Leaked Apple Training Videos Show How It Undermines Third-Party Repair:
Leaked training videos Apple made for its authorized repair partners show how the company trains repair technicians to undermine third party companies and talk customers into buying more expensive first party repairs.
[...] The training videos are meant to help Apple’s certified repair stores navigate a world where customers can get replacement parts far cheaper than what Apple charges for basic repairs. For years, Apple has made it harder for independent repair stores to fix phones, nudging customers to go to Apple stores instead. In response, there's been a rising right-to-repair movement that wants to make it easier for people to repair their own stuff.
Andrey Shumeyko, a member of a community of Apple enthusiasts that seek, publicize, and trade any kind of information that Apple would like to keep under wraps, sent the eight videos with Motherboard. The videos are not public, as they are only intended for Apple store employees and authorized independent repair technicians (these are called Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASP). Shumeyko said the videos were stored on an Apple platform, where a bug allowed him to access them without having to provide a login.
AASP launched in 2016 as a way for some independent stores to make basic repairs to Apple devices. AASP stores must open their stores to unannounced audits by Apple, and face a mountain of restrictions on what they can and can’t fix.
[...] Fixing your own stuff or having an independent store do it can be much cheaper than going directly to Apple. Contrary to what Apple said in the training videos, the parts are often exactly the same. Factories will often overproduce Apple parts like screens then sell the excess to independent vendors. If color calibration is off or the light doesn’t get quite as bright as it did before, it’s often because Apple has software locks and calibration profiles it could release to make repairs easier but refuses to.
Every video in the training series is aimed at boosting the morale of Apple’s AASPs and training them to convince customers to spend more when they could spend less.
"As someone who works as an Apple Authorized repair technician, I see on a daily basis how many devices the manufacturer claims are unrepairable but that third party repair shops have shown time and again that they can solve, letting people recover precious documents and memories that, because of manufacturer restrictions, I am not allowed to help with,” an AASP told Motherboard on the condition we keep them anonymous because they fear retaliation from Apple.
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The shareholder fight that forced Apple's hand on repair rights
Wednesday morning, Apple announced that the company will soon make parts and repair manuals available to the general public, reversing years of restrictive repair policies. The new policy represents a seismic shift for a company that has fought independent repair for years by restricting access to parts, manuals, and diagnostic tools, designing products that are difficult to fix, and lobbying against laws that would enshrine the right to repair.
But Apple didn't change its policy out of the goodness of its heart. The announcement follows months of growing pressure from repair activists and regulators — and its timing seems deliberate, considering a shareholder resolution environmental advocates filed with the company in September asking Apple to re-evaluate its stance on independent repair. Wednesday is a key deadline in the fight over the resolution, with advocates poised to bring the issue to the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve.
Apple spokesperson Nick Leahy told The Verge that the program "has been in development for well over a year," describing it as "the next step in increasing customer access to Apple genuine parts, tools, and manuals." Leahy declined to say whether the timing of the announcement was influenced by shareholder pressure.
Apple makes parts and manuals available to all (15m35s Louis Rossmann video)
See also: Apple makes a concession to 'right to repair' movement, will let you repair your own iPhone
Opinion: Another Apple PR fail as company waits until forced to act over Right to Repair
Apple gives in on right-to-repair
Apple Folds to Right to Repair Movement – Will Allow Customers to Perform iPhone, Mac Repairs From 2022
Previously: Apple Sued an Independent iPhone Repair Shop Owner and Lost
Apple Exports Independent Repair Provider Program to Europe and Canada
Apple, Microsoft, and Google Team Up to Block Right to Repair Laws
Apple and John Deere Shareholder Resolutions Demand They Explain Their Bad Repair Policies
Leaked Apple Training Videos Show How it Undermines Third-Party Repair
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Opportunist on Friday September 24 2021, @06:28AM (6 children)
Not trying to defend Apple, but I kinda don't really think that's terribly uncommon, where a corporation trains its support dealers to convince customers to stay with the brand instead of going to third party dealerships?
