Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/08/08/apple-discourages-iphone-self.html
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Our family no longer purchases anything manufactured by Apple, it’s all shit. Case in hand, my Mac Book Pro is 2 years old and constantly mal-fuck-tions, that iPhone POS is gone too.
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I think of this kind of thing every time people bring up the idea that Apple is always about outstanding or elegant design.
Good design is something that works without having to replace it for superficial or completely artificial reasons.
I’ll use any tool that works, but if a manufacturer designs something to have a life-use lower than possible, solely for profit, I don’t think they deserve any extra respect for design.
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And what exactly is Apple supposed to do about this? The third party batteries lack the required reporting, that’s that. Moving the chip isn’t going to produce a proper result because it will think it’s the old battery, not a new one.
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Hmmmmm…
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Apple is charging $69 for an out-of-warranty X series battery replacement.
iFixit charges $85 for an iPhone XS battery replacement kit or $50 for an X replacement kit (I didn’t see an XR battery listed), and then it probably won’t be IP67 water resistant.
QED: Apple is evil?
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Yes Evil!!! Evil evil evil.
Well on the one hand the evil bit is punishing those who want to repair.
The mitigation is offering the service at a reasonable price. The next battery replacement I will seriously consider paying them. However I do not like the direction they keep heading on repairs.
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This is what happens when the soul and founder of the company dies.
IANTC*, but I don’t know that this is the sole reason. “Control” (in the sense of quality, reliability, consistency) of the customer experience is often a big reason Apple does what it does.
I don’t mean to claim its always “right” or justifiable or not frustrating. But I think just calling this out as money grubbing is being a bit reductive.
- (I Am Not Tim Cook)
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I can immediately think of a number of old and new examples of bad design and low quality parts. Apple’s “improved customer experience” isn’t false but a lot of it is fictitious PR talk
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The branding doesn’t matter because counterfeiting is so common and also because Apple doesn’t sell batteries. Phone-to-phone battery transfers like iFixit did are not common.
The more likely explanation is that it’s a security concern. These batteries aren’t just dumb Duracells, they are computers themselves and may have privileged access to the phone. What the Apple technician probably has to do is some type of key transfer.
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Apple’s battery replacement prices can go up at any time, without notice when Apple thinks they can get away with it. So, yeah, Apple is the bad guy by fighting against right to repair and deliberately sabotaging legitimate 3d party consumables replacement.
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Woz isn’t dead, Jobs had no soul and was a scumbag.
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I’m talking about actively thwarting user-replaceable power sources.
Bricking otherwise functioning hardware isn’t improving reliability, it’s cutting off use, and shortening the use-life on non-recyclable materials. They’re cutting off more customer satisfaction than they’re “serving”.
Apple has clearly pushed their line of physical products to be both more expensive and disposable and shorter-lived. Forcing unnecessary replacements is hard-wired into their current business model. I don’t think there’s any serious question about this.
I like a lot of their products, but I don’t trust them to work as long as tools that aren’t actively designed to brick themselves faster than unplanned obsolescence.
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Do you think a corporation in the US is at a net disadvantage against the average consumer? I’m pretty sure most corporate law is pretty heavily weighted to the “The company is indemnified from claims with end-user modifications.”
This seems like a tenth or eleventh-level motivation for not designing something to have a long lifespan, if at all. Most companies treat the spectre of tenth-year lawsuits they way they treat climate change concerns, as someone else’s problem.
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When I think of Apple product lifetimes, I also think of the European Waste Hierarchy.
preventing and reducing waste generation.
Reuse and preparation for reuse
giving the products a second life before they become waste.
any recovery operation by which waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the original or other purposes. It includes composting and it does not include incineration.
some waste incineration based on a political non-scientific formula[ citation needed ] that upgrades the less inefficient incinerators.
processes to dispose of waste be it landfilling, incineration, pyrolisis, gasification and other finalist solutions.
