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The Case of Apple's Mystery Screw
Pickens writes "Network World reports that in the past if you wanted to remove the outer case on your iPhone 4 to replace the battery or a broken screen, you could use a Phillips screwdriver to remove two tiny screws at the base of the phone and then simply slide off the back cover. But now Apple is replacing the outer screw with a mysterious tamper-resistant 'pentalobular' screw across its most popular product lines, making it harder for do-it-yourselfers to make repairs. What about existing products in the field? Pentalobular screws might find their way into them, too. 'Apple's latest policy will make your blood boil,' says Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit. 'If you take your iPhone 4 into Apple for any kind of service, they will sabotage it by replacing your Phillips screws with the new, tamper-resistant screws. We've spoken with the Apple Store geniuses tasked with carrying out this policy, and they are ashamed of the practice.' Of course, only Apple-authorized service technicians have Pentalobular screwdrivers and they're not allowed to resell them. 'Apple sees a huge profit potential,' says Wiens. 'A hundred dollars per year in incremental revenue on their installed base is a tremendous opportunity.'"
This screw design was patented in - 1974. Yeah keep that conspiracy going, boys. Especially when the screwdriver costs $2.35.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
http://www.blog.sw-box.com/cell-phone-accessories/cheap-pentalobular-screw-driver-for-only-2-35-on-sw-box-com/ Don't even have to go that far! iPhone 4 opening tool for $2.97
Apple likes speed bump security. They did it on the music system. THey create technical obstacles to casual piracy but don't worry about locking it down. I noticed in my imac and powerbook computers the clever use of different screw types for regions that should be easy for a user to access and ones that it would likely not be neccessary for a user to access or might contain fragile parts. very smart.
I've also admites the way apple, unlike Dell and others, minimizes the number of screw types in use so I usually only need 2 tools to get in. this nice detail has become more consistent with each generation of mac.
SO now we have a 5 sided screw. So it discourages casual opening but prevents absolutely no one from getting inside if they want to.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
A quick Google found a cheap and easy kit for removing and replacing these screws. You can probably get the screwdriver alone for less.
My guess is that the point, like most roadblocks on customers, is to discourage casual hobbyists from messing with their devices. Everyone else can get around it pretty easily.
This has a picture of the screw in question:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1349144/Apple-fits-iPhone-4-fixings-impossible-remove.html
Karnal
Except, of course, that penta- is from the Greek; quint- would be the Latin.
Yes. This is not a Torx 5-point. The points of the star have been rounded into "lobes". The "iPhone Liberation Kit" being sold by ifixit will open the screws but does not actually fit them precisely so it will ruin them on the way out. They are selling it so you can get the pentalobular screws out and replace them. I suspect the other $2.35 tool people are linking to is the same thing.
Auto mechanics are required to offer you your old parts back after replacement in some parts of the country. They're your parts, you bought them.
Correct. Latin would be something like "quitilobular" (lobe being one of those cases where Latin took a word from Greek -- lobos -> lobus)
However, composite graco-latin words are not unheard of . . . automobile, for instance, might rather be suimobile or autokineticon, were it to be a pure construct, something that was brought to my attention here on /. when I criticized the word "pentavirate".
www.wavefront-av.com
First, that link requires registration. Yuck.
I prescribe Bugmenot to solve that.
Second, IIRC from Pharm School, expiration dates are legally mandated by the FDA to be when the active ingredient(s) degrade to 90% efficacy?
You're completely wrong.
Alternate link to harvard:
It turns out that the expiration date on a drug does stand for something, but probably not what you think it does. Since a law was passed in 1979, drug manufacturers are required to stamp an expiration date on their products. This is the date at which the manufacturer can still guarantee the full potency and safety of the drug.
Most of what is known about drug expiration dates comes from a study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. With a large and expensive stockpile of drugs, the military faced tossing out and replacing its drugs every few years. What they found from the study is 90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date.
From TFA:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/012011-the-case-of-apples-mystery.html
This isn't the first time Apple has used screws to gain an advantage. Apple had been using 5-point Torx screws for its MacBook Pros, not standard 6-point Torx screws."We did a little bit of research and found out that this particular screw has been patented," Wiens says. "It is illegal to import screwdrivers that can open this screw into the U.S. unless you buy it through Apple's sales channels. Apple sells the screwdriver for $40." (Wiens doesn't know if the Pentalobular screws have been patented.)
So I guess if you smuggle one of those penta(hahaha)lobular screwdrivers into USA you'll be an OUTLAAAW!
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
iTunes is not their best work, but is far superior to Windows Media 1-99 (whatever version we are up to now).
Except that I've never needed to use Windows Media Player to update ANYTHING on my Windows Mobile phone. In fact, I can simply drag and drop whatever I want, just like the phone is another memory device... Why do I need a special program to access my phone in the first place?
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Except this has been done time and time again, and Sony has already been on the bandwagon, and Apple has certainly done the same thing in the past for opening Mac products.
How quick we forget.
Got a Wii? Custom screw heads. Guess what, when you but any 'repair kit' most will have the option to bundle the special 3 blade funky looking screw head with the kit. Thats just the first popular thing that comes to my head that slashdotters will know of for sure. I have a Hitachi Plasma TV, want to replace the bulbs? Its got some funky screw I've never seen before ... looks actually like its just begging to have the head stripped out due to its design. Ever worked on a car? There are thousands of places that require special tools to do the work properly in your car, some of them for engineering reasons, many of them because it limits what the owner can do without any experience.
Lots of products do this, it takes exactly 0 seconds from the time the product is released to the time you can buy a screwdriver to unscrew it. Seriously, I'll even do the work for you:
http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=pentabular+screwdriver
You'll find that its rather crowded with stupid crap relating directly to apple at the moment due to the silly buzz about this, but once that dies back down you'll find a nice list of places to buy the screw drivers. If you bother to wade through the results now, you'll already have found a place to buy it by the time you reach the third link as I write this.
'special tools required' for disassembly is not a new practice, Apple didn't invent this, Sony has done it as well.
Nor did they invent a 'new screw head'. They took advantage of something that was already there, just rare, made so intentionally for this VERY purpose by the manufactures of said screws. Rare, but not so rare as to be unavailable or to have no tools source.
I can remember the same thing 25 years ago with Torx head screws and bolts. Torx drivers were hard to find in the US so the end result was the same, it made it so Joe the Plumber couldn't just go take apart the device, unless he happen to have a set of Torx drivers or bits ... which certain people had ... and you could buy from Montgomery Wards if you just bothered to open the catalog and order it.
Could we please stop submitting stories that treat standard operating procedures as new and wholely evil things just because they happen to occur at a popular company? ITS NOT EVEN NEW FOR THE FREAKING COMPANY THE ARTICLE IS ABOUT.
Just because you found some new reason to rage against the machine today, doesn't mean its actually new or news to anyone else. This particular bit of asshatery on Apples part is common practice and knowledge. If we're going to have news for nerds can we please not bring up something that every geek that qualifies for a geek card has known for most of her/his life as it was new ... especially when its been going on longer than we've all been alive. Yes, even the original Ford assembly line used rare tools to slow down casual tinkering and IP theft.
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