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It was not done intentionally. They simply don't QA their releases on repaired phones (because why would they?). The touchscreens in question highly likely use
by axoltl 9y ago
It was not done intentionally. They simply don't QA their releases on repaired phones (because why would they?). The touchscreens in question highly likely use an older touchscreen controller from a previous iPhone. These controllers don't support certain commands that evidently they are now using.
As far as the lightning connectors go, that WAS done intentionally. The third party lightning connectors generally don't implement a very specific charging protocol designed to prevent metal migration between the pins and the pads on the connector. They only implement the handshake. But guess who has to honor the warranty if you've used a non-compliant charger cable?
- jandrese 9y agoIs this why some lightning cables seem to have one scorched pin on the connector? I have some that only work one way now.
- astockwell 9y agoThe irony is all of mine that have the scorched pin are Apple's...
- DINKDINK 9y ago>(because why would they?) Because a company understands their product in the field and cares about what effect a change might have. Now is that cost justified? arguably no.
- axoltl 9y agoIt'd be pretty hard for them to know though. They'd have to reverse engineer (the irony isn't lost on me) every variation of third party screen/touchscreen controller. What happens if some feature isn't available on a third party screen? Either they don't implement the feature at all or third party screens are now worse off and we'll have a headline "Apple cripples third party repairs!".
- stingraycharles 9y agoThis is precisely the kind of stuff that Microsoft is famous for, and it is entirely possible. Heck, third party hardware is what made PCs great. I think, however, that there is a difference in customer base; Microsoft caters to businesses, Apple to consumers. When Microsoft breaks a third party app/device with a Windows Service Pack, Microsoft needs to fix this otherwise their customers get angry. When Apple breaks a third party app, they require the customer or third party app provider to fix it, because Apple is inherently a company that wants to control the whole stack and doesn’t embrace an open ecosystem.
- aroch 9y agoThere's a major difference here: a 3rd party computer part drawing 5% more current than expected probably won't cause issues (There are however many of cases where they do...) whereas a component drawing 5% more current on a phone may cause a shutdown.
- kbenson 9y agoIt's amazing that I find myself thinking that Microsoft of the 90's and early 2000's as actually being a more open and accommodating company and windows being a more open and accommodating environment than Apple and iOS today. Whether Microsoft had no choice and would have been worse if they could in this respect, the fact they they weren't and I think Apple is, and Microsoft was widely lambasted as money driven (e.g. M$) and evil at the time, and Apple largely gets a pass now, is interesting. That could be because Apple is better at managing image, or because people's perceptions and what they expect has shifted, or because there's a lot more bad (and worse) actors out there now that make Apple look better in comparison. It's hard to tell exactly why it's looked upon more favorably now, but I do believe my thoughts on Apple to be accurate, and I'm not sure how to feel about that.
- bitL 9y agoFruit company pulls the plug on anyone who writes anything bad about them. No more marketing money, no more freebies, so publishers think twice about it.
- dangero 9y agoSlippery slope here. If they start testing with 3rd party hardware, that market will grow for third party parts whereas if they constantly tell people they don't support it and casually break those devices by accident, then they curb the issue while it's a small segment of the market. I see a company like Tesla taking the same approach.
- opencl 9y agoIf we keep going down this slippery slope, next thing you know there'll be stores called Phonezone or Advanced Phone Parts on every street corner selling repair parts for every popular brand of phone at reasonable prices enabling consumers to do their own repairs at home.
- michaelmrose 9y agoOr you know they could build according to standards for interfaces and cables and provide excellent documentation making it easy to repair.
- TomV1971 9y agoI’ve worked with many LCD panels: while they all support one of a few signaling standards, there is no standard for the cables and connectors. (Or if there is, nobody follows them.) For each LCD panel, you need to make a custom cable. So that part is not something that’s specific to Apple.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- inteleng 9y ago> very specific charging protocol designed to prevent metal migration between the pins and the pads on the connector This is 100% bullshit.
- axoltl 9y agoThis is 100% not bullshit. https://patents.google.com/patent/US20170272058A1/ https://patents.google.com/patent/US20170272058A1/ https://patents.google.com/patent/US20170124010A1/ https://patents.google.com/patent/US20170124010A1/
- inteleng 9y agoIt's bullshit because it isn't a real issue. Apple is just acting as a patent troll, inventing fake problems for the sake of filing patents.
- Const-me 9y agoFrom the first one: > To mitigate these issues, external contacts may typically include a corrosion-resistant coating to the exposed exterior surface… Although temporarily effective, such coatings are subject to frictional wear and may become less effective over the life of a device. Frictional wear is not a huge problem in practice. There’re billions of devices with built-in batteries in the world. I’ve been carrying a cell phone, and later sometimes other electronics, since 1999. Never encounter such issues. Most manufacturers use gold plating, and they advertise reliability for 10000 mating cycles: https://gct.co/usb-connector https://gct.co/usb-connector https://www.gradconn.com/Products/MicroUSB https://www.gradconn.com/Products/MicroUSB https://www.molex.com/molex/products/datasheet.jsp?part=active/0473460001_IO_CONNECTORS.xml https://www.molex.com/molex/products/datasheet.jsp?part=acti...
