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Portables (Apple) Software Apple Hardware Technology

Apple's New Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair On New MacBook Pros (vice.com) 442

Posted by BeauHD from the no-touchy dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Apple has introduced software locks that will effectively prevent independent and third-party repair on 2018 MacBook Pro computers, according to internal Apple documents obtained by Motherboard. The new system will render the computer "inoperative" unless a proprietary Apple "system configuration" software is run after parts of the system are replaced. According to the document, which was distributed to Apple's Authorized Service Providers late last month, this policy will apply to all Apple computers with the "T2" security chip, which is present in 2018 MacBook Pros as well as the iMac Pro. The software lock will kick in for any repair which involves replacing a MacBook Pro's display assembly, logic board, top case (the keyboard, touchpad, and internal housing), and Touch ID board. On iMac Pros, it will kick in if the Logic Board or flash storage are replaced. The computer will only begin functioning again after Apple or a member of one of Apple's Authorized Service Provider repair program runs diagnostic software called Apple Service Toolkit 2.
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Apple's New Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair On New MacBook Pros More

Apple's New Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair On New MacBook Pros

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  • Why should anybody be surprised? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tough Love ( 215404 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @10:34PM (#57428844)

    Why should anybody be surprised? It's Apple.

    Vote with your dollars. Android is better anyway and you get a whole lot more for your money.

    • Re:Why should anybody be surprised? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Tough Love ( 215404 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @10:36PM (#57428860)

      You know what they say about any product named "pro?" It's not for pros, it's for wannabes. Get roughly twice as much computer for the money by going with Linux.

      • You know what they say about any product named "pro?" It's not for pros

        And Microsoft says Hold My Beer [digitaltrends.com]

      • Re:Why should anybody be surprised? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Aaden42 ( 198257 ) on Friday October 05, 2018 @08:27AM (#57430714) Homepage
        1:

        Get roughly twice as much computer for the money by going with Linux.

        2:
        Figure out how to run Final Cut or Premier on it.

        3:
        There's no step three.

        4:
        Profit!

        • Get roughly twice as much computer for the money by going with Linux.

          Figure out how to run Final Cut or Premier on it.

          That's relevant for the minuscule percentage of Apple users who actually run those applications, but most of them are just using them to appear hip when they use coffeeship WiFi.

    • So people are whining about security? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by goombah99 ( 560566 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @10:40PM (#57428872)

      did no one read about the chinese compromise of the supremicro motherboards? and now people are upset that a vendor requires certified parts?
      Please... I'd pay extra for that gladly.

      • Re:So people are whining about security? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @10:51PM (#57428926)
        The level of risk they're willing to accept should be up to the hardware's owner. At the most, there should be a warning about using unauthorized parts, not a totally unusable device.

        • The level of risk they're willing to accept should be up to the hardware's owner. At the most, there should be a warning about using unauthorized parts, not a totally unusable device.

          The manufacturer of a device should strive to make it as secure as possible to safeguard the users sensitive and valuable data. All security mechanism should at least be opt-out and in many canses they sououd be mandatory. Nobody wants to log onto their internet bank one day and find is has been raided because of lax security in your laptop's operating system and/or hardware.

          This is a fight one simply cannot win. You are inundated with angry tirades from outraged people if you implement proper security

        • There is a warning. People don't read it and just click Next.

      • Re:So people are whining about security? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Tough Love ( 215404 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @10:51PM (#57428928)

        OK, you pay Apple to put spy chips in your computer. Not me. Did you know, many Apple products are assembled in China, using chips made in China?

        • Did you know that many Dells are made in China using chips made in China? Did you know many Lenovos are made in China using chips made in China? And the list goes on and on.

      • Re:So people are whining about security? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Daemonik ( 171801 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @11:05PM (#57429002) Homepage

        Yeah, and good luck to you when Apple designs a circuit board with the wrong transistor, refuses to admit the mistake exists and when they finally get sued over it they make a repair program that manages to not cover the boards produced the year you bought yours.

        Won't be the first time!

      • certified parts like HDD's with 2-3 X markup?? ram and cpu grades priced so that the cost of going from 8GB to 16GB is the same price as an 16GB kit?

      • did no one read about the chinese compromise of the supremicro motherboards? and now people are upset that a vendor requires certified parts?

        If they were worried about security then it would only need to alert the user if non-Apple parts are added. Refusing to run even if something is replaced by another Apple part suggests very strongly that the motive is nothing to do with security.

      • The only security I can see here is securing Apple's profits.

        Why not give the customer the choice? Go with Apple parts and be safe, or use questionable aftermarket parts and Apple is out of obligation to provide any support?

        Don't answer. Everyone knows the answer.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Apple is worse in this regard.

