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iOS 11.3.1 Fixes Bug Where Third-Party Screen Repairs Made iPhone 8 Touchscreens Stop Working (gizmodo.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the not-so-bad-after-all dept.

The latest version of iOS 11.3.1 includes a fix for an issue where people who use third-party repair services to replace their displays had their devices become unresponsive. According to release notes, "iOS 11.3.1 improves the security of your iPhone or iPad and addresses an issue where touch input was unresponsive on some iPhone 8 devices because they were serviced with non-genuine replacement displays." Gizmodo reports: Retailers and customers alike suspected that Apple was deliberately letting the issue and other malfunctions that arose from replacing other components go unresolved in some sort of ploy to pressure customers into paying for officially licensed repair services that are more expensive. It's possible that some users indeed were forced to shell out a fair chunk of change to Apple for official repairs, in which case they might justifiably be angry that this was an issue that could be resolved with an update. iOS 11 was notoriously buggy after its release, and Apple has devoted so much effort to bug-fixing that this year's iOS 12 update will reportedly have fewer new features. Though Apple says the 11.3.1 fix will work, it also warned people to please not use third-party repair shops: "Note: Non-genuine replacement displays may have compromised visual quality and may fail to work correctly. Apple-certified screen repairs are performed by trusted experts who use genuine Apple parts. See support.apple.com for more information."

9 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. "bug" by greenwow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple knew exactly what they were doing.

    1. Re: "bug" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Right, which is why it only affected the iPhone 8, not the 6S, 6S+, 7, 7+, 8+ and X, despite all of those currently being on sale. And thats why it got fixed in the next release.

      Sorry, but youâ(TM)re really reaching there

    2. Re:"bug" by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 2

      Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    3. Re:"bug" by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah likely a coding error in the subroutine that scans for the magical genuine bit.

  2. Right... by Freischutz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    OS 11.3.1 Fixes Bug Where Third-Party Screen Repairs Made iPhone 8 Touchscreens Stop Working

    ... so all the screaming of bloody murder over Apple doing this deliberately to hurt people who use 3rd party spares was completely unwarranted. I suppose we'll have to going back to sharpening our teeth now in preparation for the next feeding frenzy.

  3. Skimmer? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So could a repair guy install a modded screen that also captures PIN-code data and exfiltrates it, now?
    This might come in handy around DC and such.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  4. dont forget even legit parts get stopped by cheekyboy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Apple SUES iPhone screen repair shop and LOSES!

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

    They even get the FBI involved, in preventing LEGIT parts being imported, and being classified as COUNTERFEIT even if they are 100% the same.

    Come on Woz, as an electronics dude who cut his teeth on hacking he has to be ashamed of Cook today.

    --
    Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
    1. Re:dont forget even legit parts get stopped by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 2

      Apple SUES iPhone screen repair shop and LOSES!

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

      They even get the FBI involved, in preventing LEGIT parts being imported, and being classified as COUNTERFEIT even if they are 100% the same.

      Come on Woz, as an electronics dude who cut his teeth on hacking he has to be ashamed of Cook today.

      If they haven't been manufactured and QC'ed by Apple, they are, de facto, NOT LEGIT, and NOT "100% the same".

      How would YOU like it if you bought a "Genuine Apple" Digitizer/Display module for a friend's iPhone he/she asked you to fix, and it turned out to be a Greymarket FAKE, with crappy color gamut, dead spots/sensitivity issues in the digitizer, etc? And then the "vendor" you bought it from on Amazon refused to take it back/refund the purchase price, because "It doesn't have any "SERIOUS DEFECTS"/ outright Failures."

      I know. You wouldn't care; because... Apple.

  5. Testing Software by k2r · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is nonsense. Apple is / sells quite a closed ecosystem hardware-wise, which keeps the number of possible components low and system stability relatively high. Yes, they fsck up, but having used devices from both major worlds even on a medium-enterprise scale they are quite ahead of the diverse and open world android.

    This said, Apple is under no obligation to test their releases against 3rd party modifications of their devices. This would be a cat-and-mouse game they can only lose. It think from a software-development perspective this is a sound decision. Either test against as many foreign hardware / modifications as possible and sell this, or only test against the low number of well known hardware / modifications and sell this.
    There is no middle ground.

    Now there still is the elephant of software quality in the closed china shop of Apple, but that's a different topic.