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Apple: iPhones Are Too 'Complex' To Allow Unauthorized Repair (vice.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the hands-off-approach dept.

Jason Koebler writes: Apple's top environmental officer made the company's most extensive statements about the repairability of Apple hardware on Tuesday: "Our first thought is, 'You don't need to repair this.' When you do, we want the repair to be fairly priced and accessible to you," Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of policy and social initiatives said at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco. "To think about these very complex products and say the answer to all our problems is that you should have anybody to repair and have access to the parts is not looking at the whole problem."

Apple has lobbied against "Fair Repair" bills in 11 states that would require the company to make its repair guides available and to sell replacement parts to the general public. Instead, it has focused on an "authorized service provider" model that allows the company to control the price and availability of repair.

45 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. Whaaaaaat? by slashmydots · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apple is lying and exaggerating about something to make more money? WHAAAAAAAT? This is my surprised face. The only thing that will stop them is laws, the end. We need right to repair laws and that's that.

    1. Re:Whaaaaaat? by olsmeister · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You are completely mangling the way most free marketers would think about this. The better way is to let anyone hang a shingle as an iPhone repair specialist. Maybe they'll be able to fix them, or maybe they'll be too complex and unrepairable. If the former, the shop will be successful and prosper. If the latter, and they permanently screw up enough phones, people will go elsewhere to an authorized repair center and the shop will close.

    2. Re:Whaaaaaat? by srichard25 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "The only thing that will stop them is laws, "

      What???? How about people just stop buying products from companies that adopt anti-consumer policies? Apple doesn't have a monopoly on smart phones.

      We don't need a law for everything.

    3. Re: Whaaaaaat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You being someone facetious. Most of the major repairs that need to be done to an iPhone aren't surface mount devices, it's replacing screens, or replacing daughter boards containing ports or buttons.

      There is an entire industry of stores whose only purpose is to fix cell phones. That's reality. And reality trumps rhetoric.

    4. Re: Whaaaaaat? by Miamicanes · · Score: 3, Interesting

      A lithium battery has a finite lifespan. It's guaranteed to eventually need replacement, and unless Apple is literally molding the lithium gel around the circuit board in a way that makes its replacement physically impossible, they should be required to sell replacement batteries at a fair price (or if they don't want to, then they shouldn't be allowed to prevent anyone ELSE from making compatible replacements).

      A mechanical button or poorly-attached microUSB likewise has a finite life... a life that might very well be less than the reasonably-expected life of the phone.

      Screens break and crack. It's just something that happens to glass when dropped.

      A good step forward would be for the FTC to require manufactures to explicitly disclose the repair cost & minimum availability for key components at purchase. Ex:

      Battery: 1 year free warranty, guaranteed availability for a maximum charge of $n until yyyy/MM/dd(*)

      Screen: 1 year free warranty for defects, guaranteed availability for a maximum charge of $x until yyyy/MM/dd, and $y until YyYy/Mm/Dd

      Electrolytic Capacitors: 10 year warranty, or replacement with newer model (not necessarily the newEST model) that's at least as good.

      Buttons & connectors: 1 year warranty, 5 year guaranteed availability of repair with maximum charge of $k(*).

      (*) And if they can't satisfy the repairability guarantee, they'll have to refund some fair fraction of the original purchase price based on age (say, 100% up to 18 months, 80% after 18-24 months, decreasing by another 10% per 6 months thereafter).

      I'd even allow them to be assholes & enforce absurdly-short (or outrageously expensive) terms... as long as they were required to accurately & effectively communicate those terms to buyers at purchase, and really bend over backwards to make sure consumers know about terms the FTC deemed 'unreasonable'

      concrete example: Consumer buys new iPhone 17 (or Samsung Galaxy S16, or Google VoxelQ). The manufacturer guarantees battery-availability only until 8/31/22, which is less than 60 months from the date of first sale. After opening the box, the phone is in another sealed box with prominent federally-mandated warning (in English & Spanish for US phones) that says something like, "Warning, the manufacturer of this phone has chosen to not guarantee the availability of replacement batteries after 8/31/22. The FTC has determined that 80% of batteries will have less than 50% of their original capacity after 8/31/21. By law, you have an absolute right to return this phone to the seller for 100% refund and full cancellation of all contractual obligations and shipping charges arising from its purchase without charge as long as this seal is not broken. This right can not be waived or limited, regardless of seller policy or conditions of sale."