        Apple used Intel chips exclusively, with all the usual security flaws including the hidden, impossible to disable OS called the "Intel Management Engine". You know, the one with 90s era buffer overflow vulnerabilities and the ability to fully control your system without your permission.

        With a normal motherboard you have control over the secure boot process. You can load your own keys, secure your system. Apple doesn't allow you to do that.

        Currently the best option is an AMD Ryz

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by jythie ( 914043 )
        I can recall years ago working for a company that made kiosk systems. One of our banes was that customers would do their own repairs, including swapping out components for 3rd party replacements because they were cheaper. Then when things did not work, user and customers would complain about how much our stuff sucked because things would not calibrate quickly or the system stuttered. This is why companies try to lock things down, users have a bad habit of loudly blaming you for their budget swapouts an

    • Re:Why should anybody be surprised? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Cito ( 1725214 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @10:58PM (#57428962)

      I work at an authorized apple repair shop and if I get the chance and if possible I'll definitely be uploading copy of the software on torrent. My shop is one that another tech here supplied Louis Rossman with pirated copy of specific apple diagnostic software.

    • Re:Why should anybody be surprised? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by msauve ( 701917 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @11:03PM (#57428988)
      "Android is better anyway"

      If your knee weren't jerking so hard, you'd realize this is about MacBooks and MacOS/FreeBSD, so the proper comparison would be Windows, or perhaps less generally, Chrome OS/Linux. Definitely not Android/Linux.

    • Android is not better. It is just different. And its user interaction is explicitly designed in a way that if you switch from Android to iOS you feel lost and switch back. I would not wonder if iOS did the same.

      Bottom line Android is just utter bullshit. Everything that works seamlessly on iOS either has flaws (like automatic detection of the language used when typing into /. ) or requires you to go into settings, to switch keyboard, or you can not open downlaoded ebooks, because they end up in "downloads"

      • Android is not better.

        Android is better, for many reasons. Obviously, 80%+ of the smartphone users in the world prefer it. Personally, I like the Android Linux kernel, it's just way better than Apple's Mach kernel. So many reasons. More efficient, better network stack with fewer stalls and disconnects than FreeBSD/Mach. Way more hardware support. Endless number of reasons.

        It randomly autoupdates, wrecking several of my preinstalled apps, but well, that is a vendor issue...

        Ha. No, it's a clueless you issue. If you don't want autoupdates then just turn it off, it's entirely optional. And I just plain don't believe you about wrecki

        • Android is better, for many reasons. Obviously, 80%+ of the smartphone users in the world prefer it.

          That is overwhelmingly because of price and nothing else in most cases. Few prefer it for any technical reason. Apple doesn't sell to the low end of the market so that has been filled in mostly with Android devices in large unit volumes. Apple has close to 50% market share [digit.in] in premium smartphones with Samsung accounting for the lions share of the rest of the segment.

          Personally, I like the Android Linux kernel, it's just way better than Apple's Mach kernel.

          Unless you are a developer you have approximately zero direct interaction with the kernel so this is just fanboyism. Nobody actually buying

  • John Deere, is that you? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by caladine ( 1290184 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @10:36PM (#57428854)
    Right to repair laws can't come soon enough.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Technically you have the right to repair that product, as long as you have that software. Logically it is a reasonable security step, depending upon the access to that software and how it signs itself off, when it runs. Preferably requiring the person who uses that software to log in and identify themselves when they use it. It will make stealing a new Apple notebook awkward and repairs impossible and even stripping it and selling the parts, also difficult. It depends how much the software costs, how access

      • It should be the user's choice whether to "opt in" to such a system. Anyone could have access to the software, and it could check for parts serials on an "opt in" blacklist of stolen systems before authorizing a parts swap. It could also warn about unauthorized 3rd-party parts without banning them outright. Nah. This isn't about security. This is about planned obsolescence and money-grubbing on Crapple's part. Don't make a bunch of gougers seem more noble than they actually are.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by jythie ( 914043 )
          The lockdown is in part intended to go after unauthorized repair shops, so user opt-in would not really help. The DIY crowd is small, they are rarely the targets of stuff like this. Shady repair shops that offer low low prices on the other hand are everywhere and can contribute to bad PR for a company since users seem to end up blaming the faceless manufacturer rather than the 'nice young man that fixed my computer and explained how terrible Apple is'.

          I used to work at a hardware manufacturer, this happ

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        It will make stealing a new Apple notebook awkward and repairs impossible and even stripping it and selling the parts, also difficult.

        A publicly accessible, stolen parts serial number database would also do that, but without making it impossible for users to perform their own repairs.

        Even as someone who has had a laptop stolen, I still don't think that's sufficient reason to prevent users from repairing their own hardware.

      • It depends how much the software costs, how accessible it is and how secure it is.

