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More accurate title, just in interest of facts: > One Mac repair shop's fight to repair Macs. Apple can do a lot to make their hardware more repairable. But a

by slver 5y ago

More accurate title, just in interest of facts: > One Mac repair shop's fight to repair Macs. Apple can do a lot to make their hardware more repairable. But also I've seen Rossman outright demand their hardware changes just so it's easier to repair, without regard to things like weight, water resistance, and overall UX.

bogwog 5y ago
> Apple can do a lot to make their hardware more repairable. But also I've seen Rossman outright demand their hardware changes just so it's easier to repair, without regard to things like weight, water resistance, and overall UX. Source? He released a video recently where he basically said that it doesn’t matter if they’re easy to repair. As technology gets more advanced, so do repair shops. It’ll be harder for the average Joe at home, but that’s precisely why independent repair shops that can offer competitive prices are so important. Plus, I just want to point out (in case it isn’t clear to anyone reading your comment) that right to repair has absolutely nothing to do with making changes to the hardware, or about making repairs “easier”. It’s about supply chains; about making it possible to buy replacement parts. Currently, Apple tells their suppliers that they’re not allowed to sell parts to anyone else. A common example he cites in his videos is where Apple takes a commodity chip they didn’t invent, makes a tiny change to it, and then place a custom order where the contract states that the manufacturer can’t sell it to anyone else. So if that chip breaks, customers can’t replace it with the common version, and they can’t buy it from the only manufacturer that makes the “custom” version. The only alternative is trying to find a clone from China, or taking it from a “donor board” (which is not a sustainable or cost-effective practice)
- slver 5y ago
  > He released a video recently where he basically said that it doesn’t matter if they’re easy to repair. As technology gets more advanced, so do repair shops. > It’ll be harder for the average Joe at home, but that’s precisely why independent repair shops that can offer competitive prices are so important. So you'd really recommend that Joe at home should repair their own Windows laptop or Android phone? Sorry but "gullible" is the word that comes to mind. Rossman is fighting for his right to do his own job. He has that right, but he also wants to be viral. To be viral, he needs to reframe his fight as the fight for the little guy to resolder a Wi-Fi modem at home on their MacBook. Which is frankly ridiculous. Technology, especially mobile, is at a stage where repairing at home is impossible due to integration and miniaturization. Maybe you could install your own RAM on a laptop. Well now that RAM is in the CPU, because it has to be there. So what do we do? Complain until technology goes back a decade or a few?
  - Wowfunhappy 5y ago
    > So you'd really recommend that Joe at home should repair their own Windows laptop or Android phone? >> As technology gets more advanced, so do repair shops. It’ll be harder for the average Joe at home, but that’s precisely why independent repair shops that can offer competitive prices are so important.
  - bogwog 5y ago
    By "average Joe" I'm not referring to someone like my grandma or you, I mean someone who isn't a professional repair shop with specialized equipment, but still knows a few things about technology. I've repaired tons of my own devices over the years. The most "hardcore" repair I've done was replacing a blown capacitor in a Samsung monitor. The monitor was like $200, and the new capacitor cost less than a dollar. I'm terrible at soldering, and have zero skill in that category. That soldering job I did came out really bad, but that monitor still works ~8 years later, and it's sitting on my desk right now as I'm typing this. > Technology, especially mobile, is at a stage where repairing at home is impossible due to integration and miniaturization. > Maybe you could install your own RAM on a laptop. Well now that RAM is in the CPU, because it has to be there. So what do we do? Complain until technology goes back a decade or a few? Neither "right to repair" nor my original comment advocate for being able to repair your own devices at home. I said that, because new devices are impossible to repair at home, it's critical that independent repair shops can exist, because they have expertise and equipment most people don't have to home. Without those independent repair shops, customers are forced to pay the manufacturer for repairs. Apple charges $300 to "fix" a broken screen (they actually just send you a new phone), even though the displays are nowhere near that expensive and Apple can get them at cost (or close to it). And right to repair has NOTHING to do with changing devices, making them go back "a decade or two", or any bullshit FUD like that. Seriously, go to https://www.fighttorepair.org/ https://www.fighttorepair.org/ and educate yourself on it so that you see it's 100% in your interests as a consumer.
    - slver 5y ago
      > I've repaired tons of my own devices over the years. Many of us have but again, minituarization, specialization and integration means this gradually becomes impossible. The age of generic parts is over. Things get built at scale, for a specific purpose, highly integrated, and tiny. Unless maybe you can chisel out your own SoC replacement from some sand and metal.
m55au 5y ago
> But also I've seen Rossman outright demand their hardware changes just so it's easier to repair, without regard to things like weight, water resistance, and overall UX. This is just a blatant lie and in fact complete opposite of what he is saying: https://youtu.be/RTbrXiIzUt4?t=959 https://youtu.be/RTbrXiIzUt4?t=959

