Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/21/23079058/apple-self-service-iphone-repair-kit-hands-on

by kryptiskt • 4 years ago

507 544 4 years ago

kappuchino2• 4 years ago

I suggest some people group together to simultaneously order the repairkit / battery replacement to figure out how many of these self repair sets exist. I would not be suprised if it was only 10 to 20ish.

On another note, legislation with the intent to advance the right to repair needs to be carfully worded like when the devil grants you a wish: You want your phone battery to be user replacable? Yes, wish granted. Oh and also not accessable without a 1200$ deposit and authorization. Enjoy your hell.

Kaibeezy• 4 years ago

This tragi-comedy comes from the same circle of hell as the long failure of the Public Service (student) Loan Forgiveness program. Exposure of its failures led, finally, to some relief.

Michael Lewis podcast transcript - https://podscribe.app/feeds/https-feedsmegaphonefm-against-t...

NPR article - https://www.npr.org/2021/10/01/1041872045/education-dept-pla...

quitit3• 4 years ago

I think there would be more controversy if Apple skimped here and only provided an iFixIt style repair kit instead of the legitimate tools that the authorised repairers use.

I guess there will always be people to argue both sides of this point. However it seems clear that the shipping would mean Apple is losing money on the transaction.

ad404b8a372f2b9• 4 years ago

Not all issues have to be "both-sides"-ed.

You really think it'd be more controversial if Apple were to ship a standard, iFixIt style replacement toolset like everybody else does rather than two suitcase-sized boxes weighing a combined 80 pounds with a 1200$ deposit and further require a call to their support line to validate the parts in order to change a battery?

jeroenhd3• 4 years ago

Controversy was unavoidable when they shipped devices that can't be repaired without these giant kits. This is probably the lesser controversy, though.

Reserving the full price of the equipment on the credit card places these repair out of the hands of the people that need affordable repairs the most. I'm also honestly sure that Apple can design better tooling for consumer repair than this, they've solved more difficult problems.

samatman• 4 years ago

"Apple shipped me the repair kit they use to replace batteries, so I can replace the battery in my iPhone".

Better?

shaicoleman• 4 years ago

"The more I think about it, the more I realize Apple’s Self-Service Repair program is the perfect way to make it look like the company supports right-to-repair policies without actually encouraging them at all."

throwk8s• 4 years ago

I don't think it's incumbent upon Apple to invent a new set of tools for self-service repairs.

Assuming these are the tools they actually use, rather than a cumbersome set they invented just to be insufferable, then making the tools available seems like a fair way to (reluctantly) satisfy the right-to-repair demand.

I think a better indication of whether they're really honoring the right to repair is if they keep doing things like inventing new screws that existing tools can't open. Time will tell.

Closi• 4 years ago

Agreed - I'm not sure why we assume that a modern smartphone is designed to be completely taken apart and reassembled with a standard toolkit.

I've had two third party repairs on my iPhones - one was done with a heat-gun and the finish was awful and the screen popped up in one corner at the end and the metal frame was dented from the pry-tool, and the second shop used a proper heat pad and an assembly tool and the finish was like it was a new phone.

Personally I would have been suprised if Apple recommended/advised use of a hairdryer / conventional heat-gun when that's not what they use themselves and clearly not how the iPhones are designed to be reassembled. Also presumably asking amateurs to use a heat-gun on their electronics would come with it's own risks (particularly heat guns + lithium batteries if you aren't careful!).

Like this article includes the following complaint:

The repair manual not only suggests you need three pages worth of tools but also a jar of sand in case your battery catches fire — one of many not strictly necessary items that don’t come with the kit.

This doesn't sound entirely unreasonable from Apple's perspective - because at their scale they probably should be worried about the risk of people piercing the battery during a repair or using a heatgun near their battery. Also seems weird to throw shade at Apple for sending you too much stuff, but then also note that Apple didn't ship you a bucket of sand, but appreciate that was a kind-of joke.

JKCalhoun• 4 years ago

I agree but I thought the same when SMDs (surface mount devices) came on the scene many, many, years ago. I did not have a reflow oven, nor a rework station capable of replacing a bad capacitor, etc.

Alas, had we all poured out into the streets and demanded companies stick with through-hole components....

It does seem technology (more specifically, manufacturing) are moving beyond the means of a "guy in a garage".

makeitdouble3• 4 years ago

Time won’t flow back, but it was less than a decade ago that you replaced batteries by popping the phone’s back. I wouldn’t say Apple bears no blame in making 79 pound tools necessary to replace a battery.

And as they basically opened that path for every other maker to follow and point at Apple as a justification, we really shouldn’t give them a pass.

hatware5• 4 years ago

Bingo. Yet you have tons of commenters who are _sure_ that Apple is doing the right thing.

I miss when products were made for the consumer.

2Gkashmiri3• 4 years ago

Go to new Delhi, India. Look up "ghaffar market".

This is like " the" mobile repair market. Entire rows upon rows of literally one man stalls which repair your phone on the fly.

They take mobile repairing to the next level. No need for "sterile environment" that people show, clean rooms and all. They just do it in all the dust and grime and sweat showing our devices are really resistant to a lot.

srvmshr5• 4 years ago

Places like Ghaffar Market exist in most Asian cities. In fact, Delhi has another at Nehru Place

2Gkashmiri3• 4 years ago

My point is, if people like these can repair your phone in 1/50 the cost of a "genuine apple repair" or even a "trusted third party repair" guy, why do you care about "genuine" because the lines are blurry at that point. Sure you can spend $200 to repair your $1000 iphone screen from apple but you know if you take to the ghaffar market, they will charge you what, $30 if that. Sure there will be quality issues but what about if your phone costs $200 and the "official" screen repair is 50% of that but sketchy place rate is like $10?

The point is about Choice. i know if i break my cheap android, i can get it repaired at a cheap price and continue using it or else i had to go to "official" shop and they would quote me 60% of the price of a new device into forcing me to buy a new thing. Thats bad

jeroenhd3• 4 years ago

It's so silly that modern phones (from all manufacturers, really) need these giant kits (or hacks like microwaving a jelly sock) just to replace the single part that wears down.

I still have my first Android phone. It contains a battery you can pop out after removing the back cover. Replaceable batteries used to be the norm!

Now we need suction cups, hot air stations and professional guides to replace the part, because somehow those billion dollar geniuses chose to make their devices unrepairable.

This programme is mostly greenwashing but it's a step forward some other manufacturers still haven't taken. If Apple actually cared about repairing phones, they'd design better phones.

IgorPartola4• 4 years ago

On the other hand phones are now thing and waterproof. Not saying that replaceable batteries are bad but it’s not like this was an entirely arbitrary decision.

londons_explore4• 4 years ago

There are also a lot of laws and regulations about shipping and selling batteries that don't apply to devices with non-removable batteries.

jeroenhd3• 4 years ago

The Galaxy XCover 5 is waterproof (IP68) and has a replaceable battery. It's built for extreme conditions so it looks a little funky, but it's clearly possible to have both.

Sure, gluing the battery into a closed container is a lot easier than developing novel waterproofing methods, but it's not impossible to do so.

razodactyl• 4 years ago

If a group of government scientists can deploy devices into the field with waterproof enclosures and replaceable battery banks - it makes me wonder if Apple could do it :P

vvillena2• 4 years ago

The first Motorola Defy was a comparable device to its competitors when it was released, and its big feature, being water-resistant, didn't make any compromises apart from rubber caps on the ports (not necessary in modern phones) and a better back cover with a manual latch.

Sealing phones isn't needed at all. It's a decision driven by the market makers.

ghaff7• 4 years ago

extremely specialised tools which ensure every repair is perfect with little room for any human error.

I'm not sure I see the problem. Apple is saying that this is the "right" way to do the repair. Alternatively, you can have them do it. You can also, although Apple won't endorse it, take it to a third-party, order a kit from iFixit, or otherwise do it yourself.

Ford will also not endorse doing repairs yourself, using an independent mechanic, using parts from a junkyard, etc. but they don't generally prevent you from doing so.

bogwog• 4 years ago

The issue with right to repair isn’t that phones are too hard to repair due to being thin/waterproof/etc. It’s that Apple’s business decisions and contracts with suppliers are designed to monopolize the repair process, so that third party repair shops can’t fix peoples’ phones without resorting to extreme measures (like buying blackmarket parts that were likely stolen from Apple factories by rogue employees).

This repair program is trying really hard to frame it as: “look how risky and complicated it is to fix your own phone! Nobody actually wants to do this!”. Drawing attention away from the obvious alternative where people send their phone to an independent repair shop rather than do the repair themselves (and benefit from competitive pricing rather than Apple exorbitant ones)

As an example, you can’t buy a replacement screen from this program unless you provide a valid IMEI. This means that a repair shop can’t possibly offer same day repairs since they can’t keep any screen in stock.

londons_explore4• 4 years ago

You could totally laser cut a hole in the back of an iphone to replace the battery. You might need to remake a few ribbon cables, but then you'd have yourself a removable battery.

You could start a business that can cut the required hole, and then sell batteries that fit the hole with the case pre-glued on. (you'd replace a square of the back of the iPhone whenever you replaced the battery)

ezconnect3• 4 years ago

The battery has DRM now as stated on the article.

devoutsalsa• 4 years ago

You're not wrong. I used to have a phone with a replaceable battery. I replaced the battery after a year. The next year I wanted a better phone anyway. I realized that the battery in my iPhone is replaceable. I just need to pay Apple to do it. It's still way cheaper than buying a new phone, and I benefit from the advantages of having a sealed phone. Within two weeks of buying my iPhone 12, I dropped it in a lake :)

Gigachad6• 4 years ago

You don’t need all this. A hair dryer and guitar pick and suction cup is all you need. Ifixit sells a very cheap kit that has everything you need. It’s quite easy and reasonable to do.

