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

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

#351

Post by asveikau »

dylan604 wrote: post #333
asveikau wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But in this case the user is charged $69 to repair it themselves.

So if that's the case, then it looks like the labor for the replacement is free when having Apple do it. Everyone keeps talking about it being a $5 battery, but where can you get the battery for $5? If it costs Apple $5, then you're dreaming if you think Apple is going to ever sell for that. Nobody sells at cost and stays in business. Also, you're forgetting about it being a $69 kit. It's the $5 battery and $64 dolla…

I didn't come up with the $5 claim and i agree it's low. I was just pointing out that the argument was mis-summarized. I am myself not certain to what extent I agree with the argument personally.

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

#352

Post by shuckles »

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.

It honestly seems perfectly reasonable to authenticate a battery which is among the most dangerous component of a device I regularly hold in my hand and up to my head. A fully charged iPhone battery probably has enough energy to blow body parts off.

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

#353

Post by [deleted] »

kd913 wrote: post #323
starky wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is that with the way devices are designed to be IP rated and as compact as possible, your only option is these fancy PSA adhesives. There is a direct disagreement between what a consumer wants in their device and making it easy to repair, especially since most people don't expect to repair the device they are buying.

Uhh are we all kind of forgetting the Samsung S5? A phone with ip67 rating, a microsd card slot, headphone jack and removable battery? Yea I am calling nonsense on this being an engineering limitation.

[deleted]

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

#354

Post by ghaff »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #129
Aeolun wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the EU is generally better at designing it’s regulations to avoid exactly this problem. Probably something to the extend of “tools to repair must be found in any general DIY store”.

> Probably something to the extend of “tools to repair must be found in any general DIY store”. Does everyone realize how insanely bad this would be for phone progress? If we’re forcing manufacturers to avoid specialty adhesives and tooling, the overall quality and size of phones would be greatly compromised. I understand a lot of HN commenters will say they don’t care if their phones are twice as big and not waterpr…

They should probably ban surface mount components as well. Those make it really hard to repair PCBs.

You can argue about specific design/manufacturing decisions but, in the aggregate, but in general there's a huge amount of modern technology that's become much more complex and difficult to repair especially at the individual component level. But most people probably don't actually want to go back to 1980s vintage car phones.

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

#355

Post by ghodith »

raisedbyninjas wrote: post #337
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple isn’t making these design choices to inhibit repairs. The advanced sealing techniques are used for real benefits like water resistance and reduced size, which are a much bigger priority for the average consumer than being able to replace batteries at home.

Waterproof phones with replaceable batteries exist.

Not in the same size they don't.

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

#356

Post by mynameisvlad »

lisper wrote: post #311
greenglass wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

O-rings are known to fail.

O-rings are the standard seal technology in waterproof watches, and also in scuba diving equipment where lives literally depend on them. They are actually extraordinarily reliable.

But at the same time, a diver is trained to look for leaks as part of their pre-divw checklist, and oring replacements are fairly common. On my last liveaboard, the crew replaced probably good 1-2 dozen tank orings over the course of a week. One of my LP hose orings had frayed as well and needed to be replaced.

It might be the standard, but it's not exactly the best experience either.

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

#357

Post by thinkmassive »

NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #285
cgearhart wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other issue (at least in the US) is that automatic cars can be programmed to “game” the fuel economy tests by having shorter gears and shifting early, etc. The automatic winds up being faster and reporting better fuel economy, but the manual would perform the same if it had more similar gearing. (I heard recently that first gear is like 60% shorter in the automatic version of one of the BMW M series cars than the…

Automatic transmissions now have 8, 9 or 10 gears which means that engines can spend more time in efficient parts of their range; I don't think people would put up with a manual transmission with that many gears. Newer automatic transmissions also have better control of lock-up, so that you're spending less time with torque-converter losses.

> I don't think people would put up with a manual transmission with that many gears

…other than truck drivers!

maniacal laughter as the clutch is released into 18th gear

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

#358

Post by tesseract »

lisper wrote: post #300
sva_ wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Given a relatively high and sufficiently uniform clamping pressure on the entire o-ring. Which then requires high-stiffness parts (bulky, heavy, high material usage) or a lot of fasteners (take up space, potentially add to the oh-so-hated bezel width depending on how they have to be implemented).

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

#359

Post by sangnoir »

bob29 wrote: post #304
NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No; we live in the world of engineering and business compromises where wishes are not, in fact, horses.

>No You aren't disagreeing with me. The claim is that we live in the best world possible , not the best world imaginable . The compromises you mention are necessary due to the underlying reality of resource scarcity. We may act to change our environment in many ways but can not violate the laws of the universe.

Manufacturer self-interest is not a law of the universe. Manufacturers do what's best for them, and not for some idealized free market. Often,they fail to do what's best for the org in the long term because they comprise humans who mostly care about the short term (bonuses, careers and such).

"If better was possible, it would already exist" can be filed under Capitalism Fantasy because it ignores all confounding factors. It also fails to explain why curremt consumer products are getting worse (for the consumer, but more profitable for the producer e.g. TVs, washing machines, fridges)

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

#360

Post by bostonsre »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #307
wfhordie wrote: post #93

Apple can’t win here. If they had sent the sleek, easy to carry tools this author asked for, the author would complain about the pathetic tools they are providing. Really disappointed in The Verge on this article. Could have been a cool piece about the specific tech that Apple provides, but instead it’s framed so disingenuously that I come away not feeling particularly good about right to repair in general. It no lon…

I view this differently. This article is documenting a process people are surely curious about. But the costly deposit and multiple heavy pelican cases of supplies show just how deep the hole Apple has dug for themselves really is. Apple is so anti-repair they have no provisions for a reasonable at home process. You must realize that a $1200 deposit alone means this process is out of reach of many people. Meanwhile I…

I guess I could go either way on this. It seems possible apple is being genuine and they just optimized for a sleek design and repairability wasn't a concern because they didn't need to support at home repairs before. This could just be the first iteration of supporting repairability and maybe they will make design decisions to make it easier in the future. Or.. They could be dragging their feet and they are trying to make it as laborious and tedious as possible to avoid needing to put too much effort into supporting at home repairs. I guess they could also just be trying to open up a new market and sell fancy iPhone repair products.
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