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Education Hardware Apple Technology

Schools Won't Like How Difficult the New iPad Is To Repair (ifixit.com) 172

Last week, Apple introduced a refreshed 9.7-inch iPad with Apple Pencil support. iFixit has published its teardown of the device this morning, and as The Verge points out, schools won't like how difficult it is to repair. From the report: The takeaway from all this is that the new iPad isn't going to be any easier to repair than prior generations, which were already borderline unrepairable. If an iPad breaks, there's almost no chance that a district will be able to repair it in-house; whereas on cheaper Chromebooks, there's a possibility an IT team could open them up to make some basic fixes. It's a weak point that it's hard to see Apple ever addressing. And since schools aren't exactly forgiving environments for a lent-out device, how well the iPad holds up to drops and dings, and how expensive it is to fix, are bound to be factors in a school's decision on which devices to adopt. Mac Rumors highlights the key findings from iFixit's teardown: The new iPad's lack of waterproofing, non-replaceable charging port, zero upgradeability, and use of glue throughout the internals added up to a "repair nightmare." iFixit then pointed towards the HP Elite x2 1012 G1 tablet, which got a perfect repairability score of 10 out of 10, summarizing that "Apple's 'education' iPad is still a case of won't -- not can't." One of the iPad's advantages in terms of repairability comes in the form of its digitizer panel easily separating from the display. iFixit pointed out that in the event that either component should break, repair will be easier for schools and educators. The sixth-gen iPad has the same battery as the previous model, with 32.9 Wh capacity. iFixit noted that while this allows Apple to reuse existing manufacturing lines to reduce waste, the battery is still locked behind a "repair-impeding adhesive" that greatly reduced the iPad's repairability score. Apple has provided easy battery removal before, in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, but iFixit hasn't seen anything like it since. Ultimately, iFixit gave the 2018 iPad a repairability score of 2 out of 10, favoring the fairly easy repair options of its air-gapped, non-fused display and digitizer glass, but taking marks off for its heavy use of adhesive and sticky tape.
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Schools Won't Like How Difficult the New iPad Is To Repair

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  • The real question is not how difficult it is to repair but does it need repairing. If you're used to things that break down a lot then you think along the lines of repairing. But if something is built right it doesn't break much so repairability is a minor issue. Things should be built right and real world tough.

    • Yes.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by thesupraman ( 179040 ) on Tuesday April 03, 2018 @09:28PM (#56377341)

      You dont have children, do you.

      Now consider a whole school DISTRICT full of them, with devices they dont own, and probably dont particularly like (because, school...)
      Any device aimed at schools and NOT specifically designed to be both repairable and robust as hell is a conceptual failure.

      This is in fact at least half the reason chromebooks are so successful in schools.. There are a wide range of chromebooks designed
      to 'take the knocks' (and of course plenty that are crap, but those dont tend to last in market).

      And these Ipads are NOT designed to not be broken by children. Not even close.

      • Re: Yes.. (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Schools don't repair.
        They purchase a support contract from Apple, when one breaks they issue a new one and ship the busted one back. Apple then does a factory refurb, and cycles it back in.
        It's almost certainly easier and cheaper than trying to build a rugged device, which kids would break anyhow.

      • Re:Yes.. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03, 2018 @10:08PM (#56377469)

        I do. I'm also on the Parents and Citizens Committee for my kids' school. Have a guess how many iPads we've had to replace of the 800-odd currently lent out to students in the past two and a half years?

        Two. One got dropped off down the bus stairs and the screen cracked. Apple replaced the screen under warranty. The other mysteriously died during an update. Again, Apple replaced under warranty.

        • I do. I'm also on the Parents and Citizens Committee for my kids' school. Have a guess how many iPads we've had to replace of the 800-odd currently lent out to students in the past two and a half years?

          Two. One got dropped off down the bus stairs and the screen cracked. Apple replaced the screen under warranty. The other mysteriously died during an update. Again, Apple replaced under warranty.

          Remember though - he hates Apples, so he'll probably be willing to spring for thet $3,700 dollar tough book, because Windows.

