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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

#411

Post by teh_klev »

sgt wrote: post #249
foepys wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For this reason MacBooks aren't really business devices in my opinion. What kind of business is okay with the service Apple provides? You have to send one employee to the Apple Store (if there is even one located near you), maybe get a replacement device, maybe wait for 2 weeks for it to return? This is so much more expensive than buying Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. with on-site support. On top of that you often get repair…

We mitigate this risk by just having a spare device or spare laptop on premises. It works and it's cheap. We use tons of Macs in a business setting, and we're definitely not going back to PC's. The PC's were a nightmare (not in terms of the hardware, but because of the sofware) from a management and administration perspective. Primarily because of Windows. Using Macs running macOS has really been a gamechanger.

> The PC's were a nightmare (not in terms of the hardware, but because of the sofware) from a management and administration perspective. Primarily because of Windows.

That's a human skills problem, not a software problem. Managing a large fleet of Windows PC's is a solved problem if your sysadmins know Active Directory. There are also third party solutions if Active Directory isn't your bag (we used one at a previous company to manage a large fleet of Windows PC's and servers - its name escapes me at the moment).

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

#412

Post by askmike »

hrktb wrote: post #348
Sharlin wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point with that 14 business days quote is that they will very likely ship it somewhere outside the country, or at the very least to another city. And if you ship it yourself you most likely have to pay for the shipping from your own pocket.

Not under warranty, Apple provides the shipping both ways.

I should have clarified: my macbook is out of the 1 year warranty. However the keyboard has problems for which there is an extended repair program (I'm not sure if this falls under an extended warranty or whatever).

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

#413

Post by walterbell »

bmaupin wrote: post #362
walterbell wrote: post #360

Is there a publicly maintained "repairability index" for laptops? iFixit used to have scores for smartphones, but laptops would now benefit from similar ranking. Lenovo T480S still has some user-replaceable parts (RAM, SSD) and is only a little heavier than X1 Carbon.

iFixit has repariability scores for laptops too: https://www.ifixit.com/laptop-repairability

Thanks. No Lenovo laptops on their list yet.

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

#414

Post by dreamcompiler »

abrowne wrote: post #402
raquo wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you actually get a quote / estimate from Apple?

But the heat sink is just (1) remove bottom case, (2) unplug battery, (3a) remove heat sink (if Retina model) or (3b) remove motherboard, then heat sink from the other side. The keyboard is part of the top case, which is the part everything else is attached to.

Exactly. I can replace the battery, hard drive, or RAM of an older MBP in 15 minutes, but replacing the keyboard is at least a 3-hour operation.

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

#415

Post by zelon88 »

muse900 wrote: post #169
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…

Totally agree, and the more I think about it, the more I feel that apple products have started becoming inaccessible to me too. From what I understand they want to protect their brand by building quality and repairing with quality as well. Issue is that they are lacking on employees for what they want to do. A week ago I was in the apple store in London, a guy next to me bought one of their new flagships through o2 a…

They need to invest in making their hardware documented and accessible. Obviously their secrecy isn't doing their customers any favors regardless of how you look at it.

What's more valuable to the consumer? A device that doesn't work and cannot reasonably be repaired or a device that was repaired with knock off parts and inexperienced labor that still gets the job done?

To take an adage from farmers; "The best machine is one that can perform it's duties despite it's condition."

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

#416

Post by eksemplar »

michaelmrose wrote: post #206
eksemplar wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

An i9 macbook pro is 3100 with Applecare and tax its 3800. If you don't buy the Applecare they can charge you whatever they like to fix it because you wont be able to take it elsewhere. Have fun when a new battery costs you $250. Regarding the XPS with 6 cores, 16GB ram, 512 ssd it still comes in closer to 2K you could bank the extra 1800 and use part of it to have it fixed if you dropped it. The surface laptop 2 see…

You can buy a MacBook Pro 13" 2018 edition with retina and 512gb for 13000 danish kr, if you use the students discount. A similarly specced 13" XPS is around 12000-14000 danish kr.

A 512gb surface book is at least 21000 danish kr, because it only ships with the 15". A 256gb one is around 12000-13000 danish kr.

