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Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

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Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#21

Post by aeturnum »

crazygringo wrote: post #5

I'm entirely on Apple's side here. It makes me very happy, as a consumer, knowing that if someone steals my phone, they can't get any value out of it. I don't want them to be able to sell it to a refurbisher for cash. And I don't want them to be able to do it with my laptop either. And for refurbishers, it's not hard to make it an obvious required step for anyone looking to sell their own legitimately-owned phone. Yo…

It would be simple for apple to extend the system by allowing recyclers to ask apple to send a message to the previous owner of the device. This would be extremely pro-consumer, because it would allow lost devices to be returned via an official channel. It would also allow users to release their claims on hardware they meant to give away.

The "solution" of just expecting the previous owner to never make a mistake is unreliable and totally unnecessary. Apple can act as the common contact for the system they created.

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#23

Post by gargravarr »

qxnqd wrote: post #15
crazygringo wrote: post #5

I'm entirely on Apple's side here. It makes me very happy, as a consumer, knowing that if someone steals my phone, they can't get any value out of it. I don't want them to be able to sell it to a refurbisher for cash. And I don't want them to be able to do it with my laptop either. And for refurbishers, it's not hard to make it an obvious required step for anyone looking to sell their own legitimately-owned phone. Yo…

Most components aren't affected by activation lock, on iphones or on macs. You can still reuse many things that are in demand, like the screen, the speakers, the buttons, the cameras, and so on. It will be the same with macs. THey will throw away the motherboard and sell the rest. Still profitable.

Not any more:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/12/18077166/apple-macbook-a...

"The parts affected, according to the document, are the display assembly, logic board, top case, and Touch ID board for the MacBook Pro, and the logic board and flash storage on the iMac Pro."

That doesn't leave much salvageable.

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#24

Post by filleduchaos »

eropple wrote: post #19
mullen wrote: post #14

> “We receive four to six thousand locked iPhones per month,” laments Peter Schindler, founder and owner of The Wireless Alliance, a Colorado-based electronics recycler and refurbisher. Those iPhones, which could easily be refurbished and put back into circulation, “have to get parted out or scrapped,” all because of this anti-theft feature. Maybe 6 thousand people get their phones stolen every month and don't want t…

So you picked up, before you spun up your hauteur engine, that that number is not six thousand stolen iPhones, but six thousand trashed and recycled ones? And that there's no way to communicate to a user that their lock prevents it from being done? There's no reason why a user can't be asked by Apple "hey, a recycler received this locked iPhone, do you want to wipe and unlock it for recycling?" save for an unwillingn…

I think the (valid if cynical) implication is that a large number of those "trashed and recycled" phones were trashed and recycled by people who are...not the owners.

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#25

Post by snuxoll »

aeturnum wrote: post #21
crazygringo wrote: post #5

I'm entirely on Apple's side here. It makes me very happy, as a consumer, knowing that if someone steals my phone, they can't get any value out of it. I don't want them to be able to sell it to a refurbisher for cash. And I don't want them to be able to do it with my laptop either. And for refurbishers, it's not hard to make it an obvious required step for anyone looking to sell their own legitimately-owned phone. Yo…

It would be simple for apple to extend the system by allowing recyclers to ask apple to send a message to the previous owner of the device. This would be extremely pro-consumer, because it would allow lost devices to be returned via an official channel. It would also allow users to release their claims on hardware they meant to give away. The "solution" of just expecting the previous owner to never make a mistake is…

> It would be simple for apple to extend the system by allowing recyclers to ask apple to send a message to the previous owner of the device. This would be extremely pro-consumer, because it would allow lost devices to be returned via an official channel. It would also allow users to release their claims on hardware they meant to give away.

It would also make recovery of stolen devices easier. Refurbisher has Apple contact the owner, owner says it was stolen, person gets their equipment back.

I don't see the downside here, literally everyone gets what they want - people can sell or dispose of their old devices as they see fit, refurbishers and third-party repair shops can get parts and devices they need to run their business, Apple gets to continue touting the security of the platform, and victims of theft have a better chance of recovering their often expensive gadgets.

