Hi, Let's talk about Apple The Right To Repair Movement, and this recent Verge article that came out. Thank you for those who sent it to me to comment on this. Um, here it is. Apple shipped me a 79 pound iphone repair kit to fix a 1.1 ounce battery.

I'm starting to think Apple doesn't want us to repair them. Um, and this is absolutely hilarious. So let's go through it. Sean Hollister, um, from The Verge and Apple must be joking.

That's how I felt again and again as I jumped through hoop after ridiculous hoop to replace the battery in my iphone Mini. Part of that was the repair process. Mostly, it was how difficult Accent Apple actually makes it to get there. Last month, Apple launched his self-service repair program, letting us customers fix broken screens, batteries, and cameras, the latest iphones, using Apple's own parts of the tool for the first time ever.

I've never successfully repaired a phone, but this time I'm with an official repair manual and genuine parts. I'd make it right that Apple would even let me buy these parts, let alone read its manuals and rent its tools is a major change of pace for the company. for years. Yes, of course Apple has been lobbying against the Right To Repair movement.

Of course, everyone I think all of my audience is already following Lewis Rossman. but if you're not, of course he's on the Um leading edge of the Right To Repair movement. So I'll link in Lewis if you don't. If you don't know about Lewis, come on.

Seriously. Um. but having tried the repair process, I can, I actually can't recommend it at all. And as I have a sneaking suspicion that Apple likes it that way.

So as it turns out, this article is actually pretty disingenuous and doesn't really, um, show it in the real light, It doesn't explain what the real problems and issues. Um, uh. Anyway, basically what Sean is, uh, complaining about is that he ordered you can actually rent now the Official Apple Tools for repairing iphones and they will actually ship. You know you can rent them for i think it's a week and you have to send them back after that or you can actually buy them.

I'll show you this. uh, in a minute. But anyway, he's basically having a whinge that to fix his iphone. Sure, you can now get access to the genuine parts, the official Apple repair manual, and the, uh, official Apple Repair Tools to do it.

So he rented them. and he's complaining that they came in these huge two huge pelican cases like this and you'll see why in a minute. So he unpacked them all. And here is all of the tools.

and it doesn't look fantastic as you'd expect. These are apples. You know, proper internal repair tools. I haven't just hastily put these together to satisfy the right to repair movement.

These are the tools they actually use in-house at the authorized Apple repair centers. And it comes with like the ring-bound manual and like. and all the tools and the proper presses to put the screens back and everything. It's absolutely fantastic.

Now First of all, you have to actually give Apple credit. uh, for doing this. They have actually released all you know. Well, not everything.

but they're really. You know you can actually buy and rent their tools and the official parts and the official service manuals and everything. And I'll link in. Here's the official press release: It was April, Uh.

22nd. Genuine Apple parts and tools can now be purchased by Us customers. As I said, you can also rent them as well. Anyway, we won't go into that, but basically, uh, they link you over to the Apple self Service repair site and you can start with the repair manual and sure enough, you can actually go in here.

And here's the manuals. They haven't released the Macbook manuals, but apparently they're coming and other Mac products I don't know. but uh, yeah, at the moment they've um, so sort of. You know, most of the latest called last, what? two or three gens of iphones or something? You can get the manuals and sure enough, here it is the Iphone 13 Pro Repair Manual.

This is their official in-house repair manual. I'll link it in. It's very comprehensive as you'd expect of any in-house repair manual ever. You know, the size of Apple.

They've had a team of people actually, uh, put these together and they're very impressive. And it goes how? I don't know how many 81 pages long, right? And then they've got all the individual part numbers and then all the part numbers for all the tools and everything else, right? It's incredibly impressive. And here's all the stuff you need. And I've done like in-house documents like this as well.

Um, at companies I've worked for and this is you know, this is what um, companies do for their own in-house It's even how to unbox the tools and everything. Look at these really professional level, uh, repair tools and this is what you'd expect these companies to actually do. And you can buy these as I'll show you in a minute and you can also rent them as well. and all the safety concerns and everything.

And then how to like replace the screen and replace the battery and replace the camera and all sorts of things. It's not how to troubleshoot to a component level. um, but you know, Look, it's like it's it's serious. This is absolutely fantastic.

