12 ms·

Someone Uploaded What Look to Be Apple’s Internal iPhone Repair Videos

169 points by benryon 8y ago

patorjk 8y ago
> What’s incredible here is not that Apple’s internal videos leaked, but that the third-party repair teams have done such an incredible job replicating its procedures without having seen these videos or having access to Apple’s tools. How do we know that the third-party teams hadn't previously seen these videos? If they had a source that was getting them the videos, they probably wouldn't broadcast that information.
- draw_down 8y ago
  Or they could hire people with experience working in that part of Apple, etc. That passage does seem a bit naive.
- jjeaff 8y ago
  I don't see any need for the repair companies to have inside information beyond what is already available. They get detailed schematics of the electronics and as far as how to disassemble, that is generally figured out quickly by companies like ifixit that race to be the first company to post a teardown video on youtube when a new device comes out. They use elaborate equipment and even x-ray to figure out what is going on inside these things.
  - basch 8y ago
    2/3rds of the challange in taking apart an iPhone is the various adhesives holding the screen, battery, and home button together.
    - jdietrich 8y ago
      Taking apart an iPhone is absolutely trivial, relatively speaking. Good repairers can do component-level repairs, even on the weird sandwich PCB on the iPhone X. They can splice together two flat-flex PCBs to repair a TouchID home button. They can restore iCloud-locked devices by removing and reprogramming the flash memory. They can separate the individual layers of a sandwich LCD screen to replace just the cover glass or the digitizer. There are aftermarket suppliers of iPhone X screens, complete with the notch and 3D touch. Third-party iPhone repair represents the absolute cutting edge of electronics repair. The level of precision and ingenuity on display is simply staggering.
      - lostlogin 8y ago
        > They can restore iCloud-locked devices by removing and reprogramming the flash memory. That sounds a little sketchy.
        Deathmax 8y ago
        I don't think they can do so for newer devices, but here's a video from REWA demonstrating the process: https://youtu.be/AYETzuYlEjE https://youtu.be/AYETzuYlEjE
        heartbreak 8y ago
        That takes a pretty shady turn when they start checking serials to see if they're already activated. That's why people with a brand new iPad complain they can't activate it.
        tschwimmer 8y ago
        Thanks for sharing. This whole video is really mindblowing. The level of sophistication is very intense. There's a lot of really cool hardware and software reverse engineering going on here, and it's worth a watch.
        tehfcuk 8y ago
        In term of factory reset
        tinus_hn 8y ago
        Also unlikely; the lock is not in the device but in Apples servers denying activation. To fool it you need to put a legitimate identifier into to locked device. You can’t just make up numbers because Apple has them in a database. And you can’t duplicate them because then one of the devices gets locked. It’s more likely they use identifiers, chips or boards from unlocked but broken devices.
        deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
    - Animats 8y ago
      Those elastic strips look like a variant on 3M's "Command" adhesive system for wall hooks.[1] Those can be safely mounted and unmounted. [1] https://www.command.com https://www.command.com
      - moepstar 8y ago
        Wait, somebody has and uses the domain command.com? TIL..
        deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
- monocasa 8y ago
  With the right setup, PCBs are basically source provided. There's only so much you can obfuscate when all of the chips still have to be connected the right way.
- jdietrich 8y ago
  >How do we know that the third-party teams hadn't previously seen these videos? The best third-party repairers are vastly more advanced than Apple's own warranty repair service. They're constantly pushing the limits of what is considered possible in SMD rework. None of these videos would have provided any useful information to them. iFixit are rank amateurs compared to companies like G-lon, REWA and ZXW. The fact that Motherboard praise them as "incredible" is frankly embarrassing.
  - andrewmcwatters 8y ago
    Thanks for adding the perspective: I had no idea who these players were in the space prior to you mentioning them. I guess that says something about iFixit's marketing outreach.
    - jdietrich 8y ago