          The kids might like that when an update happens right in the middle of a project or test.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

          Have a guess how many iPads we've had to replace of the 800-odd currently lent out to students in the past two and a half years? Two

          Congrats. Out of 1200 students at my wife's school every 3 years they replaced 1200. But if you count breakage we get another 10% that don't last the 3 year life expectancy. But it's not an issue because parents pay for them.

          Not that it matters. They were horrible education tools. The students have Chromebooks now and can do all that complicated crap like ... write assignments and draw graphs that the iPads were incapable of outside of a very narrowly defined and curated "experience"

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          One got dropped off down the bus stairs and the screen cracked. Apple replaced the screen under warranty.

          That's not a warranty. The warranty only covers defects from manufacturing that cause the item to fail prematurely.

          Replacing a screen that the user broke comes under insurance. They might call it an "extended warranty" or AppleCare, but it is actually just a really expensive insurance policy.

          • For stuff I buy, it would be a really expensive insurance policy, which is why I never buy extended warranties. A large organization that can negotiate rates on a large number of devices might wind up with a reasonable insurance policy.

      • 3-year-olds may not value their tablets in the way you're intending, but I can tell you that most grade school kids do. Most districts can barely afford a few of these for each classroom, and you can bet that when 4 kids have to share 1 tablet, there's going to be some long standing embarrassment if you're the kid that breaks that. Some districts have gone 1:1, usually by leasing the tablet to the child through a series of payments, and those all have (or at least offer) insurance plans to cover them agains

      • You dont have children, do you.

        Now consider a whole school DISTRICT full of them, with devices they dont own, and probably dont particularly like (because, school...) Any device aimed at schools and NOT specifically designed to be both repairable and robust as hell is a conceptual failure.

        This is in fact at least half the reason chromebooks are so successful in schools.. There are a wide range of chromebooks designed to 'take the knocks' (and of course plenty that are crap, but those dont tend to last in market).

        And these Ipads are NOT designed to not be broken by children. Not even close.

        Here is what you are demanding - A kid can kill just about anything - but this fits your demand. The Panasonic tough book: https://www.amazon.com/Panason... [amazon.com]

        And better be prepared to pay a lot more in school taxes, because thes bad boys will set you back $3,740.03.

      • And these Ipads are NOT designed to not be broken by children. Not even close.

        Based on the quality of assignments and work that my wife received from her students before the iPad debacle was abandoned and computers reintroduced... they aren't designed to teach children anything either.

      • by pubwvj ( 1045960 )

        Actually, I do have kids. And we have Apple Macs and iOS devices. My kids are respectful and don't smash stuff. I homeschooled all of them as well. Perhaps there's the problem, public schools and parents who fail to teach their kids the first three R's: Respect, Responsibility and appReciation.

        Fix the right problem.

      • The limitations of the technology are frustrating. It is hard to imagine how ipads are useful in a classroom environment, other than as a tool to buy and consume content, even if "educational materials".

        Chromebooks are far more useful, but horrifying from a privacy standpoint.

        Does anyone know what Apple and Google do with the EULA? Are parents sent EULAs to agree to on behalf of their children? Do they waive them because they're minors and have no legal choice but to sign?

      • We bought iPad Minis for my kids when they are turning 5 and 6. Upon opening, we put them into Otter Boxes, to mitigate spills and drops. In the three almsot four years we owned them, they have been used nearly every day, we have replaced the covers once, and they have endured many catastrophes. We go through more headphones and charging cables since they tend to hold and crimp the cables too much. I will concede that these are prized possessions, and are generally well cared for. That said, I think th

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Think of a bell curve of ability.
      From the advance math class with a desktop computer looking at a graph during math class.
      Consider the other end of that bell curve and what other students do to a free new computer.
  • Pay Teachers First (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Tuesday April 03, 2018 @10:04PM (#56377459) Journal

    Here's an idea: instead of siphoning off education funds buying consumer bling, how about we pay teachers so the people who are responsible for educating your kids don't have to get food stamps to survive?

    Today, I heard an Oklahoma teacher lamenting the fact that her school bought tablets for the kids, but couldn't afford wi-fi, so basically, the tablets were completely worthless. Meanwhile, public schools are being starved for funds which end up going to charter schools run by political cronies which actually such even more than the public schools.

