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Reading this article and the comments here makes me quite sad. 1. The repair kit described here is not mandatory for anyone to rent to be able to buy the parts
by turbinerneiter 4y ago
Reading this article and the comments here makes me quite sad.
1. The repair kit described here is not mandatory for anyone to rent to be able to buy the parts. You can just buy the parts alone and use whatever tools you want. If you attempt your own repair, you should use the simple ifixit style tools, and understand the higher risk of damage you are taking.
2. The kit described in the article seems very decent for any kind of independent repair shop. They will probably already have pretty much the same setup.
3. Right to repair is about access to documentation and parts. Nobody epects anyone to make it easy for the user to replace 512 pin BGA part. Right to repair does not mean that it should be easy to repair something, just that there shouldn't be artificial obstacles and that there should be supply of documentation and parts.
4. Repairability is still an important topic and with discussing, but it is a separate issue from right to repair. E.g. I think phone makers could make replacing batteries much easier and that it would be a much smaller design compromise than some people like to claim. But that is a different topic from the baseline of right to repair.
To me this seems like Apple has a good basic right to repair offering both for individuals and independent shops. This article is bad for the right to repair movement, because it doesn't understand what it is asking for.
Parts. Documentation. No artificial obstacles.
- Wowfunhappy 4y ago> The repair kit described here is not mandatory for anyone to rent to be able to buy the parts. Is this the case? Is Apple allowing people to just buy the parts separately, or do they make you get the whole kit?
- turbinerneiter 4y agohttps://selfservicerepair.com/order https://selfservicerepair.com/order I can't go through the whole order process because I don't have an iPhone IMEI, but to me it looks like you can just buy the parts you need.
- Wowfunhappy 4y agoAh, yes I agree, based on how they've designed the site it definitely seems you can order individual parts!
- btbuildem 4y agoAgreed. The one part of this repair that Apple seems to have made purposely difficult is that you have to call them and "register" or whatever your new battery to your device. They hold the keys and refuse to activate the new part for any reason.
- turbinerneiter 4y agoOn this topic I'm leaning towards that this is ok for them to do, although I think it is unnecessary and a reason I would rather buy a competitors procust, that doesn't have this requirement.
- mattnewton 4y agoWeird thing to care about for a battery I agree, I suspect this scheme was designed for things like camera or touchid replacement that had security implications, and is now just used for all parts possible to do so, regardless of the possibility of attack.
- stjohnswarts 4y agoto #3 I think most people want to easily swap out their screen and batteries and maybe usb/lightning port. Those are the parts that usually wear out. I doubt any expects to swap out the BGA and RAM other than maybe a professional tech who wants to do it for bragging rights.
- hatware 4y agoI think you have grossly underestimated how propaganda against right to repair legislation has colored your perception. That is what's sad. We used to fully own the devices we buy, now look at us.
- turbinerneiter 4y agoI think my perspective is pretty good, thanks.
- hatware 4y agoOf course you do, that's called ego.
- kllrnohj 4y ago> No artificial obstacles. There are 2 such artificial obstacles in fact. The first is you can only buy parts if you provide a serial number for the device in question, preventing things like repair shops from having a stock of batteries on hand. For self repair, it also complicates the "help a friend out with a replacement" flow. The second is the software lockout. Even though you provide the serial number at time of ordering, the battery still comes up as being unauthorized after it's first installed and things like face unlock refuse to work, despite the battery playing no role in security. You then need to call a number and go through a process to get that battery remotely authorized. Both of those extremely artificial limitations are completely bullshit moves on Apple's part.
- blakesley 4y agoI like what you tried to do here, but then you got to #3. It's bizarre to me that you feel this process of Apple's constitutes "no artificial obstacles". Phone & laptop batteries used to be easy to replace. A few models still have this feature. It's not a hardware problem, it's a business decision. This process of Apple's is following the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law.