<story><title>Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery</title><url>https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/21/23079058/apple-self-service-iphone-repair-kit-hands-on</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>PragmaticPulp</author><text>&amp;gt; You have to admit that requiring 79 lbs of equipment, a 1200$ deposit, and so much effort just to swap a friggin’ battery is a tad overkill&lt;p&gt;You know people were swapping batteries long before this was available, right? And that you don’t have to rent the official factory tools?&lt;p&gt;Apple did a great thing by providing this option &lt;i&gt;at a loss&lt;/i&gt; to themselves. The fact that people are rushing to criticize the move suggests more that people like to find reasons to complain about everything.&lt;p&gt;It’s surreal to read HN threads where people are floating ideas about making laws to prevent companies from designing better hardware products just because they want to replace batteries with a screwdriver. I guarantee if you put a screwdriver-repairable phone and a modern iPhone in front of average consumers, 99% or more would choose the modern iPhone without a second question. The obsession with easy battery replacement seems limited to a very narrow set of people while the rest of the population has moved on to appreciate the benefits of modern sealed phones such as impressive resistance to water damage.</text></item><item><author>ornornor</author><text>You have to admit that requiring 79 lbs of equipment, a 1200$ deposit, and so much effort just to swap a friggin’ battery is a tad overkill and exactly what is wrong with the current state of self repairs. Never mind the DRM on the battery so that the phone won’t recognize even a genuine battery as genuine without involving the 3PL to marry the parts together…&lt;p&gt;It shouldn’t be so complicated. If it makes the phone one mm thicker but you can swap the battery easily without requiring all this equipment, why aren’t we there yet?&lt;p&gt;I can (with a bit of a stretch) understand why they would not accept just any OEM part, but making extra difficult to even use an Apple bruine battery with the rest of the Apple hardware, that’s also very unnecessarily self repair hostile.</text></item><item><author>wfhordie</author><text>Apple can’t win here. If they had sent the sleek, easy to carry tools this author asked for, the author would complain about the pathetic tools they are providing.&lt;p&gt;Really disappointed in The Verge on this article. Could have been a cool piece about the specific tech that Apple provides, but instead it’s framed so disingenuously that I come away not feeling particularly good about right to repair in general. It no longer sounds to me like people trying to get access to their own devices. It sounds like people taking potshots at BigCo because big co bad.&lt;p&gt;By the way. The tools this guy used are common, dead-common in China. Go to any repair mall in Shenzhen and you’ll see hundreds of these.&lt;p&gt;Does he actually want to repair his phone? It doesn’t seem like it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ornornor</author><text>Not having easily replaceable batteries (and pardon me but I don’t consider requiring 79 lbs of equipment and a 1200$ deposit “easy”) in modern phones is akin to selling cars with the tires welded on.&lt;p&gt;It is ridiculous, consumer hostile, and wasteful.&lt;p&gt;Batteries are consumable, they should not be a reason to throw the phone away once they stopped working.&lt;p&gt;You don’t throw your house away when the garbage bag is full or when the tap starts leaking. These are things you’re expected to replace and it can easily be done with simple tools.&lt;p&gt;Phones shouldn’t be any different when it comes to their parts, especially &lt;i&gt;consumable&lt;/i&gt; ones.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery</title><url>https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/21/23079058/apple-self-service-iphone-repair-kit-hands-on</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>PragmaticPulp</author><text>&amp;gt; You have to admit that requiring 79 lbs of equipment, a 1200$ deposit, and so much effort just to swap a friggin’ battery is a tad overkill&lt;p&gt;You know people were swapping batteries long before this was available, right? And that you don’t have to rent the official factory tools?&lt;p&gt;Apple did a great thing by providing this option &lt;i&gt;at a loss&lt;/i&gt; to themselves. The fact that people are rushing to criticize the move suggests more that people like to find reasons to complain about everything.&lt;p&gt;It’s surreal to read HN threads where people are floating ideas about making laws to prevent companies from designing better hardware products just because they want to replace batteries with a screwdriver. I guarantee if you put a screwdriver-repairable phone and a modern iPhone in front of average consumers, 99% or more would choose the modern iPhone without a second question. The obsession with easy battery replacement seems limited to a very narrow set of people while the rest of the population has moved on to appreciate the benefits of modern sealed phones such as impressive resistance to water damage.</text></item><item><author>ornornor</author><text>You have to admit that requiring 79 lbs of equipment, a 1200$ deposit, and so much effort just to swap a friggin’ battery is a tad overkill and exactly what is wrong with the current state of self repairs. Never mind the DRM on the battery so that the phone won’t recognize even a genuine battery as genuine without involving the 3PL to marry the parts together…&lt;p&gt;It shouldn’t be so complicated. If it makes the phone one mm thicker but you can swap the battery easily without requiring all this equipment, why aren’t we there yet?&lt;p&gt;I can (with a bit of a stretch) understand why they would not accept just any OEM part, but making extra difficult to even use an Apple bruine battery with the rest of the Apple hardware, that’s also very unnecessarily self repair hostile.</text></item><item><author>wfhordie</author><text>Apple can’t win here. If they had sent the sleek, easy to carry tools this author asked for, the author would complain about the pathetic tools they are providing.&lt;p&gt;Really disappointed in The Verge on this article. Could have been a cool piece about the specific tech that Apple provides, but instead it’s framed so disingenuously that I come away not feeling particularly good about right to repair in general. It no longer sounds to me like people trying to get access to their own devices. It sounds like people taking potshots at BigCo because big co bad.&lt;p&gt;By the way. The tools this guy used are common, dead-common in China. Go to any repair mall in Shenzhen and you’ll see hundreds of these.&lt;p&gt;Does he actually want to repair his phone? It doesn’t seem like it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>turbinerneiter</author><text>Completely made up and false conundrum.&lt;p&gt;You can design devices that are easy to repair and still waterproof and sleek.&lt;p&gt;This is a made up target-conflict that is easily resolved by any trained industrial designer and engineer.</text></comment>