Key Points:
- Apple opposed a right-to-repair bill in Oregon, despite previously supporting a weaker one in California.
- The key difference is Oregon’s restriction on “parts pairing,” which locks repairs to Apple or authorized shops.
- Apple argues this protects security and privacy, but critics say it creates a repair monopoly and e-waste.
- Apple claims their system eases repair and maintain data security, while Google doesn’t have such a requirement
- Apple refused suggestions to revise the bill
- Cybersecurity experts argue parts pairing is unnecessary for security and hinders sustainable repair.
No, Apple never supported right to repair.
They “supported” a bill that they immediately circumvented, yeah. They had no interest in protecting right to repair they just wanted the PR. It should surprise no one that they’re opposed to actual bills that force them to alter their business practices.
they just wanted the PR
And it was a resounding success. Apple is an absolute master of gaslighting. Can’t tell you how many people I came across that told me “oh Apple actually supports R2R now!”
no suprise here. it’s apple. they made a $3500 device that has been bricking itself and charging people $100 to fix it because it’s completely proprietary
Obviously people should be able to repair their own devices.
Pumps millions into actively preventing that exact thing
Pumps more millions into a cringe advertising campaign with some mother earth bullshit or so. Yeah sure we love her but let’s force more ewaste down her throat. 😂
Yeah they supported weak protections that they could game. They are lobbying against legislation they can not.
It’s crazy that Apple is lauded as having amazing designers and engineers, but they can’t make easily repairable devices. It’s almost like that’s the point…
Ooooh. I have a story for this.
I was a student at Purdue and one of the freshmen “engineering hype” lectures had people from industry come say why they’re so cool, etc. Now, this was specifically an electrical and computer engineering course, not the whole engineering school. These are the people who tore apart their various electronics for fun and made cool stuff using parts from RadioShack (RIP).
Apple came to one. First red flag: she started with “don’t tell anyone we were here”. Weird, but whatever. She proceeded with her spiel and, after however long, got to the Q&A bit. Someone raised their hand and asked this: “why does Apple solder RAM into their devices”. This woman said, and I quote, “It is the position of Apple that the consumer has no right to change the product after it has been sold”. With a straight fucking face. Jaws dropped. There was a solid 10 seconds of silence while all these nerds (I include myself here) processed such a blatant anti-consumer (and anti-us if we’re being honest) statement. This was in 2010 (+/- 1 year).
She finished up and left a few minutes later. No doubt some of my classmates went on to work for them, but it set my passionate hatred for Apple in stone right there. Don’t care how nice their devices are, even if my husband uses his apple devices all the time (the walled garden works well for his needs), I will never purchase an Apple product for myself.
Apple didn’t solder RAM to their devices in 2010 +/- 1 year
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2012+RAM+Replacement/10374
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Late+2011+RAM+Replacement/7651
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+mini+Late+2012+RAM+Replacement/11726
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2546+RAM+Replacement/15623
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+Pro+2009+2010+2011+2012+RAM+Replacement/147697
The exception was the MacBook Air.
Can’t vs won’t. I have no doubt that they could do it, but apple didn’t get to be one of the most powerful companies in the world by doing the thing that is cheaper for the user.
Oddly, these hard to repair things in apples case are actually cheaper because of it, and probably in many cases makes them more durable due to less failure points.
The problems only come up if/when something does fail.
Having to replace a whole board instead of just the ram isn’t cheaper, but that board per unit is cheaper.
Apple just wants to sell you more shit. If they’d just admit it, I’d at least respect their honesty. As it is they’re just flip flopping.
Apple just wants to sell you more shit.
Bingo. I just set up a dual monitor and dock setup for my laptop in our home office. It dawned on me that my wife could get some use out of it, so I plugged it in. Come to find out, her MacBook Pro only supports a single external monitor. To do two external monitors, she’d have to upgrade to an entirely different and obviously more expensive MacBook. Dafuq? My almost 15 year old Sony laptop can do that ffs. Fucking boners.
I know there are software hacks I can do to enable the functionality, but that’s asinine for a $1700 laptop. Guaranteed if I dual booted Linux on it the problem would magically disappear.
Guaranteed if I dual booted Linux on it the problem would magically disappear.
unfortunately not since its a hardware limitation
probably a cruft from the iPhone/iPad era since the first ARM desktop chips from Apple are basically beefed up phone chips which don’t need more than one external monitor
anyway it is pretty stupid to ship a laptop with that limitation in this century
Apple’s design revolves around devices “always” working. Dual externals probably has the potential to run like shit with heavy cpu loads. So they limit it to one where it’s “promised” to operate well. It’s why peripherals have to meet certain standards and have a license to pair to apple products, they have to work as Apple expects. Apple is afraid people will overextend resources and buy shitty peripherals and then say their apple is a piece of shit. So, their factor of safety is excessive. It helps foster the whole “apple just works” mentality, promoting its clean UI and smooth operation. It’s for common folk, people of the land, you know… Morons.
And things still run like shit anyway, especially when navigating proprietarianism hell
No they aren’t, they want to sell you and me more stuff. It’s the way it’s always been. We’re just the pleebs giving them our money.
Nah I fully get where you’re coming from, but locking out users is a cop out. Considering Apple’s M-series chips being “system-on-chips” integrating the CPU, GPU, RAM, and more, I can slightly understand limitations with someone trying to do dual monitor video rendering or 3d modeling overloading the chip and crashing the system on lower end chips. But even then, there could easily be a software mechanism that disallows such use when loads are too high as well as a warning to the user by way of a pop up prompt. Modern monitors using display port via thunderbolt and USB C while claiming the chip can’t handle it is such a silly restriction when 3rd party software can mitigate it. Like I understand to an extent that they’ve made computing easy for the technologically uneducated and illiterate, but given their track record with other business decisions, this seems like more of just another “we like money” scenario instead of protect grandma.
Awesome username btw