      ie, the Feds couldn't *stop* Apple (& others) from being assholes, but they could ensure that consumers KNOW Apple (& others) are being assholes & protect them from being victims unless they're absolutely HELLBENT on being victims. As long as the FTC's threshold for requiring the warning was reasonable enough for most vendors to avoid, its presence would be effective & would subject the mfr. to criticism & ridicule from magazines, reviewers, and probably late-night comedians. The key is to make sure it doesn't turn into a stupid, pointless warning, like "Warning: may contain peanuts" on a jar of peanuts or peanut butter.

      Consumer protection laws with teeth can and do work. Just ask anyone who was given a hard time by underlings or junior staff about getting a warranty repair for a jailbroken iphone or rooted Android phone until they summoned the manager & invoked the magic phrase, "Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act"... at which point the manager, if he had any sense & valued his job, apologized *profusely* for the "misunderstanding" and *personally* made sure the phone got fixed, because anything else would risk a $50,000 per incident fine and mountain of subs

    5. Re:Whaaaaaat? by Jahoda · · Score: 2

      What???? How about people just stop buying products from companies that adopt anti-consumer policies? Apple doesn't have a monopoly on smart phones.

      Well, being that an informed consumer is considered necessary for optimal functioning of the free market, in lieu of such legislation, I guess maybe we could simply mandate that Apple broadly advertise this repair policy, and not in fine print, upon the purchase of every device. Would that satisfy you?

  2. Obvious BS detected... by Timothy2.0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apple has lobbied against "Fair Repair" bills in 11 states that would require the company to make its repair guides available and to sell replacement parts to the general public. Instead, it has focused on an "authorized service provider" model that allows the company to control the price and availability of repair.

    I can understand wanting only authorized techs working on their product, but it's a MASSIVE leap to go from that to lobbying in 11 states against "Fair Repair" bills.

    1. Re:Obvious BS detected... by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I can understand wanting only authorized techs working on their product, but it's a MASSIVE leap to go from that to lobbying in 11 states against "Fair Repair" bills.

      No, it really isn't. If those fair repair bills pass, then the law will explicitly prohibit only permitting authorized techs to work on their product. Lobbying against those bills is the only reasonable response for a company which doesn't want anyone repairing their products without their permission.

      The root problem is that unrepairable products are literally destroying our biosphere. They're made intentionally unrepairable so that the user has to buy a new computer in order to expand it, like Jobs tried to do with the original Macintosh. In spite of his efforts, the engineers gave the machine some expansion capacity because they knew than an unexpandable computer was bullshit.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Obvious BS detected... by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      Three, there may be ways which third party repair places can make claims of "OEM Approved Service Vendor" under these laws.

      If a garage even displays a BMW logo they'll get hammered for trademark infringement unless they're actually a BMW approved dealer.

      So yes, they can do it. Once.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    3. Re:Obvious BS detected... by lucm · · Score: 2

      I guess capitalism today means "whatever benefits the corporations".

      That's what capitalism has meant since day 1. This is the definition: "an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state."

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    4. Re:Obvious BS detected... by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 2

      There is one problem with that definition, and it is intentional. It inserts a clause that is completely irrelevant to the economic system we call "capitalism" There is absolutely no reason for the phrase "for profit" in the definition. The appropriate definition of the system we call capitalism is "an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners, rather than by the state." The purposes to which the private owners put a country's trade and industry are entirely up to them.If they use that control for profit, that is fine, if they use that control to benefit others,that is also fine. The key thing that makes it capitalism is that trade and industry are controlled by private individuals. --

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  3. Then I guess they're too complex for me own by darthsilun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And I'll just have to buy something else instead.

    Problem solved.

  4. And then there's this by fyngyrz · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have a 2009 Mac Pro. It's a 12/24 core, 3 GHz-ish, 64 GB machine, lots of monitors. It's really pretty quick and there's certainly nothing wrong with it.

