Following heavy criticism regarding anti-repair practices on the iPhone 13 lineup, Apple has just announced its Self Service Repair program. The company shared earlier that it wouldn’t be disabling Face ID after third-party screen repairs, after online outrage. The Cupertino giant is now taking an unexpected step further and making repairs easily accessible to individuals.
In a newsroom post, Apple has stated that iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 users will be able to order genuine spare parts and tools to repair their own iPhones. The move is unprecedented by Apple, but it’s most definitely a welcome one that will help dodge anti-trust lawsuits.
Clearly, without lawsuits and pressure groups, this would never have changed. Whilst I really love some of what Apple does (very long software update cycles, the best health smartwatch, etc) there is also a lot I really dislike (a crippled Shortcuts app, iCloud web apps that lack features, Photos is dismal compared to Google Photos, etc). So this is yet another incremental improvement (like widgets, 3rd party keyboards and browsers, copy-and-paste, etc that eventually arrived).
See https://www.xda-developers.com/apple-now-lets-you-repair-your-own-iphone/
#technology #righttorepair #iphone #DIY
what about third-party repair?
The glued together, incredibly hard to disassemble, everything proprietary iPhone. Yeah no this isn’t nearly enough.
Too true… but for many manufacturers and that needs to change. I’d rather have a phone 2 mm thicker if I can replace the battery etc. But even my Nexus 6P had to be opened with a heat gun to get everything out to change the battery.
Removable batteries (without tools) and screw-based assembly need to be legally mandated. If you can’t make a device that’s both sleek and repairable, then you can’t make it sleek.
Yes I’d gladly sacrifice an extra 1 or 2 mm thickness for that. We’d lose waterproofness I suppose but I’ve really neve rhad to make use of that.
