Apple Launches Free iPhone 6 Plus Camera Replacement Program 68
Mark Wilson writes: Complaints about the camera of the iPhone 6 Plus have been plentiful, and Apple has finally acknowledged that there is a problem. It's not something that affects all iPhone 6 Plus owners, but the company says that phones manufactured between September 2014 and January 2015 could include a failed camera component. Apple has set up a replacement program which enables those with problems with the rear camera to obtain a replacement. Before you get too excited, it is just replacement camera components that are on offer, not replacement iPhones. You'll need to check to see if your phone is eligible at the program website. (Also at TechCrunch.)
Re:Obviously (Score:4, Funny)
Obviously, they were just holding it wrong.
Given the number of pictures with the tip of a finger in them, yes, people very frequently hold their phone wrong while taking a picture. :-)
Re: (Score:1)
Actually the GP (accidentally) raises a subtle but important point. Apple is losing its infallibility, and customers are the beneficiaries.
Don't get me wrong, I think it is great they are doing the correct thing and recalling sub-par hardware, but previously under Jobs Apple's position of dominance was so great they could afford to treat their customers with disrespect. Now I think people view alternatives as acceptable, so Apple is a little less douchebag.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed, isn't this just respecting statutory consumer rights before a class lawsuit ensues?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You angry?
Yes, because as we all know, anger is the only possible reason why someone might call out a corporation for behaving in an undesirable way.
Well, the most common beside that is being paid by a competitor. Is that it in your case?
Pussification (Score:1)
Time for me to get modded down now - if there's anything the new Dicedot can't tolerate, it's actual debate.
This generation? Of course not.
They weren't allowed to play tag, because that requires touching. They weren't allowed to play dodgeball, because that might be "too dangerous". They weren't allowed to make a snowball because that's also "too dangerous". They weren't allowed to bring a GI Joe to school because they usually have tiny (several mm) toy guns, and that might "promote gun violence", and because zero tolerance! They weren't allowed to defend themselves from a bully because then they got in troub
Re: (Score:2)
You angry?
Yes, because as we all know, anger is the only possible reason why someone might call out a corporation for behaving in an undesirable way.
Well, the most common beside that is being paid by a competitor. Is that it in your case?
The way you and so many people like you celebrate your own narrow-minded view is astonishing. It's like a prisoner who brags about how wonderfully strong and well-made the bars are.
Wow, sounds exactly like something Samsung was fined for paying trolls to say about the competition. What, did Samsung tell you to deny that happened? Do you actually have a point, or didn't Samsung pay you to have one? What?
Re:Free? (Score:5, Insightful)
It may not be the only reason but judging your verbiage it sure is YOUR reason.
And you aren't even affected!
I have a phone that says it qualifies for the program, and I'm just like "well I'll go in for an hour in a few weeks when I feel like it". That's how real customers actually feel despite your mouth-frothing portrait of them.
The problem with you Apple Haters is you get worked up by any negative news at all about Apple. The sad thing is you will probably die of a heart attack long before Apple actually suffers. You really, really should look into shaking off your obsession with a company you hate. Life is too short for hate to dominate you.
Re: (Score:1)
What? The rubber and glue argument? Good grief you guys really are pathetic.
Re: (Score:1)
My battery isn't glued into my laptop. What are you getting at?
We come here on our breaks to pick on Apple. You live here.
Don't talk to us about pathetic.
Re: (Score:1)
Bing Tasher E - number of posts for August = 82.
BasilBrush - number of posts for August = 36.
You're pathetic AND self-delusional.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Hating Apple doesn't dominate our lives.
No just the time you post online. Ohh, wait...
Re: (Score:2)
If I ever have to reference something called a "Genius Bar", I'm not sure I could ever look myself in the mirror again.
Could you even see yourself now?
Re: May I guess how it works? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you are too stupid to take advantage of helpful programs regardless of a meaningful name, you are going to have a hard life and only yourself to blame.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd take advantage of the program, but I'd still mock it to no end.
Seriously, "Apple Genius"... when it comes to tongue-in-cheek jokes that's like the little brother of "Microsoft Works".
Re: (Score:2)
You send in your phone and in 6-8 weeks you get it back.
What do you mean "how you should make calls in the meantime", what happened to your iPhone 5?
Use the "free" Samsung test loan. Of course you 'l probably wait longer for that to arrive than for you iPhone.
Re:May I guess how it works? (Score:5, Informative)
You send in your phone and in 6-8 weeks you get it back.
What do you mean "how you should make calls in the meantime", what happened to your iPhone 5?
You could not have guess more wrongly.
I just got off a chat with support. The phones are fixed on site. If they cannot, the phone is shipped and a loner is provided. When I started the chat the first thing they asked was if I had the iSight issue. Then while chatting it turns out that he is in a suburb of the town I live in so we chatted about that while we was doing his thing. I complain about the things Apple does wrong. I've found that Customer Support is typically not one of them.
Re:May I guess how it works? (Score:4, Funny)
lol - loner. No thanks. That covers hipsters to drifters. Of course I mean loaner.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You send in your phone and in 6-8 weeks you get it back.
Well, you clearly never owned an Apple product. Their customer support is one of the best things about Apple...