        It says in the article that the software is exclusive to Apple authorized repair shops. Consumers will have no access to it and it's not meant to prevent theft of new Apple products, it's meant to shut out 3rd party repair places that shine a light on how shoddy Apple's engineering really is and how overpriced it is for that. It also will reduce your ability to sue Apple for crappy design decisions because if nobody can fix it except Apple, they can just ignore it and blame you.

        • it's not meant to prevent theft of new Apple products, it's meant to shut out 3rd party repair places

          And in the case of John Deere, farmers are turning to technicians with cracked Ukrainian John Deere software that they bought off the black market [vice.com]

          The Apple System Configuration Suite software is cloud authenticated:

          The AST 2 System Configuration suite is a diagnostic software that Apple uses to ensure that the computer is functioning properly. It includes the Mac Resource Inspector, which does a “quick health check of hardware and software,” as well as tools that check the system’s memory, display, power adapters, cooling system, and other aspects of the computer. It functions only if connected to Apple’s Global Service Exchange (GSX), a Cloud-based server that Apple uses to handle repairs and service. It requires a login from Apple to access.

          But if there's a thriving black market of John Deere tractor hacking, I find it hard to believe that such a move on Apple's part won't spawn an equivalent surge in hacked Apple System Configuration Suites.

    • Re:John Deere, is that you? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by dslbrian ( 318993 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @11:30PM (#57429096)
      What they are describing is already illegal under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act [wikipedia.org]. An excerpt:

      Warrantors cannot require that only branded parts be used with the product in order to retain the warranty.[7] This is commonly referred to as the "tie-in sales" provisions[8] and is frequently mentioned in the context of third-party computer parts, such as memory and hard drives.

      And from the summary:

      The new system will render the computer "inoperative" unless a proprietary Apple "system configuration" software is run after parts of the system are replaced.

      So in effect they are saying "oh sure put whatever part you want into it, but it's not going to work unless we allow it". Thereby creating the onus to use "branded parts". Yeah good luck with that. I fully expect them to land in court over this.

      • Warranty Act. Doesn't void the warranty (Score:5, Interesting)

        by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Friday October 05, 2018 @12:01AM (#57429200) Journal

        The drafters of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act wouldn't like this at all. They did not, however, make illegal. The Act, in 15 USC 2302 (C), says that the WARRANTY may not be conditioned on using Apple-branded parts. They can't (and don't) void the warranty if you use unauthorized parts. Here's the text of the statute:

        https://www.law.cornell.edu/us... [cornell.edu]

        The people who wrote that might wish that they had written "also, you can't arrange for the product to stop working when unauthorized parts are installed", but they didn't write that. Maybe a lawmaker should write that now.

        It's possibly unlawful under other laws. There are quite a few different unfair competition laws and some may apply.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          So how does this work for cars where you need proprietary diagnostic tools to clear error codes etc? Effectively such cars would be impossible to fix if the tools were not available to any random garage.

  • Life-limited product... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @10:49PM (#57428914)

    Most commodity computers can have parts replaced even when the manufacturer no longer supports them officially. The new Macbook Pro? Apple can just say that "our cloud software no longer supports computers over a certain age." Voila! Your laptop becomes a brick if it needs any sort of minor repair (keyboard or LCD are minor for any well-designed laptop).

    Bonus points if your laptop breaks in a developing country where the nearest "authorized" repair place is 1000 miles away. Piss on Steve Jobs' grave for pioneering the model of computing as a prison. Screw Tim Cook for perpetuating it and making it worse.

    • If you're in a developing country and live that far away from an authorized repair place, I can't imagine it's that likely you own this sort of premium technology.

      • What the hell happens to your hardware when you replace it with the newest latest "iShiny(tm)(r)(c)" 12-24 months down the line, because the church^H because the WWDC showed a slightly new iteration ?

        Usually you hand it out to friends or sell it 2nd hand on ebay/craiglist, etc.

        5 years down the line, after several owner changes, the hardware might find its path to some 3rd world country.

        To you, a 5-7 years old computer is an old piece of junk that's worthless.
        To a developing country : it's still pretty much

    • Screw Tim Cook

      I was pondering that, but then again, he just might enjoy it.

  • Use what you got... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by berchca ( 414155 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @11:04PM (#57428996) Homepage

    I guess since Apple is selling less computers these days*, they have to squeeze more money out of their customers.

    *https://www.macrumors.com/2018/08/01/fewest-quarterly-mac-sales-since-2010/

  • Mac pro is dead unless apple does not add T2 to it and even then it's the end of the road for corp use

  • Right to repair will force apple to give this soft (Score:5, Informative)

    by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @11:22PM (#57429064)

    Right to repair will force apple to give this software out to 3rd party shops.