    • god damned right! teachers are very underpaid. we have a screwed up sense of balance in this world when we underpay educators but overpay sports athletes.

      apple stuff is hella expensive. schools have little money. I don't understand why they even CONSIDER apple shit, unless they get a 75% discount or something heavy like that.

      sheesh. the thought of a school spending money so apple can be richer than rich - makes me sick to think of such a thing.

      kids don't need tablets or laptops. let them learn the old

      • teachers are very underpaid.

        Depends on the state. I don’t believe teachers are underpaid in my home state of Washington... at least west of the Cascades.

        Now if you want to say that education is underfunded overall, then you probably have a stronger case. Or, for that matter, if you wanted to argue the state hasn’t hired enough teachers - class sizes are larger than is optimal. But that’s not the same thing.

        • by Uberbah ( 647458 )

          Depends on the state

          Not really. High stress job where 50 hours can be a short work week, expected to have a masters and continue your own education, act as nurse/social worker/disciplinarian before even getting to the teaching part, and have your performance judged on factors entirely outside your control - the homes your students go to at the end of the day....the people who poo-poo teachers salaries wouldn't touch one for less than six figures.

        • Yep, depends on where and how long. Teachers in NY start at a pretty low salary, given the amount of education needed to achieve the minimum qualifications. However, make it past the probation period - typically three years - and the salaries go up pretty high. A gym teacher friend of mine makes over $90k / yr. Not bad for watching kids play dodgeball. After working more than 25 years, he'll retire in two years at about 80% of his salary, which is a tidy little sum for the backwoods area in which we li
          • by epine ( 68316 )

            Not bad for watching kids play dodgeball.

            Watching kids play dodgeball requires an order of magnitude more mental exertion than the amount of cognitive empathy you invested in that donut-shop knee slapper.

            But we'll work you up to it gradually. For starters, try walking two dogs at the same time, then gradually work your way up to three dogs on each arm.

            Then we'll take your treats and your leash and your muzzle and your shock collar away and stick you into a room with 30 middle schoolers, with only your bare

            • Well, when he first started at my school back in '81 - the one from which he'll retire in two years - he was my gym teacher. Back then, we were still allowed to play dodgeball. So, quite literally, he did spend at least a part of the year watching kids play dodgeball. Your snark is not only unhinged, but unfounded.
        • by aardvarkjoe ( 156801 ) on Wednesday April 04, 2018 @10:23AM (#56380799)

          Now if you want to say that education is underfunded overall, then you probably have a stronger case.

          Except that's not true. The U.S. spends more on education (in terms of money per pupil) than almost any other country. Teacher salaries, on the other hand, lag behind.

          I don't have any good numbers for how much of our overall education spending is being spent on stuff like fancy tablets, but it certainly can't be helping. If you could, for instance, attract a better caliber of teacher by paying them $10K more, I suspect that would have a bigger influence than spending that money on buying everyone iPads.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        kids don't need tablets or laptops. let them learn the old way, first. books, when dropped CAN be fucking repaired!

        You should spend some time in an actual school because you clearly have no idea what it's like these days.

        Children, being children, get bored easily and need stimulation. At home they have iPads to stimulate them... If you don't want them to spend all day dreaming about what they will do when they get home, you have to compete with that.

        But more than that, you have to teach them relevant life skills. Cursive handwriting is less important that keyboard skills now.

        The choice of very expensive iPads is a bit o

        • But more than that, you have to teach them relevant life skills. Cursive handwriting is less important that keyboard skills now.

          So they need iPads...which don't have a keyboard. Uh...

        • Children, being children, get bored easily and need stimulation. At home they have iPads to stimulate them... If you don't want them to spend all day dreaming about what they will do when they get home, you have to compete with that.

          Ha sounds like my school days! Anyway, something tells me suspicious that the educationware is not stimulating, rather it's slow, boring and buggy.

          My only recent experience with US secondary education was that they have shiny, colourful ways of teaching the same awful way they t

    • I'm with you on bringing sanity to the table RE technology in school. It is used too much, too much money is spent on tech (and buildings) instead of on education/teachers.