    Apple, however, has made the next version of the OS unavailable to it, which in turn will make it slowly become incompatible with new software, etc.

    I suspect that the whole "you aren't allowed to repair your iPhone" debacle is based on the same basic policy, which I would sum up as "screw you, customer, buy from us again or go without."

    Particularly because the idea that no one but Apple's authorized money generators can repair an iPhone is patently absurd.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:And then there's this by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is, of course, the history of the Macintosh. From the very start, Jobs didn't want anyone opening the case, and he didn't even want it to have any expansion beyond serial ports. He explicitly wanted the user to have to buy a new computer if they wanted to upgrade, producing revenue for Apple.

      This is literally only business as usual for Apple, ever since the Mac.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re: And then there's this by dnaumov · · Score: 2

      This is 2017. How many years of support do you expect from Apple and what is this expectation based on when taking into account policies of all other hardware manufacturers?

    3. Re:And then there's this by slick7 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How can you have any pudding, if you don't eat your meat?
      If you don't eat your meat, you won't get any pudding.

      --
      The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
    4. Re: And then there's this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Ubuntu Linux runs great on my old MacBook pro. All the drivers work, even for my Wacom graphics tablet. Linux seems to be a great way to extend the useful life of aging computers.

    5. Re: And then there's this by msauve · · Score: 5, Insightful
      He's talking about an OS upgrade, what do the "policies of all other hardware manufacturers" have to do with it?

      But, to the point, the Win10 requirements:

      Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC
      RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
      Hard disk space: 16 GB for 32-bit OS 20 GB for 64-bit OS
      Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
      Display: 800x600

      The GP has a "a 2009 Mac Pro. It's a 12/24 core, 3 GHz-ish, 64 GB machine".

      So, it looks like Windows is doing a better job of supporting Apple hardware than MacOS is.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    6. Re:And then there's this by msauve · · Score: 2

      "He explicitly wanted the user to have to buy a new computer if they wanted to upgrade"

      Well, no. Apple offered 512K logic board upgrades to purchasers of the original 128K Macs.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    7. Re:And then there's this by michelcolman · · Score: 5, Informative

      Now that wouldn't be so bad if they would not flat out refuse to repair your device.

      I had a broken screen on my iPhone 5, which was otherwise just fine. I brought it in, the price would be about 150 euros which is a lot (you can easily get a replacement non-original screen for less than half the price) but I didn't want to risk getting an inferior screen, possibly even containing malware, so I went through the official channel. A bit later I got a call saying they had diagnosed my phone and found a problem with the battery as well. They "had to" repair that, too, and since it was going to be too expensive, I might as well get a replacement refurbished phone for more than 300 euros.

      I insisted that my two year old battery was just fine (not quite lasting as long as when it was new, but sufficient for me) and only wanted a new screen, but no, they flat out refused. Apple only delivers devices in perfect working order with a three month warranty, so they could not just repair the screen, end of discussion.

      I ended up getting a fake screen from some grubby repair shop after all. Works like a charm, by the way. And the battery still works just fine.

    8. Re: And then there's this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There's a difference between support and letting us work on our own stuff.

      My house is over 50 years old, and I can change an outlet any time I want without calling the guy who built it. I can buy a 100 year old car, and tear it right down to the frame and replace every single component. In fact, a lot of people make hobbies or businesses off that fact.

      Then there's apple. "Oh, you couldn't possibly figure out the complexity of replacing a small circuit board on a ribbon cable!

      Except that it's fully possible for plenty of people, but for Apple's unethical attempts to make the unit unrepairable artificially.

    9. Re: And then there's this by lucm · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's Apple. They could hand out free blowjobs from Sophia Vergara with each Mac sold, and Slashdotters would bitch about it.

      Or Apple could force customers to get sodomized by a pony when they buy a Mac, and fanbois would still wait in line at the Apple Store, and they would defend Apple on Slashdot, talking about how this is helping ponies

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    10. Re: And then there's this by omnichad · · Score: 3, Insightful

      With Apple, they block you. With Windows, you at least get to make that choice for yourself. Of course those specs are absurdly low, but Apple won't let you update really powerful hardware.