Problem is apple insists that phones can only be touched with extremely specialised tools which ensure every repair is perfect with little room for any human error.

And instead of loosening their requirements for self repair, they have taken the absurd approach here.

8organicbits• 4 years ago

For what it's worth, I've done maybe five Android screen repairs using the iFixit tools. One repair I messed up and the new screen broke almost immediately. The others looked good. Price wise, I wasn't able to find cheap replacement displays although my net cost is maybe still 70% the cost of going to an unofficial repair place. I'm not sure it was worth my time, or stress when moving tiny ribbon cables with tweezers.

Going forward I think I'll just buy phones that have screens that don't die when dropped. I'm OK with a cracked screen, but the display needs to work.

lupire5• 4 years ago

Is Apple going to sue you if you use a hair dryer, or merely decline to fix it for you for free when the battery expired after your 3yrar warranty anyway?

PragmaticPulp9• 4 years ago

It's so silly that modern phones (from all manufacturers, really) need these giant kits

People have been replacing iPhone batteries long before this kit was available as an option.

99% or more of iPhone owners have no desire to replace their own batteries. Suggesting that Apple compromise the design of the iPhone just to cater to the rare customer who wants to swap batteries isn’t a realistic suggestion and I’m kind of baffled that so many HN commenters can’t understand that much.

srvmshr5• 4 years ago

I still have my first Android phone. It contains a battery you can pop out after removing the back cover. Replaceable batteries used to be the norm!
If Apple actually cared about repairing phones, they'd design better phones.

They do make excellent phones. No doubt about it. I think the end claim is tad contrived: If you (and millions similar) are willing to let go of IP68 dust & waterproofing, willing to work with cheaper melamine casing, and plastic screens, I am sure Apple will have no argument to back up its high ground of why they need specialist repair tools & services. What you desire is a state of the art smartphone, with gloss, finish & every working bell & whistle. What you demand for is a Nokia 3200 (which incidentally wasn't too behind in evolution).

This protocol exists because the devices are sophisticated. And they ship this hulk with the assumption you are at Level 0. I can only imagine good faith on Apple if they empowered local technicians to handle such repairs instead of this elaborate stunt to prove their point on self-servicing.

Repairability is much different topic from build sophistication. Lets not mix up these two. Apple's approach to prove its point is labored. What we probably eventually want is iOS devices to be easily serviceable by ourselves (if well equipped) or via locally available technicians, instead of entering their marbled ecosystem. Eventually we will reach some middle ground. But it is crucial to understand that self-repair isn't everyone's cup of tea and a corporation cannot keep a supply chain for the 1-5% customers who dabble with this hobby

srvmshr5• 4 years ago

If made to fulfill the word of the law without actually having to follow it in spirit, this would be my modus operandi too.

By designing $1200 deposit, $49 rental & two Pelican suitcases of tools and manuals, while keeping the battery replacement price same at $69 (what you'd normally pay in total at Store), they have entirely disincentivized self-repair without actually breaking any law.

Masterstroke /s

wrycoder4• 4 years ago

The real victory will come months or years down the road, though. That’s when Apple can tell legislators it tried to give right-to-repair advocates what they wanted — but that consumers overwhelmingly decided Apple knows best.

xattt• 4 years ago

Masterstroke.

And we think you’re going to hate it too!

fartcannon5• 4 years ago

I have never understood this kind of compliance. The hordes that buy their disposable garbage aren't going to care, they've shown repeatedly that they're insensitive to, sometimes even aggressive towards their own autonomy. So why do this? Just to _waste_ more?

It's so petulant.

Nextgrid14• 4 years ago

There’s also a PR aspect to this in showing that 80 lbs worth of expensive equipment is the only way to replace batteries safely.

vlovich123• 4 years ago

Probably to make sure that their iPhone repair business (and that of their authorized partners) doesn’t just collapse by getting massively undercut by unauthorized resellers that can use the official repair kit.

hatware5• 4 years ago

You can thank the finance and legal departments for their lack of creativity.

nunez2• 4 years ago

it is less that i am against my own autonomy and more that i value my time aggressively and don't want to spend it repairing shit i don't want to repair

i know i _can_ repair my own stuff. i've worked soldering irons and have a heat gun and could go into it again if i need to. i just don't want to make the time.

i don't want to spend hours repairing my iDevices. been there, done that. i'm not fucking with impenetrable adhesives and cracking screens and ultra thin wires, especially when i'm doing so at the cost of losing waterproofing, faceID, and warranty (extremely important to me).

(i completely get why apple disables faceID for screen replacements; gotta protect the software supply chain)

i'd much rather drive to my apple store 15 mins away, go to the genius bar and say "iphone broke" and get a new one right there or have it repaired in a few hours.

NovemberWhiskey17• 4 years ago

Did they conveniently forget to say that Apple will give you a further refund in you return the replaced part? Ah, yes, they did. In the case of the battery for iPhone 13 mini described in the article, that's an additional refund of $24.15.

Since I've never heard of anyone getting back the broken part when getting an in-store repair, it'd be reasonable to compare at the $44.85 price, wouldn't it?

canuckintime• 4 years ago

They didn't 'conveniently' forget; it's mentioned and accounted for in the article:

$49 to rent Apple’s tools for a week, more than wiping out any refund I might get for returning the old used part.

Aeolun5• 4 years ago

I think the EU is generally better at designing it’s regulations to avoid exactly this problem.

Probably something to the extend of “tools to repair must be found in any general DIY store”.

NovemberWhiskey17• 4 years ago

I look forward to seeing the new phones being sold in the EU complete with #0 Pozidriv screws as fasteners; ought to be hilarious.

srvmshr5• 4 years ago

I think, barring the USB-C issue which is more supportive of industry wide efforts to standardize and reduce e-waste, you cannot by any legal instrument force an equipment manufacturer to stick to certain parts or boiler plate designs, which can be seen as harming their competitiveness.

This argument can be construed by Apple lawyers as exerting unfavorable judicial bias to downgrade/bottleneck technical capabilities, which Apple would have otherwise provided to its customers & claim significant advantage over competition in offering their products.

EU or not, such regulation will be dead fish in water unless smartly crafted.

Teever4• 4 years ago

Are they though? Doesn't Apple just ship Lightning to USB-C dongles with iPhones to satisfy EU requirements?

Macha• 4 years ago

At the same time, it means Americans often complain about EU regulations as being too vague as overly specific ones are too prone to workarounds. See much of the discussion about GDPR where it's clear many of the complainers just want to task their lawyers to find the right magic loophole clause to put in their ToS to avoid doing any of it, and get frustrated when the law is intended to avoid that exact behaviour

PragmaticPulp9• 4 years ago

Probably something to the extend of “tools to repair must be found in any general DIY store”.

Does everyone realize how insanely bad this would be for phone progress? If we’re forcing manufacturers to avoid specialty adhesives and tooling, the overall quality and size of phones would be greatly compromised.

I understand a lot of HN commenters will say they don’t care if their phones are twice as big and not waterproof as long as they can replace the battery with a screwdriver from Home Depot, but that’s not even close to typical consumer behavior.

People want small, waterproof phones. Making laws to force companies to compromise everything so 1% of buyers can swap batteries at home instead of paying for official repair service is one of the more out of touch product suggestions I’ve read on HN.

macinjosh• 4 years ago

I think the EU is generally better at designing it’s regulations to avoid exactly this problem.

The 73rd cookie banner I've closed today begs to differ.

Spivak2• 4 years ago

I don’t know what Apple could have done better here. For $50 they shipped, both ways, all the expensive equipment Apple themselves use to repair their devices.

For how adamant Apple has been about the price of genuine parts for so long I’m starting to think that they actually sell replacement batteries at cost and eat the labor. Because having used 3rd party batteries they’re about half the cost but they degrade is way fewer cycles.

The problem with “right to repair” is that people thought they could hitch what they really wanted — “right to use cheaper 3rd party parts” which is a tougher political sell than “right to cosplay as the underpaid Apple service tech.”

fartcannon5• 4 years ago

They already bought it. What they want is autonomy with the product they purchased. They want Apple to support their rights and for Apple to not be babies about it.

mindslight3• 4 years ago

IMO the $1200 deposit is less ridiculous than the same-as-store $70 battery price. If the cost for the new battery were at wholesale prices, and one were able to purchase tools from the kit individually, I think that would be the best Apple could do (besides redesigning their devices to make repair easier).

Tools always cost money, a capital investment which ends up being vested in professionals that buy the tools once and then repair many people's gadgets. Right to repair is just as much about empowering independent repair shops as the individual DIYer.

Us DIYers have kind of gotten spoiled with the continually dropping prices of tools and parts combined with the always rising price of labor and overhead. For example, I was just shamelessly quoted $1300 for a rear brake job (wtf?). For that price I could buy all the tools to do the job, premium parts, and still come out favorably compared to engineering rates.

sokoloff11• 4 years ago

I have a standing offer for my friends: I’ll do a brake job with you in my driveway to show you how easy and cheap it is. It’s common for those $1000+ dealer quotes to be $75-$150 in parts, $5 in consumables, and < 90 minutes from door open to putting the last cleaned tool away (while explaining each step to them and having them do at least part of each step).

Over 20 years, I’ve done this for a few handfuls of people. How many have switched to DIYing anything more than filling washer fluid and maybe replacing a lamp? One. (Two others have switched to indy mechanics.)

The others keep complaining about their $800-1250 per axle brake jobs and $2500+ service visits at the dealer and how expensive it is to own a car, but keep right on doing it. <shrug />

saagarjha2• 4 years ago

This is a bad take, because Apple has shown how they do this with the App Store and it their behavior there was far uglier than providing high-quality, albeit bulk and awkward, repair equipment.

londons_explore4• 4 years ago

I actually think this is a great.