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#26

Post by fortran77 »

crazygringo wrote: post #5

I'm entirely on Apple's side here. It makes me very happy, as a consumer, knowing that if someone steals my phone, they can't get any value out of it. I don't want them to be able to sell it to a refurbisher for cash. And I don't want them to be able to do it with my laptop either. And for refurbishers, it's not hard to make it an obvious required step for anyone looking to sell their own legitimately-owned phone. Yo…

They'll still get value from it. Some crackhead will steal your phone and it can be parted out to use the screen, the glass, the case, etc., even if it can't be activated again. It may be worth $20 instead of $150 to him, but he'll still steal it.

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#27

Post by kps »

GhettoMaestro wrote: post #11
crazygringo wrote: post #5

I'm entirely on Apple's side here. It makes me very happy, as a consumer, knowing that if someone steals my phone, they can't get any value out of it. I don't want them to be able to sell it to a refurbisher for cash. And I don't want them to be able to do it with my laptop either. And for refurbishers, it's not hard to make it an obvious required step for anyone looking to sell their own legitimately-owned phone. Yo…

Exactly. This brew-ha-ha is nothing. This is an anti-theft feature. Hard to argue against features designed to reduce the potential for someone to target it for theft. As someone who has had both a smartphone and a laptop stolen, I would have loved to know that aside from my frustration with the insurance company that the thief walked away with 2 worthless bricks. And no, right to repair should not ban user-initiated…

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brouhaha

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#28

Post by fortran77 »

snuxoll wrote: post #25
aeturnum wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be simple for apple to extend the system by allowing recyclers to ask apple to send a message to the previous owner of the device. This would be extremely pro-consumer, because it would allow lost devices to be returned via an official channel. It would also allow users to release their claims on hardware they meant to give away. The "solution" of just expecting the previous owner to never make a mistake is…

> It would be simple for apple to extend the system by allowing recyclers to ask apple to send a message to the previous owner of the device. This would be extremely pro-consumer, because it would allow lost devices to be returned via an official channel. It would also allow users to release their claims on hardware they meant to give away. It would also make recovery of stolen devices easier. Refurbisher has Apple c…

This really can't work. They'd get unscrupulous people taking phones they sold back, or a couple who broke up where it's not clear who "owns" the phone. Nobody wants to put himself in the middle of these things.

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#29

Post by AnthonyMouse »

crazygringo wrote: post #5

I'm entirely on Apple's side here. It makes me very happy, as a consumer, knowing that if someone steals my phone, they can't get any value out of it. I don't want them to be able to sell it to a refurbisher for cash. And I don't want them to be able to do it with my laptop either. And for refurbishers, it's not hard to make it an obvious required step for anyone looking to sell their own legitimately-owned phone. Yo…

> But it still makes me feel better a thief will get $30, not $300, for my phone -- that's often enough of a difference between it being worth it or not.

Typically the value of a computer is about the same as the sum of its parts, because otherwise plenty of people would be up for a $270 profit by buying $30 worth of parts and assembling them to sell as a $300 computer.

> And if people are dropping these off for recycling, isn't the expectation that they're being used for parts at best anyways? If they're high enough value to actually be refurbished and resold, then it's worth putting the recycling bins behind cashiers or similar, who are trained to first verify they're unlocked before accepting them.

It's generally the other way around. The less a computer is worth (and so the less the parts are worth), the more you want to try to sell it as a whole unit to minimize transaction overhead because the fixed overhead is a larger percentage of the sale price on less expensive hardware.

Re: Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Difficult to Refurbish Macs

#30

Post by hombre_fatal »

It's pretty satisfying seeing how many perfectly good looking iPhones on Facebook Marketplace in my city have to spell out "parts only". I ended up just buying a $200 iPhone 8 from Amazon Renewed instead of looking for a legit seller.

Repair shops can buy them up for cheap and legitimate owners get cheaper 3rd party repairs, though at the unfortunate expense of the theft victim. But at least the "middle man" doesn't get a huge payoff.

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