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Apple Bans iFixit Repair App From App Store After Apple TV Teardown
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.
Yep. If you buy an object, you have every right to take it apart.
While I agree with the above statement (and some of your others), they didn't buy the devices. It was a developer preview provided to them under NDA. I think iFixit is clearly in the wrong here.
From the article:
The developer unit we disassembled was sent to us by Apple. Evidently, they didn’t intend for us to take it apart. But 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.
-=Lothsahn=-
No, Apple LENT them one. Review units are not gifts.
“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
Oh, unless they do things that we don't like. Then we ban them.
I am thinking that Apple was thinking that iFixit would do a teardown of the AppleTV and keeps it under NDA, until the AppleTV units are available.
Giving iFixit some time to prepare before putting the photos and repair guides on their website and app.
I think Apple doesn't mind iFixit, Apple probably supplies most of the spare parts to iFixit.
I think Apple does mind that iFixit breaks the NDA, and I am not sure but the App was probably rejected because the contents contained information that was under NDA.
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.
The summary is pretty bad on this one.
Right after the Apple TV 4 (ATV4) was officially announced, Apple put a form on their Developer's site to give some of them away to developers. These are pre-release units, and the packaging on them even says "Developer's Edition" or something on it. There was a (since pulled) eBay auction showing the packaging.
Part of the agreement in getting this unit was an NDA which stipulated, amongst other things, that you can't take it apart.
iFixit got an ATV4 as part of the giveaway and decided to violate the NDA and get an exclusive article in the process. Since the developer program was what they used to get the ATV4, the developer program is what they were kicked out of. As a result their iOS app got yanked as well.
Several people have noted that their iOS app hadn't been updated in years (may still have been on the 3.5" screen) and so the app itself isn't much of a loss. The summary says something about being "rewritten" but that doesn't make any sense - if iFixit were to get another developer account they could just put the same app up again from the same source code. The content of the app is not what was offensive to Apple, it was the NDA violation. It may need to be upgraded for modern phones (i.e., be adaptive to the iPhone 6/6+ screen sizes) but it doesn't need to be rewritten in order to adhere to Apple's policies.
iFixit entered into an agreement with Apple that had consequences. It violated that agreement and so it's suffering the consequences. Which it knew would happen and it didn't care about. And since it's an old app that's being pulled it's not much of a loss to them, not compared to the exclusive early article and coverage this stunt's consequences has given them.
But to clarify for everyone, this wasn't a review unit, it wasn't on loan, it was a unit Apple gave them and other developers in order to develop for it early before the actual thing is released. And really, a number of developers didn't get these units and so to some extent the idea that iFixit got one not intending to write an app for it but instead just want to tear it down for page clicks and ad impressions is sort of offensive. If they had waited for the thing to be in stores and bought one retail and then tore it apart they would be in the clear.
Schnapple
"The developer unit we disassembled was sent to us by Apple. Evidently, they didn’t intend for us to take it apart. But 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 knew that Apple would not be happy with them disassembling it but did it anyway.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Their issue is not that they took apart the hardware. Their issue is that they took apart the hardware and then did an article about it before the ATV4 hit stores. Here's the relevant portion of the agreement.
Everyone is getting this wrong - the issue is not that they tore it apart but that they did an article on it before the NDA was up. If they did an article on the still-assembled unit they would be in violation of the NDA as well. They were not giving these things away to be reviewed, they were giving them to people to write apps for them.
Quite frankly the majority of Slashdot seems to be completely down with disregarding all of contract law, which is sort of hilarious given the fervor with which they go after GPL violators with.
Schnapple
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