Apple Is Fighting A Secret War To Keep You From Repairing Your Phone (huffingtonpost.com) 364
It's no secret that Apple makes a ton of money by charging 'astronomical' fee for replacing and fixing display and other components of iPhone and iPad (as well as Mac line). For instance, the company charges $599 for replacing the display on the iPad Pro tablet. Which sounds insane when you realize that you can almost certainly purchase a new iPad Pro under $700. And this is what most people do. A Huffington Post article notes that this behavior has contributed significantly in "generating heaps of e-waste." Citing many advocates, the publication claims that Apple has "opposed legislation that could help curb it." From the report: The Huffington Post spoke with politicians in two states who support such legislation, and confirmed through government filings that Apple has lobbied on the issue. Four states -- Minnesota, Nebraska, Massachusetts and New York -- have considered adopting "right to repair" amendments, which would update existing laws regarding the sale of electronic equipment. Amending these laws would make it easier to fix your devices and would help reduce "e-waste," a catch-all term for any electronic detritus. The New York State Senate and Assembly could approve one of these amendments next week. This would help unofficial repair shops get the information they need to fix your iPad, ideally driving down repair costs and encouraging you to squeeze more life out of your old devices -- thus cutting down on the e-waste generated by our voracious appetites for new gadgets. Apple asserts that it helps recycle millions of pounds of electronics equipment every year. But it won't support right to repair amendments.One would ask what is preventing a user from getting their device repaired by unofficial service person? In addition to the security implication, you also run a risk of getting your device bricked by Apple. To recall, the iPhone maker was found bricking the handsets that had been repaired by third-party vendors earlier this year.
The solution is simple (Score:5, Insightful)
The solution is simple: do not be stupid enough to buy anything from Apple in the first place.
Re:The solution is simple (Score:5, Funny)
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Not that simple. You can't just suddenly wish a bunch of people smarter. That won't stop the pileup of toxic waste.
At least Apple is trying to DO something [apple.com] about the waste.
Is Asus? Howabout Samsung? Etc...
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Fuck them for buying into Apple's bullshit. They deserve whatever pile of shit they get from Apple.
Do you really think it is any easier to replace the Display and Digitizer on ANY modern mobile device?
They are ALL essentially Unserviceable Units (BTW, that's the reason that "Ux" is the designator for ICs on many schematics. It stands for "Unservicable Unit". In other words, there is nothing inside that an average person can fix/replace.
Face it, the days of replacing the Tubes in your TV set are GONE. Hell, with this complex of a device, the days of Component-Level replacement by even most Service Tec
Re: The solution is simple (Score:2, Informative)
Typing this on a Samsung where I replaced the digitizer and screen myself with the aid of youtube video. It was easy. Apple, not so much. They literally booby trap their phones. Samsung screws were all the same length, apple's could have been, but they didn't, so if you lost Track of which screw went where, the screw would push through the screen, breaking it.
So yeah, Samsung easier than apple.
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I don't know about that. I'm a pretty competent laptop tech and did warranty service for a while a few years back.
Apple devices are quite serviceable, I replaced the logic board in my 2013 Macbook Air quite easily after a liquid spill. The LCD is not so tough either but the LCD is a sealed unit so you have to replace the entire assembly. I replaced the LCD in my company iPhone 5s a while back and it was a very easy repair. Apple is simply dicking over repair techs on purpose and the practice should be s
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And a car analogy..... that would be like Ford bricking your car for using a non-OEM water pump or non-Ford spark plugs. Don't support this kind of stupidity.
Re:The solution is simple (Score:5, Interesting)
And a car analogy..... that would be like Ford bricking your car for using a non-OEM water pump or non-Ford spark plugs. Don't support this kind of stupidity.
What? That proprietary, purpose-built parts have to be replaced with like, the same proprietary, purpose-built parts?
Apple didn't "Brick" iPhones out of a want to prevent aftermarket repair, you ninny! It was an Anti-Theft-Circumvention feature. Seriously. So someone couldn't steal/sieze your phone and then UNLOCK it by simply replacing the Fingerprint Sensor (which retains the Fingerprint data INSIDE OF ITSELF) with another one "Trained" to the THIEF'S Fingerprint.
