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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

#71

Post by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF »

falsenapkin wrote: post #56
tumult wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

My comment is in response to your “yes this replacement is desired.” button in a world where parts can be harvested from a phone and used in a different one. My understanding of what you mean is if phone A were stolen and parts removed from it and installed in phone B then phone B would get the “yes this replacement is desired.” button instead of whatever is in place now. My feeling is this button would be no differe…

Change "replacement" to "removal" and it should work as intended. I haven't authorized my stolen phone's parts to be removed so they can't be installed in any other phone.

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

#72

Post by SenAnder »

notanormalnerd wrote: post #48
SenAnder wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why Apple gives the consumer an authorization code that they can use when re-selling their phone, to unlock its parts and permit their re-use. Since thieves don't get that code, it protects phones against theft and allows re-use. Because if they didn't do that, anti-theft would be just a useful excuse to further rob the consumer of agency. They do give out such a code, right? I'm just assuming here, but since…

Nobody is hindering you on reselling your device. Use your legitimate access to wipe the device and unpair it from Our iCloud account and then you can resell it. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201351 My old company had a big problems with leavers dropping off the iPhone without giving either their passcode or unpairing the device from whatever iCloud account they used, so they couldn't even give it to anybody else…

> Nobody is hindering you on reselling your device. Use your legitimate access to wipe the device and unpair it from Our iCloud account and then you can resell it.

And its parts can then be re-used in other Apple devices?

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

#73

Post by jchw »

vineyardmike wrote: post #23
jchw wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

“No one has stolen my phone so I don’t believe that actions to stop phone theft is necessary” I’ve heard plenty of stories of people getting their phones stolen in public. Especially when I was in school, we’d hear of plots like kids coming up to students and asking to call their parents because they’re scared and alone only to run over to a car waiting around the corner and drive away. You can argue it’s unnecessary…

I didn't make that argument at all, so it's pretty annoying that you've cornered me into arguing it. I really don't respect when people do this.

I never, ever argued against "actions to stop it". I argued against this action. I never argued that my anecdata that my phone has never been stolen means that all action against theft are unnecessary, but I believe it is good cause for me to want a phone that doesn't have excuse-driven anti-consumer anti-repair garbage built into it to "prevent theft" that has never been my problem.

I am, however, arguing that this is not how we should be dealing with problems like this. It, in fact, should be illegal.

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

#74

Post by hedora »

ho_schi wrote: post #50

That is one of the many reasons why use ThinkPads. * Maintenance Manual with explosion diagrams and step-by-step guides * Short guide videos for important parts (terse and helpful, very good hidden on Lenovos Website) * OEM-Parts from Lenovo itself or dealers Side story. I ordered a X13 Gen 3 (because the new reverse notch is “meh”) AMD (because Intel is “meh”) but the HiDPI was not selectable. So I ordered it withou…

I get how this is helpful for hobby hardware, but the last time I had a problem with a Lenovo, I sent it to the on-site authorized repair depot (my employer had a special gold plated contract with them), who couldn't replace it because it needed a replacement display cable they didn't stock. They diagnosed it, and sent it to Lenovo, who said it would take 30 days to replace the cable.

I bought a cheap desktop in the meantime, which still works fine, ten years later.

When the laptop came back, Lenovo diagnosed it "no fault found", and didn't replace the faulty cable. Not only was the display still intermittent (due to the bad cable), but their technician removed and then improperly installed the insulator for the backlight's high-voltage transformer, so it was painful and unsafe to touch the laptop if the display was on.

Compare this to Apple, where I drive into any big city, hand them the broken shiny thing, a bag of money containing about 10% its retail price, and it Just Works when they hand it back to me (almost always on the same day).

Maybe Lenovo can repair their own stuff these days? I haven't observed this anywhere I've worked since.

(My evidence that they can't fix their stuff is that there is usually a pile of broken Lenovos in the back of the IT office.)

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

#75

Post by ArtemZ »

MenhirMike wrote: post #47
vineyardmike wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“No one has stolen my phone so I don’t believe that actions to stop phone theft is necessary” I’ve heard plenty of stories of people getting their phones stolen in public. Especially when I was in school, we’d hear of plots like kids coming up to students and asking to call their parents because they’re scared and alone only to run over to a car waiting around the corner and drive away. You can argue it’s unnecessary…

I have never been murdered, and none of my friends have been either, so I don't believe that actions to stop murder are necessary. (We _do_ need laws to allow customers that can prove their purchase to unlock their parts though.)

Let's lock you up in your house, it will ensure that you are safe

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

#76

Post by danaris »

webworker wrote: post #58
jchw wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

There have been recent stories about how thieves were looking at people entering their passcodes into their phones, snatching the phone when it was unlocked and using the pin to disable iCloud/Find My.

...You can't use the device PIN to disable iCloud. You have to put in the iCloud password. And you really do have to put it in; even if the iPhone is unlocked, security features like that always require the password.

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

#77

Post by skeaker »

tqi wrote: post #5

AIUI, these restrictions are primarily intended to curb the market for stolen iphones? I think Apple has taken it too far here, but I also think it is disingenuous to have this discourse without at least mentioning the other considerations. There is no "right" answer, only tradeoffs...

This is stated elsewhere in this thread, but if this is the case then Apple should allow users to unpair their parts and allow them to be reused. Gouging users by forcing them to buy a new part that they already have because their current one is "unverified" despite working perfectly can only be interpreted as greed.

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

#78

Post by whynotminot »

orwin wrote: post #59
abtinf wrote: post #43

This is another dishonest post by Kyle and iFixit. The failure to mention a critical a reason for pairing—theft prevention—is enough to dismiss the entire piece as hopelessly biased. Just a few years ago, every major news source had an article every other week sounding the alarms about the smartphone theft problem. They would universally blame the phone manufacturers for not doing more.

So, abandonning liberties for a bit of security then.

I just don’t understand how repairing a phone got conflated with liberty in these conversations.

Don’t like the product don’t buy the product.

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

#79

Post by skeaker »

abtinf wrote: post #43

This is another dishonest post by Kyle and iFixit. The failure to mention a critical a reason for pairing—theft prevention—is enough to dismiss the entire piece as hopelessly biased. Just a few years ago, every major news source had an article every other week sounding the alarms about the smartphone theft problem. They would universally blame the phone manufacturers for not doing more.

If the solution to theft is "remotely brick parts that work perfectly," it is a shitty solution that doesn't deserve consideration. Doubly so when Apple's workaround for that is "pay us even more money to double the e-waste by having us send you another perfectly working part, but ~verified~!"

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

#80

Post by danaris »

ejstronge wrote: post #60
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…

> (If anyone at Apple is reading this: ffs, allow the legitimate owner of a device to "unpair" all components in their phone in iCloud so that legitimate second-hand shops can strip a broken device at least for its parts) I was robbed at gunpoint (but not in a 'problematic' part of town) and the thief outlined all the steps he needed me to take to remove my phone from Find My and from iCloud. I think a lot of these m…

There's a significant difference in risk in robbing someone at gunpoint vs just slipping their phone out of their pocket. It's awful that that happened to you, but it's important to realize that just because a specific security measure could not prevent what happened to you, that doesn't mean it's wholly ineffectual or not worth having.
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