      iFixit sell DIY repair kits to ordinary consumers, so they need to cultivate a certain public image. The companies I mentioned sell tools to professional repairers, so they don't really care if consumers have heard of them. My gripe is with the author of this piece, who seems to unquestioningly regurgitate iFixit's PR talking points. iFixit provide a useful service and do cool stuff, but they're much better at marketing than they are at fixing things.
      - yborg 8y ago
        You seem to have some gripe with iFixit itself - the article just points out that iFixit has reverse-engineered some of these techniques and makes them available to the public unlike the many undoubtedly skilled professional repair companies who have a vested interest in making sure the public is as ignorant as possible. This makes it impossible to show other such examples; how this becomes "regurgitating iFixit PR" is unclear to me.
        urda 8y ago
        Based on the comment history GP has some axe to grind with iFixit. I don't get why they dislike iFixit, as the guides they put out are high quality and well suited for their target demographic. Not everything has to be geared to the super-knowledgeable reader, especially things like repair guides for consumer electronics.
KineticLensman 8y ago
In case people are wondering who 'someone' is, all the article says: > Arman Haji, who uploaded the videos to his YouTube channel, told Motherboard he initially saw them posted to Twitter [Edit: made it clearer that the article doesn't identify the original uploader]
- readhn 8y ago
  nope - the original uploader was on twitter and got his/her account shut down right away. This guy downloaded the videos while the original videos on twitter were up. he simply re-uploaded them to youtube. now hundreds of people have these videos. the cat is out of the bag.
  - KineticLensman 8y ago
    That's how I interpreted it as well. I've edited my comment slightly to make this clearer
michaelmrose 8y ago
The really amazing thing is that they don't distribute all these videos themselves. The effect on revenue would be a blip.
- readhn 8y ago
  distribute it to who? Average iphone user does not know what a torx screw driver looks like. DIY community - yes, but they are not a target market for apple at all.
  - dhimes 8y ago
    I took GPs comment to mean exactly that: The average user wouldn't bother even if they did have the vids available. Apple probably doesn't because if they tried, people would think that they should be able to repair the phones themselves, and then get torqued off at Apple when they failed.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - michaelmrose 8y ago
    Apple that was once a long time ago had a good rep with the DIY community. Now you hear about them filing lawsuits against repair shops, refusing to sell parts to anyone, slowing down older phones so you have to buy new ones, gluing keyboards to batteries and charging $200 to replace a laptop battery. Think about this what brands of car are there that aren't sold to DIYers. Tesla? We are in a long term trend whereby more and more things are non repairable trash that last less and less for no real good reason. Its irresponsible, hostile, and stupid. Can you imagine if we had cars that after 3-5 years died and had to be scrapped and we dismissed the matter as foo brand isn't for DIYERS that think you ought to be able to fix your car.
- cmiles74 8y ago
  Apple really doesn't like repair shops that aren't "Apple Authorized Service Providers". They tried to sue a company in Norway that was sourcing "counterfeit" parts. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/a3yadk/apple-sued-an-independent-iphone-repair-shop-owner-and-lost https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/a3yadk/apple-sued... It looks like the Apple authorized service program may be dead, or at least on it's last legs. Their website makes it hard to find these companies, I couldn't figure out how to get a list. https://locate.apple.com/ https://locate.apple.com/
mrleiter 8y ago
From a business perspective, it's interesting to me. Step 1: They want to increase revenue by vertical integration (repairs). Step 2: They make the process rather difficult (e.g. damaging the device permanently with one wrong move), thus discouraging self-repair and third-party repairs. Also, they void guarantee in such a case. Step 3: Now that they made it rather difficult, they need to buy/manufacture special equipment (like that metal battery rolling device seen in the video). This, in addition to having the need for more "man hours" replacing a battery, is rather costly. Step 4: They can now offer repair services, which has to cover the cost of the battery itself, the time needed to repair one device plus the special equipment (which amortises rather quickly I guess). (Step 5: Constantly increase lifespan of batteries, so that selling guarantees becomes more profitable; incurring costs of necessary time for replacing batteries likewise lower)
