
Apple’s diabolical plan to screw your iPhone - kgarten
http://www.ifixit.com/blog/blog/2011/01/20/apples-diabolical-plan-to-screw-your-iphone/
======
jws
On things known and unknown:

Known: Those tiny Phillips screws are pretty, but they eat driver bits.
Realistically, you need to buy a quality #00 to get them out without damage.
$4 for a Wiha 96100 will do.[1]

Known: Customers lie when they bring a product in for service. Dropped "my
precious" in a toilet? An impending repair bill can have devastating effects
on some people's morals. Part of your iPhone cost is the three water sensors
assembled into it. You payed for those just to prevent you from lying to Apple
and fraudulently claiming a warranty replacement.

Unknown: How many customers go exploring in their device, compromise a seal or
connection, then later incur a repair? A small number to be sure, but at
Apple's scale, the extra cost of an uncommon screw is zero. (the bits for
assembly probably outlast Phillips bits, it might even save a tiny bit of
money)

Known: A quick googling shows you can buy the uncommon pentalobe driver for
$9.95 from ScrewdriversWorld, about twice the cost of a Phillips. That doesn't
seem terribly well hidden or really any kind of barrier to someone that wants
to install a $500-$1100 SSD upgrade.

Unknown: There are a number of different 5 lobed screw patterns. I'm not
positive that one I found above is the right one.

Known: iFixit[2] got a great PR boost. They have driven a small nerd herd to
their site to buy $9.95 screwdriver sets and for this they call Apple
"diabolical"? They should be sending them a fruit basket and a nice card!

[1] But you are a geek! Get the complete sets of the tiny ones including hex
and Torx.

[2] Don't get me wrong, I love these guys. Ah the evenings I've spent with the
iFixit site, an iBook with a bad inverter cable, my full set of Wiha
screwdrivers, and 24 tiny glass bowls for the beautiful tiny screws of myriad
designs from each step. The entire procedure is just slightly more complicated
than replacing Spock's brain.

~~~
vacri
"You payed for those just to prevent you from lying to Apple and fraudulently
claiming a warranty replacement."

You make it sound like Apple is an innocent little child. It swings both ways
- for every "amoral" customer you get claiming a warranty replacement, you'll
have another "moral" customer getting short shrift from Apple (or company X)
in terms of legitimate warranties not being honoured in a timely fashion or
not following up on promises. When it actually comes to needing support, a lot
of people find that Apple's slick sell doesn't flow into support - you take
your chances and sometimes it really sucks.

"$500-$1100 SSD upgrade"

That's quite a tarry brush you're carrying there. A nice 120GB 2.5" SSD is all
of $250 Australian dollars ($220 on newegg). A 240GB 2.5" drive is indeed
$500, but I couldn't find an $1100 drive (my local may just not stock them).
Regardless, you're intentionally picking the worst possible case to make your
point.

What about this situation: The bottom end mac pro comes with a 250GB drive
(and you can't get a 500GB one). Upgrading to a 500GB drive costs less than
$100 for the parts if you buy your own drive ($89 near me). Or 750GB/1TB for
$115/$185? That's a decent upgrade for you computer, and it's not ridiculously
expensive like you make out.

I don't have a problem with countermeasures like water sensors, but to defend
them by saying things like "what's the problem with buying a special
screwdriver since anyone who's going to do so is going to install the most
expensive SSD they can possibly find!" is just straight out apologism.

~~~
loewenskind
>When it actually comes to needing support, a lot of people find that Apple's
slick sell doesn't flow into support

What are you talking about? Apple support consistently scores near the top.
Have you ever dealt with Dell?

~~~
vacri
So I write a diatribe about selectively picking and choosing data points to
spin your argument and you choose to reply by doing just that?

~~~
loewenskind
Given that your "selectively picking and choosing data points to spin your
argument" was even worse ("a lot of people find..." what a nonsensical peace
of spin!), that's pretty rich.