I'd be surprised if there weren't similar training videos for various licensed car repair shops.
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Friday September 24 2021, @07:46AM
Proprietary is the way to go. You make more money.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Friday September 24 2021, @12:48PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @07:01PM (3 children)
Apple's leaked training videos are TELLING THE TRUTH; this isn't news to anyone!
Louis Rossmann
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B18NhlBSjQc [youtube.com]
I guess the point he is making is that, when it comes to screen repairs, letting Apple fix it is less risky than using a third party repair shop.
He kinda goes into saying that, way back when, this wasn't the case because you were able to replace a broken screen with an exact OEM replacement. Then vendors like Apple started making identical OEM screens unavailable and so you now have to buy less reliable knock-offs that have issues. There are less expensive, less reliable, knock-offs and more expensive, more reliable, knock-offs but, compared to an OEM replacement, they're less reliable. It would be up to the repair shop to warranty the replacement but it would be better if vendors didn't go out of their way to make it more difficult to find OEM replacement parts because this incurs additional costs and risks upon the vendors.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @07:14PM (1 child)
As a side note, also worth mentioning is that, with some iPads like the iPad mini 4 the thing is glued together. So taking it apart is risky and also trying to put it back may require trying to glue it back and this can be difficult and if you can even get it glued back sometimes the screen would look weird and have various issues and sometimes it may fall back apart and become unglued like a week or a month or a few months or even a year later.
Someone I know dropped their iPad mini 4 and the power button is stuck inside and doesn't work and so when I asked a few people/called a few local repair shops at least that's what they told me.
That's ridiculous and is probably done intentionally just to make you buy a new one. Then these companies claim to care about the environment, roflol.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @07:32PM
(also re-gluing it requires removing the original glue first and re-gluing something is never the same is what I was told).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 24 2021, @07:17PM
because this incurs additional costs and risks upon the repair shops *
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Subsentient on Friday September 24 2021, @08:53AM (14 children)
In other words, water is wet. Apple is an evil empire, and there's good reason that I don't own any Apple products.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Friday September 24 2021, @02:07PM (13 children)
I'm cheap and when my father-in-law offered a free phone. I'm not looking the gift horse in the mouth. Unless I'm going with something like the PinePhone, I can expect to be royally screwed by all parties.
Just make sure to read the fine print, because that sucker is a enthusiast project.
https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-beta-edition-with-convergence-package/ [pine64.com]
Also:
Interesting specs and price:
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday September 25 2021, @02:54AM (12 children)
So anyone got any experience with a PinePhone?
I like Plasma; I don't care for Android and I really dislike iOS, and $200 is about the max I can justify for a phone (I don't use a phone for much beyond calls). And I like their keyboard dock idea (instant netbook). So it's intriguing, but I'd rather not be the guinea pig.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Tuesday September 28 2021, @02:40PM (1 child)
It's essentially, one giant experiment. It's about the only choice you have, if you don't want your data to be directly siphoned by Google/Apple. There are other options, but they tend to be non-smartphone options. $200 isn't a bad price. There's just not much of a warranty. Thus, in the event that you do have trouble, you are going to be stuck spending $$ or $$$ to fix/replace.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday September 28 2021, @03:16PM
Yeah, the lack of warranty is kind of off-putting if you can't afford to drop $200 like that. But I sure like the idea. Just not seeing a lot of people with experience using 'em yet.
Agreed on the data siphoning. I use a flip phone for everyday, dumb as a rock but it makes calls just fine. Anything else, I've got a perfectly good desktop, and I don't need it that portable.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Thursday September 30 2021, @12:29AM (9 children)
Pinephone is interesting, especially because I'm about to need a new phone soon for forced-upgrade reasons.
I have some interoperability questions.
There are a few apps I use in Android.
