Apple Emails Reveal Internal Debate on Right to Repair - iFixit:
The emails show the high profile of Right to Repair inside Apple as leaders debate how to respond to a request for comment on an upcoming column. "The piece is using [Senator] Warren's new right to repair for agriculture to talk about the broader right to repair effort and plans to use Apple as a symbol in that fight. We're meeting with everyone shortly about the overall strategy and then I'll connect with [Greg 'Joz' Joswiak]." The email goes on, "Appelbaum has, of course, talked with iFixIt [sic] and others." They're right about that!
The conversation resulted in a set of talking points that Kaiann Drance, VP of Marketing, talked through with Appelbaum. Afterwards, Apple PR wrote, "Kaiann did a great job and emphasized the need for a thoughtful approach to repair policy because of how important it is to balance customer safety with access to more convenient repairs."
Apple was less convincing than they hoped. The editorial, carrying the weight of the Times' entire Editorial Board, came out forcefully in favor of Right to Repair. Of Apple specifically, the Times remarked, "The company is welcome to persuade people to patronize its own repair facilities, or to buy new iPhones. But there ought to be a law against forcing the issue."
See, also: Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @05:44PM (3 children)
Anyone want to summarize the Louis Rossmann video?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @07:56PM
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @08:04PM (1 child)
OK...
Engineer: We can make iPhones repairable.
Tim Cook: Fuck you, you're fired.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Monday August 03 2020, @10:29PM
Yep, basically. It's important to always remember who's signing your paycheck, and not get on their bad side. If you're fundamentally opposed to your employer's basic philosophy, you should start looking for a new job. Making iPhones repairable is fundamentally against the Apple worldview and philosophy.
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Monday August 03 2020, @05:48PM (2 children)
If you don't have a right to repair, then why should you have a right to peacefully assemble? [congress.gov]
Is there a chemotherapy treatment for excessively low blood alcohol level?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @06:04PM
http://archive.is/jeZvO [archive.is]
Lasers and glass bottles of peace
(Score: 3, Funny) by shortscreen on Monday August 03 2020, @10:06PM
"The DRAM of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the code of hackers and tyrants."
-Thomas Jefferson
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 03 2020, @07:01PM (17 children)
Apple is going to fight 'right to repair' just as long as the profits outweigh the bad publicity. When PR begins to hurt profits, they will bow to the inevitable. With this story in mind, it seems they are prepared to do that bowing sometime in the not-distant future, maybe even the near future.
Others who are fighting 'right to repair' laws simply will not bow to the inevitable. Some will fight to the bitter end, and damn any bad PR that comes of it.
I'm not about to call Apple a "good guy", but obviously, they are less bad than others in some respects.
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Monday August 03 2020, @07:08PM (8 children)
"Less Bad", is that the new way to say "Good Enough"? Or is one of them better than the other?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 03 2020, @07:26PM (7 children)
In this case, I think "good enough" is better than "less bad". Apple is not "good enough" for me to put my hard-earned money down.
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday August 03 2020, @07:37PM (6 children)
But degrees of "bad" still remain relevant for some purpose?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 03 2020, @07:53PM (2 children)
Yes - compare John Deere to Apple's apparent position. John Deere offers no compromise, nothing. They'll take five year's projected earnings of a farm family for a tractor, then abandon that family when the tractor breaks down. At least Apple is only taking a couple weeks to a couple months earnings from most people.
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Monday August 03 2020, @09:25PM
That's not really true. Apple charges whatever the market will bear, and what maximizes their profit, which is the same as John Deere. Deere's products are simply, by their nature, much more expensive, and the market can bear much higher prices (or else competitors would be selling similar products for a fraction of the cost). Apple would lose too many customers if they quadrupled their iPhone prices, which would lower their profit, so they don't do it. But make no mistake: if Apple could get people to pay a year's salary for an iPhone, they'd happily do so.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday August 03 2020, @10:07PM
Presumably both John Deere and Apple will do what huge corporations do when profits are threatened, and write legislation protecting themselves then paying to have it passed.
The best government money can buy.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Immerman on Monday August 03 2020, @09:29PM (2 children)
Saints and unicorns are hard to come by - everything else is some degree of bad. The real world is one long string of compromises stretching from cradle to grave.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday August 03 2020, @10:53PM (1 child)
:-) Maybe the grave to cradle part will rehabilitate them
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday August 03 2020, @11:29PM
I'm sure _this_ year will be the one where it finally happens.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @08:17PM (6 children)
Apple will make the iPhone on one chip. The display, battery, and electronics will all be one entire non-serviceable chunk of silicone in a replaceable plastic shell.
Apple will say it's an improvement...
Apples way of saying F-You!