------
stcredzero
Someone should make a hard polymer mold kit to create your own custom drivers
on the end of a Torx tip. This would be able to adapt to any screw companies
could devise, and would probably be safer from stripping the screws than
improvised drivers. It would also keep repair people from asking questions
about changed screws. Most importantly, it would defeat companies' attempts to
keep us out of our own property. These tips wouldn't be as durable, obviously,
but the typical user only needs this sort of things a few times a year.

~~~
tseabrooks
This has me wondering, Couldn't I jut use sugru to make any screwdriver head I
wanted? Or, does it now dry hard enough?

(<http://sugru.com/>)

~~~
regularfry
Sugru wouldn't set hard enough, and you'd have to leave it in place overnight
anyway. I'd go for Polymorph (called Shapelock in the US), which sets rigid in
a couple of minutes.

------
ugh
iFixit has awesome marketing and PR skills. Their teardowns are in all gadget
blogs every time Apple comes out with a new product, they know how to jump on
the right topics and they are even able to set topics (blogs already picked
the story up). Not even any topic (some companies would be happy if they could
do just that), topics which are directly relevant to their business.

Oh, and they are also an awesome company (that certainly helps, too).

~~~
funthree
The claims made are that Apple did this in part because they knew the
screwdrivers would be hard to find and/or overpriced so people wouldnt be able
to get in.

I kind of gathered the feeling there was going to be good hack to solve this,
well, the article then goes on to try and sell me that very overpriced
screwdriver

No thanks.

~~~
ugh
Meh. You can’t make everyone happy, some want to be contrarians just for the
sake of contrarianism.

------
JonnieCache
Nintendo hackers have been having to buy special screwdrivers for years, but
they weren't completely unique like these. Still, they are unusual enough that
they are commonly referred to as 'nintendo screws.'

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives#Proprietar...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives#Proprietary_head)

~~~
asb
You can also melt the end of a Bic biro and mold it to the shape - it's not
ideal, but it worked for me.

------
trotsky
I know this practice is not uncommon, but could someone explain the business
case here? Surely it doesn't seriously keep 3rd party repair shops from
working on the hardware? Is it to protect the aftermarket / 1st party
replacement parts business, in that consumers can't order something on ebay
and do the replacement themselves? Is this really a significant enough revenue
stream to these companies to justify the abuse?

~~~
tptacek
Apple probably doesn't see it as "abuse" when they use proprietary fasteners
for components that cannot be unfastened without violating their warranty, nor
are they likely to see it as "abuse" when they prevent unrelated third parties
from selling Apple customers services that can only be performed by violating
the warranty.

You see it as abuse, and I understand why, but from the perspective of a
multi-billion-dollar business, this is not dissimilar from the people who
think all non-GPL software is also abuse.

~~~
trotsky
Fair enough, but what I was really wondering was what they get out of it.
Obviously they have to go through some real hurdles in designing testing and
revving the fasteners and manufacturing and distributing the tools. Why do
they need to "prevent" people from voiding their warranties as opposed to just
detecting it via marker paint or such?

~~~
protomyth
From a support point of view (now that they run their own stores with people
to repair stuff), it cuts down on the "I know what I'm doing" guy incidents.
If you are competent enough to locate and buy the proper screwdrivers, you
probably won't destroy anything. Everyone else will just take the thing in for
repair.

I am currently at a college and our PC Techs tend to get some interesting
problems with PC's brought in by people who tried to repair them. It is kinda
ugly.

~~~
uxp
I'm a professional watchmaker, as well as a geek and hacker. This is entirely
the reason Rolex uses a fluted case-back, instead of a keyed case-back. It
prevents the average joe from opening it up and sticking his fingers in the
delicate parts.

I would not consider this cheating, or an evil way to prevent people from
hacking on the items they legally own. If anything, it protects consumers from
getting into things that they most certainly do not know how to fix, and even
more, they don't know when they actually break the item further. Hackers that
can own up to their responsibility of opening an item and accidentally
damaging it will always open up and play with the internals. No one cares
about that, they care about the guy that thinks he can replace parts he
doesn't even know exists.

