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We are retroactively dropping the iPhone’s repairability score

ifixit.com

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Re: We are retroactively dropping the iPhone’s repairability score

#31

Post by thatfrenchguy »

jchw wrote: post #15
mschuster91 wrote: post #6

There is also another issue why Apple is restricting "part harvesting": theft. iCloud locks or Samsung's KNOX lock entered the field because the manufacturers were pretty pissed that customers using their devices in public became a target for "enterprising" robbers who'd factory-wipe the devices and flip them to a pawn shop or second-hand store in a matter of half an hour. When people are afraid to use your products…

I do not accept this as a reasonable answer. I've lived in not even very good areas, with very lax physical security (often not locking my car) and have never had this issue, ever. Nobody has ever stolen my phone. Not in downtown Detroit, not in not-downtown-Detroit, not in SF, not in Chicago. If crime really is this bad, it's not an Apple or Samsung problem. It's a societal problem that extremely badly needs to be a…

Pickpocketing in the Us is highly uncommon compared to say, Paris.

Re: We are retroactively dropping the iPhone’s repairability score

#32

Post by mortureb »

mcphage wrote: post #4

> Forget harvesting parts—which is a huge part of most independent repair and recycling businesses. Isn't that also why most stolen phones end up in SE Asia where they're disassembled for parts?

The parts talk to each other so not really for the last generation or two.

Re: We are retroactively dropping the iPhone’s repairability score

#33

Post by matsemann »

sjkna wrote: post #12

Thanks Apple for making my phone a less attractive target for thieves by making its pieces useless when used in other phones. Ifixit: you are not on my side.

Yeah, hail Apple! They only have us consumers in mind, not like the nefarious iFixit people! /s

Re: We are retroactively dropping the iPhone’s repairability score

#34

Post by tumult »

falsenapkin wrote: post #22
toxik wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While anti-consumerist practices such as this authentication mechanism sometimes accidentally protect the consumer, it is not the reason why companies do it. If it were, they would also allow you to say “yes this replacement is desired.” Similarly, if it was about security and preventing backdoored parts, they could allow you to authorize the replacement. But no, it is of course about money grabbing, and then the con…

Such an ignore button would allow theft to continue and would allow users to make poor security decisions. I agree that something needs to happen to enable easier or maybe more privacy focused 3rd party repairs but I also appreciate my device being less of a target.

What? How is someone who snatched your phone out of your hand and ran away going to know your password and authentication information needed to authorize a parts replacement?

Re: We are retroactively dropping the iPhone’s repairability score

#35

Post by picture »

misnome wrote: post #19
toxik wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While anti-consumerist practices such as this authentication mechanism sometimes accidentally protect the consumer, it is not the reason why companies do it. If it were, they would also allow you to say “yes this replacement is desired.” Similarly, if it was about security and preventing backdoored parts, they could allow you to authorize the replacement. But no, it is of course about money grabbing, and then the con…

> If it were, they would also allow you to say “yes this replacement is desired.” How does that not completely bypass any of the reasons for wanting to do this? And it is “anti-consumerist” to make my property a less desirable target for theft?

> How does that not completely bypass any of the reasons for wanting to do this?

Do it from your iCloud account. Presumably thieves will not hold you at gun point to log in to iCloud and allow pairing of your phone's components to a ready recipient iPhone

Re: We are retroactively dropping the iPhone’s repairability score

#36

Post by MostlyStable »

sjkna wrote: post #12

Thanks Apple for making my phone a less attractive target for thieves by making its pieces useless when used in other phones. Ifixit: you are not on my side.

If parts weren't so unnecessarily difficult to get in the first part, stealing phones for parts wouldn't be a thing. Apple created this problem, they don't get to get credit for "fixing" it in a way that harms consumers.

Re: We are retroactively dropping the iPhone’s repairability score

#37

Post by Macha »

mschuster91 wrote: post #6

There is also another issue why Apple is restricting "part harvesting": theft. iCloud locks or Samsung's KNOX lock entered the field because the manufacturers were pretty pissed that customers using their devices in public became a target for "enterprising" robbers who'd factory-wipe the devices and flip them to a pawn shop or second-hand store in a matter of half an hour. When people are afraid to use your products…

I have to think that if replacement parts were more widely available, it would reduce the market for parted out stolen phones.

Re: We are retroactively dropping the iPhone’s repairability score

#38

Post by INTPenis »

They could have written iPhone 14 in the title. This way it seems like they're riding a wave of negative press following the "wanderlust" event.

Not that I care, I gave up my iphone and macintosh 12 years ago, I'm just noting a pattern of negative press being upvoted and this is among it.

Re: We are retroactively dropping the iPhone’s repairability score

#39

Post by hedora »

mschuster91 wrote: post #6

There is also another issue why Apple is restricting "part harvesting": theft. iCloud locks or Samsung's KNOX lock entered the field because the manufacturers were pretty pissed that customers using their devices in public became a target for "enterprising" robbers who'd factory-wipe the devices and flip them to a pawn shop or second-hand store in a matter of half an hour. When people are afraid to use your products…

It seems pretty easy to implement the "unpair" functionality you ask for.

If "Find My iPhone" (the anti-theft subsystem) is disabled, then the serial numbers for all the parts could be sent to an Apple database, and/or the components could have a "ready to be re-used" bit set that caused them to factory reset themselves if the phone they're plugged into changes (so any state on the re-used thing wouldn't somehow leak into the other phone).

I'm not sure how to define "phone they're plugged into" though. Whatever board has the NAND + security coprocessor on it, maybe?

Re: We are retroactively dropping the iPhone’s repairability score

#40

Post by dmitrygr »

toxik wrote: post #11
mschuster91 wrote: post #6

There is also another issue why Apple is restricting "part harvesting": theft. iCloud locks or Samsung's KNOX lock entered the field because the manufacturers were pretty pissed that customers using their devices in public became a target for "enterprising" robbers who'd factory-wipe the devices and flip them to a pawn shop or second-hand store in a matter of half an hour. When people are afraid to use your products…

While anti-consumerist practices such as this authentication mechanism sometimes accidentally protect the consumer, it is not the reason why companies do it. If it were, they would also allow you to say “yes this replacement is desired.” Similarly, if it was about security and preventing backdoored parts, they could allow you to authorize the replacement. But no, it is of course about money grabbing, and then the con…

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