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Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair

ifixit.com

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Re: Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair

#41

Post by buildzr »

Betelgeuse90 wrote: post #8
soganess wrote: post #6

EDIT: Per Betelgeuse90 comment below, my characterization of the situation was incorrect. Apple's behavior is anti-competitive. I am leaving my original comment here for posterity. Original comment: I love jumping on the apple hate train as much as the next person, but this is not a valid reason to do so. Depending on the aftermarket battery, those reported values could be completely wrong / misleading to the user. I…

To be fair, you'll get the "service battery" message even if you place an original Apple battery in the iPhone. A used device that was serviced perfectly well but not by Apple will still display this message. All this means is that the battery wasn't replaced by Apple themselves.

Theoretically they could properly detect a crappy replacement too by doing some basic math to determine approximate capacity. I'm not sure of the situation on iOS but on Android tools like Accubattery do a decent job of this. As such, even requiring an Apple original battery would be poor practice in my opinion.

Re: Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair

#42

Post by inlined »

derefr wrote: post #21
mebo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A company that cares about eroding trust in third-party repairs shops getting blamed for ripping off their customers when the battery still reports as broken.

It’s not reporting as broken; it’s just reporting as “not our problem if it fails.” The Right-to-Repair discussion often ignores a key problem companies have: figuring out whether a device is under warranty (i.e. whether they’re obligated to repair the device for free) when it’s submitted for repair. Some repairs make themselves obvious, and so make the removal of warranty obligation obvious. Other repairs—like third…

There’s a big gap between this and a one-time alert and/or annotation that can be pulled on the device by a service technician. Cutting off battery status just seems petty

Re: Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair

#43

Post by wwweston »

sjwright wrote: post #13
soganess wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good catch! I will adjust my original message with an edit. That is straight up anti-competitive. Egg on my face for giving apple the benefit of the doubt.

How is it anti-competitive if the swapped battery works perfectly fine? Who cares about what the battery status page says?

Does the battery work perfectly fine? At that point, the battery status page is broken, so it's hard to say.

Re: Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair

#45

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

MiroF wrote: post #34
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we going with "lock down the hardware and software" anti-consumer Apple, or "spy on everything" anti-consumer Google?

Google'a shit is more easily mitigated if you're smart and want an only slightly less great browsing experience

Even with an Android phone?

Re: Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair

#46

Post by canuckintime »

lnsru wrote: post #24

I am going to pay 49€ for iPhone 6 original battery replacement in coming weeks. It’s still many times cheaper than buying new phone. Ifixit wants 20€ only for compatible part, so I think, Apple’s 49€ inclusive half hour technician work is very good deal. I work as an electrical engineer and understand Apple’s position very well. Nobody wants, that user try to service their devices. Some get lucky and device works fi…

I took an iPhone SE to an Apple Store for a battery replacement program last year. Spent 4+ hours waiting with minimal status updates until the genius finally came back out to say that the battery was replaced but TouchID was now broken, they didn't have any replacement parts and it would take a week for a refurbished unit to arrive. Had to pay to take the broken phone away with no other recourse. Six months later, the battery is bad again...

Re: Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair

#47

Post by some_random »

RandomTisk wrote: post #20
GhostVII wrote: post #5

To be clear, you can replace the battery with whatever battery you want, it will just show a message saying it can't be verified as an Apple battery. The only user impact is being unable to see battery health. I don't even think I can see my battery health on my Android so I don't see it as a big deal, but definitely not great if they are hiding this functionality for no reason.

It's a very big deal to me. Apple needs a good smack to their financial jaw. This is ridiculously anti-consumer and it utterly pisses me off.

What's anti-consumer about explicitly not reporting inaccurate information to the user? Don't get me wrong, Apple does need a fist down their throat, but over this?

Re: Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair

#48

Post by buildzr »

Nextgrid wrote: post #15
rolph wrote: post #2

>>"Technically, it is possible to remove the microcontroller chip from the original battery and carefully solder it into the new battery you’re swapping in, restoring the Battery Health feature—but the procedure isn’t for the faint of heart, and it’s an unreasonable requirement for any repair, much less something as simple as a battery swap." it seems a razor and a low wattage solder iron will fix it. and im guessing…

The chip could keep encryption keys in RAM (since it’s always powered by the battery and there’s always gonna be enough juice in there to power it given its tiny power consumption) and if the chip loses power (due to being desoldered) the keys are lost preventing the phone from authenticating it.

Great, leave the device unplugged for a few weeks and any residual charge will drop off enough to invalidate your battery keys. That'd be a shit show.

Re: Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair

#49

Post by lnsru »

canuckintime wrote: post #46
lnsru wrote: post #24

I am going to pay 49€ for iPhone 6 original battery replacement in coming weeks. It’s still many times cheaper than buying new phone. Ifixit wants 20€ only for compatible part, so I think, Apple’s 49€ inclusive half hour technician work is very good deal. I work as an electrical engineer and understand Apple’s position very well. Nobody wants, that user try to service their devices. Some get lucky and device works fi…

I took an iPhone SE to an Apple Store for a battery replacement program last year. Spent 4+ hours waiting with minimal status updates until the genius finally came back out to say that the battery was replaced but TouchID was now broken, they didn't have any replacement parts and it would take a week for a refurbished unit to arrive. Had to pay to take the broken phone away with no other recourse. Six months later, t…

Went to their repair center with 2 phones. 1 hour later went home with 2 fresh phones. Amazing experience, but heard, it’s not that good in big cities.

Re: Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair

#50

Post by JustSomeNobody »

GhostVII wrote: post #5

To be clear, you can replace the battery with whatever battery you want, it will just show a message saying it can't be verified as an Apple battery. The only user impact is being unable to see battery health. I don't even think I can see my battery health on my Android so I don't see it as a big deal, but definitely not great if they are hiding this functionality for no reason.

This is acceptable?

Honestly, we should stop Apple-ogizing[0]. They are getting very user hostile. They should acknowledge and support end users right to repair.

[0] Groan.

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