So you've got to give hats off to Apple for actually releasing their in-house manuals for these. I I can't believe these didn't leak out actually, considering that some of the schematics and other things have leaked out. But this is absolutely brilliant, right? And then sure enough, if you go over to their Apple um, it's actually selfservicerepair.com They did a whole domain for it and everything. and they've got, Um, here it is.

So you can only do the iphone at the moment and they're the models available. And here's the type of stuff: They let you repair: the battery, the bottom speaker, the camera, the display. um, but you know, if your lightning connector breaks or whatever I get like you're screwed I guess right? So there's only limited, um, things that that they actually let you uh, change, right? And so the camera here is like the camera itself is 111 bucks. These would be yankee prices, right? Replace part, return credit.

What's that? After your repair, return your replaced part to receive credit. That's interesting. I just noticed that, um, that must be so that they they don't want these parts in the second hand market. They don't want people to like resell them on ebay or something like that.

But while you'd resell it if it's broken, I, I don't know. Anyway, um yeah, you can actually get a credit if you actually return it. Look at that. So they've really gone to town and they've got like their proper like adhesive uh displays to put the display back on and stuff like that you can buy.

Like all the individual scrolls and the little um, cowl in that goes over I don't know the backing or something for it. Um, so this is this is really impressive. Let's have a look at the display. the display cost 267 bucks.

I don't know if this is all good value compared to like aftermarket ones I assume not right. But but the fact that they you can just add these to the cart and then then you can buy them is absolutely fantastic. But anyway, look at this. I'll show you all the like, the spudgers and the you know, the tools and everything.

And sure enough here's the display. Press down here. they'll sell that to you for 216 bucks. I think that's actually really good value.

And the heated display removal fixture 256 bucks. I reckon that's an absolute bargain actually. of course you wouldn't buy these if you just joe average and want to fix your phone one off right of course. But if you're running like an iphone repair business or something, I would totally buy these right.

That's an absolute bargain for like the that quality for 256 bucks? Are you kidding me? I'd buy that in a heartbeat if I was repairing these things. You can go into business fixing um, you know, iphones and get all the original Apple parts and and guides and everything. Fantastic. Hats off.

See Now here's the problem right with the verge article is that he's basically complaining that I I had to re he rented all this right? He's got to send it back after seven days or something and he had to actually, uh, pay a twelve hundred dollar deposit to actually rent this thing. And he gets to twelve hundred bucks back when he ships the uh, you know the kit back and well, you know, fair enough I guess. Um, but you know, like this is not really something to complain about. Like the individual is not going to rent this kit right for seven days or they're not going to buy it to fix their one-off iphone.

they're just going to take it to a repair center. So I think this is a pretty disingenuous uh rant here from the verge. It's not the point. Like you know, nobody's going to be dumb enough to rent this kit and pay 1200 deposit and fix their iphone.

That's no. And they're still complaining after they admit that Apple would be making a loss on this because Apple actually pay the uh postage both ways for these huge pelican cases. And yeah, that would not be cheap. They offer free shipping in both directions with your 49 rental.

So they're complaining that, you know. Look, there's no reason to complain and Apple are taking a loss on this by actually even allowing you to rent these kits. I don't know why Apple even, uh, bother doing this, but I think it's actually a pretty good thing that they eat the cost of the shipping on this and it's only 49 bucks to rent it, even if you do have to put the deposit down. So I no, no, I I don't agree that it's worth bashing Apple for that.

I expected Apple would send me a small box of screwdrivers, sponges, and pliers. I own my mini after all. Instead, they giant sent me Giant, a pelican case. and you know, two pelican cases, 79 pounds of tools, and all.

the ring bound repair manual. Why complain about this? You can't expect a company like Apple to just get like, go. Oh yeah, here's some like a couple of hand tools for you. You know you have at it.

Um, no. they've actually done this professionally and they've supplied like they've done it in the absolute most professional way possible. The fact that you actually, um, rented this professional level repair kit. Um, and you're complaining about it, that no, it's too professional and no, I shouldn't.

