Apple Is Fighting A Secret War To Keep You From Repairing Your Phone (huffingtonpost.com)

It's no secret that Apple makes a ton of money by charging 'astronomical' fee for replacing and fixing display and other components of iPhone and iPad (as well as Mac line). For instance, the company charges $599 for replacing the display on the iPad Pro tablet. Which sounds insane when you realize that you can almost certainly purchase a new iPad Pro under $700. And this is what most people do. A Huffington Post article notes that this behavior has contributed significantly in "generating heaps of e-waste." Citing many advocates, the publication claims that Apple has "opposed legislation that could help curb it." From the report: The Huffington Post spoke with politicians in two states who support such legislation, and confirmed through government filings that Apple has lobbied on the issue. Four states -- Minnesota, Nebraska, Massachusetts and New York -- have considered adopting "right to repair" amendments, which would update existing laws regarding the sale of electronic equipment. Amending these laws would make it easier to fix your devices and would help reduce "e-waste," a catch-all term for any electronic detritus. The New York State Senate and Assembly could approve one of these amendments next week. This would help unofficial repair shops get the information they need to fix your iPad, ideally driving down repair costs and encouraging you to squeeze more life out of your old devices -- thus cutting down on the e-waste generated by our voracious appetites for new gadgets. Apple asserts that it helps recycle millions of pounds of electronics equipment every year. But it won't support right to repair amendments.One would ask what is preventing a user from getting their device repaired by unofficial service person? In addition to the security implication, you also run a risk of getting your device bricked by Apple. To recall, the iPhone maker was found bricking the handsets that had been repaired by third-party vendors earlier this year.

Comments

The solution is simple

[Stormwatch]

The solution is simple: do not be stupid enough to buy anything from Apple in the first place.

Re:The solution is simple

[macs4all]

Fuck them for buying into Apple's bullshit. They deserve whatever pile of shit they get from Apple.

Do you really think it is any easier to replace the Display and Digitizer on ANY modern mobile device?

They are ALL essentially Unserviceable Units (BTW, that's the reason that "Ux" is the designator for ICs on many schematics. It stands for "Unservicable Unit". In other words, there is nothing inside that an average person can fix/replace.

Face it, the days of replacing the Tubes in your TV set are GONE. Hell, with this complex of a device, the days of Component-Level replacement by even most Service Techs are GONE.

Ain't just Apple.

And the reason that Apple opposes this kind of legislation is that it will be TOTALLY unworkable in a practical sense. Even when laptops were 3 inches thick, replacing anything that wasn't on the bottom-layer (top when turned upside-down) was COMPLETELY outside of 99.99998% of average owners, and even outside of the comfort-zone of many experienced Service Techs.

Now that EVERYBODY makes their laptops as thin as possible, the construction techniques to make those designs possible are simply not amenable to repair.

Secret? No.

[GerryGilmore]

This has been their policy all along. From weird fasteners that require a special "Apple tool" to almost-impossible to obtain spare parts, there's never been any doubt about their intent - maximize AAPL profit at all cost! (To consumers, that is....)

Always litigate instead of boycott

[Octorian]

When any other company does something you don't like, you boycott their products. By giving business to their competitors instead of them, they (theoretically) take notice and change their ways to win your business back.

But Apple seems to be a special case here... When Apple does something you don't like, you're allowed to:
- Rant all over the Internet to gain public support
- Sue Apple because of their practices
- Push for regulations and/or legislation to limit their practices

But the one thing you're *never* allowed to do, for some reason, is:
- Actually stop buying Apple products

Re:Always litigate instead of boycott

[Woldscum]

I have not knowingly purchased a SINGLE Sony product since the "CDs Rootkit" crap in 2005.

Re: I used to think that. Then I used Apple produc

[Anonymous Coward]

"Gave up the good fight and decided to lick the master's boots."

Re:I used to think that. Then I used Apple product

[yithar7153]

Or you could just buy an Intel-based Chromebook, which probably has the majority of its hardware supported OOTB on most Linux distributions, because ChromeOS is running a Linux kernel under the hood. It is possible they're using special drivers, but I find that unlikely, considering the number of people that have gotten Linux to work on Chromebooks. GalliumOS is proof of this.

Re: Not your father's Apple

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

I'm probably not the only one who sees the irony in the 1984 commercial where Apple was to break up big brother, but now they're helping the government spy on everyone.

Re:I used to think that. Then I used Apple product

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed. I'm in the same situation. I was a diehard Linux developer. Used to go to all the conferences. I remember running into Andrew Tridgell at the Ottawa Linux Symposium in the 90s - he was incredibly taken with my new little Sony Picturebook - he had just purchased a similar model and had written a webcam driver for his, but the driver didn't work on mine (North American vs. Australian models). We spent a few hours that afternoon trying to figure out why. Ah, the joys of open source and youth.

Several years later, after buying a new laptop and discovering that the goddamned *keyboard* didn't work in Linux (without serious hacking of the kernel - $#@$ HP), I thought "maybe I'll give a Titanium Powerbook a try - I hear that OS X has Unix underpinnings now). And guess what? I haven't really looked back. Sure, I'm "licking the master's boots" (or whatever, silly person who replied above). My guess, you're a 20-something kid who's bought into the whole Linux is Freedom schtick. Good for you, you've got a lot of fun years ahead of you. Me, I'm 42 now, and I have a family. I don't have the time to rebuild kernels and fuck with X configs. I just want my tech to work. I want to be able to open a terminal and run vi and code Python - but I also want to be able to manage photos easily, and have stuff sync between my devices without having to set up and maintain servers. OH AND FOR FUCK'S SAKE, I WANT AN OS AND WINDOW MANAGER THAT CAN HANDLE HIDPI DISPLAYS WITH EASE. You know who does that? Apple. Not Linux. Not FreeBSD. Not Windows. (and don't bring up Cinnamon, or KDE Plasma or any other option - I have a Dell XPS 15 here as my backup machine, running Manjaro, and oy vey, HiDPI support in Linux Land sucks balls).

But hey, it's OK guys. I hear that 2017 is going to be the Year of Linux on the Desktop, right?

Re:I used to think that. Then I used Apple product

[Yvan256]

I just want my tech to work.

This. One million times this.

Re:I used to think that. Then I used Apple product

[Socguy]

It all just works, assuming that you only want to use it for whatever apple decides to allow you to do...