camera. Anything more than 3 MP is really just a waste. But Apple has to keep up with the Joneses, spec-wise, at least on their main-line products.
BUT, this is a cost-sensitive model, and Apple chose to save some pennies by spec-ing a 1 MP camera module for the FRONT camera, that they could get for almost nothing.
Would you rather that they reduced the resolution of the Display or the speed of the SoC?
Okay, but not really answering my question.
If those Lenovo laptops' screens broke, do you have the LCD parts in stock to repair them on site, or do you have to send them to Lenovo for repair? If it's the latter, then it doesn't matter how "fixable" a device is in practice, as schools would just send the iPads to Apple for repair. The argument that iFixIt made is moot in practice.
I have used my iPad 2 DAILY for nearly 8 hours per day, every single day. I charge it nearly from "flat" to full-charge every day, or at most, every-other-day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year, since I got it as a Christmas gift from my employer in 2012.
A recent check of the battery's health shows it at 88%, and I really haven't detected much, if any, diminished battery-life.
Again, not really answering the question I had.
Do schools stock those parts? iFixIt's argument is that iPads are not user-repairable, thus it is not school friendly. This only matters if the schools will be the ones doing the repairs themselves. Are they fixing the Chromebooks themselves if the screens broke? If not, ie. if they have to send it to the manufacturers for repair, then it doesn't matter if iPads are not user-repairable. The schools just need to send them to Apple and let Apple deal with it. In practice, whether schools have user-repairable Chromebooks or non-user repairable iPads, they would be sending either to their respective manufacturers for repair anyway.
If it's non accidental damage, such as a screen goes bad or keyboard not working etc in the 3 year warranty, then a vendor comes onsite within 48 hours of reporting the issue and fixes it onsite.
If it's accidental damage a different vendor comes and picks it up and repairs it off-site then return it to the school.
After the warranty of 5 years is up then the technicians on site at the schools (every school in my district has 1) is free to piece together broken ones to make working laptops.
I guess ease of repair reduces repair cost. The iPads already cost more to purchase, will be more to repair and possibly take longer and the warranty is shorter. After the warranty is up the technicians on site at each school may not be able to do repairs themselves.
They should stop claiming to be an environmentally conscious company if this is how they’re going to keep making their products. 18 states have introduced “right to repair” bills and I think it would only take the passage of such a law in a few states to force Apple’s policies to change. Fingers crossed.
Err, Steve Jobs introduced the aluminum unibody Macboks and Macbook Air (less repairable than previous Macbooks).
Also, Steve Jobs introduced the less user-repairable iMacs as well.
But yeah, keep hating on Tim Cook, the person that Jobs groomed himself.
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How do you know the contracts with schools don't have Apple or their service contractors come on-site?
The point is, the ones who have to deal with repairability are Apple, not the schools. So iFixIt's argument for user-repairability is moot in reality.
...and when you get to the quantities that allowed you to buy Lenovo laptops for that much, the iPad 6 won't be $299 per unit, either (probably about as much as your non-touch Lenovo example, if I had to guess). But since those are negotiated on a case-by-case basis, I can't show you any examples.
Well I can only speak for my district. We dont have any vendors on contract that comes on site to fix any Apple products. (we have MacBook Air, pros, iPads and iMac).
We have a vendor that repairs them off-site but the support is limited. Which means, they don't purchase parts for Apple devices, whenever a school surplus old Apple devices and we call in a device for repair then the vendor salvage parts from the surplus devices if available.
Right to repair is not at odds with environmentally friendly manufacturing or a companies recycling policies.
Then add in the cost of Apple care, a keyboard, pencil and a case. The $209 already includes the 3 year warranty and Microsoft office.
Snall correction, touchscreen Lenovo laptop is actually 239.