
Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair - miles
https://www.ifixit.com/News/apple-is-locking-batteries-to-iphones-now
======
privateSFacct
Despite all the HN comments, Apple's made an absolute killing and charges FAR
FAR higher margins for their products in part because they design them so
normal people don't get totally f'd over.

And yes, the scam of a trash after market battery to make the iphone battery
life look good is well known. And guess how many parents and grandparents then
go to apple to "fix" something that has nothing to do with Apple?

The scammers are the people putting the bogus batteries in. Apple saying that
the battery is not confirmed genuine is not a scam. Its the truth.

People can't figure out why apple can charge such ridiculous premiums on what
is otherwise a commodity product. This is why.

From applecare to the activation lock to app permissions to alerting user to
bogus behavior to app store quality to reversible charging cables - all the
activities HN considers "anti-consumer" have helped make consumers value apple
products. This will be one of those situations.

Now when you buy a used phone, much more likely to have a real sense of the
battery quality in what you are buying. 3 year used apple products ALREADY
carry a much higher premium vs android phones, this will help continue that
trend.

And no, it's NOT that hard to replace a battery in an iphone, seriously, for
all the folks complaining about that go to an apple store or buy a kit, and
compare the hassle to doing the same thing with a android phone.

~~~
ChuckNorris89
Apple doesn't want their customers to get f'd over you say?

You might want to check out Luis Rosmann's videos, a famous Apple repair geek
who fixes for cheap the products Apple themselves misdiagnose[1] in order to
rip off their customers[2].

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7RXJP4mxCc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7RXJP4mxCc)
// teenager's MacBook's display is not working correctly so Geniuses tell him
he needs a new motherboard replacement while Luis discovers in 2 seconds that
the lid-close sensor cable is broken so he replaces it for $8

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2_SZ4tfLns](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2_SZ4tfLns)
// customer's MacBook's display is not working correctly so Geniuses tell him
he needs a new motherboard and display replacement while Luis discovers in two
minutes that the display connector has a bent pin and fixes it for free

~~~
etaioinshrdlu
It might be that Apple is not able to apply the same attention to detail that
Luis applies to every case.

Luis complains that he can't find competent board level repair technicians to
scale his business. The real problem is that it's a difficult expensive skill.
Luis can't scale it, Apple can't scale it at a reasonable price either.

Human attention is expensive, that's the reason software is eating the world.
Part of that means paying less attention to individual user's products when it
requires less human attention to just replace parts in mass.

My 2 cents.

~~~
porknubbins
I love watching Louis diagnose and fix laptops. He can make good money
charging $300 to fix a motherboard in an hour or two because he has done it
for years but I can imagine even a very smart technician it takes 2-3x time
starting out and I doubt he pays much more than $25-30hr, though maybe the
business would be more viable if not in NYC thats borderline living wage here.

------
mstolpm
To give another perspective: I bought a used iPhone SE about a month ago and
was worried about battery health because many sellers didn‘t mention it. After
passing some more shady offers I found an SE for cheap (around 100€) that
claimed 95% battery health. And I could verify that in the settings. Seller
mentioned the iPhone was never serviced and only used as a backup phone.
Perhaps that should have ring an alarm, but I bought it.

Two days later battery health was down to 71%. A week later the battery was
dead. And of course it was not an original Apple battery by any means.

So, it might be bad communication by Apple, but for buyers a sign that the
battery isn‘t original is very welcome.

~~~
metalliqaz
This anecdote so closely matches Apple's messaging on the topic, it makes me
wonder if you are an Apple employee. However since it involves aftermarket
sales, I suppose it's prudent to assume not.

Let's look at it from a different angle. You got to take advantage of an
aftermarket in order to find a cheap phone. In this case you got scammed, but
for the time being you still have the option of getting a cheap battery
replacement to fix your device with minimal losses.

Apple's moves are clearly designed to squash an aftermarket. I'd prefer to
have the option to buy cheap old phones. I'd especially prefer to be able to
replace the batteries on my own old phones.

~~~
dymk
What a typical HN reply. “I don’t believe you and I’m going to attempt to
undermine your reputation by claiming you’re part of the enemy party”

Maybe it’s inline with Apple’s messaging because Apple’s messaging is inline
with the customer concerns?

~~~
metalliqaz
Actually my conclusion was the opposite, but thanks for undermining me.

