Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, October 29 (Xinhua) after the release of Apple's iPhone 14 / Pro series, Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra, Apple Watch SE 2, AirPods Pro 2 headphones and other new products, Apple quietly made some changes to the AppleCare+ plan, extending the warranty period of Apple products and increasing the insurance against accidental damage. Although AppleCare+ used to provide accidental damage service twice a year, such repairs are now "unlimited".

The price of Apple's AppleCare+ varies from device to device, and customers can choose to pay monthly or full price. For iPhone 14tech AppleCare+, the monthly fee is $9.99 or the full price is $199. It is worth noting that even if you subscribe to AppleCare+, if your equipment needs to be repaired, you still have to pay a service charge to Apple.

For now, although Apple has made repairs easier for the iPhone 14 series, the question of "who can do the repairs" is hotly debated. CTOnews.com learned that the Apple iPhone 14 series seems to strengthen the restrictions on third-party maintenance to some extent, making it difficult for screens and others to repair through third-party channels.

A source from a third-party maintenance community said that while it might be easy to take apart an iPhone 14, it would be difficult to get it to work after that.

According to reports, the new problems focus on the iPhone 14 series of "all-weather display" (AOD), which uses the phone's two ambient light sensors (ALS) to calibrate the display brightness. To save power, the display will automatically turn off at night or when the phone is in your pocket, but if your screen is broken and you change it through a service center that is not authorized by Apple, the ALS will always be off, leaving the screen black forever, unless you can accurately remember the slider position, unlock it and manually adjust to the right brightness when you can't see it clearly.

It is worth mentioning that the ambient light sensor has always been a problem in the previous iPhone, even the position of the controller. On the iPhone 12, for example, it is located in a sensor bending structure that tilts itself in the event of a mechanical failure. On iPhone 13, it is moved to a new component cluster, reducing the risk of accidental damage, while iPhone 14's sensors are in a similar location, so any failure is a software-related problem.

Youtuber @ Hugh Jefferys posted a video on the issue, swapping the motherboards of two brand new iPhone (14 and 14 Pro) phones. Although all the parts are brand new and original by Apple, there are a lot of errors and malfunctions on these phones, including, but not limited to, FaceID, battery health, True Tone, auto brightness, and even the front camera doesn't work properly, and the problem persists when he replaces them until he downgrads the phone to iOS 16.0.

In other words, Apple has introduced a new "part pairing" restriction on the iPhone 14 series, where every part of every phone is bound with a digital ID. For example, the display will have a unique ID recorded on its hardware, and iPhone will check this ID whenever you turn it on.

In the case of iPhone 14, it only works when you use your own display, and if the original ID is not detected properly, I'm sorry it's about a brick. At the same time, users will see a string of error messages urging them to go to their local Apple technical support staff for replacement, but your device will also be marked as "hosting unauthorized components."

The only way to avoid this situation is to manually approve the new paired ID through in-house software / tools by Apple-authorized technicians. The process requires a technician to connect to Apple's private network through the Internet, and the process is "tightly controlled" by Apple, the source said.

Prior to iPhone 13, third-party maintenance stores could use custom EEPROM programmers to solve this problem. Maintenance personnel can read the part ID code from the original display screen and write it into the display screen that needs to be replaced, which is usually the original refurbished display screen, but unfortunately this method is no longer applicable to the iPhone 14 series.

As a result of this policy, repair shops other than Apple's official stores will not be able to repair any new iPhone. However, the cost of joining Apple's official authorized stores is so high for some small stores that many partners are reconsidering whether to maintain the status quo. "as an independent maintenance company, the profit of the independent maintenance scheme (IRP) is not enough to sustain the retail business," said one person who spoke on condition of anonymity.

But you know, Apple has always been opposed to users repairing their own devices, even though Apple has launched an official self-repair kit. Apple supports the anti-repair rights organization and tries to carry out all repair services within its own service process. This leads to problems such as Apple's high cost of basic maintenance of some machines. The most infamous example, according to CBC, is a Genius Bar repair that costs $1200 while a third-party store costs $75.

Although it has been criticized as a monopoly to make itself a handsome profit, Apple denied this and told the US antitrust subcommittee that "the cost of providing maintenance services in 2019 has exceeded the revenue generated by maintenance." Although Apple did not explain whether this constitutes the whole of its maintenance business, it is only carried out during the warranty period.

Thanks to the joint efforts of regulators and activists, the company was forced to loosen its grip on maintenance rights. In 2019, the company said it would allow third-party repair stores to "validate" so that they could receive the same tools, parts and manuals as their asp. Subsequently, the company expanded the program to include maintenance services for Mac computers, iPhone and iPad. On November 17, 2021, the company announced a self-service maintenance program that will provide users with tools, parts and manuals. But the end result is that consumers have to pay much higher prices than they should or can pay for maintenance to keep iPhone running. For example, a third-party store that uses a genuine Apple display costs about £140 to repair the iPhone 11 display, while the same repair costs nearly £220 at an Apple authorized store. By comparison, display replacements made by third-party companies sell for £95.

Jason Eccles, general manager of SimplyFixIt, an independent maintenance chain across Scotland, said: "people can buy a device directly, but the manufacturer can still control its function in the next few years." this makes us very frustrated because we want to provide the best maintenance products, but Apple seems to have arbitrary rules on what we can do, sometimes even creating new problems in iOS updates. "but I think Even if we use authentic parts, it's hard to say that restricting the function of mobile phones is good for consumers.

Eccles added that it is important to maintain existing equipment from an environmental and sustainable point of view. "We will still provide repairs for the 10-year-old Macbook and iMac, which shows that many Apple devices can be fully used with a little repair," he said. "if everyone has to pay £349 for a new screen, then more people will be willing to replace the next phone with the Android. While Apple may not want to admit this, we are helping users stay in their ecosystem."

Liz Chamberlain, director of sustainability at iFixit, said that the use of software locks is a "potential threat to maintenance", and this new problem is better proof that "repairable needs to consider the issue of software locks, not just hardware." Intentionally or unintentionally, Apple has "proved that [it] cannot trust the component pairing termination switch," she added. " Unless lawmakers step in to ensure that users have the right to repair, Apple is likely to "ban all phones that have been independently repaired."

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