Actually, pretty cool that they thought it through that far, and yet everyone thinks all they are trying to do is thwart third-party repair.
But, as long as you don't have a damaged Home Button, as shown at Step 19 and forward in this iFixit Repair Tutorial [ifixit.com], you can fairly easily move it from anold display to a new one, keeping the "pairing" of the SoC and the Fingerprint Sensor intact.
Since Display and Battery replacements are hands-down the most "popular" of mobile-device repairs (pretty much everything else is WAY beyond most user's repair skills in ANY mobile device), I'd say that Apple products are in-line with other manufacturers, as far as "repairability" goes.
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But all of the hyperbole fails, due to the simple fact that The longstanding doctrine of First Sale should make it impossible to pass, or if passed, enforce, any such legislation regarding what you can or cannot do with equip
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Or, bring your Apple device to this guy [youtube.com] for repair. (I am in no way affiliated with him, just stumbled across his youtube channel recently and he seems to know what he's doing.)
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Two words to explain why Apple does what they do...
Planned obsolescence.
The guy in that video even made a video called "Apple uses spite to force planned obsolescence. Watch $750 tier 4 repair"
Apple solders in the base RAM chip in a place it's not readily-accessible. They glue their slim, aluminum laptops together. The fact that they don't even give their users repair manuals stinks. I accidentally broke a wireless keyboard because I didn't know of a connector's location and ..well, no repair parts I can e
On the contrary (Score:2)
People throw out their Apple products because they damage them beyond economic repair or they've served for 5years+ (but still have a resale value)
Can you say the same for the rest of the industry?
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The solution is simple: do not be stupid enough to buy anything from Apple in the first place.
And just HOW many Asus, HP, Dell, eMachines, LG, Samsung, etc. mountains of trash do you think are disposed-of in landfills every year?
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The upside of buying Apple is that they appear to provide software updates more frequently and for a longer time after the initial release.
And that's important; because their stuff tends to last longer than most other brands, too.
Which, BTW, GREATLY reduces the amount of WASTE in the first-place, and GREATLY reduces the number of Customers IMPACTED by limited serviceability.
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Or even simpler learn to use tools. The car manufacturers are trying to prevent me from fixing my own car by using , nuts, bolts, screws and adhesives. Forcing me to buy the correct tools and then making me have to figure out what i'm doing.
I assume there was a Sarcasm tag?
Not your father's Apple (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Not your father's Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Not your father's Apple (Score:5, Informative)
It was originally a jab at the IBM PC (IBM was trying to keep it proprietary - its BIOS had just been reverse engineered in 1982). But right now the computer ecosystem which best fits the "garden of one pure ideology, secure from pests" description is iOS.
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Actually, the PC was thoroughly officially documented inside and out. OTOH, the Mac required special tools just to open the case. That's not to claim IBM was happy with clones.
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Actually, the PC was thoroughly officially documented inside and out. OTOH, the Mac required special tools just to open the case. That's not to claim IBM was happy with clones.
If you call an Allen wrench a "Special Tool", I guess...
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Even back then Jobs was trying to remove the user's ability to expand and modify the machine, such as by removing the user expansion port and adding some rudimentary DRM. Some of it was cost cutting (connectors cost money), some of it was assholery.
Re:Not your father's Apple (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, it's precisely what got Apple in trouble in the early 90s.
IBM and Microsoft played nicely with Taiwanese and other white box manufactures, allowing common ATX parts and even reused components to lower the cost of the PC, while Apple refused to integrate. Foxconn and Android are about to give Apple some wicked deja vu.
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That was all Woz -- Jobs wanted everything closed up & sealed with no user-serviceable parts or expansion.
Except there is another story, about the Apple ][. When Woz was trying to decide on the number of slots to put in (4 or 8), Jobs supposedly said "Make it eight. It'll give 'em something to do."
