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Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

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Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#211
post #113
post #65

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Wow the downvotes without comments are interesting. I can only guess that they are from people who are so used to getting f*cked by the tech industry that they don't see anything wrong in having to throw away a perfectly-functioning device only because it's 3-5 years old. Now imagine cars were made like that.

Maybe people just don't think your claim that everyone throws away perfectly-functioning devices is true.

Ok not neccesarily throw away then, but, as someone else said, put them in the drawer or give them some non-phone function. For example, my iPhone 4, still perfectly functional but crippled with iOS update that made it too slow to be usable, is now a white noise machine near my bed.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#212
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure the parent comment wanted you to talk about Android, where vendors ending software support and updates before the phone is even bought is the norm.

If they’re cheap, then it’s somewhat expected that they are crap. Not so for expensive phones (if what you described is the case for expensive Android phones as well, then of course they’re even worse than Apple).

Many flagships get one major update or so.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#213
post #12

You know what helps products last longer and reduces waste at the same time? Repairability . The repairability of apple products is so poor that even Apple can't fix most of their own products without replacing surprisingly large portions of any given Apple device. End user repairability has been utterly neglected. Disassembly is frequently impossible without causing damage, and components such as batteries are frequ…

I agree that repairability is important.

I have a year-old X with a cracked camera lens that Apple wants $450 to fix (under AppleCare+), but some YouTube video says I can fix myself for $7. The third-party repair centers near me say they won't touch it. The only reason my mother-in-law is still using my ancient hand-me-down 5s is because the small repair shops will replace the screen and battery on that one for almost nothing.

Although I also have an Android phone of a similar vintage with a replaceable battery. Nobody sells that battery model anymore. It's a doorstop.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#214
This "should last as long as possible" was already assumed... and frankly kind of insulting after buying apple products for many years. And we do expect to be able to repair... I took my iPhone 6 to apple because the battery was done. They "tested" it and said it was fine. I paid a third party to replace it since apple would not. Phone was fixed... couple weeks later apple admitted there were battery problems and were handing out cheap replacements.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that happens today every day with the iPhone? There are plenty of professionals, both authorized and unauthorized by Apple, that can do nearly any repair necessary on an iPhone.

I agree with Cameron here, people, for whatever reason, just don't use the repairmen. They're out there. They're everywhere, but the repair shops are nowhere even close to being as busy as the Apple store. (Or even the AT&T store for that matter.) I think people have been successfully conditioned to view phones as disposable/replaceable. It would take an almost Sisyphean marketing and conditioning effort to change th…

Maybe there are regional effects at play, but in almost every country I’ve lived or worked in there are a substantial number of independent iPhone repair stores, usually with cliched names like iRepair or similar, and many of them seem to be doing a roaring trade. If people weren’t using them I can’t imagine these stores would be continuing to exist in such numbers either.

Outside many European Apple stores they even often pay someone to stand and hold a sign advertising cheaper iPhone repairs available around the corner etc.

Anecdotally, a large number of my friends and family have all used these, usually for cracked screens or batteries, and often in preference to an Apple store on the (sometimes incorrect) assumption it will be cheaper than “taking it to Apple” to get fixed.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#216
post #55

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Sadly, the C64 is also quicker than Apple's iCloud website. Frequently, when I type a new note or a reminder, the lag between my pressing a key and character appearing on the screen is in several seconds. This is on a 4-core machine with 16 GB of RAM that's not doing anything else.

It really does perplex me that the iCloud website is as bad as it is. I'd almost think it was abandoned-ware except that Apple continues to update it. Their whole cloud offering (iTunes store, Apple Music, iCloud) needs a MASSIVE overhaul. Everything should be available via the web and on a modern accessible website. I'd go as far as to say that they need a new point-person in charge of their Cloud Services because w…

iirc, icloud was written in sproutcore. version 2 of sproutcoure became ember which is now in version 3. there was no upgrade path from sproutcore 1 to ember, so likely its a case of needing a rewrite and that not being prioritized.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To nitpick actually they have. IOS 6.1.2 came out 6 months after iOS 7 But what unpatched security flaws have been reported in older versions of iOS that would allow an attacker to install a keylogger or otherwise exfiltrate user data?

> But what unpatched security flaws have been reported in older versions of iOS that would allow an attacker to install a keylogger or otherwise exfiltrate user data? …a jailbreak?

I haven’t been able to find an untethered Jailbreak for iOS 5 - ie a method for an unsuspecting user to have his iOS device compromised.

A “tethered jailbreak” means the user purposefully went through a series of steps to jailbreak thier device or someone else physically got access to thier device.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot your 4lb baby sledgehammer to "encourage" the rotor to pop off :)

Yup. Bad memories for sure. That's why I love the makers who put threaded holes in two places on the rotor into which you insert bolts and press the rotor off with the bolts. Honda does it; I can't remember if Mercedes does it consistently or not.

Thanks for the reminder about those! I helped change brakes on a friend's... Accord (I think) and remember being delighted to find those bolt holes. Unfortunately haven't encountered those since then on any of my vehicles.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#219
I was asked by Apple Mexico $350 to replace the battery on a retina MBP with the excuse that they have to replace the complete top panel (battery, keyboard, trackpad, etc).

The initial price was closer to $600 but I got a discount because they buy the old part from me.

Of course I said no. I will try to do it myself for less than $100 with a battery I bought from Ebay.

Re: Apple now strives to design and build products that last as long as possible

#220
post #12

You know what helps products last longer and reduces waste at the same time? Repairability . The repairability of apple products is so poor that even Apple can't fix most of their own products without replacing surprisingly large portions of any given Apple device. End user repairability has been utterly neglected. Disassembly is frequently impossible without causing damage, and components such as batteries are frequ…

I think if you try to extrapolate your or my willingness to repair something to the overall market for the iphone, it would be an error. What are the tradeoffs for a user replaceable battery? (really, this is something we should all know if we are arguing FOR replaceable batteries - maybe it's not the best idea? I would wager 99%+ of sales go to people who never want to touch the innards of a phone. And anecdotally,…

Do those people that do not want to change their battery of their Iphone also throw away their TV remote control when the battery is empty?
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