
Someone Uploaded What Look to Be Apple’s Internal iPhone Repair Videos - benryon
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qvmvjv/someone-uploaded-what-look-to-be-apples-internal-iphone-repair-videos
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ballenf
The 3D touch calibration video made me realize just how complicated it is to
get the functionality. It's got to be about the worst cost to utilization
ration of any feature on the iPhone. Based on my extensive research asking
friends and reading various forums.

When the video get taken down, it showed a large device resembling a 3d
printer where the phone is precisely mounted while a probe carefully presses
on the glass in multiple places to calibrate touch sensitivity. This works in
conjunction with a special app running on the attached iMac. The process takes
15 minutes if it works the first time--the instructions indicate that it might
fail the first time.

~~~
ac4tw
"It's got to be about the worst cost to utilization ration of any feature on
the iPhone."

I can't speak to whether you're correct or not, but that feature is a massive
time saver for me. It's one of the most compelling features that keeps me on
their platform. I have large fingers and selecting text with 3D touch is
incredibly easy compared to using the twin cursors offered by iOS/Android for
that purpose.

I run into quite a number of folks who have no idea they have 3D touch though.
Surprises them even more than me when I show them.

I don't use 3D touch for much else though, which sort of supports your
assertion.

~~~
karmelapple
Speaking as an app developer, the little-known nature of 3D Touch means we can
never rely on it as the sole way to access a feature, and that pretty much
always means we have ignored building much with it.

I wonder if better training by Apple could help? But it seems they’ve already
accepted the tap-and-hold workaround for supporting some 3D Touch
functionality on devices without 3D Touch.

Seems like 3D Touch, and iOS 7’s lightboxing parallax effect for backgrounds,
was likely part of a broader vision by Ive and the design team to bring depth
to a thin phone screen. It’s an admirable goal, but whether by lack of
discoverability or lack of training, seems like it isn’t poised to be a
widely-adopted technology.

~~~
jdietrich
There's a broader issue with the loss of discoverability. It's not exclusive
to iOS, but the loss of the home button on the iPhone X and the replacement
with gestures seems to mark a significant backwards step. Perhaps this is
tolerable or even necessary given the increasing complexity of mobile user
stories and maximal screen-to-body ratios, but it poses a lot of challenges.

Mobile is increasingly looking like desktop in terms of the gulf between
"ordinary users" and "power users"; applications designed of one group are
likely to be highly sub-optimal for the other, presenting developers with a
difficult UX compromise. _Most_ users understand the hamburger menu, which
could be read as a sign of progress or a dismal failure.

~~~
evilduck
I think the problem is that it's not available everywhere on all mobile
devices (Android, iPads and older iPhones don't have it) so it's not utilized
well or implemented as much as it could be, nor is it a universal behavior
users can internalize like they do with panning and pinch to zoom. Android
somewhat mimics it with long pressing, but iOS _also_ has long pressing as
well as 3D touch. Without ubiquity it can't become a primary UI mechanism,
only tacked on to something that must work without it.

Personally though I don't think 3D touch is any less discoverable than your
right mouse button on a computer. If you have a 3D touch capable device you
had to configure it at least once when you got a new device capable of it so
you know it _exists_ just like you know a right mouse button click state often
exists (Macs don't even ship with obvious right-click capability, the OS has
it disabled by default and neither of their mouse input types have an obvious
right click mechanism just by looking at them)

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patorjk
> What’s incredible here is not that Apple’s internal videos leaked, but that
> the third-party repair teams have done such an incredible job replicating
> its procedures without having seen these videos or having access to Apple’s
> tools.

How do we know that the third-party teams hadn't previously seen these videos?
If they had a source that was getting them the videos, they probably wouldn't
broadcast that information.

~~~
jdietrich
_> How do we know that the third-party teams hadn't previously seen these
videos?_

The best third-party repairers are _vastly_ more advanced than Apple's own
warranty repair service. They're constantly pushing the limits of what is
considered possible in SMD rework. None of these videos would have provided
any useful information to them.

iFixit are rank amateurs compared to companies like G-lon, REWA and ZXW. The
fact that Motherboard praise them as "incredible" is frankly embarrassing.

~~~
babypuncher
Doesn't the cost of these advanced repairs kind of negate the value of getting
your device repaired versus just replacing the whole thing (or parts)?

I'm sure Apple has done lots of cost benefit analysis and found that it's way
cheaper to just replace an iPhone motherboard than it is to pay someone
skilled at SMD repair to find the bad component(s) and replace them.

~~~
jdietrich
The third-party repair industry exists because companies can profitably
undercut Apple's out-of-warranty repair charges. That's true in the US and
it's doubly true in lower-wage economies.

It may be that skilled repair work isn't scaleable, so Apple have decided to
constrain their repair operations to simple module swaps. It may also be that
Apple would rather sell you a new device than fix your old one, so have taken
an approach that is broadly hostile to repair. I suspect it's a bit of both.

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michaelmrose
The really amazing thing is that they don't distribute all these videos
themselves. The effect on revenue would be a blip.

