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Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

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Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#191

Post by def_true_false »

zakki wrote: post #74
qppo wrote: post #63

This may be controversial (or maybe not, this is HN and not reddit), but there's a question I've never seen answered. I don't really care about how easy it is to repair my phone, or at least not as much as I care about using iOS. I knew if my iPhone were to break I'd have to take it to Apple, so I pay for Apple Care (like I pay for iCloud for my backups). I don't feel like I've been swindled. I feel like I made the p…

Because there is other issues like e-waste. With repair we expect less e-waste. As you know Apple repair tends to replace the whole things instead of the broken part.

Taxing pollution is the ideal way to solve this.

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#192

Post by dathinab »

Apple independent repair is a scam, and public media should call it out on it.

Not only are the terms extremely abusive, what you get from them is a joke.

The benefits of independent repair is that they can repair the actual damage, e.g. by replacing some broken capacitors, connectors or ships on the motherboard. Which might sound supper hard but this are skills anyone who has a stable hand, reasonable good hand eye coordination and is bit clever or at least not stupid can learn in a view month maybe, half a year if they have proper guidance.

Heck anyone who enters the program will not only not get support from Apple to do proper repair they will lose their ability to do so because Apple forbids them to have potential replacement parts for this chips around... (And also makes sure they are not available on the marked.)

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#193

Post by nottorp »

grugagag wrote: post #122
tommymachine wrote: post #119

Every repair to my iPhone that has been done outside of Apple certified channels has ended in needing a replacement device. Have heard/ read some horror stories of Apple Store repairs, although have yet to experience any myself. Personally I haven’t had a single repair from a third party that has actually been passable. All this to say that I’m not really seeing a huge benefit of right to repair for consumers. A race…

I didnt have the same experience. I repaired a few Iphones at an indy repair shop and the repair was solid and way cheaper than with apple.

Word of mouth helps here.

I repaired an iPad and two iPhones at indy shops. Shop #1 did the iPad kinda right, except the one button(tm) was crooked after the screen replacement. Shop #2 did the two iPhones perfectly. Even the one with water damage.

So just ask around.

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#194

Post by [deleted] »

notimetorelax wrote: post #149
p1necone wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the difference between actual professional equipment, and "pro" aspirational marketing for consumer devices.

I don’t know, I guess you can have different definition of PRO. Yours is more about a fleet of devices that’s easy to maintain for a corporation or a school.

[deleted]

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#195

Post by justaguyhere »

LockAndLol wrote: post #147
ComputerGuru wrote: post #70

Just for some perspective, I can call up my Dell small business sales rep (who reached out to me after I bought just three or four machines over a period of some years) and give him an obscure part number. He says he needs a minute to look up the part, etc and asks if I’m taking this to a Dell-authorized technician; I say no. He takes advantage of how long it takes for the likely instantaneous result to pop up on the…

Apple really doesn't like the environment, does it? You're forced to get a new device every time. God for business, shit for the world. But Apple customers don't seem to care one bit.

I've a macbook air which is 9 years old, which never gave me a problem until now even after tons of abuse. My work laptop is Dell, about 4 years old - wifi drops at random, battery has swollen etc.

Maybe the reason Apple customers don't care is because their machines give them less trouble? And they have more disposable income?

Not defending Apple here (my next computer is definitely not going to be Apple), just trying to understand how Apple users think.

The thing that sucks is other industries/companies copying Apple. Lenovo computers are increasingly becoming harder to repair. Expensive, big machines like tractors are being locked down etc. Samsung made fun of apple when they removed the headphone jack but now Samsung and everyone else is doing the same, trying to squeeze more money out of the customer, airpods style.

Maybe we should make a list of repair friendly, environment friendly and customer friendly hardware and stick only to those.

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#196

Post by AriaMinaei »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #187
AriaMinaei wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> except if it means thicker, heavier, less optimized devices Speaking specifically of my MBP Retina, and looking inside, I fail to see how eg. a soldered NVME would make the laptop any thinner. There is plenty of space created by the much thicker heat sink, leaving room for a bunch of components to be modular. The reason all these components are soldered in is to make it hard for users or small shops to do quick rep…

A modular battery would make the laptop bulkier. If a modular NVMe drive wouldn't, it's because other components have already have. And beyond that, you should be comparing to an Air or MacBook, if we're talking about devices that have been optimized at the expense of modularity. Also, soldering down RAM means you don't have to include support for negotiating the properties and quality of arbitrary RAM sticks, which…

> There are good reasons to design components to work specifically with other components. There are also good reasons to make devices more modular. Both have value, to different users with different use cases.