      Not so in agreement about charter schools. My kids go to them, they save the district money (educate kids for a fraction of the cost), many of them have appropriately-limited tech (no ipads, no laptops regularly in classroom - just chromebooks in a separate room that are used when needed), and if they really screw up we can take our kids

      • they save the district money

        Most charter schools do not save money and do a worse job educating kids. There are some good charter schools, but none of them are owned by for-profit corporations.

      • by Uberbah ( 647458 )

        Not so in agreement about charter schools. My kids go to them, they save the district money (educate kids for a fraction of the cost)

        Only because they don't have to deal with special needs kids, are willing to have shittier teachers, and can pick & choose their students. And even then, for ever charter school that's better than a public school, there are two more charters that are worse.

    • even the for profit charter schools are having a hard time getting funding. Americans are actively hostile to education.

      The tablets are popular because they're a one time expense. Better pay is a permanent increase and that means raising taxes. Until you can get people to vote for tax raises it ain't happening except in a few limited cases where the teachers can move to another state. That's what happened with the last strike. One of the nearby states was trying to poach the teachers. There's a bit of a
    • Spending per public school pupil [johnlocke.org] has roughly tripled in the last 45 years (inflation-adjusted). The U.S. now spends more per student than any other OECD nation except Switzerland [mercatus.org].

      The problem is school administration. The number of non-teaching administrative staff [heritage.org] has more than doubled in 45 years, far outpacing growth in number of teachers or students. They control how funds for education are spent. Basically every time we increase spending on education, the administrators use it raise their own pay
  • by cashman73 ( 855518 ) on Tuesday April 03, 2018 @10:13PM (#56377487) Journal
    I have had a second generation iPad since 2012, and it has worked well for five years. In fact, it still works very well, because I gave mine to my brother at the end of last year when I bought a new iPad Pro. I just needed more memory, and wanted to use the Apple Pencil when lecturing, which is not supported on the older iPads. Having had two of them already, the iPad is very well made and I have not had the need to repair it. It would be nice if the battery was easily replaceable, but even after five years of use, the battery in my old iPad works reasonably well, and if you're watching a movie close to an outlet, not an issue. Since I use my iPad Pro for lecturing, I would like to see the capability to record while connected to a projector. iOS has screen recording capability built into the OS, but it does not work while connected to a projector.
    • by Dr. Evil ( 3501 )

      They do die. I had a digitizer fail on an ipad mini, it was rarely used in the 2 years before it failed. Replacing the digitizer was difficult, but not impossible. These are common issues.

  • absolutes (Score:5, Interesting)

    by supernova87a ( 532540 ) <kepler1&hotmail,com> on Tuesday April 03, 2018 @10:14PM (#56377493)
    How should we look at this problem? Do we look at it as:

    We have now reached the era where students, when appropriate for their age and learning needs, now have access to equipment that's:
    - more computationally capable than they ever had before,
    - squeezed into a package smaller and longer lasting than ever before,
    - available at a price undreamt of years ago,
    - able to be connected to more resources than ever before?

    Or is it just, "why is this thing so hard to fix?"

    Now, whether they're appropriate for kids at a certain age of school is for a separate discussion.
    • - able to be connected to more resources than ever before?

      That one is contentious. The iPad is incredibly limiting compared to a laptop or even a chrome book in what they are capable of (or specifically what the walled garden provided software is capable of).

  • The sixth-gen iPad has the same battery as the previous model, with 32.9 Wh capacity. iFixit noted that while this allows Apple to reuse existing manufacturing lines to reduce waste, the battery is still locked behind a "repair-impeding adhesive" that greatly reduced the iPad's repairability score.
    (emphasis mine)

    So the single consumable part in these devices, the battery, might come from an older device but still can't be replaced.

    And this is how they're reducing waste? Colour me unimpressed.

    • For practical purposes, it's a non-issue in 99.8% of all cases. Unless you drop the iPad in water and ruin the battery, chances are *really* good that you'll never need to replace it. Sure, there are corner cases, but those are what we call "corner cases."
    • The batteries aren't from older devices... they're the same as the type used by older devices. They aren't reused post-consumer items.

    • The sixth-gen iPad has the same battery as the previous model, with 32.9 Wh capacity. iFixit noted that while this allows Apple to reuse existing manufacturing lines to reduce waste, the battery is still locked behind a "repair-impeding adhesive" that greatly reduced the iPad's repairability score.
      (emphasis mine)

      So the single consumable part in these devices, the battery, might come from an older device but still can't be replaced.

