Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/05/18/but-her-emails.html
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At times one simply can only shake your head and wonder what the f%*k is the world coming to.
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Toyota is “Big Car”?
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passing Right to Repair legislation would turn the state into a “Mecca for bad actors.”
Scott Baio?
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“… a mecca for bad actors…”
Nebraska would become the Sci-fi Channel?
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If I understand Apple’s position, lithium ion batteries can be very dangerous, and they don’t want someone else’s shoddy repair to cause their devices to catch fire and kill customers and trigger lawsuits.
I sympathize with that position while at the same time rejecting it’s conclusion (“no 3rd party parts/repair”).
You could allow 3rd party repair by voiding the warranty if 3rd party repair or parts are used (no big deal, if the unit was under warranty you would do a warranty repair, right?), and forcing a liability suit to prove that the 3rd party part and any 3rd party repair didn’t cause the harm. Also kick in any “product X damaged Y” statements must also disclose any 3rd party parts, modifications, or repairs or be treated as libel/slander.
That is an appropriate remedy, not “you can’t repair stuff because you might hurt yourself!” (and I admit, it doesn’t give Apple everything they are looking for, if you assume they don’t actually want to profit off the repairs (I don’t think that is treated as a profit center at Apple, it is a customer service function, and happy customers are a strong goal for Apple); it still lets a bad 3rd party repair/part kill Apple customers, but it does force stories about it to actually be “bob’s battery repair shop made this guy’s new iPhone catch fire! Could it happen to your iPhone‽”)
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Is “Big Car”, like cup-board, going to turn into something indistinguishable from “bicker”?
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Lexmark? Is there any point in trying to repair their printers?
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My guess is it’s highly likely GM, Ford, and Chrysler are in on this as well. The Mass. motor vehicle right to repair law saw heavy lobbying efforts from all of the automakers. They got their butts kicked too- the ballot initiative was as big of a blowout as you get, 86% in favor.
I remember some of the ‘scare’ ads, man they were ridiculous.
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Note that in the last few months, Apple has actually made moves to change their stance on third-party repairs.
But pipe down, or Cory will compare you to Trump supporters.
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Is that not how things currently stand? AFAIK 3rd party repair has always voided a warranty, and any lawsuit against the OM has to prove negligence on the part of the OM in the first place. Any lawsuit concerning replacement parts/repair would be directed at the 3rd party responsible. The only area I think might be sticky would be if OM specifically designs for failure in response to 3rd part repair (although I’d wager that’d be a big hill to prove.)
Nevermind, of course, that everyday citizens generally don’t stand a chance in court against these giant manufacturers in the first place, unless the defect is large enough to comprise a class-action.
What is this sentence?
"It’s ironic that many of the Apple customers who cheered on the “Switch” campaign are likely gearing up to hand-wave away the hypocrisy of lobbying to make it literally illegal to switch away from Apple-supplied products, invoking the absurd claim that Apple critics are bitter hipsters who merely resent the company’s success. "
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You know what…as an apple consumer I’d be far happier if they would start making products that are upgradeable/expandable. I really don’t care if I have to bring my iMac to some store named Apple or iShop to get a new video card or hard drive put in it…just let that be a possibility in the first place!!!
(Yes, I am a little bitter that I love my dear 2010 27" iMac so much, and I am stuck with the shitty ATI 512mb gpu that is in it.)
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From the sound of things, they’ve heard this message loud-and-clear, especially from their pro customers; they’ve announced that the next-gen MacPro will be “modular and expandable” when it comes out later this year or early next. I’m deeply hoping that idea extends down to their other products as well.
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I replaced an early 2000’s G5 with my iMac. That thing had a lot of expand-ability; however, I do not think I should have to spend $3-4k to get that. Lower end products should be modular. And to be clear, really just the main components: hdd, ram, gpu, and one slot for an additional card or port of some kind. I hope you are right.
Apple’s been saying how they’ve been talking to tons of pro consumers to put together a new ‘pro machine’, which in my opinion should just be a new ‘cheese grater’ MacPro tower like the one I have. I’m still using my 2006 MacPro; it’s so easy to expand that I’ve upgraded it many times since buying it and hope to keep it running for awhile longer.
A year or so ago I poked around an Apple Store at the newest iMacs and asked about expandability, and the employee (who’d been giving me a cheerful sales pitch) cringed. “You can’t. Everything’s welded in. Even the memory.” I must have looked incredulous because they sort of nodded and rolled their eyes, as if to say, yeah, I know, wtf, right?
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More like compact, maybe sub-compact, but the 4Runner is a pretty big car.
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well…the main ram isn’t welded in. iMacs have four slots you can upgrade easy enough. But that is it.
There is even a way for me to upgrade my gpu but the process is so convoluted and the new gpu would cost so damn much, it simply isn’t worth it.
Ah…my old cheese grater. I still love it, even if it is as heavy as small car. The only reason it sits in the basement as a storage/back up server is that the G5 processor is too outdated.
Well that’s a relief, anyway. “Welded in ram” sounded absurd.
I’ve been debating whether to replace my hard drive with an SSD; I’ve heard it speeds things quite a bit, but it’s still a fairly pricey upgrade ($400+ per drive).
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Yeah, my iMac has a slot for an SSD in it sitting empty…but between that and the outrageous price of an upgraded gpu, plus might as well get a new HDD in there while I am at it…then the hassle of taking the entire thing apart to do all this and hoping beyond hope that I don’t screw anything up in the process, plus the cost of the bottle of good bourbon I will most likely consume while doing it…
Its cheaper to just buy a new iMac.