- pfortuny 9y agoThey probably can (and I guess rather easily) test whether the touchscreen is or not from Apple and at least let the ungood ones work as before (I am sure this is pretty easy to do: just keep the old controller), issuing a warning (not that Apple is short on these) to the user: "your screen may malfunction or may be insecure. If you had it repaired outside the Apple network, we remind you that it is not covered by our guarantee". I am pretty sure this is easy, cheap and honest.
- saagarjha 9y agoHere's a great article that discusses why doing this would be a bad idea: https://blog.darkrainfall.org/2016/02/a-short-rant-about-error-53-and-why-it-exists/ https://blog.darkrainfall.org/2016/02/a-short-rant-about-err...
- opencl 9y agoExcept this particular issue has absolutely nothing to do with TouchID or security at all. It's just the screen. Error 53 was significantly more justifiable.
- pfortuny 9y agoWell, that is an opinion. However, bricking a device without previous warning seems quite out of control. There are many easier things to do. Like, for example, nagging the user every day with a message, not upgrading the software (and still nagging the user with a message), etc... Bricking a device is certainly a bad user experience and not at all what the user wishes. Nagging him at least lets him use the phone and keeps him informed. You cannot assume the user is stupid and not assume the user will not repair the phone outside your network. You cannot have both things at the same time and get away with it. That is what I think. If the user is stupid, let him be so.
- maltalex 9y ago> It was not done intentionally. What evidence is there make this claim? It all seems to boil down to this question. Do you trust that Apple had the user's interests in mind? > They simply don't QA their releases on repaired phones (because why would they?) The more important question is why wouldn't they if the customer's experience is what guides their decisions.
- scott_s 9y ago> What evidence is there make this claim? From the article: "A similar thing happened for the iPhone 7 last year. An iOS update prevented the touchscreens from working on iPhone 7s with third-party repaired screens. Apple then released a follow-up software update that made them work again, resolving the issue." To me, that makes axoltl's explanation far likelier. From Apple's perspective, I get it: they do Q&A on what's officially supported. Trying to pull in all of the unofficial changes is more expensive and potentially restrictive.
- nomel 9y agoFrom my understanding, many Apple chips are custom, and I assume much of their firmware is too. What your asking is for Apple to support third party knock off chips in their firmware and drivers which were most likely reverse engineered to "get it close to functional". That's a bit silly. Imagine getting upset that an Occulus firmware update didn't work with a knock off HMD that lacked features of the original...
- mkhalil 9y agoWe are not talking about a small number of users though, millions of their users use third-party screens. They should have a test to make sure they don't get left in a dust with an update.
- axoltl 9y agoIs the onus on Apple to ensure the third-party screens work, or is it on the third-party screens to ensure they're compatible?
- michaelmrose 9y agoWhy doesn't any other phone manufacturer have this problem?
- AceJohnny2 9y agoNo other phone manufacturer is that tightly HW/SW integrated.
- TomV1971 9y agoOther phone manufacturers aren’t as prolific in updating the low level firmware of their devices once it’s on the market?
- axoltl 9y agoApple relies very heavily on customized silicon to provide an edge (Lower power consumption, for example, or extra features). This means that there might be a part out there that's sorta close, but not quite. Once Apple starts pushing their customized silicon, the off-the-shelf part doesn't keep up.
- michaelmrose 9y agoThis is complete nonsense
- stefan_ 9y agoIt's not like repair shops are doing this to cut corners and costs or cheap out. It's simply impossible to source the exact replacement chips for recent iPhones, Apple doesn't sell them, in fact they probably ask their chip manufacturers for exclusivity - and at the scale of Apple orders, manufacturers are happy to do whatever.
- Rjevski 9y ago> don't implement a very specific charging protocol designed to prevent metal migration between the pins and the pads on the connector Any sources for this ? I'd like to learn more.
- axoltl 9y agoI linked some patents below: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20170272058A1/ https://patents.google.com/patent/US20170272058A1/ https://patents.google.com/patent/US20170124010A1/ https://patents.google.com/patent/US20170124010A1/ But a quick search yields some interesting research: http://www.te.com/documentation/whitepapers/pdf/p313-89.pdf http://www.te.com/documentation/whitepapers/pdf/p313-89.pdf I bet there's much more to find, I'm not a metallurgist.
- pietroglyph 9y agoThe problem here is that Apple leaves third parties in the dark. A reasonable, open, spec and stance on more complex repairs would shift the responsibility to the repair company.
- greglindahl 9y agoI had a cracked iPhone screen repaired by an authorized 3rd party, they didn't seem to be in the dark.
- jlarocco 9y agoIt seems more likely that Apple is checking serial numbers or some kind of embedded meta-data, to verify that the parts in the phone are authentic Apple parts.
- TomV1971 9y agoIf that were true, why didn’t they do this kind of authentication right from the start? There is little upside in screwing over millions of existing customers.
- mavendependency 9y agoIf this is the case, wouldn't the "touch current" from capacitive leakage on the Y class capacitor tying the SMPS ground to mains neutral do this anyway? Surely, if electromigration is an issue, wouldn't these issues be just as significant? Isn't gold practically immune to electromigration at these energy levels?
- tinus_hn 9y agoAnker cables are licensed, they are tested to be compliant.