Apple bricking iPhones

[gnavigator1007]

Sorry if this has already been posted.  I haven't seen it discussed in the forums.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/05/error-53-apple-iphone-software-update-handset-worthless-third-party-repair

[dannyf]

Sure apple, aue their pants off.

[HAL-42b]

"Ha ha It is still OUR phone no matter how much you paid for it. Now go and buy another one you dirty plebe!"

-Apple probably.

[wraper]

Yes, apple are dicks. What FTDI have done (and everyone is yelling about) is nothing compared with this.

[miguelvp]

Interesting:



Edit: Maybe it's just to get views?
Or real? don't know.

[Jeroen3]

But, disconnecting the battery when the phone is locked will result in the 22 million minutes lock delay.
Choices...

Apple does have a fair point that breaking the session of the touch id and the motherboard is tampering.
But it should not be a reason to lock up the entire phone. Apparently they think otherwise.

Meanwhile, remember that the tech companies are promoting the use of encrypted devices. Maybe this is a result of Edward Snowden?

[dannyf]

Applesexplabation makes perfect sense to me. The handshake or pairing is the right thing to do.

However, if the handshake can be reestablished by reconnecting the battery, that's piss poor engineering.

[wraper]

Apple does have a fair point that breaking the session of the touch id and the motherboard is tampering.
But it should not be a reason to lock up the entire phone. Apparently they think otherwise.

They are free to lock as much as they want but immediately after the part replacement,  not by bricking the phone after a year beyond repair without any possibility to fix it and destroying your data at the same time. Also if your original home button failed, you are completely screwed too.

Meanwhile, remember that the tech companies are promoting the use of encrypted devices. Maybe this is a result of Edward Snowden?

No, this is a result of uncontrolled greed.
This smells like a class act. Moreover they don't offer any repair by themselves, they just swap your device with another refurbished at the insane price. And this only if your phone had not any liquid damage or significant mechanical damage (except cracked screen).

[miguelvp]

Also, I don't know why the repair shops chose to discard the original home button with the original touch ID on it. Sure it's a quicker fix not to do a full repair, but they could have at least try to repair it back to spec.

I do get Apples position on Security for stolen phones.

The number of customers affected are on the noise level for them, so they probably don't care much on loosing a  couple of thousands on sales.

Then again, they could get a class action suit and see if that gets them somewhere.

[Richard Crowley]

I do get Apples position on Security for stolen phones.

Yeah, except that finding a REPLACED sensor does NOT indicate "stolen" phone.  It indicates a "repaired" phone.
And it is transparently fatuous if it took them a year to include the "security" check in the firmware updtate.

For those of us who have no respect for Apple, this comes as no particular surprise. Except maybe that it took them so long.   

[wraper]

I do get Apples position on Security for stolen phones.

It does not add any additional security against being stolen. PCB by itself is being locked by find my iphone.

[wraper]

Finally, I can not see any even remote reasons WTF Beats headphones can be that ludicrously expensive. Only b/c it is owned by Apple? The sound sucks, no way to compare a Sennheiser or AKG or Sony with half the price.

Because each headphones have more advertising cost in themselves than actual manufacturing cost.

In-depth analysis over on the website Medium has shed some light on why Beats Headphones that retail for $200 cost only $9.82 to manufacture (the case Beats come in costs only $7 to build).

[XOIIO]

Fucking hell, even for apple this is god damn shocking, I wonder how long it is until they ad it to their computers, just to cinch things down with the glued in batteries and ram/HDD being part of the board in their macbooks.

[dannyf]

Well that's why competition is good. It gives consumer choices.

[nctnico]

Apple just want to make tons of money by making things not repairable.

Fortunately they won't get away with that in the EU. Under EU law they will have to replace the phones which are now bricked so they shot themselves in their feet big time. It is funny to see American companies fail at being aware of the EU laws even though it is typically one of their largest markets.

