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Apple to make tools and parts to fix phones, computers available nationwide
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- omgwtfusb 3y agoDid they change their policy on not making chips not available for purchase from manufacturers?
- hellotheretoday 3y agoApple generally doesn’t sanction component level repairs so unlikely. My guess is they would be willing to provide assemblies, eg LCDs, batteries, logic boards, etc. and instructions to replace with access to services to enable parts after install. The broken parts get sent to apple for recycling for a refund. eg the replacement battery costs $60 from apple and you get $20 back when you send them the dead battery. At least that’s how it works under the current self service program they have. Repair shops that have the ability to find the short in your iPhone logic board, rebuild traces and replace a destroyed lightning connector, reball a chip, etc will still have to operate without apples/samsungs/etc explicit consent as always. But if you want a chance of saving your data you’ll need one of these shops. But also maybe back up your data before your phone/laptop/pc/console gets wrecked tbf
- gjsman-1000 3y agoComponent level repair will always be, in my opinion, a pipe dream. If you do it for electronics, it can quickly become absurd for other industries. So I have the right to buy just the laser crystal for my car’s CD player? Or just one layer of palladium mesh for inside my catalytic converter? I don’t see it ever happening.
- bigtuna711 3y agoMy personal theory is that Apple is nervous about how stable their supply chain in China is going to be in the next few years, so they are allowing for more repairable products to ease customers from freaking out about the lack of new product availability.
- eli 3y agoI don’t follow. Wouldn’t supplychain be equally a problem for third party repair vs apple insisting they do it in house?
- mips_r4300i 3y agoNah, this is definitely to comply with some regulations in some of their markets. They'll market it as a wonderful thing, but they will sell assemblies, not parts, and at high prices that disincentivize repair
- MBCook 3y agoYou’re right they’re scared about China. But I don’t think it has anything to do with this decision.
- LightHugger 3y agoThey're saying this again huh? Boy who cried wolf, meet apple who cried repairable. Nobody should care about what apple says on this, wait for third party repair ships to verify that repair parts have become obtainable and repair has actually become more viable.
- RecycledEle 3y agoYou are not the only skeptical person here. I said "Yeah, but at what price?"
- Animats 3y agoRight. Apple hasn't even made an announcement yet. This is just an announcement of a future announcement. Not an real world event.
- GeekyBear 3y ago> make parts, tools and documentation needed to repair its products available to independent repair shops and consumers nationwide, at fair and reasonable prices, the White House said. It sounds like they are going to apply the new California law nationwide.
- rtkwe 3y agoThey might like to but Congress doesn't seem like it'd get behind that push. Luckily for many initiatives like this CA is large enough requiring it for their market means it largely applies to the rest of the states by default.
- sahinyanlik 3y agoI have a MacBook Pro 2017 model. They stopped supporting new updated. Which still can handle. I don't know how many people will stop using this product and buying new one for this decision.
- abtinf 3y ago> I have a MacBook Pro 2017 model. They stopped supporting new updated. That’s only partially true. It won’t get major OS updates, but it runs Ventura which will continue to receive security updates. Apple seems to be on a 3 year support cycle for major OS releases, so the 2017 machine will probably be supported through Q3 2025. 8 years of software support seems reasonable.? Or you can switch it over to Linux or Windows.
- ChrisArchitect 3y agoBit weird this announcement coming via the White House... I mean, it's like they strongarmed Apple into accepting it?
- ericmay 3y agoWhy would it be weird? National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard made the announcement in remarks prepared for a White House event later Tuesday focused on the so-called "right to repair," calling on Congress to pass legislation requiring such action across the country.
- nilespotter 3y agoBecause it's their prerogative to support an agenda, work to pass laws and enforce them, not to strong arm private companies into obedience with threats of retaliatory regulation.
- delta_p_delta_x 3y agoThese are essentially synonyms: > pass laws and enforce them > strong arm private companies into obedience with threats of retaliatory regulation Companies are also entities subject to laws, and enforcement of laws against companies absolutely involves strong-arming them.
- nilespotter 3y agoThey're similar, but the later skips over the former. That's the problem. Right to repair isn't passed yet, the fact that this was released from the White House signals extralegal shenanigans that both I and the parent commenter take a dim view of.