I like the idea of more 12 year olds getting a chance to peek at the innards of their tech, using the proper kit so they at least have a chance of not ruining everything.

While I suspect Apple will lose quite a lot of money on this (these toolboxes will end up with most of the tools missing or broken very quickly!), I think from a global economic perspective, the educational value of tens of thousands of people doing this far outweighs those costs.

Aeolun5• 4 years ago

I do not think a lot of 12 year olds are going to put down a $1200 deposit. Nor will a lot of parents put down a $1200 deposit so their 12 year old can mess with their $1000 phone.

But I dunno… maybe?

sokoloff11• 4 years ago

I’m about to tear into my 13 year old’s iPhone X and replace the battery when the $25 package arrives from Amazon later today.

You bet he’s going to be there watching and seeing what’s inside the phone. (It’s not that we’re doing exploratory surgery for fun and just want to see what’s inside. It’s driven by the need to repair his phone, but has a side effect of cool.)

Krisjohn• 4 years ago

Does this effectively mean they're selling the official repair kit for $1,200?

ceejayoz• 4 years ago

Won’t be much use without the official parts, the hotline to validate them, etc.

ezconnect3• 4 years ago

Battery has DRM now, wow.

sokoloff11• 4 years ago

Battery has an identifier which, if mismatched, causes the phone to work but present a warning that the battery may not be genuine and does not report battery health.

Honestly, that sounds pretty fair/reasonable to me. (It would be outrageous if it had “DRM fail: phone shuts off”. “DRM detects possible non-genuine battery and works but reports battery as possibly non-genuine” is a lot more reasonable, possibly totally reasonable.)

ezconnect3• 4 years ago

Acts like a DRM to me. Changing battery now needs internet connection? A remote system to control your phone just to tell it to function normally after changing battery? Next on the horizon is we need to plugin our peanut butter to an internet connection so we can open it to eat it.

marban• 4 years ago

There's no difference to buying a Porsche or Leica — There is one official way to repair them and there's a cheap way. If you're not prepared for the more expensive way, don't buy the thing in the first place.

Tabular-Iceberg• 4 years ago

I'm not sure the right to repair should have to mean that companies have to magically circumvent the effects of economy of scale.

Surely the important thing is that they don't act anti-competitively towards independent repair shops, so they can actually have one of these kits on their desks to replace batteries all day long without being gouged.

elil17• 4 years ago

I absolutely hate anticompetitive business practices. Like I get genuinely angry about it. But this seems totally fine to me. The author followed the instructions and ended up with a perfect result. They were stressed about repairing it because they might break it, but that’s true of many DIY things. There was a lot of equipment sent to them, but it was offered at a reasonable price and made the repair much safer for the phone. I just don’t see the problem.

orf• 4 years ago

That's 35kg to fix a 31 gram battery for anyone else confused.

mhb• 4 years ago

And you won't believe what it takes to make a 100 gram silicon wafer.

thebruce87m2• 4 years ago

I’m not sure why the weight matters. The factory that made the battery was many tons, but if that’s what’s needed then that’s what’s needed.

Kim_Bruning• 4 years ago

All this just to replace a battery is obviously utterly ridiculous.

On the one hand this could be malicious compliance.

On the other maybe they still need to design their new phones to be easier to repair and this is a temporary measure?

Either way, newer laws should be worded such that it costs $0,00 to replace a battery with no deposit; all costs for tooling go to the manufacturer. Then it will cost the manufacturer money, which incentivizes them to make it easier to repair.

nvrspyx• 4 years ago

On the other maybe they still need to design their new phones to be easier to repair and this is a temporary measure?

Doubtful. Yes, they could be easier to repair and it's kind of a pain in the ass, but you can buy all the tools required to fix an iPhone 13/13 Pro battery from iFixIt for less than $100, although the tools are not as advanced as the ones Apple provides.

Also, if Apple benefits from this being a ridiculous process, which they do, there is probably no intention of making this easier. This reminds me of the iPhone battery and slowdown "scandal", there may have been good intentions at first, but then realized that it would benefit them to not tell the user what was going on, encouraging entirely new purchases rather than simple battery replacements.

Apple seems to only take exploitative opportunities when it provides the cover of plausible deniability because then it's difficult to argue. CPU slow-down? We just wanted to make sure people's phones still worked with bad batteries, please ignore the fact that we didn't tell the user the battery was bad. Repairing yourself both twice as expensive and extremely inconvenient? We're just trying to do right by the user's right to repair and provide the tools that we ourselves use, please ignore the fact that we're still charging the exact same price for the battery alone, the cost of the tools only makes sense on our scale by reducing the number of times our Geniuses break phones during repair, and request 100% collateral for our tools before renting. Please don't look at rental car services, it's not the same. Our tools are important and advanced...that's why we need them back in 7 days, no extension.

mgdlbp• 4 years ago

I wonder why the battery arrived flat—aren't Li-ions charged to ~50% at the factory for maximum shelf life (or rather 30%, the max allowed for shipping)?

I don't think the battery in question had time to self-discharge: it's a model A2660 introduced with the iPhone 13 in 2021, and the Li-ion self-discharge rate is only several percent per month at full charge, with discharge plateauing at lower voltages.

cmbuck• 4 years ago

I suspect the battery arrived in "cut-off" mode. This is a mode which reduces battery drain specifically during the period between manufacture and customer use. In this mode the battery pack control circuit (inside the battery pack) keeps the battery terminals disconnected (no voltage on the output) until it receives a signal from a control unit (or microcontroller) in the device. Once the charging cable is connected to the phone it powers on control unit which essentially turns the battery on, and it's normal operation from there.

Using battery cutoff mode reduces the discharge rate especially during shipping/logistics periods, where the battery may be in transit for mouths or sitting on a shelf for a long time.

If the battery Apple shipped was the same OEM part, they probably just ship all of them from the battery factory in cut off mode--no special process for the batteries allocated for these repair kits.

snorkel• 4 years ago

Gotta admit, that’s a cool looking repair kit. Meanwhile hole in the wall repair shops just use a hair dryer, razor, and putty knife.

isodev• 4 years ago

I really don’t see the problem here - why wouldn’t you want to use the correct tools to repair your iPhone?

Aeolun5• 4 years ago

I want to buy a $70 battery and be done. The iPhone should be designed to facilitate that.

The outrage is not against these tools. The outrage is against Apple acting like this is a reasonable way to give people the right to repair.

endisneigh3• 4 years ago

Why not just buy a ovine that uses removable batteries to begin with?

techwiz137• 4 years ago

Honestly, this actually looks cool. Even I would feel like a professional with these behemoths. I'd definitely assume the risk.

laerus• 4 years ago

boycott Apple then

endisneigh3• 4 years ago

One thing I don’t understand is why don’t people just buy a phone with removable batteries to begin with?

Or buy a morphine power back or equivalent. If Apple made an equivalent would that be sufficient?

aulin• 4 years ago

Do phones like that still exist?

endisneigh3• 4 years ago

Plenty, just not flagship as far as I know, check out the Samsung Xcover or FairPhone for a couple examples

nicbou• 4 years ago

Because this is hardly an option anymore

PragmaticPulp9• 4 years ago

Does Apple require you to rent all of these specialty tools to replace the battery? Or is this author just getting all of the specialty tools to make a point?

Obviously, people have been replacing iPhone batteries without 79 pounds of special tools for a long time. The fact that Apple provides the option to buy their special tools is great, but this author is digging deep for a reason to spin that as a bad thing which is kind of silly.

At this point I don’t even understand what people who are complains about this actually want (other than to complain about Apple?). Do they want Apple to completely redesign every phone to use old school screws and gaskets and other features that double the size of the phone just in case somebody wants to repair it without having to improvise tooling? Or do they want Apple to just not offer the custom tools at all and instead sell the battery with a “Good luck, you’re on your own” mentality?

blagie2• 4 years ago

You misread the article. Apple is renting out the tools for $49 and a $1200 deposit. Apple is doing this at a loss; the tools cost more than $49 to ship, let alone rent, and probably way more than $1200 to buy.

That's weird.

Apple is also charging $69 for a $5 battery -- their normal repair fee. That's unfair.

Apple set up a bizarre, convoluted process, on which both Apple and the customer lose money.

gjsman-10005• 4 years ago

The author negligently failed to mention the ~$25 refund you get when returning the old battery for recycling. The pricing is structured to incentivize part returns but the author was focused on what appears to be a hit piece and did not mention that.

PragmaticPulp9• 4 years ago

No, my point was that you don’t need the official repair kit at all if you’re willing to improvise like we’ve been doing forever. The author of this article is being dramatic to try to make a point.

Apple is also charging $69 for a $5 battery -- their normal repair fee. That's unfair.

Honestly I don’t see any problems with any of this. A $70 replacement battery option for my $1200 iPhone that I’m owning for 3-4 years seems entirely reasonable. Renting the professional level gear as an option if I want it. For $49 is an unbelievable gesture of goodwill. Are you really demanding that Apple sell batteries for $5?

At this point, I’m not convinced the HN crowd would be happy with any solution any company could offer, aside from making phones twice as big and using screws and offering $5 batteries for these $1200 phones just in case someone needs to replace the battery after 3 years.

dylan6042• 4 years ago

The normal repair fee of $69 covers the $5 battery and the install fees. So the remaining $64 dollars does not seem exorbantly high on paying someone their wage of manually removing/installing all of those screws and doing so without damaging everything plus some fees for overhead of operating the business. Sure, with a different design for user replaceable batteries all of that would be moot, but with the current design and the PITA process of doing the replacement it's not prohibitively expensive for a once in every 3-4 years type of fee. Hell, most people replace the phone itself before needing a battery replacement.

tinus_hn4• 4 years ago

Although they are not $69, these are also not $5 batteries. $15-$20 buys you (for a reasonably modern iPhone) an AliExpress battery that has a one day warranty against exploding and is probably made from materials mined by enslaved children. Apple works hard (though they do not always succeed) to source their materials responsibly and has a large interest in making sure the parts are of reasonable quality. If they start exploding Apple will do a recall, while a random AliExpress seller will just disappear.

kitsunesoba• 4 years ago

Do you have any source on that battery price? I could see a dodgy battery from AliExpress that’s likely a reject from official production lines or a knockoff maybe being that cheap, but high quality OEM surely costs more.