- tptacek 8y ago
  This seems silly. Their repair revenue must be a literal rounding error, to say nothing of what the bottom line on their repair business probably is.
  - jbob2000 8y ago
    The repair process forces you to walk into the store, past all the new models, and wait for 10-20 minutes for your genius, while your eyes dance around all the wonderful products you could buy. The repair isn't just about the revenue, but getting foot traffic to the stores. With a third-party repair model, like Samsung, all of that potential foot traffic goes to somebody else.
    - djrogers 8y ago
      Not sure if you've been to an Apple store lately, but they're not exactly hurting for foot traffic - and IME only a small portion of the crowd are waiting on repairs.
- readhn 8y ago
  Apple makes it hard to service so that only Apple can service. Also target apple customer is not a DIY kind. Target customer wants "luxury" experience - let apple do everything and they pay for it. Somewhat similar to any modern luxury car brand BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar - bulk of the revenue is made on post purchase services but in most cases average luxury car buyer will trade in the car before it gets old and needs a service. Similar case with average apple user - they'll upgrade to a newer phone in 2-3 years any way so no need to service anyway.
ballenf 8y ago
The 3D touch calibration video made me realize just how complicated it is to get the functionality. It's got to be about the worst cost to utilization ration of any feature on the iPhone. Based on my extensive research asking friends and reading various forums. When the video get taken down, it showed a large device resembling a 3d printer where the phone is precisely mounted while a probe carefully presses on the glass in multiple places to calibrate touch sensitivity. This works in conjunction with a special app running on the attached iMac. The process takes 15 minutes if it works the first time--the instructions indicate that it might fail the first time.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- ac4tw 8y ago
  "It's got to be about the worst cost to utilization ration of any feature on the iPhone." I can't speak to whether you're correct or not, but that feature is a massive time saver for me. It's one of the most compelling features that keeps me on their platform. I have large fingers and selecting text with 3D touch is incredibly easy compared to using the twin cursors offered by iOS/Android for that purpose. I run into quite a number of folks who have no idea they have 3D touch though. Surprises them even more than me when I show them. I don't use 3D touch for much else though, which sort of supports your assertion.
  - karmelapple 8y ago
    Speaking as an app developer, the little-known nature of 3D Touch means we can never rely on it as the sole way to access a feature, and that pretty much always means we have ignored building much with it. I wonder if better training by Apple could help? But it seems they’ve already accepted the tap-and-hold workaround for supporting some 3D Touch functionality on devices without 3D Touch. Seems like 3D Touch, and iOS 7’s lightboxing parallax effect for backgrounds, was likely part of a broader vision by Ive and the design team to bring depth to a thin phone screen. It’s an admirable goal, but whether by lack of discoverability or lack of training, seems like it isn’t poised to be a widely-adopted technology.
tschwimmer 8y ago
Oof, just replacing the display looks really dicey. They essentially have specially prepared glue jig that lines up where the adhesive needs to be. That would seem hard to replicate for a independent shop.
_salmon 8y ago
These look like they probably came from Apple's GSX (Global Service Exchange) system. Source: Was an Apple Certified Macintosh Technician
nchudleigh 8y ago
"now, turn it over and flick off the planned obscelence switch, look at that good as new"
vagab0nd 8y ago
Looks like the videos were taken down. This would be a perfect use case for peertube.
wemdyjreichert 8y ago
I got 10 of 11. Only one I'm missing is the speaker one; Youtube's blocked the channel (informally; 500 error messages and random exclamation points). Link to backup: https://u.teknik.io/xgX94.7z https://u.teknik.io/xgX94.7z
mrgill 8y ago
The videos were all removed.. Anyone got a new link?