------
GhostVII
To be clear, you can replace the battery with whatever battery you want, it
will just show a message saying it can't be verified as an Apple battery. The
only user impact is being unable to see battery health. I don't even think I
can see my battery health on my Android so I don't see it as a big deal, but
definitely not great if they are hiding this functionality for no reason.

~~~
sjwright
It won’t be for no reason.

If their battery health tightly calibrated to report on Apple’s OEM battery,
it could provide misleading information about third-party batteries.

My guess is that Apple is bored of dealing with complaints about devices which
have been modified by third parties.

~~~
roboys
My guess is Apple is bored of truly innovating and now has to resort to
nickle-diming customers to hit quarterly numbers.

Tim Cook put on his "Make Changing Batteries Expensive Again" hat.

~~~
aejnsn
Don't go buy a BMW anytime soon.

Have to recode the battery, and it's been that way for years.

~~~
tfandango
Even Chrysler is doing things like this. I had a hitch installed, super
simple, all of the wires etc plug in to the appropriate places, but if you
want to actually use the break lights, you need to visit the dealership to
flip a boolean flag somewhere, otherwise the lights just don't work.

~~~
aejnsn
The only difference in a current Ford Mustang between making the in-dash
vacuum gauge work for boost too is a boolean flag. So if you drop a
supercharger on your N/A GT model, you can have your MAP sensor register in
the dash as if the supercharger is OEM.

------
soganess
EDIT: Per Betelgeuse90 comment below, my characterization of the situation was
incorrect. Apple's behavior is anti-competitive. I am leaving my original
comment here for posterity.

Original comment:

I love jumping on the apple hate train as much as the next person, but this is
not a valid reason to do so.

Depending on the aftermarket battery, those reported values could be
completely wrong / misleading to the user. If you are looking for proof, just
buy a random battery off amazon for your computer and tell me how accurate the
current reported charge is.

Plus, I would like to know if a used device I buy has a non-OEM battery. As
long as it stays in that settings screen and doesn't turn into a consistent
annoying pop-up (or doesn't stop the user from upgrading, as was the case with
the home button debacle of days passed) I don't think this deserves the
outrage.

Also, the title is a bit misleading. Nothing is being locked, the device
functions as it should. An ideal solution would be that apple allows third
party battery manufacturers to go through a certification process so apple
could ensure quality control. Fat chance in you-know-what apple would ever do
that.

~~~
Betelgeuse90
To be fair, you'll get the "service battery" message even if you place an
original Apple battery in the iPhone. A used device that was serviced
perfectly well but not by Apple will still display this message. All this
means is that the battery wasn't replaced by Apple themselves.

~~~
soganess
Good catch! I will adjust my original message with an edit. That is straight
up anti-competitive. Egg on my face for giving apple the benefit of the doubt.

~~~
sjwright
How is it anti-competitive if the swapped battery works perfectly fine? Who
cares about what the battery status page says?

~~~
mebo
A company that cares about eroding trust in third-party repairs shops getting
blamed for ripping off their customers when the battery still reports as
broken.

~~~
derefr
It’s not reporting as broken; it’s just reporting as “not our problem if it
fails.”

The Right-to-Repair discussion often ignores a key problem companies have:
figuring out whether a device is under warranty (i.e. whether they’re
obligated to repair the device for free) when it’s submitted for repair.

Some repairs make themselves obvious, and so make the removal of warranty
obligation obvious. Other repairs—like third-party battery replacements, done
following the Apple process for repair and with Apple OEM components—make the
warranty status of the device illegible. If the phone accepted a new Apple OEM
battery without saying anything about it, the user might be misled into
thinking that the device is still under warranty. But it’s not. It’s been
repaired by a non-authorized third-party. It’s no longer Apple’s fault if the
device breaks, because that third party may have screwed things up inside the
device in any number of ways.

This is, in a sense, a “chain of trust” thing. It’s the same reason
Chromebooks have that on-boot warning in development mode. The user needs to
be aware that the chain of trust between the OEM and the end-user has been
broken; and that, when that happens, _anything_ may potentially have been done
to the device.