    11. Re:And then there's this by mfnickster · · Score: 5, Informative

      "He explicitly wanted the user to have to buy a new computer if they wanted to upgrade"

      Well, no. Apple offered 512K logic board upgrades to purchasers of the original 128K Macs.

      Against Steve's wishes, though.

      Steve Jobs objected, because he didn't like the idea of customers mucking with the innards of their computer. He would also rather have them buy a new 512K Mac instead of them buying more RAM from a third-party. But this time Burrell prevailed, because the change was so minimal. He just left it in there and no one bothered to mention it to Steve, much to the eventual benefit of customers, who didn't have to buy a whole new Mac to expand their memory.

      Steve had left by the time the Mac II came out, and it was Gassee's call to allow expansion slots.

      I will say the Power Mac 7500 I bought in 1995 was supremely expandable, and easy to open the case and work inside it. I upgraded the RAM, hard drive, CPU (to a G3) and optical drive. I got a lot of miles out of that Mac!

      --
      "Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
    12. Re: And then there's this by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's Apple. They could hand out free blowjobs from Sophia Vergara with each Mac sold, and Slashdotters would bitch about it.

      Or Apple could force customers to get sodomized by a pony when they buy a Mac, and fanbois would still wait in line at the Apple Store, and they would defend Apple on Slashdot, talking about how this is helping ponies

      Having Apple devices since there have been Apple devices, I'd be fine with Lady Sophia's services, but your rabid hatred of Apple and your odd example might be looked at by some as both hatred and projection, there Bronie

      Just sayin'. I have Apple, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android devices at present. Youre hatred is misplaced and has a strange basis, each is just another device.

      But Hey! Ponies!

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    13. Re:And then there's this by thadtheman · · Score: 2

      That is absolute bullshit.\

      The original Macs were supposed to come in two packages 128K and 512K, and everyone knew that 128K was way too little. But Ram shortages made the 512K version very rare. Apple promised this by telling people that wehn the RAM became available they would offer them an upgrade option.

      When the upgrade option became available though it was highly overpriced. Users were forced. into one of three options. Go without, pay a ton or go with third party upgrades that voided the warrantie.

      Adding a hard drive would also void the warantie because "why would you want to add a hard drive". This attitude actuallly drove away a lot of Apple fans from Apple forever, and led to the disenchantment which drove Jobs away from Apple.

    14. Re: And then there's this by lucm · · Score: 3, Insightful

      your rabid hatred of Apple

      I don't hate them (or their customers), I'm just trying to offer a bit of counterbalance to the endless fanboyism on Slashdot. Apple stories haven't been "news for nerds" for a long time.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    15. Re:And then there's this by epine · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Adding a hard drive would also void the warranty because "why would you want to add a hard drive". This attitude actually drove away a lot of Apple fans from Apple forever, and led to the disenchantment which drove Jobs away from Apple.

      I was one of those people with enough dosh in my foolish youth to spring for the original fat Mac (something just shy of CDN $4000 with printer and external floppy as I dimly recall), which within less than two years became a decorative boat anchor after I priced an internal hard drive upgrade at CDN $1500, which instead I spent, as I now recall it, on an entire crappy 80286 clone, which was ugly and clunky, but far more useful to me as a software developer.

      What first drove me absolutely ape-shit about my double-floppy fat Mac was that whenever it needed something from an unmounted floppy, it would by (some inscrutable logic) pop one of the two mounted floppies—almost always the disk it would seconds later request that I reinsert.

      I knew my workflow, the machine didn't, yet it figured it should choose which disk to auto-eject, and I shouldn't even have my own button. I never had a development workflow that required less than three floppies.

      Soon I had installed permanent paperclips in both floppies so I could override this outrageously unhelpful behaviour, whose mother was a sentient elevator servicing a hamster high rise, and whose father was a talking toaster who smelled of elderberries.

      It drove me APE FUCKING SHIT.

      And you're quite right. I've never gone back to the Apple fold.

