We are retroactively dropping the iPhone’s repairability score • Hacker News Board

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

#121

Post by weaksauce » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:56 PM UTC

MostlyStable wrote: post #105

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…

What is the relative rates of occurrence of phone theft vs. phones breaking in a way that requires repair? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that far far far more people have a phone that needs to be repaired than have a phone that gets stolen. So making repair worse to make theft "better" seems like a bad tradeoff to me. And that's even presuming that this stated goal actually works. I would expect that a very n…

> What is the relative rates of occurrence of phone theft vs. phones breaking in a way that requires repair?

i would think having a permanently useless phone would stop the first rate from ever increasing much. you are walking around with a grand in your pocket everywhere you go so to lower the risk of violent robbery is good.

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

#122

Post by jbombadil » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:56 PM UTC

danaris wrote: post #76

webworker wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think they were doing something like going to settings -> Apple ID try to change the password incorrectly many times (or something like that). That would basically lock you out of your own iCloud account (at least for a while) so you couldn’t lock or track it via find my.

I recommend using the “Screen Time” feature on iPhones to protect against this. You can basically set a _different_ 4 digit pin to access some of the settings of the iPhone, including the Apple ID one. (The setting becomes grayed out and inaccessible until you disable screen time).

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

#123

Post by hbn » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:56 PM UTC

MostlyStable wrote: post #105

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…

What is the relative rates of occurrence of phone theft vs. phones breaking in a way that requires repair? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that far far far more people have a phone that needs to be repaired than have a phone that gets stolen. So making repair worse to make theft "better" seems like a bad tradeoff to me. And that's even presuming that this stated goal actually works. I would expect that a very n…

> I'm going to go out on a limb and say that far far far more people have a phone that needs to be repaired than have a phone that gets stolen.

Perhaps because it's known to many thieves that iPhones are a useless thing to steal due to Apple's tight account-tied software locks?

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

#124

Post by TylerE » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:57 PM UTC

MostlyStable wrote: post #105

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…

What is the relative rates of occurrence of phone theft vs. phones breaking in a way that requires repair? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that far far far more people have a phone that needs to be repaired than have a phone that gets stolen. So making repair worse to make theft "better" seems like a bad tradeoff to me. And that's even presuming that this stated goal actually works. I would expect that a very n…

Personal anecdote: times I’ve had a phone need a repair besides a screen: zero

Times I’ve been mugged and had my phone taken: one

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

#125

Post by pierat » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:57 PM UTC

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…

How much were you paid to shill Apple for this top post?

If this were a real issue, then I as the device owner should be able to toggle this on and off as needed. But that hits deeper, since this is a device that's being sold as "purchase" when I don't have real control - Apple does.

At best, this is a rental being mis-advertised as a purchase.

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

#126

Post by specialist » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:57 PM UTC

LightHugger wrote: post #98

adesanmi wrote: post #57

When people stop robbing phones for them to end up in Shenzen and stripped for parts, this will stop. This is a deterrent to make stealing iPhones less convenient and I’m all for it. People already have to try to phish people’s iCloud details after stealing their devices to resell, costing them time and money and making it more annoying to try and steal. I do think people who want to repair their phone should have ac…

This is complete nonsense, if apple cared about phones being stolen for parts, they would just start selling the damn parts so people could repair their phones. Right now the reason parts are so valulable is because there's no other way to get them! Apple's unrepairability policy FUELS theft not the other way around.

Both you and u/agentultra are correct. Manufacturers must make parts available and reasonably priced.

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

#127

Post by MostlyStable » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:58 PM UTC

hbn wrote: post #123

MostlyStable wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the relative rates of occurrence of phone theft vs. phones breaking in a way that requires repair? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that far far far more people have a phone that needs to be repaired than have a phone that gets stolen. So making repair worse to make theft "better" seems like a bad tradeoff to me. And that's even presuming that this stated goal actually works. I would expect that a very n…

> I'm going to go out on a limb and say that far far far more people have a phone that needs to be repaired than have a phone that gets stolen. Perhaps because it's known to many thieves that iPhones are a useless thing to steal due to Apple's tight account-tied software locks?

Go back five years and I'd guess this is still true. I do not think Apple's policy has changed this.

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

#128

Post by Kirby64 » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:58 PM UTC

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…

The problem, as I see it, with having a method to 'pair' and 'unpair' components right now... is that I don't think Apple is really doing anything too special to 'pair' devices. My guess is they're just using a serial number of the device (display, camera, whatever) and making sure that serial matches the what is programmed into the mainboard. If you allow any random person to change the paired serial number for say, the display, then you no longer have any guarantee that the new display is actually an authentic device. Maybe someone aftermarket makes a bunch of devices with 0xDEADBEEF as the serial number so you just always pair that.

If Apple knows that serial number 0x12345678 was sold to you, and that it is the component you want to install, then they have a guarantee that this part is authentic and should work properly.

So, Apple needs a way for you to pair a serial number, but also that the serial number you're pairing is authentic. I'm not sure they have the second piece today.

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

#129

Post by UseStrict » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:58 PM UTC

sneeze-slayer wrote: post #61

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?

I think the point is that an unsuspecting buyer of, e.g. a screen replacement, could end up going to a shady repair shop that uses stolen parts, sees the message once, clicks "OK", and moves on. The reasoning being that this scenario would cause some demand for black market parts. The suggestion from OP whereby the seller of a used phone logs in and "unpairs" the parts could avoid this, unless a robber forces you to…

Apple could just unpair parts when the phone itself is reset/deactivated. And new genuine Apple parts could at least have a one-time automatic pairing when signing in with your Apple ID.

Stolen phone? The phone is still activated, part can't pair with new phone. Not perfect, but at least somewhat less anti-consumer.

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

#130

Post by accrual » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 6:59 PM UTC

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…

Phone theft is also a big deal at music festivals. Last year an entire backpack full of phones was recovered. People who lose them either never hear from them again, or see them in Find My as a brief blip somewhere hundreds or thousands of miles away. Sometimes they're shucked on site and all you find is your empty phone case on the ground.

It's already awful to lose your phone, but even more so when you're at a multi-day event you paid hundreds to attend.

https://www.wftv.com/news/local/lost-your-cell-edc-backpack-...