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

Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 558 posts

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#291

Post by Bud »

shkkmo wrote: post #272
snowwrestler wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa whoa hold on. You can pay Apple to replace your battery. That’s been true for years. I’ve done it with multiple phones. We just had Apple replace the battery in my wife’s iPhone SE (the original version) and it’s working great. The metaphorical tires are not welded on; you can keep an old phone going with a new battery. But just like tires, if you insist on doing the work yourself , you’re going to need some spe…

> The metaphorical tires are not welded on; you can keep an old phone going with a new battery. The metaphorical tires are DRM'd on by a company that has been actively trying to prevent third party repair shops from being able to work on your car. The doubt of Apple's intentions here is not happening in a vacuum, but against their consistent and ongoing efforts to make self-repair unnecessarily difficult.

There is absolutely no evidence about Apple's "intentions" or "efforts" here, despite constant hectoring and bad-faith, zero-evidence arguments from people like you.

"Unnecessarily" difficult? Whatever. What you really mean is that Apple has been optimizing for durability, water-resistance, and smaller size, and people like you don't like those choices, so you are having a tantrum. Those choices, of necessity, mean that repairs are going to be a bit of a pain.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#292

Post by Bud »

turbinerneiter wrote: post #181
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You have to admit that requiring 79 lbs of equipment, a 1200$ deposit, and so much effort just to swap a friggin’ battery is a tad overkill You know people were swapping batteries long before this was available, right? And that you don’t have to rent the official factory tools? Apple did a great thing by providing this option at a loss to themselves. The fact that people are rushing to criticize the move suggests m…

Completely made up and false conundrum. You can design devices that are easy to repair and still waterproof and sleek. This is a made up target-conflict that is easily resolved by any trained industrial designer and engineer.

Lol. Yeah, right. "Any" trained industrial designer?

Why has fucking nobody ever built this fantasy product, then? Because NOBODY has. We've had to listen to 15 years of this whining and NOBODY to date seems to be able to do this supposedly-trivially-easy thing you are talking about.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#293

Post by cyral »

ezconnect wrote: post #132
sokoloff wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Battery has an identifier which, if mismatched, causes the phone to work but present a warning that the battery may not be genuine and does not report battery health. Honestly, that sounds pretty fair/reasonable to me. (It would be outrageous if it had “DRM fail: phone shuts off”. “DRM detects possible non-genuine battery and works but reports battery as possibly non-genuine” is a lot more reasonable, possibly totall…

Acts like a DRM to me. Changing battery now needs internet connection? A remote system to control your phone just to tell it to function normally after changing battery? Next on the horizon is we need to plugin our peanut butter to an internet connection so we can open it to eat it.

I'm sure it has something to do with their liability. With no warning, shops would be incentivized to use cheap knock-off batteries. (Which could perform worse, explode, etc. and damage their brand)

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#294

Post by speeder »

tinus_hn wrote: post #150
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You have to admit that requiring 79 lbs of equipment, a 1200$ deposit, and so much effort just to swap a friggin’ battery is a tad overkill You know people were swapping batteries long before this was available, right? And that you don’t have to rent the official factory tools? Apple did a great thing by providing this option at a loss to themselves. The fact that people are rushing to criticize the move suggests m…

People can just buy a Fairphone if they want one with a detachable battery. It is however bulkier, heavier and not waterproof.

No they can't just buy a fair phone. I want one and they are not allowed in my country.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#295

Post by NovemberWhiskey »

katbyte wrote: post #261
NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... and when there's enough of you for this to represent an actual, realistic target market you will then find someone who will sell you one. Personally, my perspective on this is that it's a lot like the kind of complaining that gets a lot of play in the motoring press about the disappearance of the manual transmission (like Car and Driver's "Save the Manuals" thing). Lots of people will claim they would like the ch…

We’ll car companies are making it harder and harder to buy manuals so of course it’s disappearing. Can’t speak to American brands but the Toyota 4Runner stopped making a manual trim 20 years ago and the Tacoma while it has one, only 5% of them produced are manual on limited trims making it really hard for people who want one to actually get it without a lot of effort. How much is it people don’t want it/never learned…

Even with performance car enthusiast models, like say the BMW M4, the take rate for the manual is super low.

This article ... https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/07/save-manuals-give-... ... is from 2015, but says that the M4 couple was 83:17 in favor of the automatic gearbox; and I doubt things have gotten better since then.

Automatic gearboxes (whether torque converters, CVT or dual-clutch) have just gotten much better to the point where they're better for both performance and fuel economy.

Manual transmissions are much, much harder to integrate with any kind of hybrid system, stop-start system, power-off coasting etc. which help with fuel economy too.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#296

Post by nathanvanfleet »

newsclues wrote: post #141
honkdaddy wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ran an iOS sales and repairs service for years, eventually stopping around the iPhone X era. I had decent third-party tools, but despite being careful, I'd still break peoples' devices on rare occasion and have to eat the cost. The adhesive they use to bind the screen to the body has gotten consistently tougher over the years, to the point where there really isn't a reliable way for someone to do it correctly on th…

Yeah, I will pay more for a device that is designed to be repaired.

