Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/04/06/watch-scotty-buys-spare-parts.html
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Now I only have to get an iPhone! 
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inconceivable!
[sent from my iPhone]
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How does this work economically? Being him I mean.
Looks like a pretty expensive hobby. Are the youtube views themselves enough to monetize what he’s doing?
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Why back in my day we piggy-backed RAM chips, and we liked it!
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OH man, Apple HATES this man for doing this one little thing…
I’d be on the watch out for ex-Mossad agents or something…
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Why does he buy a Windows machine?
Surely Parallels or VMware would do the trick.
No VM or compatibility layer ever has the full hardware-level compatibility/functionality of a true install of the same OS. It really is that simple.
That said, a dual/multi-boot system with Windows would work fine, assuming you have the storage space for it.
Huh? The ROM flash machine he bought connects via USB to a Windows box and has some Windows configuation program. Parallels/VMware easily handles this.
No VM or compatibility layer ever has the full hardware-level compatibility/functionality of a true install of the same OS. It really is that simple.
That said, a dual/multi-boot system with Windows would work fine, assuming you have the storage space for it.
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I’m guessing he enjoys it enough so that even if the YouTube doesn’t cover the costs, it’s still worthwhile to him.
Plus, it’s still an investment in building a channel and useful skills.
I’m impressed by his perseverance. It looks like the kind of thing I’ve done before–investing a bunch of time and money and hope/excitement, except that I would have given up demoralized and demotivated at some of the hurdles he ran into. I’ve got to figure out how to persevere like him.
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That’s more RAM than my laptop has. What on earth is this iPhone going to be doing?
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That was a really cool journey. I did something like that back in the day to reimage an iOpener with a real OS, and I’m proud to still have the nastygram from their lawyers to prove it. But that was super easy in comparison – the flash chip was in a holder, just epoxied in place! It’s unreal how people can pull that kind of thing off with surface mount components.
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“Memory” as refereed to here is not the same as random access memory or RAM like in your laptop.
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At some point, computers were confusing, then I thought I understood them, then they got really confusing again.
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Sloppy headline writing strikes again.
He upgraded his storage “memory”, not RAM. I really very much doubt it’s possible to upgrade the RAM on an iphone, since the RAM is integrated with the SOC into a single “chip” package, which is going to be damn hard to alter non-destructively.
Changing a phone’s storage, OTOH, is “merely” a matter of desoldering one flash memory chip module and replacing it with another module. Getting the thing formatted with the OS is probably the trickiest part (haven’t watched the video, no time).
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Because he is in the BIZNISS of sticking it to Apple with a smile. It was fun to watch. That Xiaomi store was such a rip-off! Amazing.
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First - neat hack.
But - Apple doesn’t care, not really. $100 price differential, but the new chip is $25, leaving $75, and when you look at paying a reasonable per-hour rate for a skilled person, and work in a reasonable estimate of failure rates… there’s no margin in it, except maybe in shenzhen where the parts are readily available and labor is cheap. Oh - and no more warranty, ha ha.
This could well be like Casino card counters - people think they hate them, but the Casinos only hate the ones who are good at it. The vast majority who try aren’t good and end up losing money. Ditto these upgrades - the $100 “loss” is offset by driving more usage of their product, and selling replacement bits to the suckers who kill their stuff accidentally.
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Except this hack didn’t require buying a new iPhone, which is WAY more than $100 (unsubsidized). Apple also will not perform this upgrade for you at any price.
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And that’s the kicker, but if your local phone shack starts doing it for $60-$100 Apple may have to start thinking about it.
Then again, Apple could just upgrade the OS to look for nonstandard chips and brick those phones citing, “security concerns.”
Ya, this is one of those “about the journey” things. I expect he is aware of other approaches, this was an interesting sidetrip to enhance the video with. I Don’t watch his videos for technical skill development; as he points out, there are better options for that. He is a very entertaining personality, imo, and has some great content. The thief’s market video, for one. This “iphone memory” at 500K view right now, should compensate him for the costs incurred, plus plus…
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He had some good info. Practicing at length to perfect his technique, using a microscope, paying attention to details, getting the right equipment, using coins to suck excess heat, the kapton tape, the dry runs with the talking chip reader, etc, etc. It was great to watch his process. I kept thinking, what is all this going to be like in 50 years?
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