Secret? No. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Secret? No. (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't understand -- I recently replaced the battery & display on an iPhone5 for less than $50 (it did take two people 3 hours & we lost a tiny screw). User-generated how-to-repair documentation is available free on YouTube, the display runs ~$25 (mine did have a bad pixel but it's only noticeable at boot) & the battery between $8~$20 on eBay.
Unfair comparison (Score:4, Interesting)
"For instance, the company charges $599 for replacing the display on the iPad Pro tablet. Which sounds insane when you realize that you can almost certainly purchase a new iPad Pro under $700."
Well, on a iPad, the display is everything. So, it is something to expect replacing the display will nearly top the price of the device itself. You pick the most expensive part to compare the brand new one price to the repair. That's not a fair comparison. Almost the rest of the iPad components worth nothing.
Re:Unfair comparison (Score:5, Informative)
The most expensive part was picked to highlight the ridiculous amount Apple charge for repair. Catch up slow boy.
The bill of materials and manufacturing cost for an iPad Pro 128GB comes out at approx $370 (according to iHS who are normally spot on). The display component costs Apple $87. The display swap takes a competent technician 10 minutes to perform. So when you pay $599 to have your cracked display replaced you are paying Apple $850 PER HOUR to perform the work and Apple make $510 profit from replacing a cracked screen.
Apple loves these repairs, thats why its trying so hard to prevent 3rd parties from repairing Apple made equipment. Apple actually makes more money repairing an iPad pro than it does from the original sale.
9.7" 128GB iPad Pro Sale & Repair Costs
Sale: Sells @ $749, Costs $370, Profit $379
Screen Replacement: Sells @ $599, Costs $95 inc labour, Profit $504
Home Button Replacement: Sells @ $419 ($379 repair cost + $40 Home Button), Costs $20 inc labour, Profit $399
Other Repair: Minimum Fee of $379 + parts cost (except for batteries)
Thats right the minimum Apple charges for a repair is $379 + P&P, coincidentally exactly the same amount it makes from the sale of a new item.
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The display swap takes a competent technician 10 minutes to perform.
You're full of shit. And I have repaired MANY devices. From "put it on the bench" to "wipe your fingerprints off it and give it back" takes a minimum of 30-45 minutes. And that's if you've done that particular model several times before.
And of course, ESTIMATED BOM costs have little to do with retail price.
Wanna run that same estimate on a top-of-the-line Samsung phablet? You'll find a similar story. And how much will Sammy charge to non-warranty replace that display on an S7? Oh, wait: They simply WON' [samsung.com]
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Well, on a iPad, the display is everything. So, it is something to expect replacing the display will nearly top the price of the device itself. You pick the most expensive part to compare the brand new one price to the repair. That's not a fair comparison. Almost the rest of the iPad components worth nothing.
The iPad displays cost $400 in the unit of one each. I guarantee you Apple pays a fraction of this. You can get some Chinese corner store to replace the screen for you for $30. What makes up the rest? The same markup they place on the entire manufacturing of the device?
But the cost is just one factor. The company is actively hostile towards repair and replacement with everything from special screws to wonderful glues soldered in components where others use tiny connectors, not to mention the bricking of dev
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You can get some Chinese corner store to replace the screen for you for $30.
I picked up one of these for an iPad mini...
It's normal tempered glass, the digitizer has trouble with multitouch, etc, etc. It works, but the quality is of a cheap Chinese device.
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How are you factoring in infrastructure costs? You starting from stone tools and working your way up, or are you letting someone else start from stone tools and just buying or developing the last level of tools and expertise needed?
I just watched a video about this (Score:3)
I'm subscribed to this guy's youtube channel and he just put up a video on the subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Hopefully this idea catches on.
Re:I just watched a video about this (Score:4, Interesting)
Louis Rossmann has some great repair videos. If anyone is interested in how practical repairs of water-damaged computers are done check his channel out. He also collaborates with another person whose name escapes me at this time who does iPhone/iPad devices at https://www.youtube.com/channe... [youtube.com].
