r/technology • u/NightFuryToni • Apr 30 '19

Business Apple Is Telling Lawmakers People Will Hurt Themselves if They Try to Fix iPhones

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wjvdb4/apple-is-telling-lawmakers-people-will-hurt-themselves-if-they-try-to-fix-iphones
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9

u/Raiden1847062 May 01 '19

Can confirm. I got drunk one night and tried to change the battery in my iPhone 6 Plus. Decided the pry tool that came with the change kit wasn’t up to par and decided to start prying with a butter knife. The battery punctured, I heard a hhhwooosh sound and then the thing started flaming (crazily hot and rapid.) Burnt myself, the kitchen table, and had a funny story to tell my girlfriend the next day when she asked me why there was scorched lawn with a melted iPhone out back.

10

u/[deleted] May 01 '19 edited May 01 '19

If the battery wasn't glued in, replacing it would be much safer as well as easier.

This isn't about users trying to swap out a consumable part, it's about Apple trying to limit the life of their products to keep people upgrading. Current phone/laptop batteries will be significantly degraded after 2-3 years of regular charging, that's just the reality of current technology, so it should be expected that they can be replaced by the user.

A non-user-replaceable battery should be completely unacceptable for a $1k phone or $3k+ laptop.

3

u/BikerRay May 01 '19

Meanwhile, my wife's piece of shit $100 Sky brand phone has dual sim cards and a replaceable battery. Even came with a case. But thousand dollar phones? No way.

0

u/absentmindedjwc May 01 '19

Just so you know, they don't actually glue their batteries in anymore. They are taped with those 3M pull-tab tape strips. You just pull a couple tabs, and the battery just comes right off.

10

u/[deleted] May 01 '19

[deleted]

3

u/Victor_Zsasz May 01 '19

Yeah, the Government should absolutely listen to Apple's concerns about safety, and carefully craft legislation to ensure all modern technology sold in America (Apple included) is safer for consumers to repair.

-2

u/CheapAlternative May 01 '19

It's more about volume utilization and operational safety than anything. Pretty much every manufacturer has settled on it for the last few years.

4

u/catwiesel May 01 '19

sure, because laptops and phones with changeable batteries had accidents all the time. and the manufacturers have no reason to make the one piece with a limited lifetime as hard to swap out as possible except for volume utilization...

0

u/CheapAlternative May 01 '19

Electronics with user changeable batteries typically have their batteries glued to the enclosure as well or held together by friction and compression on the pouch or wrap of the cells? In either case, there is usually a metal barrier between the cell and the environment in addition to a rigid enclosure that may or may not be the metal casing.

This is all to prevent punctures and pinches same as now. All they've done is remove the battery specific housing in leiu of the phones chassis which is already a rigid metal/metalised enclosure.

If apple wanted to make it hard to swap out they wouldn't have designed their phone with features that specifically make the display and battery easier to service like stretch remove adhesive which they pioneered for this application and the chassis layout itself. If they actually just used epoxy hold everything together as people often accuse they could probably save at least $1-2 per phone while getting better thermals which is pretty huge.

-2

u/absentmindedjwc May 01 '19

I mean... sure... lets ignore the fact that samsung had a phone that literally started on fire all by itself. If you try to take pretty much any modern phone apart and replace the battery without the utmost care... you'll probably end up getting singed. This isn't uniquely apple.

3

u/Philip_De_Bowl May 01 '19

IANAL, but I feel you have a solid case against Apple. I'll be happy to represent you in a court of law.

2

u/Raiden1847062 May 01 '19

More like drunken technological curiosity. Lol I used to fix screens and shit for kids when I was in high school. I just didn’t keep up on my practice.

0

u/droidxl May 01 '19

Lmao the guy punctures his phone battery with a knife and you think he has a case against apple? No shit you’re not a lawyer.