Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac: Apple’s Activation Lock for iPhone components will make a huge dent in the market for stolen iPhones, though it introduces another barrier to DIY repairs  —  Apple’s latest theft-prevention measure went live for beta testers yesterday: Activation Lock for iPhone components.

  • Clent@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    What’s the barrier to DIY repair?

    It is because people can’t buy stolen parts anymore?

    • KomfortablesKissen@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      Third-party parts: You are limited to parts acknowledged by apple. They will be more expensive for no reason and you will therefore be less inclined to repair your own device.

      Artificial rarity:
      They will be more rare and therefore you will be less inclined to repair.

      Rare and overworked repair centers:
      There will be a limited selection of repair stores, potentially entirely limited to the “genius bars” because of hurdles apple puts out and therefore you will be less inclined to repair.

      Also additional point-of-failure:
      Phones fail more often because every single part now has additional complexity.

      On the other side the additional security against stealing:
      Assumed, until a pairing software is stolen from an apple store, until people figure out how to read and fake this, or until people find ways to circumvent this in an unforeseen way.