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this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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I'm glad they got specific. I wonder where Apple's self-service battery replacement program falls under this? AFAIK it's not free. They charge a fee to rent the specialized tools, which are also proprietary.
This gives Apple a few choices:
I'm not sure that #1 and #2 are options, I think Apple's tools would still be considered "Specialized" or "proprietary" since they can't have any proprietary rights or restrictions, so I don't think that they can get away with selling them at a huge markup. I'm no lawyer, but to me that reads like they either need to give the tools away for free, or change the iPhone so it can be disassembled with regular screwdrivers. Given those choices, I'm thinking #2 sounds a lot more likely unless they can weasel out of some loophole
The current tools are not even close. Very proprietary, very specialized, not commercially available. Check out this video or this one. These things are rental only because they are exorbitantly expensive and only really useful to iPhone, and IIRC they differ for some lines/models.
This law absolutely will require an iPhone redesign, which I think is going to be somewhat controversial. If you check out the iFixit teardown it's pretty obvious there is not a lot of space. Even the larger Pro Max is tight because I think in the case of the larger phones, they tend to fill the space with battery. What I think would be the easiest is make it more like the iPhone 4. In that version, there were like two security screws on the bottom, and then you could remove the whole back plate. Some battery would have to be sacrificed to add space for connectors and a retaining system of some sort.
I say controversial because this is probably going to mean less day-to-day battery, but I think I'm in favor of that rather than having to deal with going through Apple to do a battery replacement and get another year or two out of the device. If they make it more like the hot-swappable old days of Nokia's and Motorola's past, I can't really see anyone being pissy. In practice these days, I don't worry about battery life anyway, so it's hard to not see this being a win.
As someome who was able to disassemble and repurpose multiple iphone 4's.
This was the way.
Honestly, they should have said "fuck you, no tools whatsoever to replace the battery."
My mid-2010's phone has this and probably the only reason I still have it (instead of contributing to electronic waste) is because I can replace the battery so easily, which I've done at least twice.