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Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

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Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#81

Post by e_proxus »

nbzso wrote: post #53

I hate to repeat my self but this articles keep piling up. Vote with your money first, then if you have a way search legislative measures. They will never stop to search a way to profit more. This is just a beginning. Fully closed macs are coming. I don't care anymore for iPhones, my professional problem is with apple desktops and laptops. If we follow Apple logic in near future I will have to Jailbreak my personal c…

There aren’t many (if any) realistic options. It basically boils down to Apple, Android or some extremely niche third party special phone (Fairphone etc.) which are mostly Android anyway. So either you pay Apple for premium hardware and software quality but loose out on repairability. Or you get Android which is a potential or actual privacy nightmare. Or you get an obscure other phone which is less supported and usually not as good value for money.

The only thing that can really fix these problems is proper regulation. That’s the only language these companies understand.

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#82

Post by roblabla »

madaxe_again wrote: post #31
deadbunny wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is pirating software and repairing a device you have purchased comparable?

Because, legally, they are pretty similar - both are a breach of EULA, both are not an expected use. I would wager that in the not too distant future, legislation and social attitudes will view repairing damaged electronics as theft. Right to repair will ironically likely be the mechanism through which this happens - mfgs are using it to create closed ecosystems with no participants - see apples programme for indepen…

First, piracy is not a breach of EULA, it's copyright infringement, which are entirely different beasts. Second, breaching the EULA of a hardware product might be breaking the law in the US, but in the EU, hardware products cannot be bound by contracts. You buy a good, not a service, so no EULA can apply. I think even in the US, it depends on the state you're in...

So, no, legally, they have almost nothing in common.

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#83

Post by vaccinator »

whytaka wrote: post #35

Not too long ago, I went to the Apple store to get my MacBook Pro looked at for a faulty key and degraded trackpad. As I had a Genius diagnose the issue, the screen brightness of my iPhone 7 had dropped nearly completely. While it was true that the glass of the screen had cracked due to a fall, the phone had operated just fine for many months since. The Genius told me it was likely a display issue while I told him it…

Did they still make you pay for the $200 for the screen?

I wish I could get a phone with plain Linux but I don't think that my carrier (Comcast Mobile) supports any of them. I once used an unsupported phone, and the 4G would work for only a few minutes after a reboot (so it probably is an artificial problem).

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#84

Post by alisonkisk »

davidy123 wrote: post #66
maccard wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from apple to android a few years ago, hoping the grass would be greener. I hoped I was leaving behind a locked in ecosystem with hard to repair devices for a more open ecosystem where competition would improve quality. Android is a fat mess, with flagship phones from premium manufacturers being incompatible with various OS features, and devices from different manufacturers being incompatible in ways that nev…

Not sure what is going on with your power button, but if it's outside warranty repair $300 for a replacement device is pretty good. On my fifth Android handset, I have really not found the incompatibility you point out to be an issue. Sure, some companies, like Samsung, try to offer some exclusive features. Just avoid them. I have to use an iPhone for work, there are a lot of critical annoyances, like how poorly curs…

> My 3 year old Pixel 2

is no longer guaranteed to receive security updates.

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#85

Post by notsureaboutpg »

sudhirj wrote: post #75

Since no one else seems to be doing so, I’ll do devil’s advocate: this is a really good idea. The last thing I want with an expensive phone is to give it in for repair and find it’s been stripped for parts and replaced with low quality knockoffs. Apple doing this makes me more confident giving it in for repair, because I know that when I get my phone back all the parts in it are still real. There are enough horror st…

This isn't an issue for the core demographic which buy Apple products (which is wealthy Americans).

IDK, Apple is able to command such respect and prices not because of consumer confidence (in my opinion) but because they are the company who made the iPhone, which was a huge leap forward in terms of device innovation.

Regular people don't think about or care how their phones get fixed. They don't care about app stores and all the kinds of things we on HN talk about. They care about user-friendliness and bang for their buck. Because Apple used to be so technologically innovative, even at high prices it felt like a bang for your buck.

Now I don't think people think that's what you get with Apple anymore. They play it safe, they don't release innovative technology anymore. They just do what other people do. Apple TV+. Wireless earbuds. Slightly better components in each phone.