Like him or not, Linus Sebastian also collaborated with Louis on a video after a scathing response from Louis of a LinusTechTips video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Always litigate instead of boycott (Score:5, Insightful)
When any other company does something you don't like, you boycott their products. By giving business to their competitors instead of them, they (theoretically) take notice and change their ways to win your business back.
But Apple seems to be a special case here... When Apple does something you don't like, you're allowed to:
- Rant all over the Internet to gain public support
- Sue Apple because of their practices
- Push for regulations and/or legislation to limit their practices
But the one thing you're *never* allowed to do, for some reason, is:
- Actually stop buying Apple products
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But Apple seems to be a special case here
Only if all you do all day is search for Apple related articles. The internet is an equal opportunity rant fest, Apple is not special at all.
But the one thing you're *never* allowed to do, for some reason, is:
- Actually stop buying Apple products
Oh of course you're allowed to, but the general problem with boycots is that you don't make a difference unless you get a significant portion of the market involved. That's fine when you're talking about something that pisses you off personally but it doesn't change the level of e-waste their practices seem to produce.
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"For some reason"? You don't even understand the main reason.
The alternatives mean either Windows, Linux or Android.
Re:Always litigate instead of boycott (Score:5, Insightful)
I have not knowingly purchased a SINGLE Sony product since the "CDs Rootkit" crap in 2005.
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You've proven OPs point. Sony is still here and still doing evil.
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Well I can say in the 15 years I have steered away at least $10000 to companies other than Sony.
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Yep, Me too. Just to avoid personally being hit with by Sony's assholery. They're still here and doing fine. Their CEO probably blows that much on a lunch with his cronies.
.
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But the one thing you're *never* allowed to do, for some reason, is: - Actually stop buying Apple products
Nonsense, plenty of people switch. Especially people who grow up, start families, and realize they're better off with a $100 phone and $500 worth of diapers than with an iPhone and poop all over the place.
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One would ask what is preventing a user from getting their device repaired by unofficial service person? In addition to the security implication, you also run a risk of getting your device bricked by Apple. To recall, the iPhone maker was found bricking the handsets that had been repaired by third-party vendors earlier this year..
So the answer is to pass some law forcing Apple to be the company you want them to be? The way this generation handles things is so sad. The only Apple product I've ever owned in my life was an ipod nano in in early 2000s given to me as a gift. That was all I needed to understand what type of company they are, and I've stayed away from their products since (both in the office where I make office-wide purchasing decisions, and at home). The sad part is, very few pe
Re:Always litigate instead of boycott (Score:4, Interesting)
But the one thing you're *never* allowed to do, for some reason, is:
- Actually stop buying Apple products
We keep buying Apple products because the competition sucks. I make my living as a Linux system engineer. Linux is great on the server, but in all honesty it is useless on the desktop because it has limited commercial application support. The whole purpose of an operating system is to run applications (that people want to use). In my opinion Mac OS X is the only viable *nix desktop on the market. It has support for Mac, Windows, and Linux applications. It runs everything I need, it looks pretty, and it just works right out of the box. The last thing that I want to do when I come home from work is fix another computer, I just want the stuff to work so I can live my life.
Android is nice, but it has some serious problems. The biggest problem I see is fragmentation and lack of vendor support for updates. Again, I just want the device to work without me ever having to think about it. From a personal standpoint I also think the UI is ugly and kludgy. The bottom line is it just doesn't have the polish that I have come to expect from iOS devices.
Since I covet Mac OS X and want devices that I don't have to screw with I have actively chosen to live within Apple's walled garden. Quite frankly I love it here, everything just works, their devices enable me to do the things that I want to do without getting in my way.
Android (and Linux) will conquer the world eventually because it is an open platform with similar parallels to the IBM PC market. However, until they improve I'm sticking with Apple for my consumer products. I figure Apple has at least 10 years of smooth sailing before Android completely edges them out of the portable device market.
Re: Always litigate instead of boycott (Score:3)
I've been quite a vocal critic of the Linux desktop lately but after being told I was wrong (and a shill and a moron, this being Slashdot) I recently decided to have a go at using the latest Ubuntu. I installed it and the process was a breeze. It recognised all my hardware and it seemed to work nicely.
