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Apple's New Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair On New MacBook Pros (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Apple has introduced software locks that will effectively prevent independent and third-party repair on 2018 MacBook Pro computers, according to internal Apple documents obtained by Motherboard. The new system will render the computer "inoperative" unless a proprietary Apple "system configuration" software is run after parts of the system are replaced. According to the document, which was distributed to Apple's Authorized Service Providers late last month, this policy will apply to all Apple computers with the "T2" security chip, which is present in 2018 MacBook Pros as well as the iMac Pro. The software lock will kick in for any repair which involves replacing a MacBook Pro's display assembly, logic board, top case (the keyboard, touchpad, and internal housing), and Touch ID board. On iMac Pros, it will kick in if the Logic Board or flash storage are replaced. The computer will only begin functioning again after Apple or a member of one of Apple's Authorized Service Provider repair program runs diagnostic software called Apple Service Toolkit 2.
I guess since Apple is selling less computers these days*, they have to squeeze more money out of their customers.
*https://www.macrumors.com/2018/08/01/fewest-quarterly-mac-sales-since-2010/
Yeah, and good luck to you when Apple designs a circuit board with the wrong transistor, refuses to admit the mistake exists and when they finally get sued over it they make a repair program that manages to not cover the boards produced the year you bought yours.
Won't be the first time!
Warrantors cannot require that only branded parts be used with the product in order to retain the warranty.[7] This is commonly referred to as the "tie-in sales" provisions[8] and is frequently mentioned in the context of third-party computer parts, such as memory and hard drives.
And from the summary:
The new system will render the computer "inoperative" unless a proprietary Apple "system configuration" software is run after parts of the system are replaced.
So in effect they are saying "oh sure put whatever part you want into it, but it's not going to work unless we allow it". Thereby creating the onus to use "branded parts". Yeah good luck with that. I fully expect them to land in court over this.
The drafters of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act wouldn't like this at all. They did not, however, make illegal. The Act, in 15 USC 2302 (C), says that the WARRANTY may not be conditioned on using Apple-branded parts. They can't (and don't) void the warranty if you use unauthorized parts. Here's the text of the statute:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/us...
The people who wrote that might wish that they had written "also, you can't arrange for the product to stop working when unauthorized parts are installed", but they didn't write that. Maybe a lawmaker should write that now.
It's possibly unlawful under other laws. There are quite a few different unfair competition laws and some may apply.
Fucking hell. This has gone from "Apples stuff is hard to repair because of wonky design decsions" to straight up malevolence.
I've been using Macs since Vista completely murdered my will to use windows ever again. New laptop, constant blue screens of death on "Certified for Vista" laptop. After being told I had to pay $100+ to upgrade back to XP I threw the towel in and got me big desktop imac and then later a mac laptop. It had unixy underbelly so my BSD background fit right in, it just seemed to work really well, and once I got over the slight behavioral differences (command-C vs Ctrl-C, menu on top etc) it was a system I really enjoyed working with. Ended up with an iPhone too to cash in on the new iPhone dev stuff (I was formerly a Symbian dev, hell on earth). I was the model of an Apple Fanboy. Shit Apple where so good to me that when a fucked up contract that was about to land me in court was caused by app store delays I actully emailed Steve Jobs, and he *fucking emailed me back* and put his personal assistant in charge of getting my shit through the store. Thats how great apple used to be.
But man, modern Apple sucks. My last apple purchase was a 2017 macbook pro to finally replace the trust 2011 MBP, the keyboard *sucked*, it only had those whack thunderbolt-3/USB-C ports which I had precisely zero perhipherals for and all the adaptors where ridiculously expensive and kinda unrelaible, and when I accidently dropped it and cracked the screen apple quoted me well over $1K to repair it.
So I ended up taking it to a third party indian repair dude who fixed it for $400. Not a great job, but at least I could afford it.
Also someone then broke into my house and stole the laptop. Admitedly I can't pin that one on Apple (I think?!).
Heres the thing. Without that cheapo unauthorized repair, I'd have been stuffed. With a nearly brand new laptop, unable to be used.
Apple want to take THAT away too?
Maybe its time I just swallowed my pride and built myself a Linux/Windows dual-booter.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
Krita is awesome. But its a different beast to photoshop. Its a strictly painting tool (I suppose you COULD do photo touchups , but eh..... )
However it runs like a slug as soon as you start using the better brushes and larger canvasses.
If they sort out that performance, it'll be up there with Corel Paint (Kritas true rival). But its not a photoshop replacement.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
You know what they say about any product named "pro?" It's not for pros, it's for wannabes. Get roughly twice as much computer for the money by going with Linux.
i7, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Geforce 960m... These are about Macbook Pro spec for 2016. A Macbook Pro costs £2,699 for the 512 GB SSD. I bought an Asus with those specs for £750.
I dual boot Linux and Windows, so I get the power of Linux when I need it and can play all of my Windows games when I want to.... for 1/3 the cost of a Macbook Pro. I expect that the Asus is going to last me over 5 years like my last one did (it still works, but struggles to run any game since 2015).
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I've been a Mac user for a long time but the way Apple has been going I am giving Linux a hard second look. Specifically, I've been experimenting with Kubuntu and the KDE PIM suite, and it turns out to be a very capable product. I haven't fully tested it yet, but so far it looks very promising.