Facebook Lite (the allegedly minimal version of Facebook chat)
Google Calendar.
I do need to be interoperable with these. I don't need to run the actual Android apps the new Pinephone, but I do need something that will interoperate with others that use them (especially my family members), is easy to launch, and is capable of notifying me when something is up.
Ideally, also, the covid contact detecting app, and Quebec's covid vaccination certificate.
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday September 30 2021, @12:43AM (3 children)
There exist Android emulators for linux -- no idea if they'd work on the PinePhone incarnation of Manjaro, but might be something to look into.
https://fossbytes.com/best-android-emulators-linux/ [fossbytes.com]
https://anbox.io/#collapse7 [anbox.io]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Thursday September 30 2021, @01:10AM (2 children)
Well, an Android emulator on Linux is better than a Linux emulator on Android,
but I was hoping for some more direct interoperability with just the apps I use.
And do these emulators have access to the app store?
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday September 30 2021, @01:25AM
Evidently you are not the first with this question (I have no idea):
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=can+android+emulators+access+google+store&t=h_&ia=web [duckduckgo.com]
Apparently the Store is preinstalled on some emulators, so there's a good start.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday September 30 2021, @04:01AM
And by sheer coincidence....
https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20210927#news [distrowatch.com]
"People who would like to be able to run Android applications on a GNU/Linux platform received good news recently. The Waydroid project is developing container-based software which allows a desktop Linux system to run an Android-compatible environment based on LineageOS. "Waydroid uses Linux namespaces (user, pid, uts, net, mount, ipc) to run a full Android system in a container and provide Android applications on any GNU/Linux-based platform. The Android inside the container has direct access to needed hardware. The Android runtime environment ships with a minimal customized Android system image based on LineageOS. The used image is currently based on Android 10." Waydroid is currently available pre-packaged for some distributions such as Ubuntu. It requires a Wayland session to run and Python 3 to be available on the host system. "
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday October 01 2021, @01:48PM (4 children)
And I just got reminded that this independent phone also exists, tho the price is outta my league:
https://shop.puri.sm/shop/librem-5/ [shop.puri.sm]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Saturday October 02 2021, @07:19PM (3 children)
I know of that one. It likely has the same compatibility problems, but it's built with faster, possibly more reliable and larger, and definitely more expensive hardware.
But I already have a very good laptop from Purism, and I am unable to replace the battery (which now has a lifetime of about one minute). Works fine when still plugged in to the mains.
Yes, they sell replacement batteries at a reasonable price. No, there is some regulation that prohibits them shipping a battery outside the USA unless they ship it with a phone or computer. I live outside the USA.
I suppose phones and laptops computers need to have batteries, so I suppose that's why you can ship a battery with a computer -- a loophole in the no-ship-batteries rule? Anyway it's clear that if I buy another computer form them, they can ship me an extra battery.
Not clear if I want to spend that kind of money.
There needs to be some way around this.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday October 02 2021, @07:55PM (2 children)
Good to hear the hardware is quality, but that battery problem ... I suppose the way around it is find a friend to buy and ship you the battery, complete with some discarded laptop if necessary to fulfill any regulatory nonsense. Tho last time I looked at international mail rates... a whole new laptop would be cheaper...
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday October 04 2021, @07:58PM (1 child)
Hadn't thought of using a discarded laptop. Now if only I had one of those ... Or my friend did.
I've written Purism to ask about sourcing those batteries in Canada. I do have the impression they use standard replaceable components, and there just might be a compatible standard battery. I'm hoping.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday October 04 2021, @08:43PM
Wishing you good luck on this. Yeah, would be nice if it were some standard component!
If all else fails... I once owned a venerable laptop whose previous owner had replaced the original battery by taking it apart and soldering in off-the-shelf rechargeable batteries. Head-scratcher to look at, but worked fine. Nowadays you can buy the proper cells, tho there's a huge disparity between Chinese (junk) and Anyone Else's (better).
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.