by slver 5y ago

bogwog 5y ago

> Apple can do a lot to make their hardware more repairable. But also I've seen Rossman outright demand their hardware changes just so it's easier to repair, without regard to things like weight, water resistance, and overall UX. Source? He released a video recently where he basically said that it doesn’t matter if they’re easy to repair. As technology gets more advanced, so do repair shops. It’ll be harder for the average Joe at home, but that’s precisely why independent repair shops that can offer competitive prices are so important. Plus, I just want to point out (in case it isn’t clear to anyone reading your comment) that right to repair has absolutely nothing to do with making changes to the hardware, or about making repairs “easier”. It’s about supply chains; about making it possible to buy replacement parts. Currently, Apple tells their suppliers that they’re not allowed to sell parts to anyone else. A common example he cites in his videos is where Apple takes a commodity chip they didn’t invent, makes a tiny change to it, and then place a custom order where the contract states that the manufacturer can’t sell it to anyone else. So if that chip breaks, customers can’t replace it with the common version, and they can’t buy it from the only manufacturer that makes the “custom” version. The only alternative is trying to find a clone from China, or taking it from a “donor board” (which is not a sustainable or cost-effective practice)

slver 5y ago
> He released a video recently where he basically said that it doesn’t matter if they’re easy to repair. As technology gets more advanced, so do repair shops. > It’ll be harder for the average Joe at home, but that’s precisely why independent repair shops that can offer competitive prices are so important. So you'd really recommend that Joe at home should repair their own Windows laptop or Android phone? Sorry but "gullible" is the word that comes to mind. Rossman is fighting for his right to do his own job. He has that right, but he also wants to be viral. To be viral, he needs to reframe his fight as the fight for the little guy to resolder a Wi-Fi modem at home on their MacBook. Which is frankly ridiculous. Technology, especially mobile, is at a stage where repairing at home is impossible due to integration and miniaturization. Maybe you could install your own RAM on a laptop. Well now that RAM is in the CPU, because it has to be there. So what do we do? Complain until technology goes back a decade or a few?
- Wowfunhappy 5y ago
  > So you'd really recommend that Joe at home should repair their own Windows laptop or Android phone? >> As technology gets more advanced, so do repair shops. It’ll be harder for the average Joe at home, but that’s precisely why independent repair shops that can offer competitive prices are so important.
- bogwog 5y ago
  By "average Joe" I'm not referring to someone like my grandma or you, I mean someone who isn't a professional repair shop with specialized equipment, but still knows a few things about technology. I've repaired tons of my own devices over the years. The most "hardcore" repair I've done was replacing a blown capacitor in a Samsung monitor. The monitor was like $200, and the new capacitor cost less than a dollar. I'm terrible at soldering, and have zero skill in that category. That soldering job I did came out really bad, but that monitor still works ~8 years later, and it's sitting on my desk right now as I'm typing this. > Technology, especially mobile, is at a stage where repairing at home is impossible due to integration and miniaturization. > Maybe you could install your own RAM on a laptop. Well now that RAM is in the CPU, because it has to be there. So what do we do? Complain until technology goes back a decade or a few? Neither "right to repair" nor my original comment advocate for being able to repair your own devices at home. I said that, because new devices are impossible to repair at home, it's critical that independent repair shops can exist, because they have expertise and equipment most people don't have to home. Without those independent repair shops, customers are forced to pay the manufacturer for repairs. Apple charges $300 to "fix" a broken screen (they actually just send you a new phone), even though the displays are nowhere near that expensive and Apple can get them at cost (or close to it). And right to repair has NOTHING to do with changing devices, making them go back "a decade or two", or any bullshit FUD like that. Seriously, go to https://www.fighttorepair.org/ https://www.fighttorepair.org/ and educate yourself on it so that you see it's 100% in your interests as a consumer.
  - slver 5y ago
    > I've repaired tons of my own devices over the years. Many of us have but again, minituarization, specialization and integration means this gradually becomes impossible. The age of generic parts is over. Things get built at scale, for a specific purpose, highly integrated, and tiny. Unless maybe you can chisel out your own SoC replacement from some sand and metal.

m55au 5y ago

> But also I've seen Rossman outright demand their hardware changes just so it's easier to repair, without regard to things like weight, water resistance, and overall UX. This is just a blatant lie and in fact complete opposite of what he is saying: https://youtu.be/RTbrXiIzUt4?t=959 https://youtu.be/RTbrXiIzUt4?t=959