They shouldn't Just give me a spudger I can buy for a buck on ebay delivered and a set of pliers. I can also buy for a buck on ebay delivered. and I think no, come on, it's not fair. So they're complaining here.

Uh, what surprised me was the price tag. 69 bucks for a new battery. The same price that Apple store charges for a battery replacement. Really? I didn't know that it was that cheap.

Um, that's actually really good. Like if if Apple are willing to replace the battery in your iphone. I don't know. Never been to an Apple Store in my life.

I've got no clue. I've never owned these fruity, um, Apple gadgets. Um, but that that seems like a good deal. So yeah, writing a whole article bashing Apple about this.

Look, I am not a fan of Apple, but you know, come on, fair sucker. The Sav right? if it's 69 bucks and he says, except, I get to do all the work and assume all the risk, well yeah, you're the one who wanted to do it. So instead of paying the 69 bucks to get it changed at the I at the Apple Store, so uh, 49 bucks to rent Apple's tool for a week? Yeah, that's freaking good. They're eating the cost of that and making the service available.

Why anyone would wanna actually do it? Um, I did. I don't know. but geez, you can't complain about it. Seriously.

And he's complaining about the 1200 credit card hold which would forfeit if the tools won't return within seven days. Well, I I reckon that's fair. Let's be clear, this is a ridiculous amount to risk for the average person who just wants a new battery to put in their phone. Um, yeah.

and of course that's why nobody is going to do this. and this is not really what right to repair what the fundamental issues with right to repair are. I mean, it's fantastic that Apple now let you get that. Just download it from their website.

Here it is. Here's the link. Just download it. You don't even have to have an account.

I've got. No boom there It is right. There's their full 80 page repair manual. Absolutely fantastic, right? And you can buy the tools and the original parts, right? Absolutely fantastic.

Sure, it's not all of them, but come on, you've got to give Apple credit for like, at least making these parts available. And then he's complaining about that. He, you know, went through the steps and repaired it All and everything. and then he, uh, you know, I put the screen back on with the he's even the whole lot by the looks of it and then it didn't power up.

Then he's complaining that Apple gave me no way to test whether the battery in display connectors were actually seated they probably won't have and had me close up the phone. Anyhow, Well, I don't know. Maybe that's an issue in the manual or something like that, but of course you obviously test it before you go to the effort to seal the whole phone up again. Surely you can like pair it up with the screen dangling off or something, can't you? I mean, yeah, I I don't know.

This is not a fair suck of the staff, but this here is probably fair criticism. The single most frustrating part of this process after using the genuine past genuine tools, was that the iphone didn't recognize the battery the genuine battery as genuine unknown part. Flash to warning. Apparently, that's the case for almost all of these parts.

You're expected to dial up Apple's third-party logistics company after the repair so that they can validate the part for you. The process involves having an entirely separate computer and wi-fi connection since you have to reboot your iphone in the diagnostics mode and give the company remote control. Really? Um, yeah, that that is an absolute joke. Come on Apple.

So let's get into the issues with Uh, the Right to repair and Apple in particular. Well, obviously that's one of them, right? I I can't verify this myself, but if that's true, then that's yeah. that's just dumb. But the problem with Apple and Right to Repair and you'll hear this from Louis Rossman all the time, is that the biggest problem is that they don't make board level component repair easy.

In fact, Apple in the past have tried to, um, you know, legally strong arm him. Um, not into actually releasing videos of how to, uh, do it so I they don't release schematics b They actually have uh, no cell agreements with a lot of the uh Silicon manufacturers I believe are like Ti or somebody I can't name the exact art ones, but uh, Lewis does in his videos. But there are companies who manufacture in specifically like the charger chips in Macbooks and things like that was what Lewis complains about all the time. They have no sell agreements for these parts where you cannot buy them on digikey now.

So anyway, you cannot buy it from the manufacturer from any distributor whatsoever. They only sell the chip exclusively to Apple and that's one of the major problems. They can't even get their parts. that's why.

uh, repair centers like Louis Rossman have to like strip old boards that like take parts off old boards and things and put them in. And the third issue is, um, component serialization. Like they said down here, you can't even put in the in this case, the genuine batteries. Try putting in a I don't know, a third-party battery or something like that.

but I'm hearing that a lot of these components, like the third-party camera modules and all sorts of things are individually serialized. And even if you take a a genuine one out of another iphone for example, and put it in a and put it in your iphone, you buy it on ebay. It's a genuine part. It came out of a junk iphone because somebody I don't know destroyed the thing and you go to putting in yours.