I'd read that Netflix was available via Chrome so I went to the Software Manager to look for Chrome. Due to religious reasons it wasn't available there but you could download the package directly from Google.
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Part of that is because most of the people who would participate in these boycotts would never have bought the product in the first place. In the case of Apple, for example, the company has been the subject of random and arbitrary anger and denigration ever since it's inception. Those people simply bounce from one reason to the next. And any given burst of outrage is easily dismissed as just more of the same:
"Who ARE those unwashed fools in California? IBM will crush them."
"What kind of idiot uses a mou
"Unauthorized" repair (Score:2)
I spilt a glass of red wine on my 2011 17" Macbook Pro a few years ago. Annoyingly enough, it was the first, untouched glass. I was stone cold sober, but I digress. Luckily it had a silicon keyboard cover which caught most of it. Except for the one drop which ran down the LVDS cable and shorted across the cable pins on the board.
It still booted, I could ssh in, there was just no video signal.
I took it to the local "authorized" Apple repair dude. 'Nope. It's fucked. You need a new mobo.
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There is a hero like that in every region, if you're willing to drive a long way. One of them can be found in Prescott, AZ, and he totally worth the 150-mile round trip when something goes wrong with an Apple in my town.
One morning, the Q key mysteriously failed on my MacBook Pro. All I had to do was tell him that, and he could immediately diagnose a faulty battery. Apparently when a bad battery first starts to swell on this model, loss of the Q key due to slight, unnoticeable-to-the-naked-eye warping if th
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Dialling that up... (Score:2)
My Macbook Pro has battery issues twice, and Apple gave me new batteries for free. My wife had a Macbook, the case cracked, Apple gave her a new Macbook Pro. I don't know if we're just lucky or not, but I don't think so.
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chanced my arm and tried replacing the LVDS cable on the off-chance is was just a damaged cable.
WHY, if you have enough electronics knowledge to even know what an LVDS cable is, would you think that a drop of wine would affect a sealed CABLE?
And Apple authorized service centers, like a LOT of repair services for a LOT of companies for a LOT of different products, are trained (and only AUTHORIZED) to do "Module-Level" rather than "Component Level" Repair. In fact, they likely don't even have complete schematics, which is VERY common with "high-tech" devices from ANYONE. So, It just isn't practical fo
repair part costs (Score:3)
The mechanical timer broke on my (gas) drier. The part cost $180, for a drier that probably cost $500-$600.
The cost for the ABS (computer) module on my 2000 Nissan Frontier was $1.8k.
Will we legislate 'reasonable prices' for repair parts? And who determines 'reasonable'? (Same argument goes for other aspects of 'repairability'.)
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Both parts you specify are high-standard parts which, if they go wrong, can start fires or otherwise kill people. The safety of such parts - even after-market - is REQUIRED, not optional, and so the parts expense reflects that.
As such, it's not a fair comparison by any stretch of the imagination.
But we're talking about a bit of Gorilla Glass that, for other manufacturers, is about $60. Hey, why do you think "curved" glass is cool these days? The users? No, it's because it's almost impossible to replace
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In my Maytag dishwasher one of the wheels for the upper rack broke. A plastic wheel that probably costs less that $0.10 to make. But because Maytag stopped selling the wheels for that model the only way that I could get a replacement would be to buy a whole new rack at $200. I managed to rig something up for a couple of years until another part on the now 10 year old dishwasher broke and then I decided to buy a new one for $500. I gave the old one away to someone who would use it for parts so at least it
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3D printers to the rescue?
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It's the only time that I have wished for a 3D printer but I don't know how the plastic in a standard 3D printer would stand up to the hot water and steam (during the sanitize cycle) in a dishwasher. Ideally the service shop would have one to print off whatever parts they needed instead of having a large inventory and then they would just pay a royalty to the manufacturers.
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Do you think a nylon replacement part would have been fine?