That’s not to argue against Right-to-Repair. Non-authorized third-party repair
shops _should_ have every right to operate as businesses, and end-users should
have every right to do business with them. But Apple _also_ should have every
right to warn users that the chain of trust has been broken—because it has.
The user knowingly broke it themselves! (And, of course, Apple _shouldn’t_
have the right to misconstrue breaking the chain of trust as anything more
than that. The battery health is unknown because it’s not an Apple-certified
repair, certainly; but that doesn’t mean that the battery is _bad_ , and it
would be anti-competitive to claim that.)

~~~
tooop
"Needs service" is the same as reporting that it is broken. Another thing is
that warranty covers manufacturing defects so, for example, it is unreasonable
to automatically void warranty for a screen just because the battery was
replaced.

~~~
ska
> for example, it is unreasonable to automatically void warranty for a screen
> just because the battery was replaced.

I get where you are coming from but this isn't so cut and dried, as
incompetent repairs are certainly capable of damaging or destroying other
components. Someone I know once unknowingly messed up an antenna in the
process of replacing a phone battery with an after market one, which caused
all sorts of odd and intermittent symptoms with communication issues. Why
should a manufacturer be expected to deal with that under warranty?

Part of the problem with consumer electronics is that they aren't really
particularly designed to be serviceable, let alone user-serviceable. So it's
not like a car manufacturer saying they'll refuse to warranty a rear shock
because you changed your own oil or whatever.

I'm a strong supporter of right-to-repair, but I'm not convinced that should
extend to forcing user serviceable designs where there is an actual design
tradeoff. On the other hand this is pretty hard to prove - maybe all you can
do is go after user-hostile design changes that serve no other purpose.

~~~
tooop
I completely agree that manufacturer is not responsible for badly done 3rd
party repairs which have broken things. My point is that warranty should be
denied only in cases where someone (either manufacturer itself or an
independent 3rd party) can prove that a component broke because of a bad
repair.

------
eridius
I'm willing to bet Apple has seen counterfeit batteries that claim to be Apple
batteries and this is a reaction to that.

The other stuff this article claims was designed to stop third-party repairs,
such as the stuff to do with Touch ID, was actually security-related
(basically, the device couldn't trust Touch ID anymore after the repair). I
hadn't heard about True Tone disabling before, but that's probably because
AIUI each device's screen is individually calibrated in the factory, and if
you swap the screen yourself then you've lost that calibration.

~~~
JustSomeNobody
> I'm willing to bet Apple has seen counterfeit batteries that claim to be
> Apple batteries and this is a reaction to that.

People are still going to send Apple their phone and say, "why is my phone
displaying this message?", which support is going to have to deal with. This
isn't going to all the sudden save Apple money on support.

~~~
eridius
No but it's going to prevent a PR disaster when a phone's "Apple" battery
explodes.

~~~
JustSomeNobody
How would it be a disaster? All they have to do is determine it's a third
party battery and all the tech blogs move on.

~~~
vesrah
By then the damage to the brand has already been done.

~~~
JustSomeNobody
The chances of a fire are slim otherwise we’d hear more about it. And
seriously, everyone has already forgotten about samnsung’s exploding phones.

------
lnsru
I am going to pay 49€ for iPhone 6 original battery replacement in coming
weeks. It’s still many times cheaper than buying new phone. Ifixit wants 20€
only for compatible part, so I think, Apple’s 49€ inclusive half hour
technician work is very good deal.

I work as an electrical engineer and understand Apple’s position very well.
Nobody wants, that user try to service their devices. Some get lucky and
device works fine, but majority end up wanting free support for their
failures. Especially when YouTube is full of tutorials teaching untrained
folks how to do even complicated repairs. Without proper skill it ends up very
quickly in a disaster <\- see this daily in my job.

~~~
canuckintime
I took an iPhone SE to an Apple Store for a battery replacement program last
year. Spent 4+ hours waiting with minimal status updates until the genius
finally came back out to say that the battery was replaced but TouchID was now
broken, they didn't have any replacement parts and it would take a week for a
refurbished unit to arrive. Had to pay to take the broken phone away with no
other recourse. Six months later, the battery is bad again...

