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Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

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Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#171

Post by volkl48 »

theonemind wrote: post #138

These videos created by a third party Apple repair shop convinced me to ditch Apple: https://www.youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup/videos?view=0&sor... He goes into the poor practices they use in manufacturing in general that literally every other manufacturer gets right. They might use under-sized capacitors to save room on the board. The first "unibody" they advertised had two aluminum parts glued together. Some of th…

One small note: Every single OEM sends out refurb'd major components, that is not a behavior unique to Apple.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#173

Post by askmike »

andr wrote: post #93

The impact of this will be much bigger outside of the US, as most countries outside of North America do not have a single Apple Store. In those countries, usually there is a licensed repair provider, but the customer experience can be drastically different. In Bulgaria, I've had to wait of over 3 weeks for a simple in-warranty repair of a MacBook, like a keyboard replacement. Using unlicensed repair stores has been t…

I was literally yesterday in the shop of an official reseller in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia, there is no Apple Store here). I have non critical problems with my Macbook Pro and asked if they can fix it (including the keyboard problem for which there is a repair program).

"We will have to take it in for repair, this will take at least 14 business days."

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#174

Post by superflyguy »

When you buy Apple stuff aren't you accepting that you're someone who pays way over the odds for it but that it's the price you pay for the lifestyle choice or something? I mean, I don't get it, as I always try and get the best bang for my buck so Apple stuff, being almost an order of magnitude more expensive doesn't stand a chance but if you can justify throwing money at a phone or laptop can't you just throw a bit more at it when it breaks?

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#175

Post by eksemplar »

tokyodude wrote: post #146

I'm actually a little disappointed in Apple's service considering the cost of their hardware and the cost of AppleCare. Back in the 80s and 90s many companies excellent service was you'd call customer support, they'd express ship you a replacement for free and you'd send back the broken item. They would take your credit card number just in case you didn't send the broken item back but otherwise it was on their dime.…

Are MacBooks really that expensive? The MacBook Pro retina with 516ssd is a lot cheaper than the Microsoft surface book and around similar to the XSP, but the XSP is much lower quality.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#176

Post by sschueller »

floatingatoll wrote: post #8

This is an excellent step for protecting MacBook Pro users against hardware invasions (such as US and China border authorities). If you trust the user to replace hardware, you permit the user’s hardware to be altered by malicious actors. By restricting final approval of hardware replacement to a vetted subset of all humanity, you ensure that it’s vastly more difficult for the vast majority of malicious humanity. Yes,…

This also enables governments like China to prevent its citizens from modifying apple hardware. In essence it provides a tool for a government to retain control.

You might trust Apple but do you trust your government to not pressure Apple? Apple cares about making money, not its users.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#177

Post by United857 »

I'm speculating this works similar to iOS developer signing, where each device has a unique HW-fused ID, and only Apple can issue a cryptographically-signed provisioning profile with that ID to allow you to load software onto that device.

In this case, each HW subsystem probably has its own unique ID which is hashed together; replacing one invalidates the hash and requires Apple to re-sign the system's "provisioning profile" to pass power-on tests.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#178

Post by gumby »

You know they also sell machines without the secure enclave bonded to the substrate. If you don't want that feature you can buy one of their other machines -- or someone else's.

I can find plenty of reasons to dump on Apple, but I do believe their commitment to customer privacy is pretty strong (even before considering that they are a large corporation).

And I say that even though I don't believe, say, their commitment to open standards (it's historically been enthusiastic in areas where they have been behind and then, if they claw themselves out of that particular hole, the commitment is mysteriously sloughed off). The privacy issue, in particular in the Cook era, has been more consistent (if imperfect) even when I would not think it needed to be for business reasons.

Again, I'm not trying to paint apple with some broad "good guy" brush, just talking about this one issue.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#179

Post by Crosseye_Jack »

superflyguy wrote: post #174

When you buy Apple stuff aren't you accepting that you're someone who pays way over the odds for it but that it's the price you pay for the lifestyle choice or something? I mean, I don't get it, as I always try and get the best bang for my buck so Apple stuff, being almost an order of magnitude more expensive doesn't stand a chance but if you can justify throwing money at a phone or laptop can't you just throw a bit…

Main issue to me is no self repair and AASP don’t actually repair stuff...

Slight damage needing a few cents worth of caps replaced? Yeah that will be a full board swap. $900 please, oh and we don’t keep that main board in stock (cause Apple doesn’t let us) so it will be a week before we can do the swap...

I don’t mind paying a little extra, I do mind getting fucked over.

Now it does look like this software is only about the pairing of the components (main board, Touch ID, screen...) so component level repair should be fine as long as the cpu or the T2 doesn’t pop, so it’s not completely the end of the world but Apple are taking the piss now.

It’s not about the cost. It’s about the inability for anyone but who Apple chooses to be able to fix your hardware.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#180

Post by integricho »

dang wrote: post #172
integricho wrote: post #144

There's no justification whatsoever for owning any Apple product other than some foolish pride, sense of elitism, or something alike.

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News?

I was under the impression that expressing your own views and opinions is allowed and is a natural part of any discussion. Such expressions cannot be supported with facts.
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