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So you believe that the one control is roughly 1/3 the cost of the entire product? If we take away marketing, retail mark-up, etc, that could put a $180 part to at least 50% of the cost of the drier (which has a motor and drive parts, the rotating drum with bearings, 3 other controls, the external housing, assembly, shipping, etc, etc, etc.)
For the truck, the parts are probably environmentally qualified, so that makes them more costly than the stuff from Fry's.
But the cost for safety design and certificati
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Yeah, high-standard parts, with required safety, and that makes their cost justified. Maybe in your fantasy world, dude.
If you have ever taken a good look at the inside of most appliances you'd be shocked to discover how many corners are cut, in materials and construction. Whatever safety requirement that a thing not catch fire is solved at the design level, _in_order_to_allow_ the use of those sub-par materials. For example, the basket that comprises the majority of a washing machine is usually held in
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The mechanical timer broke on my (gas) drier. The part cost $180, for a drier that probably cost $500-$600.
The cost for the ABS (computer) module on my 2000 Nissan Frontier was $1.8k.>
I hear you...a replacement brake light assembly with the vehicle avoidance sensor ("Blind Stop Radar") on a Ford F-150 is ~$890 from the dealer.
They won't fix it, they'll only sell you a new one. Fixing it can be done (usually) for ~$100 or so if you know where to get the parts, but Ford sure as hell won't tell you where to get them.
Why only electronic equipment? (Score:2)
This should apply to cars, appliances, tools - basically everything.
Having said this, I have just replaced the digitizer on my mother's 2nd gen iPad, at a cost of less than $20.
Secret? (Score:2)
I don't think there's any secret. Apple's evil, anti-environmental behavior has been well-known for years.
So don't drop the fucking thing... (Score:2)
Or if you insist on dropping it, put it in an ottorbox...
To recall? (Score:5, Informative)
To recall, the iPhone maker was found bricking the handsets that had been repaired by third-party vendors earlier this year.
Yes, I recall that. I also recall that it was because those third-party repairers were replacing parts of the crypto system without having the tools/expertise necessary to pair the parts they replaced with the ones they didn't. There are plenty of reasons to rant about Apple without misrepresentations like these.
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To recall, the iPhone maker was found bricking the handsets that had been repaired by third-party vendors earlier this year.
Yes, I recall that. I also recall that it was because those third-party repairers were replacing parts of the crypto system without having the tools/expertise necessary to pair the parts they replaced with the ones they didn't. There are plenty of reasons to rant about Apple without misrepresentations like these.
I don't think it was that simple, but it's true that the summary put that in very derogatory terms. As I recall, the issue was with replacement of the biometric sensor, and the other components could still be replaced by third parties. I think there was more to it than pairing the parts properly, but as a third party service person myself, I just avoided replacing that component on late model handsets.
Re: To recall? (Score:3)
and then released an updated that unbricked them. (Score:4, Informative)
The update included additional security checks of the secure enclave (including the fingerprint sensor) and thus unintentionally bricked devices with third-party replaced fingerprint sensors.
Apple released an update to unbrick those phones once they knew about the problem.
But, yeah, if it makes you feel better to lie on the internet then please feel free.
It's fine if you don't understand technology (Score:3)
I just don't understand why you want to post to a tech blog if you don't understand tech. If you have trouble understanding this article then you can probably get the neighbors 9 year old to explain it to you:
http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/18/apple-apologizes-and-updates-ios-to-restore-iphones-disabled-by-error-53/
They don't want you to know (Score:2)
They know that the sum of its parts cost about $200 -- probably less .. so if you can repair it you can probably put one together in entirety for less.
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Well, yes, maybe. Certainly true of PCs. There are ways to get OSX running on generic hardware. But handhelds are specialized enough that it probably wouldn't be worth it for the average person to try to build one from parts.
The real issue, I think, is that Apple realizes that people are keeping their phones longer. There was an article in Slashdot just a couple days ago on this. Handheld market growth started out about 70% towards the turn of the century, was 14% last year, will be 7% this year, expec
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> Well, yes, maybe. Certainly true of PCs. There are ways to get OSX running on generic hardware. But handhelds are specialized enough that it probably wouldn't be worth it for the average person to try to build one from parts.