That was how it generally worked with laptop batteries, anyway — the dirt cheap ones were massive gambles that in the worst case could cause stability issues with the laptop and usually had capacities and cycle counts way under what was advertised. You generally had to go up to prices about halfway between the dirt cheap stuff and OEM to have a chance at getting a decent product, but even then nothing was as reliably solid as OEM.

Someone2• 4 years ago

Looking at https://selfservicerepair.com/home, it doesn’t look as if it requires it, but I couldn’t fully check, as you have to enter a valid IMEI fairly early in the sales process, and I don’t have qualifying hardware.

Also, their manuals assume you have the necessary hardware (makes sense to me, but means Apple won’t help you do repairs without that hardware)

soneil• 4 years ago

Apple's position seems to be that most people don't need the tools at all - 80% of the US lives within 20 minutes of an AASP, and frankly rural people know fine well they need to drive further to reach services like this (it used to take us more than 20 minutes to get to a post office).

The big wins are that the parts are available to customers and the tooling is available to third-party service providers. Being able to rent the tooling yourself is meant to cover the edge-cases.

wfhordie3• 4 years ago

Apple can’t win here. If they had sent the sleek, easy to carry tools this author asked for, the author would complain about the pathetic tools they are providing.

Really disappointed in The Verge on this article. Could have been a cool piece about the specific tech that Apple provides, but instead it’s framed so disingenuously that I come away not feeling particularly good about right to repair in general. It no longer sounds to me like people trying to get access to their own devices. It sounds like people taking potshots at BigCo because big co bad.

By the way. The tools this guy used are common, dead-common in China. Go to any repair mall in Shenzhen and you’ll see hundreds of these.

Does he actually want to repair his phone? It doesn’t seem like it.

gjsman-10005• 4 years ago

Furthermore, according to Apple technicians, these are the actual tools they have always used every day in Apple stores, but the author is framing it as though Apple went out of their way to make difficult tools for consumers - by giving them exactly what they were asking for, the actual tools.

The author complains that after renting the tools and buying the battery, it’s more expensive than having Apple do it. So? Is Apple supposed to ship $1200 in tools to you for free without a hold (incentivizing theft), or sell parts for cheaper than they sell them to their own stores (the prices are the same as to their stores and service providers)? Repairing anything is expensive if you don’t have the tools or don’t want to buy the tools and reuse them.

iFixIt should (frankly) denounce the article as it will almost certainly be used by Apple in a future court case to argue that Right To Repair activists are “extreme.”

Nextgrid14• 4 years ago

by giving them exactly what they were asking for, the actual tools.

When it comes to Apple devices, the "tools" that DIY repairmen want are the schematics, software to provision new parts (ideally there wouldn't be a need for this to begin with) and proprietary parts that can't be bought elsewhere.

When it comes to opening the phones, there's nothing particularly complex about this and third-parties have figured it out already, all the way down to the proprietary screwdrivers.

dwighttk2• 4 years ago

I especially liked the line mocking the instruction to have sand available if the battery catches on fire. That’s a good idea.

Moto7451• 4 years ago

Yeah. Anyone who spends long enough at an RC car track will witness a battery fire. When I used to race it was ripe with people saving money by buying cheap chargers and batteries, charging things too fast, running motors that pulled too much current for the support hardware, and failing to balance cells. Thankfully sand will save you! The car is usually roasted though.

zenexer3• 4 years ago

At least some of these tools are name brand. For example, the torque screwdrivers are Wera Kraftform Micro ESD pre-set torque screwdrivers. Apple sells them cheaper than anyone else, as far as I can tell—which is quite curious. Surely if you ordered them in bulk you could beat Apple’s prices, but you can’t order a single set of the same screwdrivers for less than what Apple is charging. I’m also told this is the exact same brand Apple itself uses in their stores.

There’s an alternative, though: head to Home Depot and buy and adjustable torque screwdriver for $60. It’ll have the same 10% tolerance rating. It won’t be ESD-safe—but does it really need to be for a one-off home repair? You could find something even cheaper on AliExpress, I’m sure.

Curiously, this program seems like a great deal for repair shops: for a bit over a thousand dollars, they can get the same tooling that Apple’s own stores use. It makes no sense for a consumer to buy or rent these tools from Apple, but a repair shop? $1,200 is a bargain to say you’re using the exact same tooling as Apple.

ynniv3• 4 years ago

this program seems like a great deal for repair shops

Which AFAICT is what Right to Repair is about anyway.

NovemberWhiskey17• 4 years ago

but does it really need to be for a one-off home repair?

Again: cue the "Apple provided me with second-class tools that are NOT the ones they used in store and I broke my iPhone" story.

Manufacturers can't possibly satisfy "right to repair" if every single person gets to decide how they want to do the repair, how much compromise they're prepared to take in terms of likely outcome and so on.

honkdaddy• 4 years ago

I ran an iOS sales and repairs service for years, eventually stopping around the iPhone X era. I had decent third-party tools, but despite being careful, I'd still break peoples' devices on rare occasion and have to eat the cost.

The adhesive they use to bind the screen to the body has gotten consistently tougher over the years, to the point where there really isn't a reliable way for someone to do it correctly on their first try without specialized tech like this. You WILL underestimate the amount of heat required and either crack your screen or break your tool when trying to pry them apart. It's incredibly frustrating and delicate work if you're just using a heat gun and a screwdriver.

If they shipped him a "warming sock" and some kludgers like iFixit used to do, I'm sure a quarter of the people who attempt the repair would end up breaking their device and the whole program would be a failure.

Unless they ditch the adhesive and return to the iPhone 4/4S design of a back-cover which slides off easily, I actually think the 70lbs of equipment might be their best path forward.

newsclues2• 4 years ago

Yeah, I will pay more for a device that is designed to be repaired.

jt2190• 4 years ago

The adhesive they use to bind the screen to the body has gotten consistently tougher over the years... Unless they ditch the adhesive...

We talk about this adhesive as if it's easily replaced with some screws, but I wonder if that's really true anymore. I can imagine that as devices and their tolerances get smaller that simply screwing something together might actually make the device a lot more delicate. Do you know if this is the case here?

Kiboneu• 4 years ago

I've repaired / modded non-iphones that bind display / covers with adhesive. Both broke them in various ways the process and saved them later.

Using screwdrivers to pry will very likely crack the screen and if that's the only tool available, one ought to wait on repairs the right tools are available. Using a screwdriver would otherwise introduce scratches / chips in the areas you'd insert / slide it through. One has to use a material that's softer than the contact material and non-abrasive. It also requires a lot of patience, but it pays off. I don't really know if that's knowledge someone can get in under 30 minutes of internet research, but if it is, I don't expect that onus to fall on a manufacturer.

earthbee• 4 years ago

Or they and other phone manufacturers could just stop building phones that are purposefully difficult to disassemble or repair.

iosjunkie• 4 years ago

Or consumers could stop buying phones that can’t be easily disassembled or repaired.

PragmaticPulp9• 4 years ago

Apple isn’t making these design choices to inhibit repairs.

The advanced sealing techniques are used for real benefits like water resistance and reduced size, which are a much bigger priority for the average consumer than being able to replace batteries at home.

ornornor3• 4 years ago

You have to admit that requiring 79 lbs of equipment, a 1200$ deposit, and so much effort just to swap a friggin’ battery is a tad overkill and exactly what is wrong with the current state of self repairs. Never mind the DRM on the battery so that the phone won’t recognize even a genuine battery as genuine without involving the 3PL to marry the parts together…

It shouldn’t be so complicated. If it makes the phone one mm thicker but you can swap the battery easily without requiring all this equipment, why aren’t we there yet?

I can (with a bit of a stretch) understand why they would not accept just any OEM part, but making extra difficult to even use an Apple bruine battery with the rest of the Apple hardware, that’s also very unnecessarily self repair hostile.

PragmaticPulp9• 4 years ago

You have to admit that requiring 79 lbs of equipment, a 1200$ deposit, and so much effort just to swap a friggin’ battery is a tad overkill

You know people were swapping batteries long before this was available, right? And that you don’t have to rent the official factory tools?

Apple did a great thing by providing this option at a loss to themselves. The fact that people are rushing to criticize the move suggests more that people like to find reasons to complain about everything.

It’s surreal to read HN threads where people are floating ideas about making laws to prevent companies from designing better hardware products just because they want to replace batteries with a screwdriver. I guarantee if you put a screwdriver-repairable phone and a modern iPhone in front of average consumers, 99% or more would choose the modern iPhone without a second question. The obsession with easy battery replacement seems limited to a very narrow set of people while the rest of the population has moved on to appreciate the benefits of modern sealed phones such as impressive resistance to water damage.

Nextgrid14• 4 years ago

It shouldn’t be so complicated.

It's not - it's Apple's way of scaring people away from repair.

These tools most likely make it more convenient if you have to open hundreds of phones per day, but for a one-off repair you can get away with a hair dryer and cheap iFixit tools just fine.

lr1970• 4 years ago

It shouldn’t be so complicated. If it makes the phone one mm thicker but you can swap the battery easily without requiring all this equipment, why aren’t we there yet?

