The Tinkerers Fighting Apple's War on YouTube 'Repair' Videos (theguardian.com) 154
The Guardian profiles stay-at-home mom Jessa Jones, who taught herself how to fix her daughter's iPhone with online tutorials, eventually leading to motherboard repair work that she found through eBay.
"After recruiting other stay-at-home moms in her neighborhood and teaching them electronics repair, she launched a small business from her dining room called MommyFixits. 'Suddenly our play dates became moms sitting around the dining table fixing mailed-in iPhones,' she told me." As Jones's expertise grew, she discovered that technology manufacturers used underhanded techniques to discourage independent repair. Phone and tablet parts were glued together, causing components to break when pried apart. Schematics and manuals were copyrighted and kept under trade secret. Apple even used their own proprietary "pentalobe" screws, which cannot be removed with common screwdrivers. Despite these barriers to repair, Jones knew that fixing things independently, instead of taking them back to the manufacturer, was almost always possible and often cheaper. To spread her knowledge, she started a YouTube channel called iPad Rehab, which offered step-by-step repair tutorials for other DIY enthusiasts...
According to Nathan Proctor, director of the Campaign for the Right to Repair at the US Public Interest Research Group, this YouTube community is an integral part of a broader political movement that is attempting to wrest consumer agency from an increasingly consolidated electronics marketplace. Proctor says that while in the past there was a legal balance between protecting manufacturers' intellectual property and empowering consumers to tinker with, modify, and repair their own products, the rise of software in electronics has shifted power to manufacturers. Not only are the products more complex and harder to fix, the line between self-repair and hacking has become nebulous, meaning that manufacturers have been able to use digital copyright law to gain a legal monopoly over repair. This, in turn, has created a broader cultural anxiety around self-repair, a sense that when our devices malfunction, the problem can only be dealt with by so-called experts at a specific company.
According to Proctor, YouTube channels such as Jones's are useful in disrupting this dynamic. "I frequently will talk to people who had something break on their phone and were told that they had to replace it with the manufacturer," he said. "But then they go on YouTube and watch a video and realize that fixing it isn't impossible, that you could learn how to or find someone who can." As a result of this, those at the forefront of the online repair community are sometimes met with hostility from manufacturers. Apple has brought suits against unauthorized repair shops and have had their intellectual property lawyers directly contact some YouTube tinkerers.
"What we're giving up when we lose the right to repair," Jones tells the Guardian, "is this sense of investigation and wonder and tinkering.
"We're made to see our devices as if they are these sacrosanct objects but really, they're just a battery and a screen, something that a stay-at-home mom can learn how to fix in her dining room."
"After recruiting other stay-at-home moms in her neighborhood and teaching them electronics repair, she launched a small business from her dining room called MommyFixits. 'Suddenly our play dates became moms sitting around the dining table fixing mailed-in iPhones,' she told me." As Jones's expertise grew, she discovered that technology manufacturers used underhanded techniques to discourage independent repair. Phone and tablet parts were glued together, causing components to break when pried apart. Schematics and manuals were copyrighted and kept under trade secret. Apple even used their own proprietary "pentalobe" screws, which cannot be removed with common screwdrivers. Despite these barriers to repair, Jones knew that fixing things independently, instead of taking them back to the manufacturer, was almost always possible and often cheaper. To spread her knowledge, she started a YouTube channel called iPad Rehab, which offered step-by-step repair tutorials for other DIY enthusiasts...
According to Nathan Proctor, director of the Campaign for the Right to Repair at the US Public Interest Research Group, this YouTube community is an integral part of a broader political movement that is attempting to wrest consumer agency from an increasingly consolidated electronics marketplace. Proctor says that while in the past there was a legal balance between protecting manufacturers' intellectual property and empowering consumers to tinker with, modify, and repair their own products, the rise of software in electronics has shifted power to manufacturers. Not only are the products more complex and harder to fix, the line between self-repair and hacking has become nebulous, meaning that manufacturers have been able to use digital copyright law to gain a legal monopoly over repair. This, in turn, has created a broader cultural anxiety around self-repair, a sense that when our devices malfunction, the problem can only be dealt with by so-called experts at a specific company.
According to Proctor, YouTube channels such as Jones's are useful in disrupting this dynamic. "I frequently will talk to people who had something break on their phone and were told that they had to replace it with the manufacturer," he said. "But then they go on YouTube and watch a video and realize that fixing it isn't impossible, that you could learn how to or find someone who can." As a result of this, those at the forefront of the online repair community are sometimes met with hostility from manufacturers. Apple has brought suits against unauthorized repair shops and have had their intellectual property lawyers directly contact some YouTube tinkerers.
"What we're giving up when we lose the right to repair," Jones tells the Guardian, "is this sense of investigation and wonder and tinkering.
"We're made to see our devices as if they are these sacrosanct objects but really, they're just a battery and a screen, something that a stay-at-home mom can learn how to fix in her dining room."