Now that I've said that, it occurs to me that Foxconn could produce generic Apple handholds by the pallet load. With their eyes closed. I'd be shocked if they had not done that.
Apple is not for everyone (Score:2)
It's for people who have (or their parents have) enough disposable income and the right personality traits to participate in a cult-like abusive mindset. Fortunately, there appears to be enough of them for Apple to turn a tidy profit.
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LOL. 1997 called. It wants its stereotyping of Apple users back.
It's a religion (Score:3)
What if you decided not to believe in the sinful nature of e-waste? Then you wouldn't have to feel guilty buying an item you want. You wouldn't have to worry that others around you were committing e-waste sins. People could go about their lives and be happy, without fearing the e-waste religious enforcers.
Here's the thing: people recycle e-waste. Companies like Apple recycle e-waste. It's a problem that has been solved.
You might want to reconsider some things and stop obsessing and moralizing about it. If you still want to believe in e-waste sins yourself, then feel free -- we still have freedom of religion here in most cases. But please stop being a problem for the rest of us.
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The bigger problem, IMO, is that Apple has stopped providing any incentive to return nonfunctional devices for recycling. For example, I have an iPhone 5 with a dead power button. According to Apple, its value is zero, even though it is perfectly usable with a dead power button. You just can't reboot it without having a power supply to turn it back on. That phone is worth hundreds of dollars in repair parts, because the case is perfect, the screen is perfect, and I replaced the battery just a few month
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IMO, Apple's claims of trying to reduce e-waste are basically a sham. If there's no incentive to return a product for recycling,
So don't. Unless you want to. Then do. What's the problem?
A claim of devotion to a religion is being called a sham... Who would have thought something like that could happen on Slashdot?
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Because not running a serious recycling plan and providing an incentive for customers to just throw away their iWaste is foisting of an externality on the customers. And the price for dealing with that externality eventually comes down on the entire public.
Of course, if you're fine with socialising externalities so that corporations can keep more of their profits, that will be just fine. Us sane people would rather see the corporations actually pay for those externalities.
Just wait for the apple car to come dealer only (Score:2)
Just wait for the apple car to come dealer only service and based on how evil they want to be that can go all the down to lights / oil changes / battery / tires.
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It's already here and it's called a Tesla.
Repair act in Jeapordy.... (Score:2)
Apple lobbyists are extremely deceitful
They use outright lies and Total FUD to attack the proposed legislations supporting a right to repair, so the proposed New York right to repair act is in jeapordy.
See Louis Rossmann's video [youtube.com] on the right to repair, and how Apple lobbyists are arguing things like, Replacing a resistor in a Macbook turns the Macbook into a PC, and the repair shops don't disclose that, so there's an issue, and the independent repair shops are low quality / shady, blah blah blah.
Apple's Hardware Upgrade Treadmill (Score:2)
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The overall cost-benefit ratio for Apple products no longer justifies their continued use in my environment.
Apple's apparent planned obsolescence has made it difficult to justify the money required to remain on Apple's Hardware Upgrade Treadmill. I suspect, looking at Apple's declining stock price, that I'm not the only one making that decision.
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Well, good for you. Personally I've been using the same Mac Pro for the past eight years, and with a minor boot patch it runs the latest OS and all the latest software just fine. So, consider your anecdote cancelled out by mine.
P.S.: Apple has not given a crap about its stock price for about 15 years. Wall Street wankers trying to fleece day traders have, but not Apple itself.
Long term = cheap / recyclable. Get over it. (Score:2)
When some future iPhone is hermetically sealed in sapphire are you going to complain because you can't repair it?
How about when the case it formed using liquid metal technology and there are no seams to open?