Because a non-replaceable battery is a great marketing tool. Dying battery (every three years or sooner) is a powerful force making a customer consider their options including buying a new phone. This alone makes companies design their products deliberately introducing friction to the repair process (even if it their own repair process). Marketing allure is just too tempting to pass by.

mmcnl3• 4 years ago

It's not complicated.

- Go to an Apple Store and have them replace it for you. - Go to a third party repair store at your own risk - Do it yourself in the official Apple recommended way

I'm not sure what people want. It used to be easier until the iPhone 6S, starting from the iPhone 7 in 2017 Apple started gluing the screens to make them waterproof. That's the complicating part. I'm pretty sure 99% of the customers would rather have the phone to be waterproof then easier to repair.

Apple can't win here it seems.

Nextgrid14• 4 years ago

The problem is that Apple intentionally insists that this is the only way to do a repair to scare people away from it - and the media seems to be lapping it up pretty well and spreading it - I wish the article called out their BS right away.

If I had a full-time repair operation going, I'd probably get those tools too. But for a single repair, I can open one with a hair dryer and 20 bucks of iFixit tools faster than it takes to unpack all that kit.

PragmaticPulp9• 4 years ago

The problem is that Apple intentionally insists that this is the only way to do a repair to scare people away from it

As they should.

If Apple had instead shipped batteries with instructions for pure DIY repair, we’d be reading an article about “I tried to replace my iPhone battery but I destroyed my iPhone in the process”

And if Apple redesigned the iPhone to be bigger so it could have a separate battery compartment with screw and a big old gasket so users could swap batteries, we’d be reading an article titled “Apple ruins new iPhone design for a feature you don’t need”

Apple did a great thing with this program. That fact that journalists and HN commenters are getting worked up into a frenzy to complain about it is disappointing.

It’s also telling they many people here haven’t worked on car repairs in detail. It’s standard practice for manufacturers to cite specific manufacturer tools as required in the repair manual and want you to pay hundreds or thousands to buy them. And it’s standard practice for DIYers to improvise around it (at their own risk) or purchase cheaper aftermarket custom tools. It would be great news if they offered subsidized tool rental programs like Apple for the repairs.

This whole article and the rage around it is beyond silly.

0daystock2• 4 years ago

Of course they can win, by designing hardware with replaceable components. This is something my 20 year old Thinkpad has figured out, and many other user-friendly products before it.

sokoloff11• 4 years ago

Here’s the video showing how to disassemble a modern Thinkpad to replace the battery. You might notice that it looks a fair bit like the video to replace the battery on a modern phone: https://youtu.be/lpMGVM8lPTU&t=1m10s

(Also interesting that it doesn't appear that Lenovo even sells the battery [though several 3rd party suppliers do]: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/d/compatibilityfinder?accessory... )

MereInterest2• 4 years ago

Apple has a very easy way to win here. If they take repairability into account while designing phones, such that repairs can be made using commonly available tools, then this entire situation can be avoided. This is especially the case for parts that have predictable degradation over time, such as batteries.

If Apple backs itself into a corner, it doesn't get to complain about having no longer having reasonable options remaining.

tinus_hn4• 4 years ago

If it was this simple, the other manufacturers would be doing this. But it is not this simple. If the device can open easily using basic tools, it can’t be thin, light and waterproof.

But anyway, I didn’t hear Apple ‘complaining about having no longer having reasonable options remaining’. I heard you complaining about Apple providing the tools and parts required to repair their phones.

mizzao• 4 years ago

That box of tools reminds me of the engineering teardown of the Juicero: https://blog.bolt.io/juicero/

Teever4• 4 years ago

Sympathy for Apple or not, the issue is that this proposed solution by Apple obviously isn't scalable.

So if the solution the problem isn't scalable, is it really a solution?

And if Apple, a company renowned for their uncanny ability to identify novel, game-changing solutions to problems produces this as their 'solution' can you honestly say that they gave it their all on this one?

Apple can't win here if they don't try.

nneonneo• 4 years ago

They’ll get to find out if it’s scalable with this iteration of their repair program. It’s quite likely that only a small fraction of people will be interested in self-service repair, but if that assumption turns out to be false Apple would have to design another iteration of the process to improve accessibility.

pcmoney• 4 years ago

Its the verge, its a joke now. They have one article lately and its “tech company bad”.

They basically pander to people who want to think they know about tech but aren’t in tech and likely couldn’t make it in tech. Feels like a bunch of bitterness and copium. I just ignore them now but miss their old good tech coverage.

dudeinjapan• 4 years ago

Totally agree. If Apple is paying to ship everything and the kitchen sink both ways, then cool! I have repaired of my iPhones for myself, friends, and family with the dinky $50 kits you can get on Amazon, and man I'd love to have the "one-armed bandit" shown in the article. (Imagine the look of horror on my dad's face when after sealing up his iPhone and testing it I said "Wow, I actually managed not to brick it this time!")

For better or worse, Apple clearly didn't design the iPhone with consumer repairability in mind. We can debate to what degree this is intentional evil vs. design/cost necessity, but at least its cool that they're shipping their repair workbench as bulk as it may be.

raverbashing• 4 years ago

Completely agree

They got two suitcases of top of the line tools for iPhone repair. Make use of it

kurupt213• 4 years ago

I think apple did win, and the author is manufacturing outrage. Apple loaned him a professional setup to repair his phone. That is completely in line with the Apple customer experience, and gives insight into why they resisted home repair so long.

Apple doesn’t take shortcuts on their hardware. They have a design/experience expectation. Flimsy tools, eyeballing alignment, cheap 3rd party replacement parts. These are all things that significantly increase the likely of degraded quality/experience after a layperson’s self repair.

I think there’s a healthy medium somewhere, but for now, apple expects home repair to done at the same level of service they would do. I’d rather error on the side of quality and robustness myself.

Stevvo• 4 years ago

Did you even read the article? The author doesn't complaint about the tools other than the $1200 you will loose if you don't return them within 7 days. Your comment comes across as more disingenuous.

phpisthebest• 4 years ago

>Apple can’t win here

They could by providing open access to parts and tools to independent shops

The "Self Repair" seems to be designed to still be purposely hostile to repair while still "allowing" repair so they can claim they are satisfying the "letter of the law" when it comes to Right to Repair legalization that is going to be passed in many jurisdictions, they are getting out ahead of this right now.

Instead of just allowing a Repair shop to order up 10 Screens, and 10 batteries, owners have to register their repair, then "activate" the repair with Apple, all while using these expensive and time consuming tools that most people will simply not want to do.

IMO this is not Apple changing their tune on repairability, this is Apple being passive aggressive in the face of Right to Repair

perryizgr8• 4 years ago

Apple can’t win here.

They can, very easily. Just don't be hostile to your users when designing the phone. Look at Nokia circa 2005.

mrcartmeneses• 4 years ago

There’s also very little chance that those tools cost only $1200. If they were knockoffs from China then maybe, but just the two pelican cases can cost as much as that depending on the model

thenthenthen• 4 years ago

Uh these machines come straight from shenzhen

TaylorAlexander3• 4 years ago

I view this differently. This article is documenting a process people are surely curious about. But the costly deposit and multiple heavy pelican cases of supplies show just how deep the hole Apple has dug for themselves really is. Apple is so anti-repair they have no provisions for a reasonable at home process. You must realize that a $1200 deposit alone means this process is out of reach of many people.

Meanwhile I recently pulled all my old smartphones from a storage bin and the rear cover pops right off, revealing a battery which comes out with no effort. There’s even an affordance for your finger nail to catch the edge of the rectangular cell. Obviously newer phones are waterproof and arguably more durable, but Apple has gone so far towards a factory sealed design as to require absurd equipment to do a proper job.

What this all makes me wonder is: what would this all be like if Apple had never dismissed user replaceable batteries? If they had just as many years of engineering behind a removable back cover as they do with high resolution screens and custom processors? How many billions have they spent on this and that improvement, and what would the phone look like today if some of that had gone to making a phone not destined for the landfill?

To me, the size and cost of their DIY repair kit is a monument to how far from repair Apple has strayed. Fortunately I suspect that if they stick with user serviceable batteries, the process will be a whole lot simpler once they’ve really put some engineering effort in to it.

sokoloff11• 4 years ago

You have a storage bin holding old smartphones with readily replaceable batteries.

That suggests to me that readily replaceable batteries isn't anywhere near the entire story in terms of keeping phones out the landfill (or in your case, a storage bin).

madeofpalk• 4 years ago

show just how deep the hole Apple has dug for themselves really is

I guess it shows this hole to the public, but Apple's know this the whole time. They scale out in-store iPhone repair to 500 stores around the world where they have low-paid retail workers performing the repairs.

js2• 4 years ago

It's a trade-off. I am someone who repairs my own stuff. I've repaired my fridge, my dishwasher, my oven, my microwave, my garage door openers, my 1998 Jeep Cherokee, and on and on. 99% of people do NOT do this.

I've replaced the batteries in multiple first generation iPhone SEs.

I'll never replace a battery again in an iPhone, nor do I ever desire too. The phones have become too hard to open, but in return, Apple offers battery replacement for a reasonable charge and a modern iPhone is nearly water proof, more durable, more compact, and with better battery life than ever.

For a portable device like a phone, I'm happy with the trade-off, and I think the market shows that most consumers are too. The trade-off for a laptop is less clear to me, but nor is replacing the battery in a Macbook as hard as replacing it in an iPhone.

The things that really drive me crazy though are devices that don't need to be sealed that are. Homepods, Sonos speakers, previous generation Apple chargers with hardwired cords, those sorts of things.

I just had to order an entire new Vitamix S-series blade base for $75 that I could repair myself if they’d sell me just the rubber seals and a couple bearings — And I probably don’t even need the bearings from them since they look like standard 8mmx22mmx7mm skate wheel bearings, but who knows, maybe theirs are food safe.

https://www.vitamix.com/us/en_us/shop/s-series-blade-base

($75 is probably even a fair price. It’s just the principle of the matter.)