Re: (Score:2)
it is just replacement camera components (Score:1)
it is just replacement camera components that are on offer, not replacement iPhones.
How do they admit that they have a serious problem with a device manufactured less than a year ago and then not do all that they can to back up customers who spent a small fortune on the devices? Not everyone lives in LA and can go walk in to an Apple store (even if the stores are able to fix the phone while you wait, which is not a certain thing). Being without a phone for six to eight weeks is not a viable option, an
Re: (Score:3)
Being without a phone for six to eight weeks is not a viable option,
What makes you think it would take that long even if you mail it in? This guy replaces the camera in 3 minutes [youtube.com]
Re: it is just replacement camera components (Score:5, Insightful)
Where do you get 6-8 weeks from? If you go into an Apple store you'll not be without a phone more for than an hour.
In the past, for different issues I've just have them give be a brand new phone. They may do so in some cases for this problem too (though it sounds like they'll actually try to fix it).
You are confused by what OTHER companies do for support. There's a reason why Apple has really high consumer satisfaction numbers.
Re: (Score:2)
I live in a country, Norway, where no Apple stores exist. The process is handled entirely via DHL. I'm sure someplace as connected via private freight companies like the US can manage sending you a replacement iPhone in a reasonable period of time. In the US Apple even does hot-swap replacement so you don't even have to be without a phone.
Re: (Score:2)
it is just replacement camera components that are on offer, not replacement iPhones.
How do they admit that they have a serious problem with a device manufactured less than a year ago and then not do all that they can to back up customers who spent a small fortune on the devices? Not everyone lives in LA and can go walk in to an Apple store (even if the stores are able to fix the phone while you wait, which is not a certain thing). Being without a phone for six to eight weeks is not a viable option, and certainly not a viable option for am expensive device that may have a viable life of a year to 18 months before Apple tells the sheep it it time to line up and buy the next one.
Everything you said has already been debunked so I'll simply add this: For an issue with a previous generation iPhone Apple offered to cross-ship a replacement phone to me. idk if they'll do it for this issue as I didn't ask but my expectations are that wasn't a special offer just for me.
Oops (Score:2)
Re:Oops (Score:4, Informative)
I bet they're very happy with their decision to make Apple products impossible to disassemble and make all the parts practically impossible to replace.
The fact that they are replacing them rather proves your assumption wrong.
Takes about 3 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
*most of these under warranty!?
Re: (Score:2)
Given that iFixit gave the iPhone 6+ a 7/10 on repairability [ifixit.com], knocking them on the use of a pentalobe screw and lack of disassembly information, I'm pretty sure Apple is more than capable of dealing with that.
The only way to get an 8/9/10 is to basically use standard screws and make available information on how to take it apart, something you'll never see an
Always some problem with iphones (Score:3, Informative)
Nearly every generation of iphone I can remember has had some 'quality issue'. Same with macs.
I used to repair macs, so I know what they are like inside, at least for the generations up to the switch to amd64. Thermally, they were often badly engineered - there were exceptions like the G5 tower, but the exceptions were often idiosyncratic in other annoying ways (eg. the G5 tower could only take 2 disks in a huge tower, had something that wasn't quite a DVI port, and used oddball 15A power cable). We used to adapt standard PC components to fix the macs, so that they wouldn't be back in the shop again in a year or so. Sometimes I felt that engineering issues got ignored in favour of aesthetics.
Re: (Score:1)
Thermal design problems in Macs go all the way back to the beginning. There was an ideological opposition to 'fan noise' in the Mac from the very beginning. I remember the third-party fixes people used to use. There was a muffin fan in a thermo-formed plastic enclosure that slipped into the handhold of the Mac Plus. And it cost less than $300!
Any time there's an ideology involved with Apple products, be it 'ultra thin' designs at present, no-fan, one-button-mouse, 'RISCvsCISC', or that glorious Altivec
Re: (Score:2)
I used to repair macs, so I know what they are like inside, at least for the generations up to the switch to amd64.
So that would be pre-2006? You're not exactly talking recent history, then...
Thermally, they were often badly engineered - there were exceptions like the G5 tower, but the exceptions were often idiosyncratic in other annoying ways (eg. the G5 tower could only take 2 disks in a huge tower, had something that wasn't quite a DVI port, and used oddball 15A power cable). We used to adapt standard PC components to fix the macs, so that they wouldn't be back in the shop again in a year or so. Sometimes I felt that engineering issues got ignored in favour of aesthetics.
Seems to me you're conflating several issues. Apples hve long been optimized for acoustics over temperature. That is, they figured most people wanted quieter systems more than cooler systems. I think they're probably right. The second issue is that Apple used to use a lot more proprietary tech than they do now. You're talking about computers that are over 10 years old, however.
The good news is I'm eligible (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Call AppleCare and see if they'll cross-ship a replacement to you.
Re: (Score:3)
Update: Someone posted in MacRumors that they are being shipped a replacement phone and have 10 days to return their old one.
Free Iphone 6 (Score:2)
You have three years from the date of sale (Score:3)
So there's no rush on this.
It sounds like some component is failing on the affected cameras. My phone appears to be eligible, but at present I'm not experiencing the problem. It's certainly something I'll be tracking, though.
Yeah, right, MEH! (Score:1)