This reminds me of the people who laughed at the iPhone because the Blackberry had a real keyboard and was the true professional device. Saying you'll pay for something that probably doesn't have many people behind it is not really going to move mountains. Most people care about this sort of stuff for about a minute when their phone breaks which is something like once every few years max.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#297

Post by throwaway0a5e »

carlob wrote: post #266
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's somewhat a quirk of your displacement taxes resulting in tiny engines. When the choice is between a CVT or automatic that has to be dragged kicking and screaming into the upper RPM ranges (because how else are you gonna get acceptable performance out of a tiny engine) and a clutch pedal many people choose the clutch pedal.

You might just as well argue the opposite: American gas and car prices don't factor in the huge externalities of a badly engineered gas guzzler (and I don't think they are priced in in the EU either). So you get around in things that are far too heavy and need huge engines. Granted, the real solution would be to get rid of most personal vehicles with engines, but you can just look at the displacement of F1 cars to kn…

>You might just as well argue the opposite: American gas and car prices don't >Oh FFS quit with the trope slinging.factor in the huge externalities

It takes a special kind of insanity to argue in favor of displacement taxes. The environment doesn't care how wide your pistons are or how far they move. It cares about the fuel burned. If you wanna tax the externality tax fuel.

>of a badly engineered gas guzzler

Because Toyota and Mercedes are so good at it? Ha.

If there's one thing the Americans are very good at it's getting big engines to consume less fuel than you'd expect from their size.

Regardless, your typical sedans, hatches and crossovers are available on both sides of the pond and gets the same fuel economy on both sides because fuel economy is dominated by the weight of the vehicle and aerodynamics.

> but you can just look at the displacement of F1 cars to know you are arguing in bad faith.

What's the operating RPM of an F1 engine? You're the one arguing in bad faith here.

Imagine you're cruising down the road ad 1200rpm (because fuel economy) and you want to step on it for whatever reason. With a CVT you get to sit there waiting while it slowly revs its way there. With an automatic you get to sit there a second and a half waiting while the computer decides that yes, you do actually mean to be flooring it and then shifts for you. With a manual you shifted before you even stomped the skinny pedal. Smaller displacement engines with less low end grunt exacerbate this hence the European preference for the 3rd pedal.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#298

Post by cypress66 »

katbyte wrote: post #268
nkrisc wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If “fun” is the primary advantage (I know there are others) then it’s no wonder there’s fewer manuals in the US, at least. I think for many people, myself included, a car is a tool. I don’t need it to be fun. I need it to be reliable, easy to use, and as efficient as possible. For some cars are a hobby, but for many people they’re most another tool in our lives.

Manuals have an advantage in some situations (off roading, transmission doesn’t overheat, better performance with skill, repairability) and autos have theirs (easy, better fuel economy) If I commuted to an office every day I’d get an auto (actually these days an EV), but working in the bush/backroads? Manual

All those points, except for repairability, are arguable for modern gearboxes such as DSG.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#299

Post by turbinerneiter »

Bud wrote: post #292
turbinerneiter wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely made up and false conundrum. You can design devices that are easy to repair and still waterproof and sleek. This is a made up target-conflict that is easily resolved by any trained industrial designer and engineer.

Lol. Yeah, right. "Any" trained industrial designer? Why has fucking nobody ever built this fantasy product, then? Because NOBODY has. We've had to listen to 15 years of this whining and NOBODY to date seems to be able to do this supposedly-trivially-easy thing you are talking about.

Because they don't want to.

Also e.g. the Pixel 6 has an element in the display assembly that makes the repair easier + a glue that melts well.

Older iPhones were also easier to open, but their glue gets seems to get more aggressive each year.

The whole access via glued display construction can be fairly easy to work with when the display assembly is done right and they use a glue that melts well.

And sure, the even easier access design around screws is harder to do, but also possible. See the iPhone 6, which used screws and a much weaker glue.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#300

Post by lisper »

sva_ wrote: post #236
jt2190 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The adhesive they use to bind the screen to the body has gotten consistently tougher over the years... Unless they ditch the adhesive... We talk about this adhesive as if it's easily replaced with some screws, but I wonder if that's really true anymore. I can imagine that as devices and their tolerances get smaller that simply screwing something together might actually make the device a lot more delicate. Do you kn…

The adhesive makes the phone waterproof. I recently replaced my gf's iPhone screen and all I really needed was a hairdryer to heat up the adhesive, a suction cup to pull it off, and a screwdriver. I guess with these tools it'd be safer, but it worked well regardless.

> The adhesive makes the phone waterproof.

So would a rubber o-ring.

Post reply on HN