~~~
tptacek
Neat! What do you mean, "professional watchmaker"? Do you still "make"
watches? Do you make components, or do you do full assemblies? What kind of
watches?

~~~
uxp
Most of my work is repairs of higher end mechanical watches. I do manufacture
parts, but it is to repair as well.

I've only "made" one watch from start to finish of which I still own. There
really isn't much of a market for custom made watches. Plus all my tools are
traditional hand tools so it can take a couple months to craft a single
movement.

------
minalecs
I know this may be off topic, but as I find many people find this practice
acceptable from the comments, how would they feel if this was applied to other
facets of goods.

Example if your car manufacturer wouldn't allow you to go under your hood to
bring to any repair shop but had to bring it to the dealership, or other
electronics, you would have to go bring it to where you purchased it to
replace the batteries ?

Theres been many times I wish I could have an extra battery I could swap out
on my iphone, under heavy usage and not being near a charger all day. Thats
why the iphone isn't right for my needs now, because theres alternatives, but
I can see how this become more of a common practice based on the success of
apple.

~~~
jamesbritt
"I know this may be off topic, but as I find many people find this practice
acceptable from the comments, how would they feel if this was applied to other
facets of goods."

I don't find this acceptable at all. The rationale seems to be that some
people will open up a device, break something, then try to get it covered by
the warranty. But trying to prevent people from fixing their own hardware
because some take advantage of it is the same backwards approach the music
industry takes with digital restriction management: treat your customers like
criminals.

------
ryandvm
Sure, you _could_ buy this kit to replace their "pentalobular" screws with
Philips. Or you could just not buy hardware from a company that thinks you're
too incompetent/untrustworthy to open the device you freaking own.

~~~
tptacek
You can put value judgements on it like that, or you can express the exact
same sentiment without emotion by saying "or, you could just not buy
hermetically sealed products if you want to be able to tinker with your
hardware", in which case even the Apple advocates will agree with you.

~~~
nkurz
Yes, this is exactly the market that makes sense for Apple. They are
tremendous products for people willing to pay a premium not to have to deal
with the nuts and bolts and desiring to concentrate only on the task at hand.
The astonishing part is that through amazing PR and Marketing that they have
also managed to convince self-described 'hackers' (this is ostensibly Hacker
News) that Apple makes great products for them as well.

It's as if a bunch of car racing enthusiasts were gonzo about a Prius with a
welded shut hood! In my experience, while some racing fans are content with
keeping the hood shut, most racers are also good mechanics. Are there other
examples of experts being so willing to accept that their tools are not
customizable? I think of things like low-fi music and the Holga, but even
there there is a lot of modding going on.

The obvious answer is probably that 'hacker' is an applied rather than base
characteristic. Rather, one can be a software hacker without caring at all
about the underlying hardware. But I'm dubious: while it's certainly possible
to write good software while never looking at the layers below your preferred
virtual machine, I have to think that you benefit from knowing how that layer
really works. And that one, and that one.

~~~
sdkmvx
But to know how an amd64-based system works, I don't need to open _this_
laptop (from Apple). I do know how hardware works, and it is important to know
how string comparison works and why that would be slow, no matter how far up
the abstraction you are.

But unless you're a hardware engineer, in which case you have custom hardware
anyway, you don't need to open the computer and inspect the data lines from
the CPU and RAM. Just know that they're there and how they work.

In fact the only time I've ever opened this MacBook was to upgrade the hard
drive, which admittedly did require a Torx, but Torx really isn't that
uncommon. Plus given the low number of people (and high likelihood that anyone
replacing a hard drive will have Torx) needing to replace a hard drive and
known resistance to camouts makes Torx a good choice for the tiny screws that
hold a computer together.

~~~
nkurz
You're absolutely right, and yet somehow I just don't want to buy a product
that takes that attitude. My disillusion with Macintosh started when I learned
that one needed a special 'Mac Cracker' tool to open up a Mac Plus. The easy
solution for me is to avoid their products and choose something that doesn't
offend my sensibilities.

