Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Apple Bans iFixit Repair App From App Store After Apple TV Teardown

Posted by timothy on from the stop-looking-stop-looking dept.

alphadogg writes: iFixit, the fix-it-yourself advocate for users of Apple, Google and other gear, has had its repair manual app banned from Apple's App Store after it conducted an unauthorized teardown of Apple TV and Siri remote. iFixit blogged "we're a teardown and repair company; teardowns are in our DNA -- and nothing makes us happier than figuring out what makes these gadgets tick. We weighed the risks, blithely tossed those risks over our shoulder, and tore down the Apple TV anyway." iFixit does still have Windows and Android apps, and has no immediate plans to rewrite its Apple app to attempt being reinstated.

8 of 366 comments (clear)

  1. Break The NDA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They very publicly break the NDA for personal profit and expect no action? They're lucky the actions by Apple weren't more sever honestly.

    1. Re:Break The NDA by Z00L00K · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But was the NDA valid?

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    2. Re:Break The NDA by SQLGuru · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Can you buy the new Apple TV yet? I'm sure if iFixIt had waited until they could purchase one instead of using a preview unit, they wouldn't have gotten as much flack as they did. They threw caution to the wind and it boomeranged back in their face.

    3. Re:Break The NDA by danceswithtrees · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I see your point but at the same time, what was APPL thinking giving a developer unit to iFixit, a website whose sole purpose is to take apart things?

      Apple was daring iFixit to break the NDA. Sort of like giving a two year old a marshmallow, telling him not to eat it, and then leaving the room. Who is at fault, the two year old or the person giving the marshmallow?

    4. Re:Break The NDA by tripleevenfall · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It was pretty foolish of them to publish a teardown of a pre-release developer unit. They could have taken it apart, published something on the repairability of it, etc., and left the teardown until the product was available for sale. Apple only really cares that the information was leaked and people got a look at it that wasn't the look they wanted to be first.

      All iFixit has done here is made sure they won't receive any developer units from Apple in the future.

    5. Re:Break The NDA by penguinoid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Presumably so they can study it, do their teardown, prepare their materials etc, and then wait until the product is released before publishing their results.

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  2. Unauthorized teardown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The fact that this phrase even exists is a testament to how fucked up things have gotten.

    1. Re:Unauthorized teardown by jedidiah · · Score: 1, Insightful

      What's worse are the number of corporate bootlickers that have already crawled out of the woodworks to come to Apple's defense here.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.