~~~
lnsru
Went to their repair center with 2 phones. 1 hour later went home with 2 fresh
phones. Amazing experience, but heard, it’s not that good in big cities.

~~~
xenospn
Heard of friends getting new phones immediately in LA, so it happens here too.

------
jrnichols
I'm on the fence about this. On one hand, I can agree with the folks that are
unhappy about Apple locking out small retailers. On the other hand, I can see
how Apple would want to protect its image. In my personal experience, I've had
a few friends have their batteries replaced at kiosks in the mall and have
experienced issues. Do they blame the random vendor in the mall? Nope, they
blame Apple and have decided "the iPhone sucks."

Third party battery replacements aren't even that much of a savings over
having Apple do it.

[https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/battery-
power](https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/battery-power)

$49 for the "iPhone SE, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus,
iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and all other eligible
models." Those are the ones that now have batteries that are probably wearing
down more.

You have to go to an Apple Authorized Service Provider to have the replacement
done. But guess what? Best Buy locations are now AASPs as well and they can do
it.

I'm ok with that.

------
acd
Is it legal from competition laws to lock your product?

Sherman anti trust law “Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to
monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to
monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States”

Someone could argue that monopolize battery repair is a form of monopoly. I
understand the battery safety part from Apple though.

------
rolph
>>"Technically, it is possible to remove the microcontroller chip from the
original battery and carefully solder it into the new battery you’re swapping
in, restoring the Battery Health feature—but the procedure isn’t for the faint
of heart, and it’s an unreasonable requirement for any repair, much less
something as simple as a battery swap."<<

it seems a razor and a low wattage solder iron will fix it. and im guessing a
few little guys may end up fattening thier wallets this way. Im wondering how
apple might catch the play, and how they would change the hardware so a chip
transplant is no longer a workaround.

~~~
Nextgrid
The chip could keep encryption keys in RAM (since it’s always powered by the
battery and there’s always gonna be enough juice in there to power it given
its tiny power consumption) and if the chip loses power (due to being
desoldered) the keys are lost preventing the phone from authenticating it.

~~~
logfromblammo
Clip bypass battery to the power/gnd pins while desoldering and resoldering.

Read RAM image before desoldering. Write image to RAM after resoldering.

For that matter, read RAM image from old battery and write it to new battery,
no soldering required. Or MITM the connection between phone and battery, and
the bypass device can pass-through battery health information while
intercepting and responding to authentication-related signals.

You will never be able to enforce hardware security indefinitely against an
attacker with device-in-possession.

~~~
Nextgrid
What if the chip uses asymmetric cryptography for authentication with a
private key stored in it, impossible to recover, just like a credit card? In
this case it can’t be spoofed by intercepting the comma between the phone &
chip, private key can’t be extracted, etc.

Sure, a bypass battery is possible. The point here isn’t 100% security (which
as you say is impossible), it’s to make the operation difficult enough that
most give up or have to charge more than an official battery replacement.

~~~
logfromblammo
Impossible?

Dissolve the chip casing in fuming nitric acid and use probe needles. The
official pins are not the only way to interface with the silicon, when you
have device-in-possession.

Use a timing attack. Find a collision.

It is very likely that the same private key is locked up inside every chip,
and one reverse-engineer, probing one of them once, can compromise the key for
all of the chips manufactured before their publication date, and probably
would last until the OEM ran out of those chips, and then deprecated the key
after some time with a software patch. The one-time cost would be worth it for
any manufacturer of off-brand batteries.

The battery controller chip is not going to be an impenetrable security vault,
in any case. The cost of parts is a factor, even for Apple.

Asymmetric keys don't work if the attacker is in possession of the private
key, no matter how many padlocked boxes you put it in. The attacker _has the
key_ , and getting it out in usable form is a matter of time, not
possibilities.

~~~
Nextgrid
Payment cards seem to be keeping secrets locked down despite there being huge
financial incentives to crack them.

If nobody does it for payment cards, there’s no way they’ll bother doing it
for smartphone batteries.

------
miles
Have we all forgotten that mobile phone battery replacement was just this
easy[0] not too long ago?

Now, even a phone listed in "9 Best Phones With Removable Battery In 2019"[1]
has a battery replacement process like this[2].

[0]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sxdXuKbivQ&t=1m0s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sxdXuKbivQ&t=1m0s)

[1] [https://thedroidguy.com/2019/06/9-best-phones-removable-
batt...](https://thedroidguy.com/2019/06/9-best-phones-removable-
battery-2019-1079207)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY07MujU2pM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY07MujU2pM)

~~~
magashna
Last time I remember having any easy access was the Galaxy S3. Pop open the
back, swap battery. Done. I would even carry spares when on vacation if I
needed some extra juice.