[dannyf]

It is funny to see American companies fail at being aware of the EU laws even though it is typically one of their largest markets.

Civilized people should just leave backwaters like that. Let's them continue to use their Nokia phones.

I can not see any even remote reasons WTF Beats headphones can be that ludicrously expensive.

Two reasons:

1. some people just like ghetto sound. White guilt maybe?
2. some people just want to part with their money.

[cdev]

I think some new law took effect this year that lets companies brick stuff if some kind of violation of eulas can be claimed. If its not there its definitely in TPP.

Also, I think they all (countries) may get equal backdoors.

[PTR_1275]

I use an apple laptop and have a iphone. I like the apple stuff but am definitely not a racing mad fanboy that says their precious apple can't do bad.

Them saying this is for security is a crock of sh*t. If it really was for security and it detected a failure in the pairing, they should lock the phone (normal security pass code lock), delete the fingerprint data and disable the fingerprint scanner so it will only unlock via the code.

This way the customer can still use the phone but the device is secure.

[crispy_tofu]

Here's another Louis Rossmann video explaining this:

He makes some good points, too.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

Wow Louis can really rant. Makes Dave look like a softy.

[Muxr]

I don't see an issue. It makes sense that it would have a unique ID. But it sounds like disconnecting the battery fixes the problem, so what's the issue?

Finally, I can not see any even remote reasons WTF Beats headphones can be that ludicrously expensive. Only b/c it is owned by Apple? The sound sucks, no way to compare a Sennheiser or AKG or Sony with half the price.

Have you heard of Sennheiser Orpheus 2? Look them up sometimes. Apple's got nothing on Sennheiser. Sennheiser also loves to use proprietary connectors.

I am not a fan of Beats headphones, I own a few pairs of decent headphones, my favourite being Mad Dogs. But Beats Solo 2 are price competitive with the rest of the similarly performing headphones.

[Brumby]

I don't see an issue. It makes sense that it would have a unique ID. But it sounds like disconnecting the battery fixes the problem, so what's the issue?

From what I've seen so far, the issue is that such a procedure has not been shown to be a reliable solution.  It is still anecdotal on a very, very small scale.

[gnavigator1007]

Never been willing to use their garbage in the first place.  While I can't help but feel bad for people affected, I've got to admit to being somewhat entertained by the whole thing.  Seems to be a very foolish move on the part of Apple, what with sales being lower than expected and smartphone sales on the decline.  Good luck to them expanding in China! 

[Muxr]

I don't see an issue. It makes sense that it would have a unique ID. But it sounds like disconnecting the battery fixes the problem, so what's the issue?

From what I've seen so far, the issue is that such a procedure has not been shown to be a reliable solution.  It is still anecdotal on a very, very small scale.

We'd need to know the facts.. but even if they attempted to lock it I can see it being driven by a government agency security type mandate. It would make it harder to spoof the fingerprint and unlock someone's phone in a number of scenarios.

[Muxr]

Have you heard of Sennheiser Orpheus 2? Look them up sometimes. Apple's got nothing on Sennheiser. Sennheiser also loves to use proprietary connectors.

Orpheus is a piece of legendary history, but Orpheus 2 looks very like a scam. If they want to add heavy flavors to sound by using tubes, they should not use ES9018 from the first place.

Beats does not have their own transducers, and they are all OEM made. Sennheiser still has their Germany factory for top of the line products, and they do real acoustic R&D, as well as transducers.

Finally, Sennheiser's pricing reflects quality, while Apple's pricing reflects popularity.

What does that even mean? Sennheiser is the most popular mid-fi headphone manufacturer.



The Inner Fidelity dude is known to be a no nonsense headphone reviewer. He doesn't just do subjective listening tests he also does objective measurements. And his review of Solo 2s ranks them pretty highly.



I think people just jump on any opportunity to hate on Apple. I don't like Beats because I think they look tacky. But the Solo 2s as reviewed by Innerfidelity are not a rip off.