Anyway, I feel about this article as wfhordie does. It's not just descriptive of the process, which would be fine. It's filled with snark, and doesn't acknowledge the trade-offs in manufacturing a more easy to repair device. Engineering is always trafe-offs. Shame on The Verge.

arcticbull• 4 years ago

They don't force you into the tools, the deposit or anything else - they offer you parts at the same prices they offer to third-party service providers and Apple stores. They even offer you credit for returning the old parts. If have your own iFixit kit, the only thing you're on the hook for is parts cost.

Access to the tools for what is likely at-cost shipping prices seems like an above-and-beyond thing to me that the right to repair folks weren't even asking for.

bostonsre• 4 years ago

I guess I could go either way on this. It seems possible apple is being genuine and they just optimized for a sleek design and repairability wasn't a concern because they didn't need to support at home repairs before. This could just be the first iteration of supporting repairability and maybe they will make design decisions to make it easier in the future. Or.. They could be dragging their feet and they are trying to make it as laborious and tedious as possible to avoid needing to put too much effort into supporting at home repairs. I guess they could also just be trying to open up a new market and sell fancy iPhone repair products.

spookthesunset2• 4 years ago

How can you have a user accessible door to remove the battery while still being at least somewhat thin and water resistant?

I’m sure there are ways but I would probably significantly increase the BOM costs. For example some kind of waterproof battery that connects to a waterproof jack.

That will you the battery but cracked screens and stuff? Those pretty much have to be a pain in the ass to keep the cost, weight and watertight-ness up to spec.

simonh• 4 years ago

There have been constant complaints that Apple doesn’t make its repair and maintenance equipment and parts available for others to use. Now that they do, it turns out they use extremely high quality professional tools to do near-factory quality work. So fine, here you are, you can get all the exact same stuff Apple uses. You win.

bonestamp2• 4 years ago

Apple is so anti-repair they have no provisions for a reasonable at home process.

Just because they don't prioritize their designs for at home repair, doesn't mean they're anti-repair. Clearly they're not anti-repair if they're voluntarily making their tooling available for repairs.

I can't really blame them for prioritizing design over repairability. At least for now, repairability doesn't sell a lot of phones -- the number of people who want to repair their own phone is so small, and I say that as someone who has repaired a couple iPhones in the past.

pilsetnieks3• 4 years ago

Obviously newer phones are waterproof and arguably more durable, but Apple has gone so far towards a factory sealed design as to require absurd equipment to do a proper job.

I'm not too familiar with the matter but wouldn't other manufacturers' waterproof phones have a similar construction to enable said waterproofness?

seanp2k2• 4 years ago

Probably wouldn’t be that hard either to waterproof and seal everything, then have waterproof batteries and battery connectors that were splash-resistant with recommended removal + drying for a day if they do get wet.

hatware5• 4 years ago

Does he actually want to repair his phone? It doesn’t seem like it.

Does Apple really want to support right to repair?

Or is this some baked-in-irony workaround that lets them legally _say_ they allow anyone to repair their phones, while offering what is the least consumer centric service I have ever seen from a company of this caliber.

I think you missed the point of the article, which is to show how ridiculous this process is on the whole.

cycomanic5• 4 years ago

I would have somewhat agree with you except for the point that you have to give apple freaking remote access to the phone because the replacement battery shows up as nongenuine. That right there tells me that apple is trying to make the process as painful as possible.

Animats3• 4 years ago

By the way. The tools this guy used are common, dead-common in China. Go to any repair mall in Shenzhen and you’ll see hundreds of these.

This is an issue with hobbyist electronics projects in the US. The US hobbyist market is still using 1970s packaging technology - 0.10 inch pin spacing, solderless proto boards, and through-hole parts. I designed a hobbyist board that was all surface mount. Smallest parts were 0.5mm pitch. Although a few people built it, I got a lot of complaints. Surface mount is beyond most American hobbyists. Even though 0.10 inch through-hole is obsolete commercially, and modern parts come in surface mount only.

That said, Apple's aesthetic inherently makes things hard to open. Glass on both sides and minimal bezel is what Apple fans pay for. It forces a heat and suction disassembly process, which requires proper tooling to do right.

Sirened3• 4 years ago

This was quite a wakeup call for me too. I was always into hobby electronics but a couple of years ago I got into multicopters. A _lot_ of parts were these tiny SMDs. I remember having to figure out how to attach FETs and even (once) a little BGA microprocessor. It was a very steep learning curve and nobody else in the hobby scene here had really done anything with it, so it was a lot of trial and error. Industry has moved on, there are so many things now that are practically out of reach for hobbyists nowadays :/

gambiting2• 4 years ago

I completely disagree with you. I think the author is right - requiring people to put a $1200 deposit down to rent some tools and sending them 40kg of stuff just to replace the battery is insane and clearly done to discourage repairs, the fact that you have to call their specialists to validate the battery at the end is just a cherry on top of this rotten cake - it's just done to stave off legislators ruling that apple must make their hardware more repairable. It's a token effort at best.

thetinguy3• 4 years ago

You can buy just the battery and supply your own equipment (or do it by hand).

leokennis• 4 years ago

If you read the article, the 40kg of equipment are clearly needed to do the repair.

So now you’re demanding Apple ships you a light bundle of small tools that do the same as that 40kg of tools or otherwise it’s just a “token effort”?

Or you want Apple to design a phone that you could safely repair using only a few small tools? That’s fine too. In that case I’ll just sit here waiting for all the bitching from HN about their new repairable iPhone that is prone to water damage, has shit battery life and creaks when you hold it.

lovich• 4 years ago

Are they dead common for consumers? I wouldn’t be surprised that business owner tooling they needed to run, that’s outside the budget for most consumers

wfhordie3• 4 years ago

Yes, dead common for consumers, but consumers don’t really buy them because there are places that do the repairs so cheaply everywhere.

zouhair• 4 years ago

Apple can’t win here.

This assumes iPhones just happen to be the way they are. The need of this extravagant display is because of how iPhones were engineered in the first place.

They were engineered to be hard to repair, that's the whole point.

Apple and any other company need to stop making products that are hard to repair, they need to be forced to do so otherwise they will most likely never do it willingly.

wfhordie3• 4 years ago

They were engineered to be hard to repair, that's the whole point.

This doesn’t make sense for two reasons.

(1)Apple is on the hook to repair iPhones under AppleCare+ warranties. This means “engineering for hard to repair” goes against their own interests.

(2) The fellows in Shenzhen, Guangzho, Shanghai, and Hong Kong have no problem repairing all kinds of damage to iPhones for <$20 USD. So if Apple is designing these to be difficult to repair it they are doing a terrible job.

ksec3• 4 years ago

Apple can’t win here

I would argue in their views they did. Apple did the calculation and understand people who actually want to repair their phone are not even a rounding error in their ~1.1B Active iPhone users. Showcasing their Professional Tools to the press, making it sound difficult is precisely how the public could justify the $69 Battery swap. And this article did precisely that.

Right to Repair folks might view this as bad press for Apple. I think Apple's PR knew exactly what they are getting into.

herf• 4 years ago

Does this also mean the independent shops can get the official kit for $1200?

lupire5• 4 years ago

This is clearly a professional repair kit, to be used at a local shop or maker space.

And now that the devices are available to the public, anyone can use the ideas in them to develop less fancy alternatives.

Maybe it's time to accept that a tiny powerful computer, radio, camera, and display is worth the base price plus $50 for and extended 3 more years of use?

danrl• 4 years ago

Professional tools to get the job done, like they are used in any halfway decent repair shop.

The author seems to confuse right to repair with sloppy, microwave-utilizing home repairs using a $20 kit from ebay.

What a badly faithed clickbait article. Expected more from The Verge.

dwighttk2• 4 years ago

Agreed with you until the last sentence. The Verge has great writing right alongside clickbait. It is just a coin flip.

randallsquared• 4 years ago

I'm actually surprised that this kit costs only $1200. Seems low for a bunch of very specialized tools and a presumably very small production run.

lpcvoid• 4 years ago

This is absolutely awesome. I don't see why the author is so upset here. They are giving you all the tools you need to do a quality job. I normally don't like Apple, but this is amazing.

ynniv3• 4 years ago

Do you want it to be certified waterproof, or do you want it to be easy to open? When they were easy to open, a blue moisture indicator meant your warranty was void. Now you can fetch it from the bottom of the pool and still get AppleCare to replace that scratched screen. As another thread pointed out, this is a kit for independent repair shops. Right to Repair has always been about supporting local specialty shops. The Verge is putting on a show for attention.

aeyes• 4 years ago

As another thread pointed out, this is a kit for independent repair shops.

I disagree. Officially you can only rent the tools, you can't buy them. Yes there is a $1200 deposit if the tools don't make it back but that doesn't mean that Apple won't come after you if you don't ship them back on purpose.

ynniv3• 4 years ago

Sure, the "individual self-service" program doesn't officially have a purchase option. There are other programs that are part of the same initiative though:

In the past three years, Apple has nearly doubled the number of service locations with access to Apple genuine parts, tools, and training, including more than 2,800 Independent Repair Providers.

sigmar• 4 years ago

As another thread pointed out, this is a kit for independent repair shops.

