Live data from Hacker News

iPhone 13 teardown and repair assessment [video]

youtube.com

101–110 of 168 posts

Re: iPhone 13 teardown and repair assessment [video]

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The actual authentication & crypto is happening inside the main SOC. The Face ID sensor is (or should be) just a dumb camera - there's no reason for it to be part of the chain of trust.

Of course there is. That’s how you avoid replay attacks.

In that case, why not allow a camera replacement with a factory reset?

Re: iPhone 13 teardown and repair assessment [video]

#102

Yet more reasons why I won't give apple any of my money. I can only see one benefit of this to the consumer. If you maybe happen to be a target of some spy agency who manage to get your phone and need to drop some component into it to spy on you, that isnt going to be easy now. /s Genuinely no need for this other than making apple more money.

Would you rather give your money to Google, the company that is what it is today through turning their users' information into products to sell to the highest bidder? Apple gives a shit about your privacy. Why is that upsetting to you?

Let's get real here. Apple (like Google) doesn't give a shit about your privacy - their only concern is profit.

Re: iPhone 13 teardown and repair assessment [video]

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually there is another good reason for this, and that is preventing theft. What is the point of stealing an iPhone 13 if you can't just sell the phone on (because of iCloud lock) and you can't chop-shop any of the expensive parts because they're all cryptographically registered?

This is true, but there is absolutely a solution here that Apple could implement: verification of users who want genuine replacement parts. Apple could empower their customers to be good citizens of the earth who want to reduce electronic waste while simultaneously making the lives of thieves difficult.

The most difficult aspect would be warranty, shipping damage, assembly damage and false claims arising under all three by less scrupulous individuals and criminal groups.

They likely considered the possibility and decided that it wasn’t worth the extra hassle.

Re: iPhone 13 teardown and repair assessment [video]

#104
post #11
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your own habits aren’t everyone’s habits. Not everyone is on a two-year upgrade cycle, especially when the iPhones are worth near or above $1000 now. Many people who own a smartphone only have it at all thanks to the affordable prices of refurbished (i.e. repaired) units on the second-hand market. It’s silly to say repair is unimportant when you consider how many tons of waste this creates - and how little is actuall…

People are voting with their wallets. They are voting they don't care.

It's possible simultaneously for something to have a large societal cost, and for it to not affect any individual person enough to change their decisionmaking.

Re: iPhone 13 teardown and repair assessment [video]

#105
post #9

Meh, people will not get tired of this it seems. What did the eternal repeating of this ever net you? A tentative promise that they will support the right to repair movement, one they are not obligated to fulfill, and of course it’s always in the future. That’s the best you could hope for with such naive activism. Anecdotal evidence: out of 20+ people with iPhones I know, only one ever had to send it for repairs. In…

The desired outcome here isn't "persuading Apple to budge." It's using the democratic process to arrive at legal changes that make businesses cease an abusive practice. The first step on that road is better public awareness.

Re: iPhone 13 teardown and repair assessment [video]

#106
post #89
post #46

I'm a bit torn about this. I think a good compromise is for Apple to offer selling "genuine parts" to anyone who practically wants it; and maybe, allow changing parts once the main owner release control. Apple's devices are quite expensive. iCloud locking have made them worth less in the black-market, but the components are still worth something. This will make Apple's devices worth next to nothing in the black marke…

Petty theft is more an issue of economic inequality. If the criminal had an incentive for being honorable citizens, then theft would not happen.

Have you so little respect for people that you think they are all thieves? In India and China, countries in which most of the top 10% by income would fall below the US poverty line most people never steal. Theft is not mostly about poverty.

Re: iPhone 13 teardown and repair assessment [video]

#107
post #89
post #46

I'm a bit torn about this. I think a good compromise is for Apple to offer selling "genuine parts" to anyone who practically wants it; and maybe, allow changing parts once the main owner release control. Apple's devices are quite expensive. iCloud locking have made them worth less in the black-market, but the components are still worth something. This will make Apple's devices worth next to nothing in the black marke…

Petty theft is more an issue of economic inequality. If the criminal had an incentive for being honorable citizens, then theft would not happen.

True, but not relevant to whether Apple should make parts available or not. Apple’s repairability policy isnt going to alleviate income inequality, but it could have an effect on phone theft.

Re: iPhone 13 teardown and repair assessment [video]

#108
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except Apple also disables functionality if you replace the part with another genuine part from another iPhone. The only excuse is money, money, money.

I knew a guy who used to run one of these little repair stalls, almost all of his parts came from stripping down stolen devices he got from local scallys. These were all genuine parts, but it made stealing these phones more lucrative.

Seems like that market could also be hurt by apple just offering genuine replacement parts

Re: iPhone 13 teardown and repair assessment [video]

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course there is. That’s how you avoid replay attacks.

Can't you "replay" that data physically by creating a face mask matching the captured data and then presenting it to a legitimate sensor? IMO the security of the system is that the 3D face data is reasonably secret (you probably can't reconstruct it from a single picture, you'd need pictures from all angles) and the SOC only allows a few attempts before falling back to passcode. If you have the face data, you don't n…

Exactly because you could have a fake camera that could collect your info and make it accessible for an installed app that would upload it for an hostile server. The original camera doesn’t give you access to this data, a counterfeited one possibly could.

Re: iPhone 13 teardown and repair assessment [video]

#110
post #66

Paying a few hundred $ for a phone that lasts for just a couple of years never made sense in the first place. The amount of e-waste generated is insane, 'right to repair' and 'responsible use of capital and resources' go hand in hand. Phones could easily last a decade.

They do last longer than a couple of years, and _are_ supported too: I have an iPhone 6s around the house that I use to play music over Bluetooth, and it just got the iOS 15 update. iPhone 6s was released in 2015. The only problem with it is the battery. It could use a replacement, but since I don't use it as the main device, I don't much care. Otherwise, it works perfectly fine.

Still using a 6s as my one and only, it’s a great phone.
Post reply on HN