~~~
antisthenes
Galaxy S5 has fully replaceable batteries as well. As a phone, I'd say it
still holds up rather well as a lower end mid-range phone today.

I'm holding onto it until Librem Phone comes out, which also has a replaceable
battery.

Having phones with non-replaceable batteries just seems incredibly wasteful to
me, so I won't ever buy one on general principle.

~~~
briandear
Your comment pretty much dismisses the validity of Apple being anti-
competitive. You don’t like their product, thus you bought an alternative that
meets your needs. If Apple was anti-competitive, you wouldn’t be able to buy
an alternative.

Apple has a monopoly for Apple phones, but that isn’t a monopoly. If you buy
an Apple product, you are agreeing to buy an Apple product with all that
entails. If you want a user replaceable battery, you buy a different phone.
Apple isn’t using market dominance to prevent you from buying alternatives. If
Apple owned a majority of the battery market and created a monopoly on
batteries, that’s different than them controlling the batteries in their own
product. Apple’s actions don’t have any bearing on someone’s ability to buy a
repair a phone — just the ability to buy and repair an Apple phone.

~~~
antisthenes
The point of my comment was not to validate anything about Apple.

If you actually read what people write fully instead of projecting what you
want to hear, you'll be a much better conversationalist.

Thank you.

------
ksec
I don't have a problem with Apple showing whether the Battery is replaced or
using genuine Apple Battery. My problem is that replacement done by Apple is
both too costly and too time consuming.

Current iPhone X / XS / XR Battery Replacement is $69, which is roughly double
the price of being replaced on streets with similar battery. Now of course
there are scammers who tries to replace a crappy battery, but going to well
know Repair Shop normally prevent that from happening.

I would have no problem paying double the price for an Apple Store
replacement, except not only would have I have to wait hours or days for
replacement depending on which part of the cities, countries, world you are
in. You will also have to wait and go into that awful Apple Store and try and
get someone to help. What is an 30 to 45 min job elsewhere, in the worst case
you could wait 45 min just to get someone in Apple Store.

Here I am paying double the price for _worst_ experience.

But that is not the worst part.

Apple Refuse to replace your Battery if your screen is broken, has slight
crack on the edge, water damage or whatever damage they claim it has. You will
first have to pay and fix those _damages_. Again I am perfectly fine with
paying to fix it, except more than 99% of times Apple will quote you a price
roughly 30 - 50% of your iPhone's that is now already 2 - 3 years old. And it
makes much more sense to buy a new one instead. ( This remind me of the so
call logic board damage I had with MacBook Pro 2 years ago. Sometimes I wonder
why I am still using Apple )

~~~
rootusrootus
Maybe it's just me, but $69 for a repair that 1) Apple will stand behind, and
2) will add another two years of life to a $1000 phone, is a pretty good deal.
While there are undoubtedly good third-party repair shops, there is also a lot
of crap that isn't worth half of what Apple is charging. Subpar work, subpar
parts.

~~~
mopsi
Going to Apple for repairs does not guarantee a quality service. See: The
Apple Store Genius Bar Broke My $5,000 iMac Pro
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG_NRcy5mxU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG_NRcy5mxU)

"Subpar" is a very mild word to describe what was done there.

~~~
rootusrootus
A lot of people would say that is the exception that proves the rule. And in
any case, ultimately Apple will stand behind the repair, making it right. I've
had two acquaintances get brand new MacBooks after the Genius Bar couldn't get
their machine fixed correctly.

~~~
ksec
And this happen in US?

------
dbg31415
Torn on this.

1) I want to be able to open and repair my own things.

2) Every time I use a non-Apple battery, or buy a refurbished phone, I have
issues ranging from battery life is shorter, to battery swelling.

I bought an 8s from Amazon’s refurbished line last week for a family member
and the battery health started at 89% but is now at 81%. Sketch. Hard to trust
any refurbished seller. Ultimately that leads to bad experiences with Apple
products — my dad gets a replacement phone and all he knows is the battery
life is poor.

------
velox_io
Apple has a good thing here. They limit repair and parts to only those who
they authorise, keeping parts off the second-hand market.