Nope, this "Self-Service Repair" program is explicitly for Apple customers and not repair shops. "For customers with experience in the complexities of repairing electronic devices, we created the Self Service Repair program" You can see tables comparing "Self-Service Repair" to "Independent Repair Providers " and "Apple Authorized Service Providers" in their press releases on this topic. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/04/apples-self-service-r...

causality0• 4 years ago

Apple also provides a set of fancy torque drivers to make sure you don’t screw down the phone’s tiny screws too tightly, but it’s a bit of a chore. I must have dropped Apple’s incredibly tiny fasteners a dozen times

My God this guy is insufferable. You asked for professional tools, you got professional tools. Between this and the How to Build a PC video I'm beginning to wonder if the Verge staff rode the short bus to school.

can16358p• 4 years ago

It is a device that every millimeter-cube counts so it's highly optimized in many ways and packagef tightly, well, because of battery life competition (to fit more battery at every bit).

Now Apple has been obliged to provide repair tools, and they are simply providing what they probably provide to authorized repair shops, and people are still complaining.

What's wrong with that? It's not a device that's designed to have it's battery replaced by the user anyway, and if you really want to, this is the kit. Simple as that.

It's impossible to make some people happy these days.

doodlebugging• 4 years ago

A part of me doesn't agree with the author that Apple's main goal is to make it so difficult for people to repair their own devices that most people just buy another phone.

Personally, I do a lot of DIY things and have always preferred to have the best quality tools for the jobs. I own several vehicles, none of which have under 100k miles on the odometer, and I do 95% of maintenance on them all. They range in age from 47 years to 7 years so I need to understand old-school mechanical things and new electronic-controlled things and as a result I look for tools that simplify troubleshooting and parts replacement.

I build with wood and metal too and am familiar with carpentry and cabinet building, stick frame construction, welding and cutting various metals, and finishing the resulting constructions so that they last a long time. All of this requires tools made specifically for the task. I am currently rebuilding a fireplace and hearth and refacing it with slate and basalt so I don't need to stare at all that ugly 70's brick.

I also dink around with everything that fails in an effort to understand what happened and whether it is an easy fix or it is time for a new gizmo. I have repaired our refrigerator, our dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer, and a number of small appliances. My usual method is to disassemble the device and troubleshoot until I find the failure point. I use online videos and manuals, blog and forum posts, etc to keep me moving in the right direction.

I have also replaced the battery, hinges, and screen on a MS Surface device and a couple of telephone screens. For this work I used iFixit as a resource and everything went smoothly as a result.

I still use my Windows Phone because it is a great phone and it still works, though that will end later this year when the 3G networks are removed from service, so I will likely end up with an iPhone.

So far I have not needed to replace an iPhone screen or battery on any of my family devices, but if I end up needing to do this in the future I am pretty sure that I would just go through the process that the author documents since he was able to accomplish the task with no serious issues. That's the actual goal here.

The fact that a user is able to employ exactly the same tools Apple uses without having to buy those tools and the entire procedure is documented with photos and concise descriptions of operations is a huge plus. I don't have time to examine every device or gadget that glitches or fails in an effort to guesstimate what I think needs to happen to make it work correctly.

I think this is a bargain for those of us who are inclined to repair our own devices.

turbinerneiter10• 4 years ago

Reading this article and the comments here makes me quite sad.

1. The repair kit described here is not mandatory for anyone to rent to be able to buy the parts. You can just buy the parts alone and use whatever tools you want. If you attempt your own repair, you should use the simple ifixit style tools, and understand the higher risk of damage you are taking.

2. The kit described in the article seems very decent for any kind of independent repair shop. They will probably already have pretty much the same setup.

3. Right to repair is about access to documentation and parts. Nobody epects anyone to make it easy for the user to replace 512 pin BGA part. Right to repair does not mean that it should be easy to repair something, just that there shouldn't be artificial obstacles and that there should be supply of documentation and parts.

4. Repairability is still an important topic and with discussing, but it is a separate issue from right to repair. E.g. I think phone makers could make replacing batteries much easier and that it would be a much smaller design compromise than some people like to claim. But that is a different topic from the baseline of right to repair.

To me this seems like Apple has a good basic right to repair offering both for individuals and independent shops. This article is bad for the right to repair movement, because it doesn't understand what it is asking for.

Parts. Documentation. No artificial obstacles.

Wowfunhappy2• 4 years ago

The repair kit described here is not mandatory for anyone to rent to be able to buy the parts.

Is this the case? Is Apple allowing people to just buy the parts separately, or do they make you get the whole kit?

turbinerneiter10• 4 years ago

https://selfservicerepair.com/order

I can't go through the whole order process because I don't have an iPhone IMEI, but to me it looks like you can just buy the parts you need.

btbuildem• 4 years ago

Agreed. The one part of this repair that Apple seems to have made purposely difficult is that you have to call them and "register" or whatever your new battery to your device. They hold the keys and refuse to activate the new part for any reason.

turbinerneiter10• 4 years ago

On this topic I'm leaning towards that this is ok for them to do, although I think it is unnecessary and a reason I would rather buy a competitors procust, that doesn't have this requirement.

mattnewton• 4 years ago

Weird thing to care about for a battery I agree, I suspect this scheme was designed for things like camera or touchid replacement that had security implications, and is now just used for all parts possible to do so, regardless of the possibility of attack.

stjohnswarts• 4 years ago

to #3 I think most people want to easily swap out their screen and batteries and maybe usb/lightning port. Those are the parts that usually wear out. I doubt any expects to swap out the BGA and RAM other than maybe a professional tech who wants to do it for bragging rights.

hatware5• 4 years ago

I think you have grossly underestimated how propaganda against right to repair legislation has colored your perception.

That is what's sad. We used to fully own the devices we buy, now look at us.

turbinerneiter10• 4 years ago

I think my perspective is pretty good, thanks.

kllrnohj7• 4 years ago

No artificial obstacles.

There are 2 such artificial obstacles in fact. The first is you can only buy parts if you provide a serial number for the device in question, preventing things like repair shops from having a stock of batteries on hand. For self repair, it also complicates the "help a friend out with a replacement" flow.

The second is the software lockout. Even though you provide the serial number at time of ordering, the battery still comes up as being unauthorized after it's first installed and things like face unlock refuse to work, despite the battery playing no role in security. You then need to call a number and go through a process to get that battery remotely authorized.

Both of those extremely artificial limitations are completely bullshit moves on Apple's part.

blakesley• 4 years ago

I like what you tried to do here, but then you got to #3. It's bizarre to me that you feel this process of Apple's constitutes "no artificial obstacles". Phone & laptop batteries used to be easy to replace. A few models still have this feature. It's not a hardware problem, it's a business decision. This process of Apple's is following the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law.

777Blooms• 4 years ago

Is there any good solution to this? An easily repairable phone that is also waterproof?

Terretta• 4 years ago

ITT, “technologists” who don’t understand “normals”.

The most important line in the article:

I’d never successfully repaired a phone — and my wife has never let me live down the one time I broke her Samsung Galaxy while using a hair dryer to replace the screen.

Every crack and snide remark about Apple’s motivations, both in the article and in this thread, pretend that remark doesn’t describe almost everyone. It’s certainly the most plausible explanation and motivation for every aspect the author ascribes as bad intent by someone trying to help him do a good job when he doesn’t want to do a good job.

It’s not just phone batteries, it’s spark plugs, compressors … nobody knows how to repair anything … and they generally don’t want to. They (a) don’t want to think about it when it works, and then (b) don’t want to have to do anything when it doesn’t.

Apple’s process was built for normals. Their designs make the devices inconceivably reliable relative to the past, and then they take responsibility to deal with those choices at the repair step. Regardless what normals say if you poll them, that’s what normals actually want.

annoyingnoob• 4 years ago

This creates a small market for an after-market repair kit. The things you need for the repair do not need to cost $1200.

My family of 5 has more than 5 devices, it could make sense to just buy the tools. I'm also the kind of person that likes to do repairs, so others ask me for help too.

sandworm101• 4 years ago

Ok 79lbs is big, but those two pelican cases together should account for about 1/3 to 1/2 of that total.

VLM• 4 years ago

The bigger the company the more the friction in simple business operations.

Its the nature of the beast, not a specific problem in this situation.

Many a time I've ordered, perhaps, one socket, from digikey overnight to repair something, and it arrives in a giant box with multiple layers of anti-static packaging and styro peanuts, all a huge ecological waste but someone at corporate got 100% on his "anti-static key performance goal" and nobody from shipping got in trouble for delivering bent pins.

On the other hand you order from an individual in China using Ali-Express and he chucks a microwave synthesizer board in an envelope, no packing material, no anti-static, just a tyvek bag and a prayer, and five weeks later it arrives looking like the dragged it behind the boat the whole way, but amazingly it works fine.

Usually small businesses selling on Amazon are a happy medium of doing stuff reasonably and reliably.

sircastor• 4 years ago

I repaired my washing machine this last week. An unbalanced load had caused some sort of break on one of the wire harness connectors.

I found what I thought was the problem, I bought the service manual off a third party site, and found a replacement wire harness on eBay. It was a bit of work, but after getting it all finished, I ran the self-diagnostics and calibration, and we’re washing clothes again.

I feel like the article is pretty disingenuous, but never really gets to the point of what right to repair is. It’s being able to get the components you need - not just modules. It’s about flexibility in how you care for your property (including its future). It’s about honesty of what really needs to be fixed/replaced/addressed.

phoehne• 4 years ago

Please keep in mind that my comments come from someone who bought a Framework laptop precisely because of their right to repair stand. I've also experimented with alternate phones like the Pine Phone, looking for something that could be more open. However, like many criticisms of Apple's phone, this one is also largely bogus.

This person wants a phone that's less than 8mm thick, with a high resolution screen, high quality camera, holes for speakers, a hole for a charger, smooth and tight tolerances all the way around, etc., that can mostly be taken under-water. (I regularly forget I have my iPhone in my pocket when I get in the pool and never once put it in a bed of rice.). Then it's surprising that it has to be fixed or disassembled with machinery to ensure that it correctly seals, doesn't break, bend, or warp during disassembly or assembly? Or that maybe it requires some degree of training to develop the confidence to use correctly?