      And this is how they're reducing waste? Colour me unimpressed.

      What an idiot!

      Re-read the statement from Apple. They aren't recycling BATTERIES, they are reusing MANUFACTURING LINES, so they don't have to build a whole new PRODUCTION LINE to BUILD the iPad 6's Batteries, because they could use the same PRODUCTION LINE as the one that already makes the previous-model's batteries.

      Jesus, you Haters are Stupid!

  • by T W ( 5343309 ) on Tuesday April 03, 2018 @10:59PM (#56377661)
    I'm the lead tech at a K-8 public school district in Illinois and can confirm that none of the districts that I collaborate with care about the iPad's repairability. We all do the same thing... We get our ACiT and ship the things off to be replaced by Apple under Apple Care. I personally replace 10-15 of these every week from our fleet of 3,000+ iPads. At our district specifically, the cost of repair is passed on to the student and their parents. We don't care how easy it is to repair. Only that it can be quickly put back into stock to be made available for a student that needs one.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      That's insane.

      For a start, unless Apple Care was free then an insurance policy covering the whole fleet would be much, much, much cheaper. Get a policy with new-for-old and some spare units, and it would be faster than waiting for Apple to do the repair too.

      And getting the parents to pay for damage? Schools often have expensive equipment for science classes, IT, gym etc. Maybe it's different in the US but it's all insured here. Imagine if a company billed employees for damaged equipment; no one would dare t

      • by pnutjam ( 523990 )
        I'm a parent who has argued plenty about Ipads. It's like yelling into a void. My district doesn't even take advantage of the program to create apple ID's for under 13 year old students. [apple.com] We rent from the school and they do nothing to manage them. They send us a list of "free" apps to install.
        Since I don't have another apple device, I can't create a child account and my kids are stuck with "over age 13" accounts.

        I've contacted the district, the EFF, and anyone who will listen.
        The district next door [noblesvilleschools.org] seems t
  • Not only does this iPad have EXACTLY the same ARBITRARY "Repairability Score" as many, many of the reasonably-priced alternatives to this iPad (which their "comparison example" is, at THREE TIMES the price, is most assuredly NOT!); but their ARBITRARY "Repairability Score" completely overlooks some extremely important points; which, if iFixit wan't being totally ARBITRARY in their scoring, by not taking the simple step if factoring-in what is MOST LIKELY to break in a particular product.

    1. Hardly anything e

  • Will care about repairability of the new iPad exactly as much as they did before. As in, ânot giving a flying fuckâ. This idea that the western world is supposedly filled with large organizations that repair their hardware is quite hilarious. In the real world and especially in large organizations NOBODY does that.

  • You're kidding (Score:2, Insightful)

    by quonset ( 4839537 )

    You mean after all those times I've asked if, when buying a Mac, you have to throw it out after three years or when something breaks because all the parts are welded together and I got downmodded, that I've been telling the truth?

    I'm shocked!

  • Are they suggesting IPads were repairable to start with?

  • Shouldn't they be, you know, going for a cheaper and more practical option? I figure budget must be a concern seeing as about 45% of you don't believe in evolution (e.g. your schools can't be up to much)?
  • Schools don't fix iOS devices, they buy AppleCare and have Apple fix them. After 3 years they start ditching devices when they break, replacing them with new devices that also come with 3 year warranties.

    Buying half-price Apple devices (compared with windows 10 tablet from HP) allows schools to have a device that costs as much as the HP tablet, has a 6 year lifespan, and is bought in two separate payments 3 years apart.

    The math:

    Buy 1st iPad w/ AppleCare $350
    Three years later, buy 2nd iPad w/ AppleCare $350

    T

  • ICT use, as currently practised in primary and secondary education, shows no evidence of academic benefit to students or teachers, while also showing an inverse correlation with decreased academic performance (OECD, 2015). iPads/tablets, laptops, smartphones, etc., in schools are more of a problem than a benefit. Why are taxpayers giving all this money and wasting all their children's and young adults' time with this nonsense?

    Yes, there is a specific argument for school pupils to learn to use office softwar

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