Who Paid For It? (Score:2, Insightful)
If Apple wants to buy me an iPhone I'll refrain from repairing it myself. If I put up the cash its mine and they can piss right off. If they want to own it then they can own the cost of ownership.
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As I have said before (Score:5, Insightful)
Its about who really owns the devices that we buy. We pay for these devices, so we own them. Bbut companies like (Cr)apple and Sony, (and many others) are trying to say that even though we paid for our devices, they still own them, and have the right to tell us what we can and acn't do with them! This is of course false! I guess we need nation-wide right to repair laws that include forcing manufacturers to make it easy to replace batteries, and NOT glue things together! Also, schematics, repair manuals, and parts need to be made available. Schematics and repair manual for free, and parts for reasonable prices!
Ultrasonic welds (Score:3)
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They still have to fix the devices still under warranty so that would make it really expensive to fix. They want to make repair as hard as possible for the layman but easy enough for their techs.
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It's also used on every single laptop battery I've ever seen,making it very difficult to replace the cells within when they inevitably run out of useful life. I'm not sure if this is an anti-repair effort, or a legal cover-thy-arse measure to stop a shoddy repair from making the laptop ignite and the manufacturer getting the blame.
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It's a low cost effort. It has nothing to do with any of that other stuff. It's just a lot cheaper and more reliable to sonic weld the battery enclosure than to close it by any other means. They are highly unlikely to get you to buy another name brand battery anyway, and they know it. There's nothing special about those batteries, and they know we know it.
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I was going to ask how they waterproof all the ports...
Did you know that (Score:1)
I learnt on the U-tubes that you can fix a cracked screen by putting it in the microwave. Apple doesn't want you to know this trick.
Sealed phones provide advantages to the consumer as well as inconveniencing the the right to repair sector.
1. They can use more economical construction methods making the cost lower to me. e.g. glue and welds versus screws and snaps.
2. They can use more compact assembly methods make the phone potentially lighters, stronger or have more room for battery
3. They don't have to
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3. They don't have to worry about the PR nightmare of a "repaired" iphone with a flaming bad battery bringing down a 747 of screaming passengers.
All of the flaming battery incidents I've heard of involved the original battery, probably mostly because they made it harder to replace them. Do you recall any battery incidents which can be attributed to replacement batteries?
I did a battery replacement on a Nexus 7 with the cheapest possible replacement, and it's been working a treat since.
Re: Did you know that (Score:1)
Re:As I have said before (Score:5, Insightful)
We should totally let them do it: you don't own the device, but they have to repair it for free for 3 years, no matter what, because it's theirs and not yours.
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While we're at it let's have the cost reflect that we're renting.
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but they have to repair it for free for 3 years, no matter what, because it's theirs and not yours.
Why are you limiting it to three years?
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My iPhone 6 is five years old.
Number of apps that don't run on it: 0.
A year ago I paid an independent repair shop $40 to replace the USB connector when it stopped charging.
Otherwise, no problems, and no plans to replace it.
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The iPhone 6 is one of he models affected by the battery problems. Apple eventually offered a software fix that slows the phone down, but my wife found that even that didn't actually stop the battery going from 75% to 2% suddenly.
Eventually they relented and offered a low cost (not free!) battery replacement programme, but by that point she had already had a third party replacement and then recycled the phone because the touch screen would stop working sometimes.
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The iPhone 6 is one of he models affected by the battery problems.
Mine still has the original battery. No problems so far. I charge it overnight, and when I come home at the end of a working day, it is typically still at 60-70% charge.
I am planning to keep it as long as it works.
At least from my perspective, Apple would make more money if their products were crappier.
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You have been exceptionally lucky it seems.
The kind of batteries used in the iPhone 6 have a lifetime of around 500 cycles. Yours is 5 years old, and let's say you use 35% of a cycle per day based on your 60-70% remaining figure. That's a total of 639 complete cycles.
So your battery should have at least 80% degradation now, despite apparent fairly light use. At the very least it should be at the point where the phone is slowing itself down to avoid random resets.
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B b b but that's cormanissum!
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We should totally let them do it: you don't own the device, but they have to repair it for free for 3 years, no matter what, because it's theirs and not yours.
And upgrade with free labor?
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We should totally let them do it: you don't own the device, but they have to repair it for free for 3 years, no matter what, because it's theirs and not yours.
Now there's an idea.Thumbs up.
Not all Sony (Score:2)
Bbut companies like (Cr)apple and Sony, (and many others)
Not all devices from Sony.
For their phones, they have:
(Software wise)
- an "open device" program, letting you unlock the bootloader, download the drivers and install all the crap you want (even non-android OS like Jolla's Sailfish OS)
(Hardware wise)
- the shell is glued in (boo!), but inside it's pretty modular and you can easily order necessary parts.
