Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

iOS 11.3 update breaks iPhone 8 devices with third party-repaired screens

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 150 posts

Re: iOS 11.3 update breaks iPhone 8 devices with third party-repaired screens

#101

Post by TomV1971 »

maltalex wrote: post #100
nomel wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my understanding, many Apple chips are custom, and I assume much of their firmware is too. What your asking is for Apple to support third party knock off chips in their firmware and drivers which were most likely reverse engineered to "get it close to functional". That's a bit silly. Imagine getting upset that an Occulus firmware update didn't work with a knock off HMD that lacked features of the original...

> What your asking is for Apple to support third party knock off chips in their firmware They're already doing that for some other things. For instance, some (mostly cheap) Wifi access points are known to have buggy implementations of 802.11 that require firmware workarounds in phones and laptops. Manufacturers have to support these devices for the benefit of the consumer and to maintain their own reputation. Custome…

Yes, but even for your WiFi example, fixes to work with a non-compliant third party are often reactive. In many cases, that’s the only practical way.

Re: iOS 11.3 update breaks iPhone 8 devices with third party-repaired screens

#102

Post by whywhywhywhy »

astockwell wrote: post #4

Apple, I get it. I get why you do it. But seriously, this retroactive punishing of prior 3rd-party purchases is asinine. I had purchased multiple lightning cables from Anker (a very reputable brand), and had one of the iOS 11.x updates basically render them useless. Apple's product support is not fast enough, nor pervasive enough (to say nothing of cheap enough), to justify this behavior. Edited for clarity

I find this even more despicable because Apple chooses to use a certain type of rubber under the guise of it being more eco-friendly.

Yet this rubber is ridiculously brittle and frays almost without fail within 6-12 months meaning you just end up having to by more cables thus using more of the worlds resources anyway than if they had shipped you one cable that didn't fail.

  My 17 year old Ti Powerbook cable used daily for 11 years, no fray.
  My original iPod cable, no fray.
  My iPhone 3G cable, no fray.
  My iPhone 4S cable, 5 years use daily, no fray.
  Change happened somewhere here, newer cables are more matte and softer feeling 
  My iPhone 7 cable, frayed within 6 months
  My 2014 MBP cable, frayed within 12 months
  Replacement cable, frayed within 12 months

Re: iOS 11.3 update breaks iPhone 8 devices with third party-repaired screens

#103

Post by TomV1971 »

michaelmrose wrote: post #65
dangero wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slippery slope here. If they start testing with 3rd party hardware, that market will grow for third party parts whereas if they constantly tell people they don't support it and casually break those devices by accident, then they curb the issue while it's a small segment of the market. I see a company like Tesla taking the same approach.

Or you know they could build according to standards for interfaces and cables and provide excellent documentation making it easy to repair.

I’ve worked with many LCD panels: while they all support one of a few signaling standards, there is no standard for the cables and connectors. (Or if there is, nobody follows them.) For each LCD panel, you need to make a custom cable.

So that part is not something that’s specific to Apple.

Re: iOS 11.3 update breaks iPhone 8 devices with third party-repaired screens

#105

Post by TomV1971 »

michaelmrose wrote: post #56
axoltl wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was not done intentionally. They simply don't QA their releases on repaired phones (because why would they?). The touchscreens in question highly likely use an older touchscreen controller from a previous iPhone. These controllers don't support certain commands that evidently they are now using. As far as the lightning connectors go, that WAS done intentionally. The third party lightning connectors generally don't…

Why doesn't any other phone manufacturer have this problem?

Other phone manufacturers aren’t as prolific in updating the low level firmware of their devices once it’s on the market?

Re: iOS 11.3 update breaks iPhone 8 devices with third party-repaired screens

#106

Post by bdamm »

dmitrygr wrote: post #90

This could have been entirely innocent. It happened to an android device I am familiar with as well. Third-party screens will usually identify over i2c/spi/whatever the same as original, but you cannot apply original firmware updates to them (they are different internally and will get bricked). However, as they are designed to appear original, there isn't always a way to tell. The two options both suck: do not ship f…

Two other options also exist.

OS performs a handshake with the target subcomponent and authenticates that the component really is manufactured by the manufacturer that is targeted by the pending firmware update. If the authentication completes successfully, then push the firmware.

A flip-side alternative is for the component to only boot firmware that it recognizes as signed by the correct authority.

In the first case the device has an embedded identity within the hardware. In the second case the device merely needs to validate a signature. Crypto acceleration is becoming very widespread and very cheap so I don't see either of these as difficult to manufacture.

Re: iOS 11.3 update breaks iPhone 8 devices with third party-repaired screens

#107

Post by TomV1971 »

jlarocco wrote: post #99
axoltl wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was not done intentionally. They simply don't QA their releases on repaired phones (because why would they?). The touchscreens in question highly likely use an older touchscreen controller from a previous iPhone. These controllers don't support certain commands that evidently they are now using. As far as the lightning connectors go, that WAS done intentionally. The third party lightning connectors generally don't…

It seems more likely that Apple is checking serial numbers or some kind of embedded meta-data, to verify that the parts in the phone are authentic Apple parts.

If that were true, why didn’t they do this kind of authentication right from the start?

There is little upside in screwing over millions of existing customers.

Re: iOS 11.3 update breaks iPhone 8 devices with third party-repaired screens

#108

Post by a-the-ist »

iPhone 6S on 11.3. I just replaced the rear camera assembly and the front camera+light sensor+earphone assembly with third-party parts (on a moving train, I might brag). Everything works except the auto-brightness setting disappeared. I did Erase Settings and it's still gone. I'm wondering if:

- I didn't place the light sensor correctly

- I touched it/ruined it

- the part is defective

- Erase All Content & Settings options is absolutely necessary

Re: iOS 11.3 update breaks iPhone 8 devices with third party-repaired screens

#109

Post by greglindahl »

pfortuny wrote: post #62
saagarjha wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> not upgrading the software For goodness sake no! Blocking software updates is a terrible thing to do, because most people don't want to install them anyways. You're basically putting people in an already bad situation in a worse situation. > Nagging him at least lets him use the phone and keeps him informed. It only takes the user using the sketchy Touch ID sensor once for their fingerprint to be sent out to malici…

I get what you are trying to convey. I disagree but there is no problem in that. However: where does Apple state that their products may stop working if repaired with different components? (Honest question, I have tried to find it).

Did Joe's Fly By Night iPhone Non-Genuine Replacement Parts disclose that their replacement part wasn't the same as Apple's? Seems like that's where the onus lies.

Re: iOS 11.3 update breaks iPhone 8 devices with third party-repaired screens

#110

Post by greglindahl »

pietroglyph wrote: post #80
axoltl wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was not done intentionally. They simply don't QA their releases on repaired phones (because why would they?). The touchscreens in question highly likely use an older touchscreen controller from a previous iPhone. These controllers don't support certain commands that evidently they are now using. As far as the lightning connectors go, that WAS done intentionally. The third party lightning connectors generally don't…

The problem here is that Apple leaves third parties in the dark. A reasonable, open, spec and stance on more complex repairs would shift the responsibility to the repair company.

I had a cracked iPhone screen repaired by an authorized 3rd party, they didn't seem to be in the dark.
Post reply on HN