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

theverge.com

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

#501
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.

I've got a Samsung Xcover pro. It has an easily removable back plate and a replaceable battery and is IP-68 rated. My old Casio was in the same vein. Maybe you couldn't get it quite as thin, but they did away with the easily removable battery long before they started trying to waterproof it.

The S5 was thinner than the contemporary iPhone and within 1mm of the 13 Pro Max

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

#502
post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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).

Actually, no, this is not necessary for 1atm water resistance. See: the Samsung Galaxy S5 that was made out of ABS plastic, and had an easily removable battery with 0 fasteners. It was IP67 rated.

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

#503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You have a storage bin holding old smartphones with readily replaceable batteries. That suggests to me that readily replaceable batteries isn't anywhere near the entire story in terms of keeping phones out the landfill (or in your case, a storage bin).

Smartphone software being pure garbage along with the games Qualcomm and the network operators play make up the rest of the story.

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

#504

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…

>Apple can’t win here

I would argue in their views they did. Apple did the calculation and understand people who actually want to repair their phone are not even a rounding error in their ~1.1B Active iPhone users. Showcasing their Professional Tools to the press, making it sound difficult is precisely how the public could justify the $69 Battery swap. And this article did precisely that.

Right to Repair folks might view this as bad press for Apple. I think Apple's PR knew exactly what they are getting into.

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

#505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

How can you have a user accessible door to remove the battery while still being at least somewhat thin and water resistant? I’m sure there are ways but I would probably significantly increase the BOM costs. For example some kind of waterproof battery that connects to a waterproof jack. That will you the battery but cracked screens and stuff? Those pretty much have to be a pain in the ass to keep the cost, weight and…

It's not rocket science. Most wristwatches are splash proof, many are waterproof and they're still thinner than iPhones. Tight sealing has been figured out long time ago, even for rectangular shapes.

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

#506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

Because you are playing with the clutch, it keeps you busy. And the total time it takes to shift feels shorter this way. CVT are by definition using the best RPM possible from the engine for maximum power and efficiency. Modern automatics are also quite fast. Anyways the future is electric without gears.

It's not that it "feels shorter". It's that 9x/10 you've anticipated wanting the lower gear and are already in it.

I agree about electric, but I expect 2/3 speed gearboxes for the same reason your drill had multiple speeds.

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

#507

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't force you into the tools, the deposit or anything else - they offer you parts at the same prices they offer to third-party service providers and Apple stores. They even offer you credit for returning the old parts. If have your own iFixit kit, the only thing you're on the hook for is parts cost. Access to the tools for what is likely at-cost shipping prices seems like an above-and-beyond thing to me that t…

I always say the same, people wants 2022 tech with the simplicity of 1980s tech. You’re holding more computing power in your pocket than the one that brought apollo to the moon and yet want servicing it to be as simple as undoing 4 screws.

Absolutely!

My 1980's tech is repairable, and a fair amount of it is still in active, productive use.

These phones and computers can be made more serviceable. Doing that will reduce profits and that is why it is not being done.

And so we have plenty of people who can figure out how to service the tech anyway! I am one of those types of people and have always explored fixing it no matter what.

(I do not do phones, though I have fixed tablets and computers)

There are always some of us with these skills. Humans are pretty great that way. We are considerably more diverse and capable as an species than we may appreciate.

And what happens?

Of course that lowers profit too!

Now we have right to repair as a thing to be settled because some of us are a bit too greedy for others of us to tolerate.

And regarding phones, my preferred phone is falling out of support. It had a headphone jack and performance is right there, sans a faster than 60hz display, which is no bother. Grew up with 60. Love it, but I digress.

I need to be careful with this phone, and that is fine. Keeps me from doing too much crap on it and that helps me be more productive and less tied to the thing. No worries yet.

Now, I have two of these. One has a cracked glass and a battery not long for this world. When I want, I hook it up to keyboard, mouse and display and it works great! Perfectly fine Android PC. I may start building some software for it too.

But, as it is right now, email, remote conferencing, Libre Office, Microsoft if needed, CAD, STL file, bitmap create, edit, Web, and, and...

I forget what the CPU is, but this old, glass cracked phone runs a Snapdragon fast enough to beat some Chromebooks I have gotten hold of.

Definitely worth winning Right To Repair. The up and coming generations are going to face a lot of challenges, and being economically challenged is, sadly, among the set of challenges.

My generation was similar, Gen-X. I grew up in fairly severe poverty. Fortunately, was not my entire childhood, but it was more than half. Made an impact, and the primary one was whether to spend to solve or repair to solve problems, and there is a ton of perfectly great tech laying around today.

It is crazy to be figuring out how we best avoid using it!

My 1980's tech is an Apple 2 computer. I still use it regularly. Mostly games, Nox Archaist released recently being top of the list. (If passers by enjoy "Ultima" style gaming, you can buy this title right off GOG and or Steam and play in emulation.)

But, yes I use it as a spiffy calculator, generating datasets of various kinds, terminal to embedded devices and when I get off my arse and finish my test and measure card, it will be a great bench computer just as it was back then.

Finally, as RMS has said about software freedoms, it is not important that people use those freedoms to the max. Many won't, and that is OK.

This is all about the people who will, or better --who have to for whatever reason.

It just needs to be possible.

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

#508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

How can you have a user accessible door to remove the battery while still being at least somewhat thin and water resistant? I’m sure there are ways but I would probably significantly increase the BOM costs. For example some kind of waterproof battery that connects to a waterproof jack. That will you the battery but cracked screens and stuff? Those pretty much have to be a pain in the ass to keep the cost, weight and…

First, it is just a little less thin, and second we make watches that handle water just fine.

Another alternative would be to make the devices fail more reasonably when wet. Just drying the thing out could work better than it currently does.

But yes! Your point is valid. We won't get the absolute pinnacle of volume and performance that way.

To that, I say we can surely find a better balance than the mess we have today, and that could start by making damn sure we permit and perhaps encourage as much innovation on the repair / repurpose side of things as we do on design and manufacture.

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

#509
post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

There have been constant complaints that Apple doesn’t make its repair and maintenance equipment and parts available for others to use. Now that they do, it turns out they use extremely high quality professional tools to do near-factory quality work. So fine, here you are, you can get all the exact same stuff Apple uses. You win.

Great! (I agree)

Having seen that set of tools, others can and should be cost reducing them and or innovating how to do things without them, or with less expensive gear.

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

#510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> show just how deep the hole Apple has dug for themselves really is I guess it shows this hole to the public , but Apple's know this the whole time. They scale out in-store iPhone repair to 500 stores around the world where they have low-paid retail workers performing the repairs.

And it's a great service, too. You pay $50 and wait a few minutes. You get a new, genuine OEM battery with a warranty that extends the life of your phone indefinitely. The right-to-repair people have just lost contact with reality. This is the way people want it to work. It is a great product experience.

No they haven't!

The experience is great from what I understand.

But there are other ways, and this is not at all about taking options away from people.

Nothing about this is exclusive. That great experience can compete with many others and should.

And it is a big world of repair out there. It all goes well beyond Apple and a few others making things painful.

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