The ability to repair a device and access repair services are important considerations when designing long-lasting products. However optimizing for repairability alone may not yield the best outcome for our customers or the environment. Apple strives to improve the longevity of devices by following a set of design principles that help resolve tensions between repairability and other important factors — including impact to the environment; expanding access to repair services; preserving the safety, security, and privacy of our customers; and enabling transparency in repair. This also requires careful analysis of anonymized historical data and predictions of future customer usage so that priority is given to those product modules that will potentially have the highest frequency of needing repair.
Note: This is a PDF document.
Apple Diagnostics for Self Service Repair — a software tool that enables users to troubleshoot issues — is now available in 32 European countries, including the U.K., France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Launched in the U.S. in December 2023, Diagnostics gives users the same ability as Apple Authorized Service Providers and Independent Repair Providers to test products for optimal parts functionality and performance, and it helps identify which parts may need repair. With this expansion, Apple Diagnostics for Self Service Repair now supports iPhone, Mac, and Studio Display models in 33 countries and 24 languages.
Apple today published a lengthy whitepaper that highlights the company's approach to device repairability and longevity. In the document, Apple revealed that iPhones will better support third-party displays and batteries later in 2024.
Alongside expanding its latest changes to the Self Service Repair program to Europe, Apple today has shared a new whitepaper, “Longevity, by Design.” The paper focuses on Apple’s approach to longevity, its principles on repairability, and “the truth about parts pairing.”
The now Apple-owned company announced the return of the device with a new ad featuring the NBA champion/multimedia mogul and iconic Hip-Hop star.
In Your Face ensures you don’t miss timed events or reminders by displaying the mother of all modal dialogs. We’re talking about a themed full-screen alert that takes over the entire screen and requires that you click the OK button to dismiss it and return to using your Mac. Buttons at the bottom of the alert also let you snooze the alert for prespecified amounts of time or until the event starts.
Hover over any dock icon and you will see a real-time preview of what's happening in that application. If there are two windows open in that app you will see both windows, and you can click on it to open it.
Just the other day, I had to read the manual. I’d borrowed my neighbor’s hammer drill to make some holes in a masonry wall, and I didn’t know how to swap the bits. Fortunately, the drill’s carrying case came with a booklet of instructions, which I followed with great success. Many holes were thus produced. This got me thinking: I used to read the manual fairly often; now I almost never do. I own a smartphone, a handful of laptops, and a barrage of smart-home gadgets; for several days this winter, I also played around with Apple’s brand-new, ultra-high-definition VR headset. Yet not a single one of these devices, each a million times more complicated than the drill, came with any useful printed matter—usually just a “Quick Start” booklet and, if I was lucky, a QR code that linked to further help online.
We have always talk about the tradeoffs between security and convenience. Now, Apple is introducing (not for the first time) the tradeoffs between repairability and longevity, with a dash of security and privacy thrown in.
Of course, not everyone will fully buy into Apple's story (even me), but I think the white paper is well written, intelligent, and clear.
A lot of the arguments that Apple is facing -- be it EU and DMA, DOJ's lawsuit, or any other host of issues -- or complex and multifaceted. Don't just shout that Apple is simply evil and spiteful and intentionally breaks laws for profits and controls, without acknowledging the complications and complexities involved. (I've heard from quite a lot from such folks from podcasts and web sites.)
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Thanks for reading.