- ericmay 3y agoIf that signals “extralegal shenanigans” you can just make the same claim with anything… so it’s not a very valuable signal.
- mikece 3y agoWith what strings attached? With or without schematics? ALL parts or just what Apple wants to make available?
- rtkwe 3y agoThe units they supply are above the schematic board level repair afaik. Don't know if the iPhone schematics have leaked but the Macbook ones are pretty wide spread. The big issue one the iPhone repairs is you have to buy new parts from Apple instead of being able to harvest broken phones for parts.
- beretguy 3y ago> With what strings attached? My guess - calibration. Parts will require to be calibrated using proprietary Apple software. “Oh! We see you replaced your battery. Please connect your device to a Mac and launch calibration app to make your battery operational”, or something like that.
- rasz 3y agoIn Apple parlance parts are modules. Phone consists of 4 parts: case, battery, display module, logic board. Laptop is 3: case with integrated keyboard and logic board, battery, display.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 3y agoI'll believe it when I can buy an Apple OEM camera or screen on Mouser Electronics.
- mcny 3y agoTangentially, I don't have an iPhone 15 but I am optimistic based on what I've read at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210512 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210512 > About 80% Limit with iPhone 15 models > With iPhone 15 models, you can choose between Optimized Battery Charging, 80% Limit, and None. > When you choose 80% Limit, your iPhone will charge up to about 80 percent and then stop charging. If the battery charge level gets down to 75 percent, charging will resume until your battery charge level reaches about 80 percent again. > With 80% Limit enabled, your iPhone will occasionally charge to 100 percent to maintain accurate battery state-of-charge estimates. Does anyone here have any insight into why this is limited to the newest iPhones? Is it an actual hardware upgrade? Do you recommend this 80% option to preserve battery life as in will this help my battery last a few more years? Thank you in advance. Disclaimer: I only have an iPhone SE 2020 so I can't try it out just yet. I hope the next iPhone SE 2024 or 2025 will have this 80% limit option as well.
- MBCook 3y agoNo one has come up with a good theory so far. There’s a small chance there’s a change in the battery charging circuits, but it could just as easily be a simple segmentation decision. I think you’re right that it’s purely a life preserving thing. Filling up a battery to 80% is better for it than 100%. So if people are willing to make that choice they may be able to use the battery a little longer as they’re not stressing it as much.
- tarentel 3y agoMy macbook air does this as well. This isn't limited to newer phones. I checked mine, I have an iPhone 12, and this option is in there. According to the support page it's available on iOS 13+.
- madeofpalk 3y agoNo, you only have "Optimised Charging" on your older phone. As described in the article parent linked to, 'Optimised Charing' aims to charge your phone to 80% overnight, and then ~1 hour before you wake up, fully charge it. The iPhone 15 has an additional option that caps the charge to 80%. It never does that final top up before you wake up. > With iPhone 15 models, to choose between Optimized Battery Charging, 80% Limit, and None, go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging > Charging Optimization and choose an option.
- beretguy 3y agoI wonder if those parts will require calibration which will require apple's permission.
- drewg123 3y agoI wish they actually sold parts, and not assemblies. My fiance has an original 13" M1 MBP. She spilled a drink, and about 1/3 of the keyboard is non-functional. To replace the keyboard (which has to be a ~$100 part), Apple Service says they need to replace the entire laptop shell. I think they wanted roughly $800, or nearly the price of a used MBP of the same specs.
- gjsman-1000 3y agoApple does do keyboard only repairs; but Apple has a policy that they never do partial repairs. Your laptop is sent back as it came, or fully repaired. I’m not saying it’s right, but drinks trigger small indicators inside the chassis warning the technician that the board may have taken liquid damage. From Apple’s perspective, even if the board appears to be still functioning; it cannot be warrantied and should not be considered reliable (to them, it’s as good as broken). On Apple’s scale, I do somewhat get it. You don’t want to give someone back a “repaired” laptop that burns out later from latent damage. But it’s still… expensive and overly cautious. Edit: I guess it’s somewhat a matter of perspective on what the repair is meant to accomplish. For you, it’s “I want a working keyboard.” For Apple, it’s “fix all potential consequences of water damage and make it safe to use again.”