And why replace a cable when you can replace both boards, then maybe the cable
too. They do seem very quick to recommend replacing major parts or to buy new.
They could try the easy fixes (such as cables), I think people would rather
risk a small fee before deciding if it is worth shelling out for more
expensive components.

------
pmontra
We had something like this with printers and ink cartridges and toner. I think
manufactures eventually lost. One example
[https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-
news...](https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-
news/858824-hp-ink-cartridge-monopoly-class-action-lawsuit-settles-1-5m/)

------
jjtheblunt
Just a guess: maybe Apple is locking iPhone batteries because the anti-fix-it
negativity is less expensive than battery explosion lawsuits?

------
Yabood
Perhaps unrelated to the topic of batteries, but I wanted to share my
experience at an Apple store from two days ago. I’m on a business trip to
Sydney, at work I accidentally spilled water on my MacBook Pro and the thing
went dark. I went to the Apple store, they popped it open and found too much
water damage so they couldn’t repair it. Guess what, they replaced the whole
laptop with a brand new one box and everything on the spot. They didn’t even
charge me the AppleCare fee.

Apple’s customer service is second to none. If you buy their products, you
should buy AppleCare too and not worry about shady repair shops.

------
CivBase
A lot of comments in defense of Apple seem to have overlooked something very
important.

> If you replace the battery in the newest iPhones, a message indicating you
> need to service your battery appears in Settings > Battery, next to Battery
> Health.

This is not a warning that you are using a non-OEM part. This is an imperative
for the user to get the part replaced.

Even if most non-Apple batteries _are_ terrible, this is not a reasonable
approach. IMO, it is bad for Apple to refer to anything they have not approved
as defective and very misleading to the customer.

------
neuralRiot
The chinese are already selling tools to read, clone, activate batteries.
Laptop batteries had been like this for a long time, if you open it and
replace the cells you need to reset the controller.

------
jbverschoor
I think this makes total sense for batteries. Batteries are a hazard, and a
lot of bad ones are out there. Prices for swap came down quite a bunch, so I
think this is fine. Apple is taking ownership about exploding phones and other
problems.

This is the reason why it gets more and more locked down.

I once bought a MacBook with weirdass problems. Turned out to be a bad data
cable used by someone.

Chips are still swappable, because not many people do this / screw up, but
also... a battery is quite a dangerous component

~~~
moate
But it does this even with their own batteries. You can have a legit iPhone
and a legit iPhone battery installed and it will have this issue occur.

This is not "taking ownership" in the way you intended, but it is
demonstrating ownership.

------
mnm1
If one doesn't want such "user hostile" hardware one shouldn't buy Apple
products. They are legendary, especially lately in the last few years for such
choices. Until a right to repair law is passed, there's nothing we can do and
Apple will fight that tooth and nail. The best thing for people who care about
such things to do is not to buy Apple products and fight for the law.

~~~
egdod
Apple is user-hostile when it comes to repairing hardware. Google is user-
hostile when it comes to spying on users.

What’s a person to do?

------
eqtn
Wanting to repair comes from the thing that iPhone is sold to the user. If US
were to pass the right to repair law, will it be possible for apple to stop
selling the device and start renting it and circumvent the law? Like, You can
rent the iPhone for 3-4 years for $1200 and should return it.

------
kmbfjr
People put these things in their pockets and fly with them. Forcing people to
use batteries with a decent level of quality control is a good thing.

I don't feel like dying because someone spent $15 on a replacement battery
purchased at the same place they by their Vape juice.

------
bleepbleep5832
Is there any benefit whatsoever (even in a theoretical sense) that locking
down the battery enhances user privacy in any way? To elaborate: Is there
something similar to an attack where we chill a computer's RAM to recover a
cryptographic key, for instance?

------
jaclaz
Cross referencing other thread, different source, same topic:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20644553](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20644553)

------
xenospn
Not sure about you guys but batteries can and do explode. I don't want anyone
but apple putting a battery in something that spends many hours of every day
10cm from my junk.

------
meerita
Does anyone has information about that issue that Apple had with their OS
diminishing the power of the batteries? I think they're still on trial for
that.

------
arcticbull
> Fortunately, your replacement battery will continue to work perfectly fine,
> and you’ll get all of the benefits that come with a new battery.

Literally enough said.

------
jellicle
I wish Apple weren't so schizophrenic.