If your point is that there is a trade-off to modularity, I'm not sure who it is in response to. It's obvious that modularity has a tradeoff. And I don't see any significant group in this conversation contending that. Nobody is asking for a user-replaceable RAM on an iPhone.

My own point (and R2R's I think) is that Apple, in most cases makes hard to repair products not as a tradeoff in favor of simplicity/compactness/robustness, but to increase profit.

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#197

Post by Marsymars »

raxxorrax wrote: post #180
Marsymars wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one time I brought my laptop to an Apple Store for a serious repair, they asked for the password to my primary account. I told them to just wipe the drive if they needed access.

Wouldn't work with iPads. If you have connected your Apple ID with the device and forget your password, you cannot even reset the device. Not sure on phones, but pretty sure it works in a similar way. Macs are probably different though. A "If they could, they would"-situation probably.

Newer Macs with T2 chips and Activation Lock enabled are similar. In either the case of T2 Macs or iOS devices I'd be happy to just reset the device myself rather than giving credentials. I was surprised that they asked at all - in my mind, asking someone for a password is verboten.

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#198

Post by xhruso00 »

tim333 wrote: post #188
xhruso00 wrote: post #104

Recently my MBP 2015 couldn’t boot because of the dead battery. I asked authorized repair centre and they quoted 400EUR as they need to order whole topcase. This is such a ripoff from Apple. Almost no one ships batteries cross border now. Finding a good replacement is almost an impossible task. The only thing I want the battery to be safe (not catching on fire or damaging my MBP)

>Almost no one ships batteries cross border now. I'm a little puzzled. I went on amazon uk where I happened to be and searched "macbook pro battery 2015" and got dozens of results, some with 5* reviews and from reputable companies like Sloda for example. Prices around 70 EUR. I swapped my 2013 Air battery the other day which takes about 2 mins. Not sure how hard it is on the 2015 pro.

I bought the so called 5* battery. It seems good but it degrades quickly after few charges. People review mostly in the first week (battery works and seems good), but the battery will lose original capacity in few weeks. If you read carefully you will find these reviews. In my case I am down 10% capacity after 11 cycles. PS: Battery is a sensitive item and cannot be shipped by plane. This explains the cross border problems.

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#199

Post by munk-a »

eirini1 wrote: post #159
Polylactic_acid wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was a dumb idea to begin with. We don't need phones that work like lego. Just reverting to how phones worked 5 years ago would be a massive improvement. For almost all users all they will ever need to do is replace the battery. We used to be able to replace the battery with no tools or skills and the screen was pretty easy if you had some skill at all. The problem we face now is that the user can't fix anything…

For real, all I want is for us to go back to the time where you could pop off the back cover of your phone by at worst unscrewing some screws, and the easily replace the battery.

Then maybe Apple wouldn't need to send out a backdoor patch to underclock old devices. People that still want the long battery life the device had on purchase could go out and purchase a new battery (or attempt to force Apple to give them a new one) - those folks that are fine being tethered to a power outlet can choose to ignore the shortening battery lifespan. Either way, it'd move the decision into the hands of the consumer instead of Apple making that choice for you. And don't forget that Apple did get into trouble over their stupid underclocking "We hope no one notices that we don't allow people to repair things" patch.

Re: Apple expands independent repair program to Mac after US antitrust investigation

#200

Post by munk-a »

sushshshsh wrote: post #60
sinak wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is Apple trying to avoid real Right to Repair legislation by taking actions that look like they support independent repair. Consider taking a moment to donate to https://repair.org/ - we're pushing to get Right to Repair laws passed in state legislatures across the US.

I am a real believer in right to repair. But I wonder, if we are unable to achieve legislative results, what can be done to build hardware on open standards?

The market could fix this issue if a significant enough chunk of consumers comprehended what they were losing when going with Apple and were willing to put their money where their mouth was. That's simply not going to happen and a market based solution is unreasonable - this is a time where subject matter experts need to help make an informed decision for the population at large.
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