- Zagitta 3y agoImagine if car repairs worked the same. Oh you damaged the front bumper on the curb? Sorry we're gonna have to do a full engine replacement as the chassis might have flexed and cracked the engine block despite it running perfectly fine. It's frankly ridiculous what people consider acceptable behavior from apple.
- jerlam 3y agoCars are going in the same direction. One Rivian had a fender bender that cost $41K to fix: https://www.thedrive.com/news/rivian-r1t-fender-bender-turns-into-42000-repair-bill https://www.thedrive.com/news/rivian-r1t-fender-bender-turns... Tesla is making their cars with huge single castings and structural batteries, making any repair to those components prohibitively expensive.
- Aachen 3y ago"nationwide" oh boy, how exciting for their customers in the 191 other countries
- joshmanders 3y agoConsidering this is about a report by the United States Whitehouse, of course it's going to talk only in context of the United States.
- petemir 3y agoMeanwhile, I went to an Apple Store to try to repair the button on my 4-yo iPad and the only comment from the Apple “Genius” was “your iPad is too old, get a new one”.
- bimguy 3y agoI worked for Apple Authorized Service Providers for over ten years and Apple's documentation is extremely basic at best. Step by step guides that explain how a part should be replaced, what tools they "require", ect. iFixit docs are essentially the same and sometimes much more detailed then Apple's bare documentation. Although the diagnostics can be helpful sometimes, these are also extremely basic diagnostics, nothing that you would praise Apple for creating. The only thing that might be useful for third party providers is Apple's Screen Calibration machine, which is the only exciting tool that we ever received from Apple(for ridiculous amount of money). I'm sure independent providers found a way around all of these things many moons ago but it's good to know going forward that they can have the same tools for extraordinary prices.
- mrtksn 3y agoOn the other hand, I see amazing machines for phone repair from China. They will separate the screen to layers and replace the faulty part instead of the full screen assembly or they will find a defect in the OLED and fix it with laser or something. That's why I'm not very interested in this "right to repair" stuff - it revolves around demanding modular parts for quick and easy replacement. People who are actually close to the metal, who actually get their hands dirty are repairing those devices since ever. I got my old iPhone 6s screen repaired(front glass replaced, keeping everything else original) for very cheap and just in few hours. Here is one for fixing faulty OLED iPhone screens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks-lS11TIaY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks-lS11TIaY
- bimguy 3y agoIt's amazing how much more advanced the third party repairers are then Apple's own Authorized repairers. You are completely on point with not being interesting in this "Right To Repair" rhetoric that I can only assume Apple is using as a marketing gimmick. From when I first started fixing Mac's - which I only ever replaced parts, Apple would never allow you to take a soldering iron to their godly products - they at least had a lot of parts you could replace. Displays could be replaced on Macbooks from the 2007 era for example and you could buy those displays in bulk for a reasonable price. From the unibody/clamshell era, 2010 onwards, Apple made these machines barely repairable, displays are now industrially glued into their metal housing, almost all I/O is soldered to the logic board requiring a full replacement to fix, good luck if you're out of warranty. In exchange for the faulty part back, Apple will offer an authorized provider about 20-30% discount on the part which they call an "Exchange Price". Nothing hurt my soul more then to have to quote customers $700-900 AUD (exchange price) to fix a simple backlight malfunction. Interestingly the price of replacing a Display or a Logic Board through Apple's 'Exchange' program is the same cost price for a Service Provider and these are the most costly parts of a Mac. They do not offer exchange prices to these independent providers and the 'stock' price of Apple's service parts are astronomical. I highly doubt that any independent repairer has ever ordered any part from Apple. Maybe they ordered tools, Apple does have some decent tools.
- jbverschoor 3y agoNext problem: BigTech's transformation to storage and compute subscriptions.
- devwastaken 3y ago*only under contract, NDA, and agreements to only do what apple wants. Apple didn't stop being a mega capitalist corp overnight. Devices must be forced to separate their components, the same as an anti-trust breakup.