It won't work because of individual component serialization. The firmware checks the serial number and goes, we don't want any part of that. This is a non-genuine part. Bugger off.

And yes, of course we can also talk about well, they should design these products so that they're actually repairable. The batteries are replaceable and the connectors are. You know, everything's sort of like modular, replaceable and all that sort of stuff. That is not the argument because I they have to design new products to do that and b well it's the consumers that actually demand all these you know, sleeky, wanky, waterproof, bloody uh phones and everything that have to be all glued shut sealed and everything else.

So you know I can understand the argument and I'm all for it. You know, But people need to demand these sort of things. They have to stop buying these fruity Apple gadgets if they're hard to repair. So these are the three major things that Apple and other manufacturers have to do if they're serious about right to repair in consumer products like this.

I mean, but seriously, like hats off for Apple actually releasing all of this stuff and being able to buy what what I think is. And these are incredible prices. These are amazingly low prices for these genuine uh tools, right? So you know you could argue. Yeah, their display might be a bit expensive at 100 and at 260 bucks and stuff like that.

And I think uh, Lewis has talked about, um, in the past like the display, the Lcd itself. like if you just cracked the Lcd, you have to replace like the entire assembly or something like that. um so they're you know they're and they're only selling like a few parts at the moment. Like I said, but if you bust like the connector in the thing then well, you've gotta like really get down to like board level uh, repair.

especially if you've got a failed chip or something like that. I don't know how often like chips in individual iphones, uh, fail. But then Macbooks are for example. Lewis has got a whole business, you know, with a dozen employees or more dedicated just to fixing Macbooks.

Um, because of the and the chips just fail in them with monotonous regularity. But of course you wouldn't expect Apple to like for their Macbooks once they have some things available for them to have, like individual charger chips and stuff like that. I think that's asking too much of any company, but they at least they can do is to get rich, scrap those no sell agreements with the uh semiconductor manufacturers so that they can just make them available on Digikey or Mouser and other suppliers available on the free market so that you can just buy them. You know, if you're a repair business, you buy a stock of you know, 100 of those charger chips because you know they, you know, fail and then you've got all your stock of all the major parts uh, that fail on hand and scrap the serialization of.

There's absolutely no reason to do it. and especially when Apple have basically said look, you can go and repair your own iphone now right? Here's all the stuff to do it. Here's all the info. here's all the official guide and everything.

and obviously right. I assume there's some clause in there that you void your warranty and everything else, right? and that's fine and dandy. Everyone understands that and so they're allowing you to do this now. in fact, in even encouraging you, uh to repair your own Apple Fruity gadget and so therefore just like scrap all the other about security and genuine parts and everything else.

If people want to repair them, then they should be able to use any third-party part without restriction. They should be able to use genuine parts and and swap them between devices. and they should be able to buy the semiconductor devices. and they should be able to get the schematics.

And don't give me that Bs about uh, you know, oh company will just you know, clone the Apple Uh product because they've got the schematics. Now that's not how it works. Just release the schematics and the board uh information available in Uh Paul Daniel's Board View software so that any repair shop can just get his software and then just load in the genuine files and then troubleshoot to a component level if they want to and then the individual customers have the choice. If you want the genuine Apple experience, you go into your Apple Fruity store and you pay your thousand bucks to get whatever fixed okay and or you can go to your local Uh repair center authorized or not and they will have access to a good lot of the genuine parts and also third-party parts and then the user has the choice whether or not they want to, uh, you know, risk having like, you know, using little risk.

scary, uh, third-party um, you know, screen or something like that for a lower cost and like, seriously, I don't know why Apple don't do this. It's a no-brainer but seriously, this verge article? just no, no. it sucks. It totally missed the mark.

Um, it's like no, but hey, it's the verge, you know. Anyway, leave your thoughts and comments down below. Catch you next time.