I don't see them releasing anything that captures people's imagination the way the iPhone did anytime soon. And if they don't, they'll be just another phone/computer company to a lot of people.

That's my humble opinion. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong and why.

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#86

Post by alisonkisk »

groundCode wrote: post #68
maccard wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from apple to android a few years ago, hoping the grass would be greener. I hoped I was leaving behind a locked in ecosystem with hard to repair devices for a more open ecosystem where competition would improve quality. Android is a fat mess, with flagship phones from premium manufacturers being incompatible with various OS features, and devices from different manufacturers being incompatible in ways that nev…

The question is, do any of us actually need the flagship devices? The android phones I’ve bought for family members on the budget end of the spectrum seem to last just as long as the flagships and have decent enough feature sets for pretty much everything from what I can see. Granted none of us play a lot of games and we are more of the holiday snaps than artists when it comes to photos.

No one "needs" much of anything. Do you "need" HN?

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#87

Post by shorts_theory »

neya wrote: post #73
whytaka wrote: post #35

Not too long ago, I went to the Apple store to get my MacBook Pro looked at for a faulty key and degraded trackpad. As I had a Genius diagnose the issue, the screen brightness of my iPhone 7 had dropped nearly completely. While it was true that the glass of the screen had cracked due to a fall, the phone had operated just fine for many months since. The Genius told me it was likely a display issue while I told him it…

Not speaking in support of Apple here, but just like any other manufacturer, their support quality varies with location. I was in Singapore, took my broken screen Macbook Pro for repair and I was quoted something that costed half the price of the machine for the replacement as they mentioned the motherboard also had to be replaced for some reason. That very month, I had to fly to India for some work and I decided to…

I've had a good experience with Apple Singapore (Wheelock Place) as well. I was even able to get a loaner iPhone 6 for a week when I gave my OG SE in for repair due to a display issue causing the screen to slightly pop out of its frame. Quite understandably (but somewhat to my dismay), they wouldn't give me a loaner iPhone 8 instead.

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#88

Post by alisonkisk »

whytaka wrote: post #76
thebruce87m wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds to me like there were two issues: 1) Hardware problem with the light sensor that was fixed when they swapped the display (might be built in and therefore replaced too, or maybe the crack was obscuring it?) 2) After the hardware problem was fixed, they didn’t think to check the brightness, or forgot to do part of the procedure. My guess is that the boot process ignores the light sensor and just sets full bright…

They had actually reinstalled the cracked screen before giving it back to me.

That could unblock a blocked light sensor due to shifting of the broken screen.

Re: Is This the End of the Repairable iPhone?

#90

Post by barnacled »

It does somewhat amuse me to see the degree to which people rationalise Apple's ongoing, consistent control freakery with excuses and justifications. Every time a story like this comes up the amount of people defending what they do really shocks me.

I used to work for Imagination Technologies, whose GPU all Apple mobile devices are based upon. I was at the company when Apple announced that they would no longer require IMG and would be using their own entirely independently developed GPU (knocking 75% off the share value of the company and effectively bankrupting them).

Looking from the inside of the story, the degree to which people both here on HN and in the media at large including, amazingly, the BBC, a state-funded UK news organisation took Apple's side of the issue when they were very clearly talking complete nonsense shocked me.

Apple simply relied on the fact that a. they'd poached a ton of top people at IMG b. IMG could not afford to battle the decision in court (an aside - IMG and Apple have quietly signed a deal for IP again recently - hardly suggesting that Apple have gone entirely independent of IMG). We could get into the fact that the 'independent' GPU was bug-for-bug identical to IMG HW, or documentation for it literally referenced PowerVR enums but I don't want to dwell too much on that.

My point is that Apple have for years taken an approach of trying to vertically integrate EVERYTHING and gain independent control of EVERYTHING. Many suppliers went the way of IMG, and this lack of repairability is in my opinion simply the latest episode of Apple not wanting anybody else whatsoever involved in their products.

The trend continues with Apple moving to all-ARM chips (we'll see what happens with ARM IP, nvidia can fight longer in court so perhaps Apple will leave that alone) and will, in my opinion, continue in all areas for all of their products.

Whether you think it's right or wrong it surprises me that people seem to lose sight of or deny this ongoing trend.

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