Apple skip prevention, make reuse as hard as possible and hype their recycling, ignoring that it is the middle step of five.
Apple are far from the only company to do this kind of greenwashing, but they are one of the few that have an army of stans waiting to defend them no matter what.
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I still travel to the datacenter with a 2011 Macbook air. My mom uses her iPhone 6 from 2014, and my daily work laptop is a 2015 13" MBP. My iPad is a 1st generation ipad pro. I have 0 need to update any of these devices.
Whom, exactly, am I supposed to be getting hardware from with this sort of usable lifespan? Because I can say unequivocally that prior to my owning of apple products, I was replacing my blackberry at least yearly because the clickwheel would break, my thinkpad because the hinge failed or the clickpad button broke, and even if they hadn’t, I’d have been hard-pressed to get OS support for them after 5 years or so.
I have a 2019 15" MBP arriving in a few weeks (thanks, day job). I ordered it in spite of suggestions that doing so was a horrible idea since they are obviously so chintzy and prone to fail. Ask me in four years when I go to replace it what I thought of my choice, I guess, but my own personal history suggests I will still be quite happy with it.
Which is sort of the point here. People have been complaining about quality for what, decades now? I used to run into Sysadmins who would “never” buy a Seagate drive again, or WD, or Hitatchi (nee IBM) because of a “bad batch”. Or Tyan motherboards. Or 3com switches. Take your pick. We are highly affected by our own personal experiences, and as time has shown, there have indeed been lemons, but IMHO generally speaking, computing devices are maintaining their useful lives far longer than they were a decide ago. Partly due to the lack of spinning disk and better industrial design. Partly due to vastly more powerful components. Partly due to lengthening software support.
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You, uh, don’t suppose Apple’s already done XYZ and 123 to cover their asses against off label use? C’mon! Yeah, they could get taken to court. Then again, so can anyone or any company at any time…for anything. I’m really sick of hearing about the “over litigious culture of the US”, which is utter BS when it’s consumer vs. corporation.
In case you happen to be an iPhone user, following is the limitation of liability extracted from the ToS that you agree to extend to Apple (my oh my, it appears iPhone users are quite generous in these here terms and conditions!). Any judge in his/her right mind would no doubt bring at least the following to the court’s attention if some goofball decided to “sue the shit” out of Apple for some BS scenario such as you imagine.
- Limitation of Liability. TO THE EXTENT NOT PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL APPLE, ITS AFFILIATES, AGENTS OR PRINCIPALS BE LIABLE FOR PERSONAL INJURY, OR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, CORRUPTION OR LOSS OF DATA, FAILURE TO TRANSMIT OR RECEIVE ANY DATA (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION COURSE INSTRUCTIONS, ASSIGNMENTS AND MATERIALS), BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES OR LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE iOS SOFTWARE AND SERVICES OR ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE OR APPLICATIONS IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE iOS SOFTWARE OR SERVICES, HOWEVER CAUSED, REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY (CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE) AND EVEN IF APPLE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR PERSONAL INJURY, OR OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THIS LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. In no event shall Apple’s total liability to you for all damages (other than as may be required by applicable law in cases involving personal injury) exceed the amount of two hundred and fifty dollars (U.S.$250.00). The foregoing limitations will apply even if the above stated remedy fails of its essential purpose.
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May your RNGs be good and much long life to all your equipment, seriously and without irony.
This isn’t a Pepsi/Coke thing. All tech companies are guilty of designing some part of their products to die an avoidable death.
Don’t get me wrong, Apple makes a lot of features longer-lasting than others. There is undeniable quality in a lot of their material choices.
I’m just talking about those areas they don’t live up to the standards they set in other areas, and otherwise serviceable hardware ends up landfill-ed or needlessly replaced. Basically, the specific kind of intentionally-designed product fails that produced this thread.
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Apple isnt interested in making unlimited profits! They do this to protect the consumer!
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