Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#121

Post by hedgehog » Mon, Sep 19, 2022, 5:09 PM UTC

crisdux wrote: post #97

Totally speculating here. I wonder if this is preparing for a future where Apple encounters supply issues or pricing pressure caused by environmental and political turmoil. I could see the average lifespan of devices continuing to increase and more people using repair services. It also makes it easier to refurb devices for second hand use.

This design isn't more resilient vs supply chain problems in any obvious way but my guess is the next iPhone SE will be a derivative of the iPhone 14. Lowering repair costs paves the way to Apple offering leased phones and is directly aligned with a shift towards services revenue.

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#122

Post by reisse » Mon, Sep 19, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

grumpycamel wrote: post #64

webmobdev wrote: post #3

It's good to see Apple behaving and recognising the momentum the Rights to Repair movement has got globally in the last few years (especially in the large market of EU, and now picking up in Asia). But I think iFixit has been too generous in giving the iPhone 14 a repairability score of 7 out of 10 when Apple still places additional unwanted hurdles and control through software: > We are hearing reports that Apple is…

If Apple allows super easy salvage of another device for parts, I wonder if phones will start to be stolen again. Easy salvage might create an unacceptably wide-spread life-safety risk to ALL smartphone owners. Tradeoffs, unintended consequences.

Life-safety? Seriously? It's gun control and law enforcement problem, not the one of easy salvaging. Y'know, it's hard to imagine that someone in Europe or most of the Asia would be robbing at gunpoint for the smartphone.

Risk/reward just does not match - it'll be most likely few years or even probation for simple robbery with good ol' bats, and tens of years for robbing at gunpoint, a good part of it from illegal firearms possession. Not to mention that actual murder for smartphone will move it much closer to life sentence.

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#123

Post by tpmx » Mon, Sep 19, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

The article text is kind of incomprehensible on its own, IMO. If you're not already knowledgeable about modern smartphone repair you have to watch the video to make sense of it.

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#124

Post by Melatonic » Mon, Sep 19, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

anonymouse008 wrote: post #63

Apple Care + is going to become an insane profit center and an absolute no brainer when purchasing a new Apple device. This puts Apple’s recent “no limit to accidental repairs” policy update in perspective. When I saw that I said, “well I guess this is how they are going to use their cash reserves, because no way will this be net profitable” To boot, I always wondered why it was so cheap - $200 for AC+ then $29 per s…

Most people surely are not going to use it so how is it going to be a loss? Do people actually break their iphones every year?

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#125

Post by potatolicious » Mon, Sep 19, 2022, 5:11 PM UTC

kube-system wrote: post #100

kitsunesoba wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tools are made to guarantee a factory-quality repair, complete with stock levels of part fit and water resistance, regardless of the skill level of who’s using it. That can’t really be done in a way that’s not overengineered and bulky.

I’d argue that they’re not over engineered at all. They’re engineered for a particular purpose. Which is: Apple doing warranty repair. I love how people used to complain that Apple didn’t make their tools available, and now people complain that their tools are too nice. Well duh, did people think that Apple was using hairdryers and guitar picks for warranty work?

Yeah I really wonder what people's expectations are here.

"First step by putting a hair dryer to the front face of the phone and turning it up to max. We don't really know what temperature that will be, but hopefully it's enough to loosen the adhesive. Now improvise a tool for lifting the screen off, hopefully you won't cut the ribbon cables underneath while doing that - maybe a guitar pick? Ok then, when reassembling the device try to get the new screen on as evenly as possible. Who knows if you've done it right - but if you did it wrong your phone will definitely bork if you get it wet!"

Like, you can still do all of the above. There's nothing preventing you from doing a phone repair cheaply (and poorly) - but to expect a company to support that officially seems nuts?

It turns out repairing modern consumer electronics at a high quality bar is expensive! And it's equipment intensive!

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#126

Post by spideymans » Mon, Sep 19, 2022, 5:11 PM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #106

spideymans wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can assure you there are plenty of people within the Apple organization that genuinely care about security and privacy. And if Apple happens to profit due to those efforts, all the better. Not everything is some evil nefarious ploy.

There’s also very nice people working for Oracle. That doesn’t really reflect on how decisions are taken and what priorities are set at the higher level.

This is just nonsensical speculating, unless we understand the internal motivations of Apple’s decision makers. Maybe they’re evil and view this as a tool to dominate the world. Maybe they think these are genuinely beneficial decisions for their customers. Who knows.

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#127

Post by rTX5CMRXIfFG » Mon, Sep 19, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

ImprobableTruth wrote: post #82

rTX5CMRXIfFG wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if our goal is to prolong the lifecycle of consumer electronics, then repairability isn’t a necessary metric. If regulators instead went after service pricing abuse, that would force companies like Apple to drive down their repair prices—which might force them to design their hardware in a more modular manner, but not necessarily, so that if it becomes negligibly cheap to manufacture and replace the entire part of…

>If regulators instead went after service pricing abuse How would this work in a manner that isn't vastly more invasive than right to repair bills? I can't think of anything similar.

In what sense would it be vastly more invasive than right to repair?

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#128

Post by Melatonic » Mon, Sep 19, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

rTX5CMRXIfFG wrote: post #23

I’m not sure I care much about repairability. For me, makers should have the freedom to design products as they wish. I don’t think that phones and laptops would be as light and portable as iPhones and Macs are if Apple was inhibited by the Right to Repair movement from arranging internal components in such a jampacked way. I also think that makers should have the freedom to design computers whose software tightly in…

There is no reason that it would make the phones worse at all. Apple in the past intentionally made the phone harder to repair for no advantage.

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#129

Post by dkonofalski » Mon, Sep 19, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

smoldesu wrote: post #40

rTX5CMRXIfFG wrote: post #23

I’m not sure I care much about repairability. For me, makers should have the freedom to design products as they wish. I don’t think that phones and laptops would be as light and portable as iPhones and Macs are if Apple was inhibited by the Right to Repair movement from arranging internal components in such a jampacked way. I also think that makers should have the freedom to design computers whose software tightly in…

Apple has proven with this iPhone (as have other manufacturers) that these goals don't need to be mutually exclusive. You can have wild products designed in all manner of ways (with satellite connectivity!!!), they just need to be user-servicable. That's not an unreasonable request for a company with 200 billion dollars sitting in their R&D coffers. Right-to-repair regulation isn't about stifling innovation, it's abo…

>Apple has gone out of their way to make life as hard as possible on third-party repair shops

No they haven't. They just had no reason to prioritize or put effort into making sure that third-party repair shops had an easy time to do this. Not putting effort into something isn't the same as actively putting effort into making things more difficult.

Re: Apple’s iPhone 14 Redesign for Repair

#130

Post by dev_tty01 » Mon, Sep 19, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

Looking at the board photo, something bad happened during disassembly of the 14 Pro Max. At least 9 components were heated and moved off their pads on the main CPU board in the lower left corner. Some of the chips on the other side are also shifted. Will take some work to get that running again...