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Doesn't this effectively kill 3rd party parts/repairs? Or salvaging dead phones for parts? Is this gonna make more e-waste, or make repairs more expensive, or

Doesn't this effectively kill 3rd party parts/repairs? Or salvaging dead phones for parts? Is this gonna make more e-waste, or make repairs more expensive, or both?

geor9e 2y ago
Why would a 3rd party part show up in a serial number database of stolen phones?
- grugagag 2y ago
  Sadly it won’t work even if you own two broken phones and want to make one out of them. Big loss to repairability and indeed a massive waste of resources. Today I was reading on HN a story on how degrowth won’t do anything for combating global warming. Oh well, this is exactly the opposite of that and it’ll cause a lot of problems for future generations. They’ll look back towards us with disgust and dissapointment.
  - ghostpepper 2y ago
    If you buy a phone, add it to your iCloud account, then the phone becomes broken in a way you want to salvage the camera/battery, presumably removing that phone from your iCloud account (which I don't believe requires the phone to turn on?) would allow you to use those genuine, not-stolen parts in another repair.
krackers 2y ago
>However, it aligns with Apple’s recent policy changes that allow repairs with genuine used parts while maintaining stringent security measures. Doesn't this imply that so long as the phone is unliked from apple id, the parts can be re-paired (hah) with a new phone?
beembeem 2y ago
If "extending Activation Lock to other components" means what I think it does, then the phone's owner should have control over this and 3rd party repairs should be fine. It may cut out the market for unofficial parts, but does that even exist today? Is anyone making iphone compatible batteries with any scale? (I'm curious if so) The thrust of this move devalues phones to thieves, which I generally think is a good thing. Cutting down the hardly salvageable value even further should help the "market" sort this out and lead to less theft. I like it.
- Kirby64 2y ago
  Third party parts exist for tons of Apple devices. Usually of varying (typically poor, especially with batteries) quality. You can get OLED screens (actually oled!) that are replacements even. They pretty much will all give you the “unable to validate authentic component” message when paired with an iPhone … but that’s kind of working as intended there.
batch12 2y ago
If they use lost or stolen parts, probably.
RobotToaster 2y ago
This is probably their real goal here.
Gigachad 2y ago
You can salvage dead phones for parts. You can use the icloud web ui to unlink the phone. If you can't coordinate with the owner to unlink it, it does bring up the question of how you obtained the phone you are stripping for parts.
- chongli 2y ago
  Some businesses just dump loads of devices into the arms of recyclers without offering any further help. If their IT team isn’t doing a proper Apple-sanctioned MDM-wipe then all those devices may still be activation locked. What can the recycler do with that? Just shred the devices.
  - MichaelZuo 2y ago
    Why would the ‘IT team’ refuse or ignore the legitimate recyclers after being informed they dumped ‘loads of devices’ with it still active?
    - willcipriano 2y ago
      Why would the IT team spend any time at all trying to help some 3rd party recycler make a few bucks on Ebay?
      - burnerthrow008 2y ago
        Because, if they don’t, then recyclers will stop accepting used phones from that company.
    - chongli 2y ago
      The recyclers don’t have any way to contact the IT team? The job for the IT department is to ensure all company data is wiped from the phones before dropping them off at the recyclers. Nothing more than that. Heck, I bet some managers even knowingly ask them to keep the activation locks in place so that the phones will be shredded, just to add a belt-and-suspenders level of security.
Kirby64 2y ago
Why would it do either of these things? It would kill the black market for stolen apple parts, but otherwise it shouldn’t impact anything else. Assuming you can “unpair” iCloud on dead phones (which you can do already, to my knowledge), then salvaging isn’t a problem.

Doesn't this effectively kill 3rd party parts/repairs? Or salvaging dead phones for parts? Is this gonna make more e-waste, or make repairs more expensive, or both?

geor9e 2y ago

Why would a 3rd party part show up in a serial number database of stolen phones?

grugagag 2y ago
Sadly it won’t work even if you own two broken phones and want to make one out of them. Big loss to repairability and indeed a massive waste of resources. Today I was reading on HN a story on how degrowth won’t do anything for combating global warming. Oh well, this is exactly the opposite of that and it’ll cause a lot of problems for future generations. They’ll look back towards us with disgust and dissapointment.
- ghostpepper 2y ago
  If you buy a phone, add it to your iCloud account, then the phone becomes broken in a way you want to salvage the camera/battery, presumably removing that phone from your iCloud account (which I don't believe requires the phone to turn on?) would allow you to use those genuine, not-stolen parts in another repair.

krackers 2y ago

>However, it aligns with Apple’s recent policy changes that allow repairs with genuine used parts while maintaining stringent security measures. Doesn't this imply that so long as the phone is unliked from apple id, the parts can be re-paired (hah) with a new phone?

beembeem 2y ago

If "extending Activation Lock to other components" means what I think it does, then the phone's owner should have control over this and 3rd party repairs should be fine. It may cut out the market for unofficial parts, but does that even exist today? Is anyone making iphone compatible batteries with any scale? (I'm curious if so) The thrust of this move devalues phones to thieves, which I generally think is a good thing. Cutting down the hardly salvageable value even further should help the "market" sort this out and lead to less theft. I like it.

Kirby64 2y ago
Third party parts exist for tons of Apple devices. Usually of varying (typically poor, especially with batteries) quality. You can get OLED screens (actually oled!) that are replacements even. They pretty much will all give you the “unable to validate authentic component” message when paired with an iPhone … but that’s kind of working as intended there.

batch12 2y ago

If they use lost or stolen parts, probably.

RobotToaster 2y ago

This is probably their real goal here.

Gigachad 2y ago

You can salvage dead phones for parts. You can use the icloud web ui to unlink the phone. If you can't coordinate with the owner to unlink it, it does bring up the question of how you obtained the phone you are stripping for parts.

chongli 2y ago
Some businesses just dump loads of devices into the arms of recyclers without offering any further help. If their IT team isn’t doing a proper Apple-sanctioned MDM-wipe then all those devices may still be activation locked. What can the recycler do with that? Just shred the devices.
- MichaelZuo 2y ago
  Why would the ‘IT team’ refuse or ignore the legitimate recyclers after being informed they dumped ‘loads of devices’ with it still active?
  - willcipriano 2y ago
    Why would the IT team spend any time at all trying to help some 3rd party recycler make a few bucks on Ebay?
    - burnerthrow008 2y ago
      Because, if they don’t, then recyclers will stop accepting used phones from that company.
  - chongli 2y ago
    The recyclers don’t have any way to contact the IT team? The job for the IT department is to ensure all company data is wiped from the phones before dropping them off at the recyclers. Nothing more than that. Heck, I bet some managers even knowingly ask them to keep the activation locks in place so that the phones will be shredded, just to add a belt-and-suspenders level of security.

Kirby64 2y ago

Why would it do either of these things? It would kill the black market for stolen apple parts, but otherwise it shouldn’t impact anything else. Assuming you can “unpair” iCloud on dead phones (which you can do already, to my knowledge), then salvaging isn’t a problem.