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The iPhone 7 Has Arbitrary Software Locks That Prevent Repair (vice.com)
Jason Koebler, reporting for Motherboard: Apple has taken new and extreme measures to make the iPhone unrepairable. The company is now using software locks to prevent independent repair of specific parts of the phone. Specifically, the home buttons of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are not user replaceable, raising questions about both the future repairability of Apple products and the future of the thriving independent repair industry. The iPhone 7 home button will only work with the original home button that it was shipped with; if it breaks and needs to be replaced, a new one will only work if it is "recalibrated" in an Apple Store.
Former phone repair tech here, it's been this way since TouchID became a thing, with the iPhone5S I think?
I hate to claim "it's not a bug, it's a feature" but this is done to make sure you cannot replace the home button with one that will send a "correct" signal for an incorrect fingerprint.
Home buttons have been tied to the motherboard they shipped with as long as the iPhone has had fingerprint readers, this is not new.
This is a re-post article... and the reason for it has already been made clear: If you can replace the fingerprint scanner, you can trick the phone into giving you access. This is why apple locks the hardware together. Not that I'm an Apple fanboi or anything, and I do think that people should have a choice, but perhaps that choice should be that apple will "unlock" all your hardware if you so request, and then you can put any hardware in there you like, knowing that you assume all risk. I imagine they'll never do that because it's just more work for them, and they have a reputation to protect even in the resale market. But if I'm apple and I face a decision on whether to lock hardware (so I can advertise as having a very secure device) or not (so I can advertise having a hackable device), I at least want my advertising strategy to align with my build strategy.
But there you go, knowing is half the battle.
Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
Hey, author of the article here ... this is distinct from the 5S / 6 / 6S software lock and is not "old," it's a different thing that is explained in the article! Imagine that.
Which is exactly what they did