169 points by benryon 8y ago

> What’s incredible here is not that Apple’s internal videos leaked, but that the third-party repair teams have done such an incredible job replicating its procedures without having seen these videos or having access to Apple’s tools. How do we know that the third-party teams hadn't previously seen these videos? If they had a source that was getting them the videos, they probably wouldn't broadcast that information.

draw_down 8y ago
Or they could hire people with experience working in that part of Apple, etc. That passage does seem a bit naive.
jjeaff 8y ago
I don't see any need for the repair companies to have inside information beyond what is already available. They get detailed schematics of the electronics and as far as how to disassemble, that is generally figured out quickly by companies like ifixit that race to be the first company to post a teardown video on youtube when a new device comes out. They use elaborate equipment and even x-ray to figure out what is going on inside these things.
- basch 8y ago
  2/3rds of the challange in taking apart an iPhone is the various adhesives holding the screen, battery, and home button together.
  - jdietrich 8y ago
    Taking apart an iPhone is absolutely trivial, relatively speaking. Good repairers can do component-level repairs, even on the weird sandwich PCB on the iPhone X. They can splice together two flat-flex PCBs to repair a TouchID home button. They can restore iCloud-locked devices by removing and reprogramming the flash memory. They can separate the individual layers of a sandwich LCD screen to replace just the cover glass or the digitizer. There are aftermarket suppliers of iPhone X screens, complete with the notch and 3D touch. Third-party iPhone repair represents the absolute cutting edge of electronics repair. The level of precision and ingenuity on display is simply staggering.
    - lostlogin 8y ago
      > They can restore iCloud-locked devices by removing and reprogramming the flash memory. That sounds a little sketchy.
      - Deathmax 8y ago
        I don't think they can do so for newer devices, but here's a video from REWA demonstrating the process: https://youtu.be/AYETzuYlEjE https://youtu.be/AYETzuYlEjE
        heartbreak 8y ago
        That takes a pretty shady turn when they start checking serials to see if they're already activated. That's why people with a brand new iPad complain they can't activate it.
        tschwimmer 8y ago
        Thanks for sharing. This whole video is really mindblowing. The level of sophistication is very intense. There's a lot of really cool hardware and software reverse engineering going on here, and it's worth a watch.
      - tehfcuk 8y ago
        In term of factory reset
      - tinus_hn 8y ago
        Also unlikely; the lock is not in the device but in Apples servers denying activation. To fool it you need to put a legitimate identifier into to locked device. You can’t just make up numbers because Apple has them in a database. And you can’t duplicate them because then one of the devices gets locked. It’s more likely they use identifiers, chips or boards from unlocked but broken devices.
        deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
  - Animats 8y ago
    Those elastic strips look like a variant on 3M's "Command" adhesive system for wall hooks.[1] Those can be safely mounted and unmounted. [1] https://www.command.com https://www.command.com
    - moepstar 8y ago
      Wait, somebody has and uses the domain command.com? TIL..
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
monocasa 8y ago
With the right setup, PCBs are basically source provided. There's only so much you can obfuscate when all of the chips still have to be connected the right way.
jdietrich 8y ago
>How do we know that the third-party teams hadn't previously seen these videos? The best third-party repairers are vastly more advanced than Apple's own warranty repair service. They're constantly pushing the limits of what is considered possible in SMD rework. None of these videos would have provided any useful information to them. iFixit are rank amateurs compared to companies like G-lon, REWA and ZXW. The fact that Motherboard praise them as "incredible" is frankly embarrassing.
- andrewmcwatters 8y ago
  Thanks for adding the perspective: I had no idea who these players were in the space prior to you mentioning them. I guess that says something about iFixit's marketing outreach.
  - jdietrich 8y ago
    iFixit sell DIY repair kits to ordinary consumers, so they need to cultivate a certain public image. The companies I mentioned sell tools to professional repairers, so they don't really care if consumers have heard of them. My gripe is with the author of this piece, who seems to unquestioningly regurgitate iFixit's PR talking points. iFixit provide a useful service and do cool stuff, but they're much better at marketing than they are at fixing things.
    - yborg 8y ago
      You seem to have some gripe with iFixit itself - the article just points out that iFixit has reverse-engineered some of these techniques and makes them available to the public unlike the many undoubtedly skilled professional repair companies who have a vested interest in making sure the public is as ignorant as possible. This makes it impossible to show other such examples; how this becomes "regurgitating iFixit PR" is unclear to me.
      - urda 8y ago
        Based on the comment history GP has some axe to grind with iFixit. I don't get why they dislike iFixit, as the guides they put out are high quality and well suited for their target demographic. Not everything has to be geared to the super-knowledgeable reader, especially things like repair guides for consumer electronics.

KineticLensman 8y ago

In case people are wondering who 'someone' is, all the article says: > Arman Haji, who uploaded the videos to his YouTube channel, told Motherboard he initially saw them posted to Twitter [Edit: made it clearer that the article doesn't identify the original uploader]

readhn 8y ago
nope - the original uploader was on twitter and got his/her account shut down right away. This guy downloaded the videos while the original videos on twitter were up. he simply re-uploaded them to youtube. now hundreds of people have these videos. the cat is out of the bag.
- KineticLensman 8y ago
  That's how I interpreted it as well. I've edited my comment slightly to make this clearer

michaelmrose 8y ago

The really amazing thing is that they don't distribute all these videos themselves. The effect on revenue would be a blip.

readhn 8y ago
distribute it to who? Average iphone user does not know what a torx screw driver looks like. DIY community - yes, but they are not a target market for apple at all.
- dhimes 8y ago
  I took GPs comment to mean exactly that: The average user wouldn't bother even if they did have the vids available. Apple probably doesn't because if they tried, people would think that they should be able to repair the phones themselves, and then get torqued off at Apple when they failed.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- michaelmrose 8y ago
  Apple that was once a long time ago had a good rep with the DIY community. Now you hear about them filing lawsuits against repair shops, refusing to sell parts to anyone, slowing down older phones so you have to buy new ones, gluing keyboards to batteries and charging $200 to replace a laptop battery. Think about this what brands of car are there that aren't sold to DIYers. Tesla? We are in a long term trend whereby more and more things are non repairable trash that last less and less for no real good reason. Its irresponsible, hostile, and stupid. Can you imagine if we had cars that after 3-5 years died and had to be scrapped and we dismissed the matter as foo brand isn't for DIYERS that think you ought to be able to fix your car.
cmiles74 8y ago
Apple really doesn't like repair shops that aren't "Apple Authorized Service Providers". They tried to sue a company in Norway that was sourcing "counterfeit" parts. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/a3yadk/apple-sued-an-independent-iphone-repair-shop-owner-and-lost https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/a3yadk/apple-sued... It looks like the Apple authorized service program may be dead, or at least on it's last legs. Their website makes it hard to find these companies, I couldn't figure out how to get a list. https://locate.apple.com/ https://locate.apple.com/