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

#417

Post by AnthonyMouse »

brusch64 wrote: post #226
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s true for Tesla. Especially for body work. Takes many weeks due to backlog. That's growing pains though. Give it a few years and there should be greater parts availability and independent electric car repair shops. > But anecdotally, after many many years of disappointing experiences with independent repair shops, when I could finally afford repairs at the dealer, I was no longer disappointed. There are a lot o…

I've watches some videos on youtube of guys who try to salvage Tesla's. I am not sure if these are growing pains or if Tesla is just more interested in a model without independent mechanics. In these videos it seems more that Tesla is VERY hostile against people who repair their car. They have no access whatsoever to parts, so their only chance is to buy damaged cars and salvage the parts. My feeling was that it was…

Using used parts for repairs is normal practice. It makes little sense to manufacture a new body panel when there is a perfectly good one from a vehicle with a bad drivetrain just sitting there in a junkyard.

The trouble right now is because Tesla has only recently started delivering in meaningful volumes, there is no big supply of them in junkyards to pull parts from. And for much the same reason there are no independent parts suppliers yet, so the company has a temporary monopoly on parts.

Whether their attitude changes when the parts monopoly erodes remains to be seen, but competition has a way of shifting corporate behavior.

And some of the current behavior is within reason, e.g. if you have free supercharging it's not so you can modify your car to sell that power back to the grid, or take the VIN of a wrecked car with free supercharging and try to transfer it to an entirely different car by exchanging a couple of parts. There has to be some process to make sure that's not what's happening.

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

#418

Post by coryfklein »

Couldn't this protect me from somebody sneaking my laptop while I'm not looking and replacing a part with another that has some spyware attached?

Sounds like it could be pretty useful, but no particular reason why to prevent authenticated users from disabling it if desired.

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

#419

Post by bigbugbag »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #256
bigbugbag wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> apple-only, apple-only, apple user lock-in, apple walled garden, apple. > don't tell me I can do this with something else than apple. Of you cannot play windows game on your linux box and you cannot get the same experience you have in the walled garden outside of it unless you change and adapt you devices. I have a client with a Linux ecosystem and a single iphone, apple does not provide itunes for linux so making…

Basically everyone in my family used to call me for tech support (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins), but in the past 3 years or so, I’ve convinced everyone to iPhones and iPads and MacBook Airs, they have have basically zero tech support calls to me. Everything just works as long as they keep track of their Apple ID and iCloud login. There is definitely value to not spending any time or brain cycles worr…

Fun thing, I was in the exact same situation so I told them I would only provide support if they switched to Linux (no need to buy new hardware) and got similar results: support call lowered dramatically to almost none (except when mozilla forces stupid changes on users in firefox, solved by dropping firefox for waterfox, or when systemd breaks something that work perfectly before update).

99% of their needs are covered for a total cost of 0, only remaining pita is the odd iphone owned by teen cousin wanting to boast social status and missing itunes so he bought a macbook and has a variety of issues with it.

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

#420

Post by bigbugbag »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #342
bigbugbag wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, people do care about repairability more than you think, just look at the growing popularity of repair cafes. To me the issue is that devices are made to appear obsolete, a marketing scheme to boost profit, in a limited time frame and replaced instead of repaired not because they are reliable (for example the lawsuit for prone to breaking keys on recent macbooka[1]). People who care about upgradeability are…

Actually, people do care about repairability more than you think If they really cared it would be reflected in what they buy. People who care about upgradeability are people who know better I see, you are so smart and the rest of us are sheep like idiots for buying products they can't repair.

> If they really cared it would be reflected in what they buy.

This is wishful thinking, caring about repairability does not magically make such devices appear on store shelves.

Besides people caring about repairability often have few option due to limited budget which is often why they care for repairability in the first place.

> I see, you are so smart and the rest of us are sheep like idiots for buying products they can't repair.

Being knowledgeable about a kind of product has nothing to do with being an idiot. Not knowing that you can buy a 4GB RAM with mid range cpu computer now, and upgrade to 8GB and better cpu later does not make you an idiot. To each her own field of expertise and most people are not computer hardware expert or do not have the luxury of having time to spend on this.

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