Citation?
I had a 1991 SAAB that used Torx screws pretty much exclusively, and the bits/drivers were readily available back then. Granted they were much larger than the microscopic ones Apple uses, but they also long predated Apple’s black box era or even the era of slim sleek electronics. Heck, it would be another two years before the first Newton came out.
Not gonna dig for it.
I’m specifically talking about the security screws apple and others have used in their products for years. You need a special bit.
Torx security screws are NOT the same as standard Torx screws. They have a bump in the center of the star pattern.
If you mean Pentalobe then yeah, I think they might have invented that pattern themselves. Tri-wing was an existing standard but is still fairly rare.
According to this article, Apple was using a proprietary patented 5-point Torx pattern (normal Torx is 6) which made it illegal to buy drivers from anyone but Apple, who wouldn’t sell them to you. So there’s the citation.
@GoatCheezInfrno I wasn’t talking about security Torx, but since you brought it up: That’s also an existing unencumbered standard. You see it used in a lot of public bathroom stalls.
Well, the island I’m next door to, in BC, has a population of around 750k, and as of a couple of years ago I was still told to go to the mainland to repair an ipod screen. Four hours’ travel? Nah.
I sense a disturbance in the force fanbase…
Well, it
a) makes more sense to try and repair a $$$$ iThingy than a $$ non-iThingy
b) Apple has great form on this
I’m not surprised, but I am baffled by the thought of somehow fitting both those two and their egos in the same room.
From a 1986 book on the Macintosh
Of course, opening up a Macintosh involved getting next to high voltage circuits.
fast and secure:How much proof is tamperproof?
Unlike the one-way, slotted style, other tamperproof designs are meant to be taken out occasionally. Unfortunately, there’s not much control anymore over distribution of the driver bits for designs like the Torx tamperproof screws, Friedman said, so they go only as far as making vandalism inconvenient. In Australia and New Zealand, the Torx design is virtually unmarketable as a tamper-resistant fastener because its drivers are everywhere.
For the Torx Plus tamper-resistant design, maker Textron went with a plan for tight distribution of driver tools, according to Tim McGuire, director of application engineering for Textron Fastening Systems in the Americas. The drivers can be purchased only by original equipment manufacturers and authorized service personnel. The company also replaced the nominal six-point Torx Plus socket with a five-point design, since the Torx Plus sockets were designed to be removable by the original Torx bits when a correct Plus bit was unavailable. Naturally, any six-lobed Torx tamperproof bit would have been able to take out the tamperproof Plus screws if that design had not gone to five lobes, McGuire explained
It’s how high security lock companies can promise “key control”-- the lock manufacturer uses its patents to maintain a legal monopoly on the blanks, and locksmiths who don’t sign contracts that restrict who they may make keys for can’t buy the blanks.
Torx was merely obscure, rather than limited to authorized manufacturers, though.
Oh man basic component repair on a Dell or Lenovo business class machine is so fucking nice. Basically if you don’t need to replace the screen or motherboard you can access it all with minimal fuss unlike my consumer grade where I need to take off the entire top casing to get to the drive.
Yeah, my favorite are those ones where you tug on the battery latches in the wrong direction and the whole bottom lid comes off. Who thought that up - brilliant!
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