Odd-numbered days: PRIVACY DAY - we love our users!

Even-numbered days: HARDWARE DAY - we hate our users!

Pick one and stick with it, guys.

~~~
HeWhoLurksLate
The word that I think has a bigger issue there is _" user"_\- to me, it feels
like Apple is treating their customers like drug addicts, and now that they're
hooked, they're jacking up prices.

------
8bitsrule
I recall a time when battery replacement was easy enough that it wasn't
considered to be a repair.

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zonidjan
Umm... is this a surprise to anyone? I'm only surprised it's new.

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rhegart
Worse for climate change than all their supposed good deeds. An iPhone could
easily last 5 years instead of 2, and millions of poor people could have a few
extra thousand in their pockets if they just allowed proper repair.

~~~
cujo
Are you suggesting the only recourse you have now is to get a new phone when
your battery dies? Come on.

------
m3kw9
Apple prob had enough of ppl screwing themselves from burns and brunt phones.
I have hand an iPad messed up in weird ways after a battery swap from some
local cheap places. This is actually pro consumer in my view.

------
ProAm
Apple simply doesn't respect their customers.

~~~
jjtheblunt
I suspect the opposite: Apple's cost for occasional battery explosions
injuring their customers is the real concern.

~~~
mopsi
Ironically, Apple making third party repairs difficult by not selling genuine
spare parts and not publishing service guides increases the risk of an iPhone
exploding, because it pushes third parties towards sourcing parts from shady
sources.

Why third parties exist at all? They must be doing something better: either
they're cheaper, faster, more competent, in more convenient locations, or
something else along these lines.

Apple has long repair times and that would be my argument for preferring a
local repair shop over shipping the phone or computer god-knows-where.

------
cujo
Consider the source.

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zepto
iFixit is misrepresenting Apple to market its tool sales business. This is
what they do.

~~~
moate
Care to set the record straight? What's actually going on if not what they're
presenting?

They're making an assumption about intent. Unless you can prove you're part of
the Apple team responsible for this hardware behavior, you're just going to be
doing the same.

~~~
zepto
The batteries are not locked, and off-brand replacements work perfectly. There
is no impediment whatsoever to repair here.

iFixit are therefore making a misstatement.

The only thing Apple is doing is not making assessments about the condition of
off-brand replacements. This is pretty obvious and expected behavior.

iFixit are using a misrepresentation of this to generate publicity using the
same narrative as they always do.

~~~
moate
But they're doing this with their own branded replacements. If I put an actual
apple battery into my iPhone but don't do it through apple's store, this
behavior is what happens.

This is akin to my check engine light always being on whenever any mechanic
makes repairs to my car. Yes, Kia is "protecting themselves from liability of
damages by 3rd party behavior" but they're also creating a UX problem for me.

As the end user: this is stupid, and I don't like it, and it seems like a
choice not a need on the company's part.

~~~
zepto
Batteries have a relatively short shelf life, so even an original apple
branded battery can be a scam if it’s old stock.

I have personally run into this when I replaced a battery myself back in the
iPhone 4 era.

------
MrZongle2
Why does this strike me as just a 21st Century variation upon the "mining town
Company Store" concept?

~~~
briandear
You don’t have to buy an Apple product.

~~~
moate
You don't have to work in the mine.

Metaphor still works.

~~~
svachalek
People did have to work at the mine. At first because they needed to eat, and
later because they were in "debt" to the company store, thus the term "debt
slavery". I'm not quite seeing how this is comparable to a consumer product
decision.

------
joshypants
Apple makes increasingly disappointing products. I recently was looking at
replacing my iPhone 7 Plus, but around $900 would get the next baseline model,
for no real tangible benefits, and some tangible downsides like no zoom lens
and being forced to use the face scanning. Sorry, I'll replace my battery and
cracked screen and wait a couple more years, thanks.

~~~
jjtheblunt
You can disable FaceID and go with typed passcodes.

~~~
joshypants
A typed passcode is a downgrade in convenience from the touch id I currently
enjoy. This is my point.

------
msie
Goddammit Apple! You keep on finding new reasons for me to hate you! I want
names! Who’s responsible for this crap?!?

~~~
brokenmachine
This seems like it's pretty similar to the old reasons.

The people responsible are the people who keep buying their locked-down crap.