I've repaired a couple Apple products in the last year. I resoldered an IC on
a friend's MacBook to get get rid of a constant reboot problem, and swapped
out a broken video card from my girlfriend's desktop Mac Pro. Both were
reasonably straightforward repairs, although I'm not sure what they'll gain by
making it harder. I'm OK with Torx, but don't see the benefit of moving to
Pentalobular.

But I'm sure I can drill them out if I really need too. :)

------
Someone
I am not convinced this is the whole truth. Let's try and separate facts from
opinion. Apple using these screws is a fact, "Apple chose this fastener
specifically because it was new, guaranteeing repair tools would be both rare
and expensive", from what I can tell, is an opinion.

I could find two arguments for that being a fact in the article. The first one
is that these screws are only used on the outside of the devices.

However, the screws on the outside likely also are the ones that are fastened
with the most torque, and they also can the only ones connecting two
particular materials.

So, it could also be that these are just the technically best choice for the
application.

The second argument I could find is the claim _"Apple occasionally refers to
these as “Pentalobe security screws.”"_ however, Google didn't turn up
anything for a search for 'pentalobe' on Apple.com.

Finally, Apple being Apple, these screws might even have been chosen because
their color best matches the case, are the ones that could be painted white
best, or to prevent cases where the alignment of visible lines with the edges
of the display of a square or rectangular screw would occasionally be 'just
not right'.

My opinion? Making stuff hard to open may have been an objective, but I am not
convinced it was the or even the major reason for choosing these fasteners.

~~~
kwiens
The source for "Pentalobe security screws" is Apple's internal service manual,
which is not publicly available. The tamper-resistant goal is evident from the
context. You'll either have to trust me on that or find an Apple authorized
technician to verify from the manual.

------
larrik
As someone who doesn't own an Apple laptop, I think it's completely outrageous
they don't let you in to the MacBook battery. Laptops are fussy, and have the
worst possible circumstances to contend with, and sometimes they really really
need you to pull the battery to fix them properly (ie. very cold boot). It's
certainly happened on my higher-end Lenovo.

~~~
msy
As someone that's owned 4 Apple laptops over the last 9 years I've never, ever
had to remove the battery to 'fix' any of them. That includes the Macbook Air
that got sat on hard while sitting open and the 12" Macbook Pro that got
dropped from 2m onto concrete.

~~~
orangecat
So you wouldn't be opening them anyway, in which case it makes no difference
to you. But as an Apple shareholder, I fail to see any benefit to Apple
expending resources trying to stop customers who do want access to their own
hardware.

~~~
tptacek
There are two problems I can see, one I think is minor and one I think is
major.

The minor problem is, people open Apple hardware up, violate the warranty,
break the product, put it back together again, and send it back to Apple;
Apple has to expend resources already to prevent that from happening (in the
same fashion as all consumer electronics companies have to expend effort to
detect moisture damage).

The major problem is, third party companies will open up shop performing
unauthorized repairs on Apple hardware. Apple can't vouch for any of that
work, many of those companies may end up damaging Apple hardware and upsetting
Apple users, and Apple has a clear business interest in making it less easy
for random people to enter that market.

~~~
Gilpo
Sharp commentary, Thomas. One thing that sticks out to me is how Apple
straightjackets their products. Apple corals the entire user experience down a
narrow path. Power-users hate the constraint of this Apple straightjacket, but
at the same time, new consumer-level customers -- grandma with her iPad and
cousin Alice with her iPod touch -- benefit from the simplicity of the
straightjacketed experience.