~~~
ggg9990
Apple’s hatred of third party repairs isn’t because of the impact on revenue.
It’s because of the possible impact on brand, and Apple is maniacally
protective of their brand. If the repair shop does a bad job, or uses a non
OEM part, then the phone now sends a bad message for Apple. Your friend picks
up your phone and thinks Apple displays are dim or that the phone is a little
rattly.

~~~
dbuder
You're drinking the kool aid on this one, it is about money, the whole
electronics industry (and others) runs on the basis that you will replace your
goods regularly. Apple has strong brand loyalty and many customers that will
buy every upgrade, they are just shifting the rest of the repurchase curve up.
They have never had a good reason for all their proprietary cables either,
well other than gouging for them.

Oh your 2 year old laptop is broken? That's old tech anyway, you should buy a
new one!

~~~
eridius
Funny you say that, since historically Apple computers maintain their resale
value much better than any other manufacturer's computers.

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tschwimmer
Oof, just replacing the display looks really dicey. They essentially have
specially prepared glue jig that lines up where the adhesive needs to be. That
would seem hard to replicate for a independent shop.

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KineticLensman
In case people are wondering who 'someone' is, all the article says:

> Arman Haji, who uploaded the videos to his YouTube channel, told Motherboard
> he initially saw them posted to Twitter

[Edit: made it clearer that the article doesn't identify the original
uploader]

~~~
readhn
nope - the original uploader was on twitter and got his/her account shut down
right away. This guy downloaded the videos while the original videos on
twitter were up. he simply re-uploaded them to youtube. now hundreds of people
have these videos. the cat is out of the bag.

~~~
KineticLensman
That's how I interpreted it as well. I've edited my comment slightly to make
this clearer

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_salmon
These look like they probably came from Apple's GSX (Global Service Exchange)
system.

Source: Was an Apple Certified Macintosh Technician

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wemdyjreichert
I got 10 of 11. Only one I'm missing is the speaker one; Youtube's blocked the
channel (informally; 500 error messages and random exclamation points). Link
to backup: [https://u.teknik.io/xgX94.7z](https://u.teknik.io/xgX94.7z)

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vagab0nd
Looks like the videos were taken down. This would be a perfect use case for
peertube.

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mrgill
The videos were all removed..

Anyone got a new link?

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nchudleigh
"now, turn it over and flick off the planned obscelence switch, look at that
good as new"

------
mrleiter
From a business perspective, it's interesting to me.

Step 1: They want to increase revenue by vertical integration (repairs).

Step 2: They make the process rather difficult (e.g. damaging the device
permanently with one wrong move), thus discouraging self-repair and third-
party repairs. Also, they void guarantee in such a case.

Step 3: Now that they made it rather difficult, they need to buy/manufacture
special equipment (like that metal battery rolling device seen in the video).
This, in addition to having the need for more "man hours" replacing a battery,
is rather costly.

Step 4: They can now offer repair services, which has to cover the cost of the
battery itself, the time needed to repair one device plus the special
equipment (which amortises rather quickly I guess).

(Step 5: Constantly increase lifespan of batteries, so that selling guarantees
becomes more profitable; incurring costs of necessary time for replacing
batteries likewise lower)

~~~
philipodonnell
I have a simpler explanation. Apple would prefer people buy new phones than
repairing old phones because they make more money that way. One way to
accomplish that is to make the phone harder/riskier to fix.

That said, I think Apples success is mostly inertia at this point: demand in
the secondary market keeps resale prices high which quickens the new device
cycle. As long as it costs less to sell the broken one and buy a new one, that
will be the path people take when there is an issue.

~~~
GW150914
Apple’s success is first and foremost a result of the walled garden that so
many here love to hate. A vast majority of people would rather know that
whatever they download from an App Store isn’t a scam or malware than almost
anything else. People want their phone to just work, they don’t want to tinker
with the damned thing.

~~~
freehunter
I'll admit that's the only reason I bought an iPhone in the first place, and
why I bought into more Apple products over time. I couldn't trust myself to
_not_ break my phone trying to tinker with it (bricked a Palm Pre and then two
Android phones after that, all my fault), so I got one where no matter what I
did, it was phone first and computer second. Then HP shut down Palm and my HP
Touchpad stopped getting updates, so I installed Android but the experience
was never what I wanted from it, so I got an iPad to replace it. And then my
Windows machine broke down (because of a bad repair I had made) and trying to
fix it broke it even further (my fault), so I went out and bought a Macbook.

I got sick of being my own tech support. I do that stuff all day at work and
when I get home I'm tired of it. If I have to fix my computer, I'm probably
going to rush through it and make it worse, because I really don't want to be
doing it in the first place. I want to be _using_ it, not dinking with it.

Same reason I ditched my old fix-me-up beater car for something with a
warranty: I needed a car that started every time I turned the key. I haven't
opened my own hood since, and it's taken a lot of stress off of my mind.

~~~
magduf
It sounds like your problem isn't getting the wrong products, your problem is
tinkering with things. Buying Apple stuff isn't the answer here, the answer is
to just not tinker if you don't need to.

~~~
pvg
It sounds like a really good answer born from experience and self-awareness.
Your answer is 'don't buy stuff that mitigates your problem, undergo a
corrective personality reconstruction instead'. This seems like a lot more
work than just buying an iPad and getting on with your life.

~~~
magduf
I don't see how you need to reconstruct your personality to avoid tinkering
with things. Just don't do it. I'm a tinkerer too; all you have to do is
realize that you have limited time and attention, and then consciously decide
to focus your tinkering time on only specific projects, and ignore other ones.
Make a priority list perhaps. This takes some willpower obviously, but it's no
different than any other undertaking where you're deciding to make a change in
your life and do something different (e.g., you decide you want to eat better,
exercise more, try socializing more, act better towards people, etc.).