mrleiter 8y ago

From a business perspective, it's interesting to me. Step 1: They want to increase revenue by vertical integration (repairs). Step 2: They make the process rather difficult (e.g. damaging the device permanently with one wrong move), thus discouraging self-repair and third-party repairs. Also, they void guarantee in such a case. Step 3: Now that they made it rather difficult, they need to buy/manufacture special equipment (like that metal battery rolling device seen in the video). This, in addition to having the need for more "man hours" replacing a battery, is rather costly. Step 4: They can now offer repair services, which has to cover the cost of the battery itself, the time needed to repair one device plus the special equipment (which amortises rather quickly I guess). (Step 5: Constantly increase lifespan of batteries, so that selling guarantees becomes more profitable; incurring costs of necessary time for replacing batteries likewise lower)

tptacek 8y ago
This seems silly. Their repair revenue must be a literal rounding error, to say nothing of what the bottom line on their repair business probably is.
- jbob2000 8y ago
  The repair process forces you to walk into the store, past all the new models, and wait for 10-20 minutes for your genius, while your eyes dance around all the wonderful products you could buy. The repair isn't just about the revenue, but getting foot traffic to the stores. With a third-party repair model, like Samsung, all of that potential foot traffic goes to somebody else.
  - djrogers 8y ago
    Not sure if you've been to an Apple store lately, but they're not exactly hurting for foot traffic - and IME only a small portion of the crowd are waiting on repairs.
readhn 8y ago
Apple makes it hard to service so that only Apple can service. Also target apple customer is not a DIY kind. Target customer wants "luxury" experience - let apple do everything and they pay for it. Somewhat similar to any modern luxury car brand BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar - bulk of the revenue is made on post purchase services but in most cases average luxury car buyer will trade in the car before it gets old and needs a service. Similar case with average apple user - they'll upgrade to a newer phone in 2-3 years any way so no need to service anyway.

ballenf 8y ago

The 3D touch calibration video made me realize just how complicated it is to get the functionality. It's got to be about the worst cost to utilization ration of any feature on the iPhone. Based on my extensive research asking friends and reading various forums. When the video get taken down, it showed a large device resembling a 3d printer where the phone is precisely mounted while a probe carefully presses on the glass in multiple places to calibrate touch sensitivity. This works in conjunction with a special app running on the attached iMac. The process takes 15 minutes if it works the first time--the instructions indicate that it might fail the first time.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
ac4tw 8y ago
"It's got to be about the worst cost to utilization ration of any feature on the iPhone." I can't speak to whether you're correct or not, but that feature is a massive time saver for me. It's one of the most compelling features that keeps me on their platform. I have large fingers and selecting text with 3D touch is incredibly easy compared to using the twin cursors offered by iOS/Android for that purpose. I run into quite a number of folks who have no idea they have 3D touch though. Surprises them even more than me when I show them. I don't use 3D touch for much else though, which sort of supports your assertion.
- karmelapple 8y ago
  Speaking as an app developer, the little-known nature of 3D Touch means we can never rely on it as the sole way to access a feature, and that pretty much always means we have ignored building much with it. I wonder if better training by Apple could help? But it seems they’ve already accepted the tap-and-hold workaround for supporting some 3D Touch functionality on devices without 3D Touch. Seems like 3D Touch, and iOS 7’s lightboxing parallax effect for backgrounds, was likely part of a broader vision by Ive and the design team to bring depth to a thin phone screen. It’s an admirable goal, but whether by lack of discoverability or lack of training, seems like it isn’t poised to be a widely-adopted technology.

tschwimmer 8y ago

Oof, just replacing the display looks really dicey. They essentially have specially prepared glue jig that lines up where the adhesive needs to be. That would seem hard to replicate for a independent shop.

_salmon 8y ago

These look like they probably came from Apple's GSX (Global Service Exchange) system. Source: Was an Apple Certified Macintosh Technician

nchudleigh 8y ago

"now, turn it over and flick off the planned obscelence switch, look at that good as new"

vagab0nd 8y ago

Looks like the videos were taken down. This would be a perfect use case for peertube.

wemdyjreichert 8y ago

I got 10 of 11. Only one I'm missing is the speaker one; Youtube's blocked the channel (informally; 500 error messages and random exclamation points). Link to backup: https://u.teknik.io/xgX94.7z https://u.teknik.io/xgX94.7z

mrgill 8y ago

The videos were all removed.. Anyone got a new link?