~~~
orangecat
Once again, I'll point to Mac OS X as a counterexample to the theory that
providing a good experience to normal users requires denying control to power
users.

~~~
tptacek
Those decisions are Apple's prerogatives. When they lock OS X down, I'll
scream bloody murder right along with you for the bait-and-switch. But
_nobody_ bought an iPhone because they thought it'd be easy to tinker with.

------
BigZaphod
The only people who care about this are tinkerers and hackers and those with
an agenda. I find it odd that people will bitch so much about this, and yet
spend hours/days/weeks/whatever digging into the internals of stuff and poking
around where they weren't meant to be just for the fun of it. So Apple changed
their screws, huh? Instead of bitching about it and trying to turn it into an
evil conspiracy plot, how about putting those tinkerer/hacking skills to use
finding elegant and creative ways around it if it's so important to you?

For typical repairs, Apple offers very good warranties and one of the best
return/repair services I've ever seen. It's not like you're going to save
yourself a ton of time and money ordering iffy parts off eBay and tearing into
the hardware yourself. If you're not doing this stuff for fun, why are you
wasting your time with it in the first place?

This isn't about them trying to take away your right to modify your own
hardware. There's still nothing (and likely will never be anything) stopping
you from taking a hammer to it, drilling out the screws, x-raying it, or
whatever. I'm sure Apple doesn't care if you want to see what's inside
something you own. What they do care about is people modifying or attempting
repairs and then breaking it and then trying to convince Apple it was _their_
fault. Or passing off a broken/modified device as a legit Apple product and
causing customer confusion. Or perhaps these new screws simply work better in
their machines, jam up less, can be screwed in faster, whatever.

~~~
frossie
_It's not like you're going to save yourself a ton of time and money_

I don't know how much money you have, but the price difference between
replacing my failing iPhone 3G battery myself and having Apple do it was non-
trivial, and the warranty did not cover it.

However it is definitely not for everyone, and I for one would just let people
know to include the battery replacement charge as part of an ownership cost of
the product.

(By the way doing this myself actually made me feel sorry for the people who
have to do this all day long).

------
Dylanlacey
"Apple chose this fastener specifically because it was new, guaranteeing
repair tools would be both rare and expensive. Shame on them."

Now, I think that manufacturers should use open standard parts that are easy
for end users to deal with, but they have every right to not honor warranty
claims should you go dicking around.

BUT, "Shame on them?" Grow the fuck up.

They later toss in a remark that their mega-bit set can no longer open "Any
consumer electrical device. Thanks a lot Apple!", which I assume is meant to
be humorous... But it just seems to ring true. They seem bitter they can't get
this open without another tiny screwdriver.

Is this kinda shitty? Well yeah. Was their reaction MASSIVELY out of
proportion? Hell Yeah. Apple owe you shit all and are known for being
unfriendly to those who like things modifiable. Don't fucking whinge about it,
it's not like they TRICKED YOU into buying a phone with those screws.

If you're REALLY that unhappy, don't buy the fucking phone.

Dicks.

~~~
mquander
Their reaction is a blog post and a four-minute video. No matter what Apple
does, a blog post and a four-minute video is probably not a "MASSIVELY"
disproportionate response. Also, if you bought a phone with some ordinary
Phillips screws, take it in for service, and the technician put in some other
weird screws without telling you, they actually did sort of "TRICK YOU" into
the weird screws.

~~~
Dylanlacey
I was talking more about the language and hyperbole used then the length and
video.

Nevertheless, it might be "tricking" you, but do people REALLY buy from Apple
expecting to _not_ get a tightly closed product?

"Oh, I bought this raptor, but I didn't EXPECT him to eat your son, I'm SO
sorry!"

------
brown9-2
iPhones with these screws are already in the US, I bought one in late December
2010 and it appears to have the five-point screws.

------
aneth
I'm surprised this hasn't been done before, but it is possible to patent
something like a screw head, thereby preventing anyone from selling
screwdrivers for it. Were I part of the evil Apple conspiracy, I would suggest
that. Whoops, maybe I am.

Seriously though, it's not a right to dictate the type of screws used for
devices you bought on the open market.

~~~
mbrubeck
The Robertson (square-socket) screw was patented. Robertson's refusal to
license the patents to Henry Ford is one reason it never became popular in the
U.S. You can find find them in Canada, however:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screw_drives#Robertson>

~~~
aroberge
It's unfortunate that they did not become popular in the U.S. as they work
_much_ better than the Phillips ones: if you pick the right size (3 are
standard), the screwdriver _never_ slips, unlike what can happen with the
Phillips one.

~~~
vl
Phillips was specifically designed to slip on high torque - precise torque
tools where not wide-spread at the time and it was intended to prevent
threading.