Could Apple design a phone that can be repaired at home with a hair dryer, plastic spudger, gasket kit, and a set of jeweler's screw drivers? Could Apple design a phone with an easily replaceable battery? Could it work with any PoS battery you order off Ali express because the Chinese knock-offs on Amazon are too expensive? Absolutely. It just wouldn't be 7mm this, largely water tight, non-exploding, etc. etc. And wouldn't be supported by the manufacturer for 5+ years. You would have something like my Pine phone. I can do anything I want to my Pine phone and that's what makes it cool. It's just not my "daily driver."

I like my iPhone. After learning how to make some of my own electronic stuff I recognize the engineering that goes into it a little better. I'll continue to use my Xr until Apple stops updating it, which based on their track record, will likely be around 2024. At that point I'll get an iPhone whatever. I'm hoping it's sealed even tighter, better screen, camera, etc. The USB-C would be nice, but not anything that I stress over. In fact, it would be nice if it were even more sealed up by only wireless charging.

ineedasername• 4 years ago

I know the 70lb of equipment seems extreme here, but the push to make phones smaller, lighter, water tight, etc. means there's no easy way around thale problem of getting these phones open.

If people were given general instructed about a heatgun and given wedges and such to pry up the screen... It would be a disaster. I don't think you can make sleek flag ship phones the way customers want without making their repair somewhat specialized and requiring specialized precision tools.

Of course the way Apple has done all this doesn't show a real commitment to right-to-repair. Of course they just want people to buy a new device, or at least pay a premium for Apple repair. But what would real commitment to right to repair look like? Probably replacement parts that aren't sold for a profit (I suppose a reasonable markup is fine) but also not requiring genuine parts. A car warranty isn't invalid if you use non manufacturer parts. Apple could publish specs and have a reasonable certification process for parts providers. They could still sell the full toolkits to anyone who wants to buy them so repair shops would have access to purpose-built tools to make their own repairs more reliable. I'm sure there's more they could do too.

They aren't really committed to this, but I think people have to recognize that device repair especially for flagships is no longer reasonably within reach for end user consumers withoitnrelevant experience. The best google-fu in the world isn't going to fill in for a lack of specialized tools and experience when a small mistake means a failed repair and broken phone.

kappuchino2• 4 years ago

Interesting how the discussion weighted to the tools part where the real kicker is: You have to greenlight the battery online. Seriously, none of you is bothered by this?

99_002• 4 years ago

I liked the article.

Is there a browser plug-in that filters out snark?

grumple• 4 years ago

So many comments here seem to miss the point. It should not (and in fact, does not) require these massive, industrial tools to safely replace a battery, which 100% of phones will need to replace if they aren't otherwise damaged. You do need some tools, but you don't need those tools.

Worse than that, the tools that the writer received seemed to be both more difficult to use AND worse at the job than the $25 battery replacement kits you can find on Amazon. It's not like these tools made it a breeze, it's still just as difficult as using a cheap kit. But the cheap kit costs $25 for the battery and reusable tools, while this setup costs $118 and puts a $1200 hold on your card. If a brute like me can repair a phone with a $25 kit, anybody can.

This seems like malicious compliance by Apple. You have the "right to repair" your phone, but at huge cost and risk.

m3kw9• 4 years ago

It tells me there is so much precision to minimize size and fill any air gap that you need such things to service it.

robomartin• 4 years ago

People who understand manufacturing will think this is great.

Those who do not will think this is excessive, if not ridiculous.

It's a matter of having the sufficient context. If I was interested in repairing my iPhone this is precisely the toolset I would want to have in front of me. No question about it. This is the kind of tooling you need for process-controlled disassembly and reassembly. Regardless of what you are doing, there's nothing better than using the right tool for the job. It can make a massive difference in outcomes.

I found a video showing their use. As someone who has designed a lot of production tooling over the last thirty years, I appreciate the purpose and design of the tools Apple is shipping. To beat the message to death: The right tool for the job ensures success.

I can understand how this can look from the perspective of those with no experience in manufacturing, yields and reliability. I get it. This is likely precisely the tools Apple uses to repair your phone when they do it. They have to because they need to ensure the repair process delivers reliable products.

Coincidentally, we had an interesting experience this past week. One of my kids dropped his Android phone and cracked the screen. My wife, against my objections, decided to take it to one of those repair shops at the mall. Well, $130 later the phone's speaker didn't work and it would vibrate nonstop when you plugged it into the charger.

I decided to now go there myself with the phone and see what they would do about it. I stood there the entire time and watched this guy take the phone apart again. I never told him that I was an engineer, much less about my experience in manufacturing.

Let's put it this way: If someone in a manufacturing environment handled any kind of a device like this guy did in front of me, they would have been fired instantly. Stupid tools. Horrible process. Laughable, really, he had an ESD mat on the counter and yet he was walking around and not grounded himself. The process was not clean. He really didn't have enough knowledge to know what he was dealing with. He was using latex or nitrile gloves (not ESD gloves) and the tips of the glove index fingers were cut out so he could use his fingertips to grasp stuff. He was touching the boards indiscriminately as he did the work, not even trying to just grab from the edges as a way to mitigate potential ESD damage.

Three disassemble-reassemble cycles later (I stood there and watched the whole thing) he gave up and offered a full refund of the $130. I walked away with a phone with a cracked screen, only that now it wasn't working. It worked fine with a screen having a single crack on it, nothing wrong with it beyond that.

Of course, I went there knowing full-well that I was going to have to buy a new phone. I knew what happened before I even stepped foot in that store, it was likely ESD damage during handling.

Here's the kicker: The brand new phone from Verizon, after discounts, was $180. Better phone, brand new, next-generation and all that.

It all came down to using the wrong tools for the job and not having a clue really. Interestingly enough, while I was there a woman came into the store with a similar problem.

Oh, yeah, he also offered me a previously repaired phone "at a really good deal". Brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6u4MepcI0A

7speter• 4 years ago

If this isn't an example of malicious compliance, I don’t know what is. Apple doesn’t actually want this program to succeed so of course they are going to send 79 pound repair kits to people.

B1FF_PSUVM• 4 years ago

So, 50 bucks for renting an 80 pound workstation (worth 1200 bucks), for one week, with shipping included?

Doesn't seem bad.

the_only_law• 4 years ago

That Apple would even let me buy those parts, much less read its manuals and rent its tools

Definitely will not be trying to get my hands on these any time soon.

2OEH8eoCRo0• 4 years ago

The single most frustrating part of this process, after using Apple’s genuine parts and Apple’s genuine tools, was that my iPhone didn’t recognize the genuine battery as genuine. “Unknown Part,” flashed a warning. Apparently, that’s the case for almost all of these parts: you’re expected to dial up Apple’s third-party logistics company after the repair so they can validate the part for you. That’s a process that involves having an entirely separate computer and a Wi-Fi connection since you have to reboot your iPhone into diagnostics mode and give the company remote control. Which, of course, defeats a bunch of the reasons you’d repair your own device at home!

Yikes

antonpirker• 4 years ago

I am just flabbergasted that anyone would think of this process to change a battery as "ok". I mean batteries have a pretty short life time. And iPhones are really expensive. A LOT of resources are used to build an iPhone. And then this process for changing the battery.

The product, the battery changing process, the whole company, everything feels like it is the 1980s, it feels like a tech dinosaur.

If this is the way that most people think that things should work in 2022, than we are all doomed.

Sorry, but this makes me so sad... It is unbelievable...

zenexer3• 4 years ago

I just want to point out this gem from their agreement that covers the use of purchased—not rented—tools. Purchased. You paid the full price, you own the tools, and you agree not to use them on anything other than an Apple product. You’re the proud new owner of $300 in expensive screwdrivers that you can’t use.

From https://www.selfservicerepair.com/terms-of-use:

You agree to use the Self Service Repair Products to repair the Repaired Apple Product in a manner consistent with these terms and conditions. Self Service Repair Products are for use in the repair for which they were purchased, and may not be resold or otherwise transferred.

Ah, but maybe they only mean the replacement parts, right? Surely they wouldn’t have such a requirement if you pay $100 for a generic Wera screwdriver.

But no, it includes the tools:

Self Service Repair Parts” and “Self Service Repair Tools” are collectively referred to as “Self Service Repair Products.”

Is that even legally enforceable? I suspect it’s not. If I buy a generic screwdriver, it’s mine. It doesn’t have DRM, and I will do with it as I please. If I want to use it to repair an Android phone, I will. If I want to sell it on eBay or lend it to my neighbor, who’s going to stop me?

dathinab• 4 years ago

resold or otherwise transferred

how is that even legal

that's just absurd

exabrial• 4 years ago

Just another reminder Apple is not a green company

chadlavi• 4 years ago

... you can also just ship them your very light phone to replace the battery for you. That's what they used to make you do.

nunez2• 4 years ago

honestly it's really cool that apple lets you rent technician-grade equipment with the same repair manuals for $49. i don't see anything wrong with a hold; people would just steal the gear if they didn't have the hold. much better than depending on how well someone can follow an ifixit tutorial with el-cheapo amazon parts

stuntkite• 4 years ago

This kit and tools are awesome. This guy is a knob.

sizzle• 4 years ago

What happens if you keep the tools and sweet pelican case!

tehwebguy• 4 years ago

This is cool as hell and I now want to replace my battery just to play with all this gear.

fillipvt• 4 years ago

This is interesting.

If anything, with this I've learned that companies like Framework have a huge advantage. If that space ever manages to create a 'fixable' phone a-la Framework laptop, it's gonna work on so many levels for so many different people and regulators.

SixDouble5321• 4 years ago

Louis Rossman replied to this article in a humorous fashion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vhCaFW5xTk

Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

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