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday August 03 2020, @09:06PM (4 children)
I'm, almost, surprised that ain't a thing no more. Some manufacturers used to just fill them (any device, box, etc) with epoxy so that you really couldn't reasonably do any repair or fixes to things unless you wanted to excavate to epoxy cube first. It was fairly common on the old Commodore PSU:s. I'm sure things have come some ways in chemical research so there is probably an even better epoxy, or similar, now if they wanted to do it again. Not like it would really add that much weight to something like a phone either. Some might even prefer it if the unit was just a little bit heavier. They might even get away with calling it a shock-absorber if it could be in some more solid gel form or similar. I'm sure the idiots would buy that.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @09:15PM
Fords first electronic ignition module was a 6"x6"x3" aluminum box with a circuit board and was filled with a gritty silicone that wasn't easy to remove without destroying the electronics. The next generation used a single thick film chip and was the size of a flashdrive. You can bet your grannies panties that future devices will be throw away un-serviceable.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Grishnakh on Monday August 03 2020, @09:20PM (2 children)
Yes, that's called "potting" or "encapsulation", and is usually some type of epoxy compound. It's still done for things like military hardware (think electronics inside missiles), because it makes the device more resistant to g-forces. It's not normally done because it's expensive, and also because it's bad for thermal characteristics (the encapsulant is an insulator, which is bad when your circuit has a 1+ GHz microprocessor). Also, it is possible to use a solvent to dissolve the epoxy. Electronics today are very cost-sensitive unlike the 60s-80s, so something that adds $0.25 to the BOM and isn't really necessary isn't going to be done. It doesn't help that potting takes extra time (labor charges), plus curing time which can be hours to days. No modern manufacturer wants to have products coming off an assembly line and then having to sit in a room for a day before it can be tested and packaged.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday August 03 2020, @09:29PM (1 child)
I knew there was a name for it, I just couldn't recall it. Thank you.
That said I still wonder why they would bother doing it to a PSU. It's not like it's secret tech or something that can't be figured out how it works and what is in the box. My best guess was that it had something to do with heat conductivity at the PSU was always on (the power switch was on the machine and not the PSU; that changed in the later revisions for the Amiga compared to the earlier C64:s) or that they just wanted it to be heavier (the later models that wasn't potted was very light since it was more or less just a plastic cube with very little inside).
That said since it was always on in essence as long as it was plugged in they had this nasty tendency to eventually just burn out which was kind of interesting as once you got the box open and you could see where it had turned black and sometimes little bubbles as if it had more or less boiled and burned.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday August 03 2020, @10:35PM
They probably had a nasty tendency to burn out *because* they were potted. That makes it harder for heat to dissipate. If you're worried about heat build-up, the *last* thing you want to do is pot your electronics. You only do it because of some other consideration, usually shock resistance. Perhaps they did it because they were worried about people dropping the PSUs.
The power switch being on the machine doesn't really matter; it's not hard to add another small wire back to the PSU for the remote power switch to work and still keep most of the electronics turned off, though since this is a 1980s machine, it's most likely they had some kind of transformer-based power supply inside, and usually those have the transistor always connected to mains on one side, unless a heavy-duty power switch is used to disconnect it. Since you say the later models weren't potted, that tells me they finally realized that it was causing more problems than it solved; I'll bet the later models didn't burn out as often.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Tuesday August 04 2020, @03:56AM
And if it retails for $1.98 I might consider buying one.
Might.
If it's on a good enough special.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday August 04 2020, @05:02PM
I don't think publicity is the major factor.
I think it might be more like this:
Apple is going to fight 'right to repair' just as long as it is more profitable to do so than any fines, penalties, etc.
Is there a chemotherapy treatment for excessively low blood alcohol level?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @07:03PM (3 children)
"Kaiann did a great job and emphasized the need for a thoughtful approach to repair policy because of how important it is to balance customer safety with access to more convenient repairs."
you think anyone is dumb enough to believe your disgusting "safety" bullshit? be glad i'm not in charge. i'd make you walk the plank.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 03 2020, @07:28PM
Is there an election? I'll vote for you!! I've never seen anyone walk the plank. That was the whole reason I joined the Navy all those years ago. I wanted to see someone walk the plank, and I also wanted to see someone get keelhauled. Never happened. :^(
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 03 2020, @09:57PM
The correct term is iSheepleware.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday August 04 2020, @02:08AM
I saw that bit of lame fearmongering too. Note how vaguely it was put. No mention of any specifics, certainly not any threats. The unknown is scarier.
And, safety for whom and what? Not us! It's safety of their profits, that's what! Microsoft has been pulling that one for decades, trying to propagandize DRM as a safety feature for the users. It's an insult to our intelligence that they expect people to swallow that one.
To hear these sellers of walled garden access tell it, cyberspace is swarming with shady hackers ready to infect your computer. That the default setting is to allow all kinds access and skimp on real safety measures somehow goes unmentioned. Their lockdown, forced obsolescence, and takeback crap has done me more harm than any virus ever has. I can imagine Hal 9000 saying "I'm sorry Dave, it would be unsafe."