    16. Re:And then there's this by rtb61 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, if that is Apple's market that is Apple's market. The real way the law needs to be updated is that customers need to be made fully aware at point of purchase, the abnormal limitation upon device repair and the costs involved, failure to make the customer demonstrably aware of those limitation else, the customer should be entitled to a refund at any time after purchase.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  5. Bad service design is not the same as complexity by An+dochasac · · Score: 4, Informative

    Look at the teardown videos of their competitors. For example the 2015 Blackberry Priv, has a curved screen with display to the edge, wireless Qi charging, magnetometer, gyro, gps, barometer, QWERTY slide-out keyboard.., The teardown to replace the battery takes about 1 minute. Pulling out the main board keyboard, and everything until you get to the screen, another 5. But then the tech mentions that it is also possible to replace the curved screen from the front in about 5 minutes. And compared to cars, appliances, commercial technology, home entertainment systems, sewing machings, my 1999 Pismo... the Priv isn't easily repairable.

    Apple simply chooses planned obsolescence over serviceability. And so I've chosen not to buy into their environmentally wasteful products.

  6. Re:It doesn't go far enough. by mccalli · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why? No-one's forcing anyone to buy an iPhone. Buy an Android phone instead if that's what you'd like.

  7. Re:Open Source Software has same problem by Ash-Fox · · Score: 2

    I believe so-called open source software should be mandatorily open without any license agreement whatsoever.

    That's Public Domain software. Just work on that instead of Open Source.

    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  8. Re: You don't need to repair this. by Kjella · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well repair of small electronics has been dying for 30 years, Apple isn't helping but the overall trend is much broader. But as long as Apple is making manuals and parts for themselves I have no problem with them being forced to offer it to the public. They can reject warranty cases they believe are due to botched repairs, make the phones less repairable if they want but not monopolize after-market services. If it was up to me monopolizing after-market accessories would be outlawed too, if you want to hook something up to lightning port the interface should be documented and free. Proprietary formats, protocols and interfaces are a pox on society.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  9. Well, it's the same with cars by rainer_d · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Take it to some backyard-workshop for repairs? Warranty is gone.
    That's why you take it to an authorized dealer/repair shop.

    Why are people so hell-bent on saving every cent on repairs for a device that (now) can cost well above 1k USD?

    That's like people buying a Ferrari or a Rolls Royce Wraith and then complaining about the cost of ownership because an oil-change or break-pad exchange or fixing a ding costs a fortune.

    Weird.

    --
    Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
    1. Re:Well, it's the same with cars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ... brake-pad exchange or fixing a ding costs ...

      Let's use a car analogy: Have you taken your car in and the mechanic has said that you've driven it for 2 years, you have to buy another car? No: Because car manufacturers promise to make parts for 10 years. Your phone manufacturer doesn't and it's obvious why: That increases warehousing expense and cannibalizes latest-model sales. Allowing authorized Apple 'mechanics' isn't just more expensive than do-it-yourself repairs, it allows Apple to stop manufacturing legacy parts. Apple is justifying their luxury-tax philosophy so that idiots like you don't notice the real problem.

      If Apple really wanted to avoid burdensome legislation they would manufacture legacy parts for their authorized 'mechanics'. But they've decided fighting the government over (generous) consumer entitlements is cheaper than repairing old phones.

  10. Re: Bollocks by Entrope · · Score: 5, Funny

    It takes Courage (tm) and money -- lots of money -- for Apple to create innovations like edge-to-edge screens, splash resistance, HDR displays in a mobile form factor, and OLED screens in phones. It's only fair for Apple to charge more than Android devices to deliver the kind of inventions that they do.

  11. Re: You don't need to repair this. by Ash-Fox · · Score: 3

    I have no problem with them being forced to offer it to the public.

    I think they shouldn't.

    But, what I think should happen is a very clear advisory must be verbally provided to the consumer in a store (or otherwise displayed on the product page clearly) about the loss of the repairability of the device, that Apple do not allow authorized sellers to replace most components and that they set the repair terms, prices etc. The regulation done in such a way that they cannot spin it.

    I don't like false advertising and I don't like uninformed purchases. However, I think people should be free to sell and purchase what they want, as long as all parties understand the situation accurately.

    Proprietary formats, protocols and interfaces are a pox on society.

