We Are Retroactively Dropping the iPhone’s Repairability Score | iFixit News
We need to have a serious chat about iPhone repairability. We judged the phones of yesteryear by how easy they were to take apart—screws, glues, how hard it was…
I work in electronics manufacturing and I'm torn on this issue.
On the one hand, fuck Apple for requiring to go through so many hoops.
On the other hand, every device my company makes has an internal checksum and if one PCB is installed incorrectly, the main board throws a fit because the device checksum doesn't match.
It sounds like Apple may do something similar for their products and it sort of makes sense: determined people try something crazy like take an older iPhone and install a newer Wireless module or replace Lightning with USB-C. Neither of those things were intended by Apple, and there's a huge potential that it wouldn't work.
With that said, it's absolutely overkill for things like display or digitizer replacements, which are going to be the majority of repairs on iPhones.
Tl;Dr - fuck Apple, this is dumb, the users have the right to repair
I think signed hardware components are actually a good thing. The problem is that Apple makes it so that unapproved hardware doesn’t work at all. I think the device should warn the user, but allow them to override and continue at their own risk.
Of course, Apple isn’t going to allow that unless they’re forced to. Glances sideways at the EU.
I can understand why installing the wrong part should give a warning, but the IDs are unique to the part, not the model of part, so even identical parts are not interchangable.
There’s exactly two positives to this system:
1- theft risk/reward is crushed. It’s simply no longer feasible for stolen iPhones to be parted out if the valuable bits don’t simply work. Sure, dumb and non networked components like frames and glass can probably be salvaged, but when even batteries are involved in the handshake process, you lose out on the ability to sell anything of value.
2- positive supply-chain validation. Not important for the majority of people, but for those who require a little more security, they can be a little more sure that their device isn’t compromised from illegitimate parts. I imagine this to be a fringe benefit for executives and the like. I know at one point government officials had access to some “special” variants of iPhones which were more locked down, but specifics are difficult to come by.
For everybody else, this plain sucks. We move farther and farther into not even owning the physical things in our possession.
I don't get the surprise... Apple has ALWAYS been like this. They don't want "normies" screwing around with "their" gear.
Heck, you needed a case cracker tool to open the OG Macintosh machines, they were specifically engineered to keep people out.
https://archive.org/details/mac_Mac_case_cracker_instructions_box_198x
True but the Mac G4, especially, was an absolute dream to work on. So I don't agree they remained this way.
Hardware attestation is bad. It is clearly a tool to be used to lock down hardware, keep it OEM and proprietary, and decrease lost revenues due to user repairs and used parts. I believe everyone should be able to open up their own hardware and repair it themselves, and use whatever parts they want.
Apple's excuse is that it is to prevent stolen devices from being used as a source of parts for repairs. What is surprising though, is that many people parrot that line. They are either astroturfing or are brainwashed enough to believe it.
Edit: I found examples of this further down the thread. SMH!
All of this stuff makes me sad. As a long(ish)-time Apple user, it's been sad to see them go full throttle into hyper-capital mode. They're literally the wealthiest company on the planet because they've spent the past twenty years figuring out how to nickel and dime their customers. Hell, even when I bought my first MacBook back in '07, the guy in the Apple Store suggested getting the RAM upgrade elsewhere because Apple prices were ridiculous even then. Everyone knows they didn't go with soldered RAM and storage for the performance gains...
But they make incredible hardware, so I tolerate all that shit, making me complicit in the fuckery.
But they make incredible hardware,
But do they though? I get it that those are mostly nicely designed, sleek devices with great performance but then you have fuckups like the terrible keyboard and the touch bar (by fuckup I mean that people criticized the idea from the start and were proven right by Apple dropping it after few models). For me the hardware is a hit and miss, some things are nice, some features are terrible. And with Apple you can't choose and pick like with PC. When they decide to try silly things like the touch bar you are stuck with them for years. You either don't upgrade or have to get a product with a feature you don't like.
Yes, they really do. There were a few years of fuckups and questionable decisions, but by and large the devices they make are absolutely solid.
I have a 2011 MacBook Pro at home that's running Monterey via Opencore as well as if it was still supported. Until recently I was using a 2015 MBP that was absolutely faultless. I now have an M2 Air that may have some issues down the line that haven't come to light yet, but it seems unlikely. I have two Mac minis at work, a 2011 and a 2014 that are still absolutely capable for the level of work I ask of them. I'm typing this on one of them.
In terms of iPhones/iPads; I've had 7 iPhones and 5 iPads over the years, and the only hardware problems I've experienced with them have been of my own doing (broken screens, water damage, etc...).
So yeah, the 2016-2019 MacBooks had shitty keyboards and questionable I/O decisions, but otherwise the hardware was absolutely top tier.
And with Apple you can’t choose and pick like with PC. When they decide to try silly things like the touch bar you are stuck with them for years.
This is kind of a weird argument. You can't choose which keyboard you get with any laptop.
FYI, the Touchbar isn't dead: https://www.pcmag.com/news/wait-theres-still-a-touch-bar-on-the-new-macbook-pro
I have no love for Apple's hardware (primarily price related*), but since I am completely dependent on Adobe for my work, my OS options are MacOS and Windows. I love MacOS and passionately hate Windows 🙄
My solution was a Hackintosh; chose my own hardware (within compatibility restraints) and built my own computer. The price is miles from what I would have to pay Apple. My system cost roughly $3K (with two 4K screens), compared to the (roughly) equivalent, non-upgradeable options from Apple that start around $5K without screens.
The caveat is that sometimes I need to upgrade hardware to make sure it's compatible with the latest (ish) MacOS versions (because software like Photoshop requires it), and it is a difficult process. Recently had to switch out my graphics card because I was stuck on High Sierra (old card was Nvidia, no support beyond HS), and it took me the better part of a week to get everything working.
Now it works, I'm on Monterey, and everything is chugging along perfectly. For now. Not sure what the future of the Hackintosh will be, but most likely there's a dead end out there somewhere (nearby) as Apple fazes out Intel support.
Still worth it, but I'm dreading the day I have to give up and either pay Apple for hardware, or switch to [shudders] Windows.
Or maybe Adobe will start supporting Linux! 🤣
I think I might hate iOS even more than Windows, though.
- I think I might hate iOS even more than Windows, though.
This is why iPads frustrate me so much these days. The hardware is more than capable of running a decently powerful OS, but Apple are insistent on crippling them with a big version of iOS. iOS is fine on an iPhone where the limited screen size means I have no particular desire to do anything too complicated, but the same restrictions on an iPad feel like Apple don't really know how to reconcile what the device can do with not wanting to pull customers away from Macs. I was unexpectedly gifted a 6th gen mini last week which is in front of me as I type and which I'm not entirely sure what to do with.
They make ok hardware but it's not spectacular or anything. The new chips that they put in all of the computers are very very good, but it's not unique you don't have to get Apple products to get that kind of performance and you certainly don't have to pay their Apple prices.
iFixit knocks it out of the park, again. Take a moment to appreciate this mob !
Good job. With all Apple has done in the past, this seems like the bare minimum