  • Apple users obviously don't object to proprietary walled gardens else they wouldn't be buying Apple products. This is just a few more bricks on top of the garden wall and I would expect it to be celebrated.

  • This has to be the most lowlife, underhanded, ill-thought scheme I've seen from them yet. The eighthwit (they don't have enough wits to be a halfwit) who thought of this needs to be fired and replaced with someone who has a sense of decency.
    • It comes from the top -- don't expect Timmy to fire anyone, since he's anal-retentive enough to actually LIKE this kind of nonsense.

  • true story (Score:4, Informative)

    by thePsychologist ( 1062886 ) on Friday October 05, 2018 @12:14AM (#57429242) Journal

    Several years ago I had a thinkpad that had become infested with ants. I used a blow dryer to heat up the computer a little (while it was off) to make the ants want to leave. I left the blow dryer over the keyboard too long and melted the keys off.

    Bought a keyboard online for 30 dollars and replaced the old one in five minutes. This wouldn't have been possible with this new MacBook. Sad.

    • Next time use a vacuum sucker.

      The ants are not smart enough to "run away" from heat. And they likely die just at random places provoking a short.

      Same if you spill a drink on it, use a vacuum sucker, not a hair dryer.

  • Louis Rossman should have some entertaining videos about this. I'mma make some popcorn...

  • WTF! Warn, but do not BLOCK! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Que_Ball ( 44131 ) on Friday October 05, 2018 @02:05AM (#57429528)
    Seriously are you not the owner of your own equipment anymore?

    I can understand them having a bios level warning that can be disabled for this kind of thing. Similar to how you can put a machine into secure boot mode or disable it if you want.

    But outright blocking the machine from operating with no "I understand the risk click OK to continue" type of thing is complete anti consumer BS.

    What is the point of this? Do they really think it's a long term benefit to their customers?
  • In Capitalist West right to repair taken away from you.
    In Soviet Union BK0010-01 approved for you.

    • The fun bit is that in the Soviet Union, everything HAD to be built with the express goal to be easily fixable because they knew that "original" spare parts were notorious short in supply. Had the Soviet Union worked like we do, it would have fallen apart so much more quickly because the death of a wear part would instantly cause a machine to fail for good.

  • New low, and no go for me! (Score:3)

    by ReneR ( 1057034 ) on Friday October 05, 2018 @02:51AM (#57429630)
    The machines are already not the most appealing to start with, but this is such a new low disqualifying them entirely for me. Sad. One could already not even swap the SSD anymore at the last gen machines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] Don't support, don't buy!

  • Thats it Apple. We're divorcing. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sg_oneill ( 159032 ) on Friday October 05, 2018 @02:51AM (#57429632)

    Fucking hell. This has gone from "Apples stuff is hard to repair because of wonky design decsions" to straight up malevolence.

    I've been using Macs since Vista completely murdered my will to use windows ever again. New laptop, constant blue screens of death on "Certified for Vista" laptop. After being told I had to pay $100+ to upgrade back to XP I threw the towel in and got me big desktop imac and then later a mac laptop. It had unixy underbelly so my BSD background fit right in, it just seemed to work really well, and once I got over the slight behavioral differences (command-C vs Ctrl-C, menu on top etc) it was a system I really enjoyed working with. Ended up with an iPhone too to cash in on the new iPhone dev stuff (I was formerly a Symbian dev, hell on earth). I was the model of an Apple Fanboy. Shit Apple where so good to me that when a fucked up contract that was about to land me in court was caused by app store delays I actully emailed Steve Jobs, and he *fucking emailed me back* and put his personal assistant in charge of getting my shit through the store. Thats how great apple used to be.

    But man, modern Apple sucks. My last apple purchase was a 2017 macbook pro to finally replace the trust 2011 MBP, the keyboard *sucked*, it only had those whack thunderbolt-3/USB-C ports which I had precisely zero perhipherals for and all the adaptors where ridiculously expensive and kinda unrelaible, and when I accidently dropped it and cracked the screen apple quoted me well over $1K to repair it.

    So I ended up taking it to a third party indian repair dude who fixed it for $400. Not a great job, but at least I could afford it.

    Also someone then broke into my house and stole the laptop. Admitedly I can't pin that one on Apple (I think?!).

    Heres the thing. Without that cheapo unauthorized repair, I'd have been stuffed. With a nearly brand new laptop, unable to be used.

    Apple want to take THAT away too?

    Maybe its time I just swallowed my pride and built myself a Linux/Windows dual-booter.

  • From a security perspective, I'm quite fond of the fact that nobody can open my notebook in the hotel room while I'm at dinner and install something malicious. If this is done well, it could obsolete a whole lot of hardware-based threats.

    There is the "right to repair" angle as well and I agree with that. There's just two perspectives.

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