Can you repair the CPU in your desktop? No? You mean you throw away a two billion transistor machine because one NAND gate is bad? Why don't you get in there and repair it? Or more to the point why aren't you bitching about Intel conspiring to keep you from fixing it by sealing the CPU case and not usin
No they are not. (Score:2)
I used to think that. Then I used Apple products. (Score:2, Interesting)
I used to think that. I was a diehard Linux user. I'd waste hours of my time building my own PCs. Then I tried a MacBook Pro at work, and I found out just how much I had been missing. It just plain worked. I didn't have to fiddle with any hardware. I didn't have to search Linux mailing lists in vain to find a driver or an obscure config setting just to get my system working. All I did was open the MacBook Pro's lid, entered my password, and I could get right to work. Not only was the UI superb, but undernea
Re: I used to think that. Then I used Apple produc (Score:2, Insightful)
"Gave up the good fight and decided to lick the master's boots."
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Re:I used to think that. Then I used Apple product (Score:5, Insightful)
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Exactly.
On a trip around Japan, I had some hardware issue with an 64GB SD card that simply died on me.
Since I bough two of these (original and backup) I tried to make a copy on a (new) third one.
The plan was to use an iPad (4?) and the (expensive) thunderbolt sd-card adapter.
I was able to read the pictures from the card, but to my surpise, it was not possible to write the pictures back on the backup. Read-only ? How braindead is that ? I took a mental note never buy an apple device myself, and managed to
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I was able to read the pictures from the card, but to my surpise, it was not possible to write the pictures back on the backup.
First off: "Expensive"? $30? You must be on a pretty tight budget. How much did your hotel room cost? Howabout dinner?
Second: I would bet you actually can read and write with the Apple card reader; but I haven't found an answer for that for sure.
However, here is a product [adata.com] that is a compatible Third-Party Lightning (not Thunderbolt as you claimed) card-reader, that definitely CAN read and WRITE, so it probably isn't a restriction in Apple's driver.
Oh, and try out "GoodReader" [goodreader.com] next time. SO much easier
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It all just works, assuming that you only want to use it for whatever apple decides to allow you to do...
Let me guess: You've never even TOUCHED a Mac, have you?
Pop open Terminal and see what you think about Macs being "locked-down". Then fire up XCode (FREE, BTW), and tell me that Apple> decides what you can do with your computer.
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Heck, even if you want to get an equivalent of MS Paint
OMFG!!! You're holding-out MS Paint as an example of "Software not available on the Mac"????
Seriously?!? I've used MS Paint for years, and believe you, me, I wouldn't hold it up as a shining example of ANYTHING...
Besides, this Search [macupdate.com] seems to show SEVERAL highly-rated Freeware examples of Paintbox software for OS X. In fact, the first one I looked-at from that MacUpdate search, "Paintbrush" [sourceforge.net] is not only Open Source and Free, but is pretty-much an equivalent to MS Paint. So, What's YOUR problem that you c
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Some us see outside the cage of capitalism.
And some of us just expect a free ride for everything.
Welcome to the Entitlement Generation...
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This. One million times this.
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Their business model is built around Joe Consumer replacing failing/out-dated products every 24-36 months. That's why they're the most successful corporation on the planet ever.
You can THINK that all you want; but in the case of EVERY Apple-owner I know (and that is more than a few), ALL of them KEEP their Apple products until the proverbial "wheels fall off". Which for an Apple product, is a LONG-ASS-TIME.
In fact, out of the people I know that are Apple owners, I have the newest computer (a 2013 non-Retina MacBook Pro), and the newest phone (iPhone 6 Plus). But, other than an iPad mini that another friend got for a gift last Christmas, NONE of my Apple-owning friends has made a
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I am thinking it is written in the Indglish.
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Well, sometimes it's just pesky things that breaks, in which case a repair would be better than tossing the $600 device that's just a few months old.
But for me I ended up with a new phone because the battery couldn't be replaced. And that sucks pretty badly - phones designed to not allow replacement of battery.
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Do you have to work at being this stupid, or do you work for Apple PR?
If a widget has an expected lifetime of 3 years instead of 10, then including replacement widgets means that after 10 years you have 3 times as much waste.
For fscks sake, this is grade school level maths.