    Another thing I think the customer should be informed about in simple detail as to what they lose out on in this situation.

    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  12. i agree with those stating apple is lying by strstr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have repaired Samsung android and LG android phones. I have studied the guides. I have replaced screens.
    I have also repaired by myself dell studio XPS and alienware laptops from replacement of the CPU, GPU, heatsink fan, and mobo, and more.

    basically every device I've seen is self repairable, designed to open up like nothing, and each component is generally separate easy to remove and replace. this includes the screen, mobo, camera lense, camera itself, cases, bezel, glass on the screen, etc.

    one can actually remove just the glass from the screen of most devices easy, and replace it when shattered, re-using the LCD/touch sensor.

    on eBay or other site, one can order brand new or refurb every component of every phone.

    basically you choose your difficulty level. either you want to replace a shattered screen entirely by ordering a whole new LCD/screen kit, or you attempt to remove the old glass and re-glue on new glass to save some bucks. or you order a new mobo/CPU combo. you just drop in the component removing the old. you re-assemble the phone and you're good. if you break anything during the process you just order a new one of those too.

    Apple claims this is somehow too difficult for individual people to do..? why is that? what's it to Apple if you fuck up your phone or something or do low quality repair? the phone is already damaged and used up anyway!

    it's so easy a cave man can do it.

    https://www.obamasweapon.com/

    1. Re:i agree with those stating apple is lying by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I have replaced screens.

      I have repaired screens. Where replacement screens can cost upwards of $150, on many OLED phones it's possible to actually separate the display from the glass front. I repaired a Galaxy S5 for $11 and those $11 included every tool except of the hot air gun. It not only included UV curing glue but even included the UV lamp needed to cure it.

      The repair world quotes based on rip/replace prices. An intermittent problem with the heaphone jack? Replace the entire main circuit board, fixed for $250. No one "repairs" anything anymore except for the tinkerers.

  13. Corporate speak by DaMattster · · Score: 2

    That's corporate speak for an assumption and an insult to consumers. I work in technology for a living and do not appreciate being labeled as being "too dumb to repair my own shit." This is what "Apple's top environmental officer" is accusing me of. I would have more respect for Apple if the head shed just came out and said, "We want to control repairs so that we have another stream of revenue." Don't try to sell me on how having an Apple authorized repair center will magically make things easier and worry free because I shouldn't be bothered with wanting to repair my own device. I replaced my girlfriend's cracked screen in an hour simply by watching a Youtube video. 2 years later, it's still working.

  14. Re: Bollocks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Wasnt samsung the first to introduce edge-to-edge screens? Doesnt Apple use Samsung displays in its phones?

    i think you mean "innovations" (in quotes).

  15. Obligatory viewing by Sebby · · Score: 3, Informative

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --

    AC comments get piped to /dev/null
  16. Just confirms my opnion by TheAngryCat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I keep seeing reasons why not to buy an iPhone. A friend commented on his iPhone-7 $600.00 for the average person to replace the battery. He was referring to the lack of a removable battery. I'll stick with my LG V-20 a couple of mm thicker but seriously, who gives a crap. If Apple ran the US we would be an authoritarian dictatorship, and changing light bulbs in your home would require you to buy another home.

  17. Re: Bollocks by An+dochasac · · Score: 2
    Fixed that for you:

    It takes Courage (tm) and money -- lots of money -- for Apple to steal competitor-developed innovations like edge-to-edge screens (Samsung 2014), splash resistance (Sony 2006), HDR displays in a mobile form factor (Sony 2017), and OLED screens in phones (Nokia 2008)... not to mention wireless Qi charging (Nokia 2012)

    It's only fair for Apple to charge more than Android devices to deliver the kind of inventions that they umm, borrow.

    Either Entrope's tongue is firmly in cheek or...

  18. Re: It doesn't go far enough. by lucm · · Score: 2

    Absolute Bull Shit.

    Bullshit indeed. Silicon Valley is all about "diversity" but they're basically just about having the same type of hipster/fanboi/antitrump young people in various shades of colors and genders. That's not diversity, that's variations on the same model.

    --
    lucm, indeed.