Re: Not all Sony (Score:2)
> an "open device" program,
Yeah, that permanently and forever fucks up the camera's ability to work in low-light conditions (among other things) once you use their official tool to unlock the phone. Because, for god knows what stupid reason, they put the imaging sensor's advanced-mode firmware in the "protected" area that gets blown away when you unlock the phone.
It's like they just couldn't stop themselves from taking one last vindictive swipe at their customers after giving them their alleged freedom,
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You appear to have just called a collective of mothers 'faggots'.
Look in a mirror. Hate what you see. Work to change it.
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If it was illegal to repair a Tesla, you wouldn't have the Rich Rebuilds channel on YouTube and you wouldn't have the Rich Rebuilds guy opening up a Tesla repair shop.
I love Tesla and what they are doing (they showed the world that electric cars dont need to look like a science experiment, IMO the Tesla Model X is second only to the legendary DeLorean as the best ever use of gull-wing doors on a vehicle) but I also agree that they shouldn't be given a pass for refusing to make repair parts and information a
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IMO the Tesla Model X is second only to the legendary DeLorean as the best ever use of gull-wing doors on a vehicle)
There has been exactly one good use of gull-wing doors, and that was on the 300SL. And the only reason it was good is that there was no real alternative, which is also the only reason they did it. The gull-wing doors on the DeLorean (which is an unremitting piece of shit by the way) dramatically reduce available headroom, by at least three inches. There is actually a groove in the door to permit taller drivers to just barely fit into the vehicle, but if you need that groove to fit into the car, then every u
Re: stop demanding violence against shitty compani (Score:2, Interesting)
Because that's what the "Right-to-Repair" nutters want.
Most people don't even try to repair their phone themselves. But reflowing a large BGA package isn't exactly rocket surgery. You can do it by hand with a heat gun if you exercise a little care. Specialised shops will have appropriate tooling, which isn't really all that expensive.
Your argument is a disingenuous shill. Nobody wants to yell at Apple (particularly, but other manufacturers are just as bad) because they can't reflow the SoC. They want Apple to provide access to the parts so repair shops can do i
Re:stop demanding violence against shitty companie (Score:5, Interesting)
You must be truly ignorant of the science of economics if you keep babbling about "free markets". There are no "free markets". There are efficient markets and inefficient markets.
Every efficient market is founded on a basic tenet - the participants are free in their choices (what to buy, how to repair it, how to re-sell it and so on) - and to guarantee that freedom, you need to set up ground rules. The basic ground rule is that a market is efficient when the information is complete, and the participants on either side have no power to influence the price or the buying decisions. The efficient market is the competitive market.
When the situation is such as in the modern capitalist democracy, where political influence can be bought by a powerful lobby, the efficient markets become a utopia, because the companies have a serious incentive to engage in "investment" in a political solution to their lack of market influence, and the distribution of wealth and costs creates strong incentives for them and politicians to cheat. So, all political solutions, that is, laws paid for by the "business" are in one direction only, removing freedom of choice from the market, and thus removing market efficiency. Eventually, as science has shown, you get here:
Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. [1]
In English: the wealthy few move policy, while the average consumer has little power.
This is your problem, and not pro-consumer regulation like limiting the power of the companies to restrict regulations. To fix it, you need to limit "free", that is, unregulated markets more, not less. Your delusional preference for "free", that is, unregulated markets will lead to only one thing - a faster establishment of strong monopolies. Read US some economic history to see how the robber barons appeared an how they became the "economic elites" of the quote above.
1. https://doi.org/10.1017/S15375... [doi.org]
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The problem continues to be a government so powerful that even when its members are caught selling the influence and legislation, nothing can be done, because there is so much power and influence that every member is selling some.
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When the situation is such as in the modern capitalist democracy, where political influence can be bought by a powerful lobby, the efficient markets become a utopia, because the companies have a serious incentive to engage in "investment" in a political solution to their lack of market influence, and the distribution of wealth and costs creates strong incentives for them and politicians to cheat... To fix it, you need to limit "free", that is, unregulated markets more, not less.
So the solution to regulatory capture by market actors is... more regulation. Allowing for further regulatory capture. Requiring more regulation.
Sounds like a recipe for success to me.
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It works in the EU. Not perfectly, I grant you, but we have one single unified mobile phone system where the manufacturers don’t have a say in what you can and can’t have on your phone, free roaming, and a mandatory two year warranty period.
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Yes, the solution of many a regulatory problem is better regulation, better decision-making and usually a bit of both. This is an approach that has been proven to work well, unlike the race to the bottom called "deregulation".
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You should learn how to follow the conversation.
Here's the thesis I'm replying to:
but the answer is not the utilization of law against these companies, but rather consumers utilizing the free market to make wiser purchasing decisions
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Is the solution to bad refereeing just letting the players argue among themselves? Or is it better refereeing?
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So the solution to regulatory capture by market actors is... more regulation.
Yes.
Regulation that impedes competition and creates barriers to market entry, are generally bad.
Regulation to ban collusion, cartels, and monopoly abuse, are generally good.
90% of economic regulations, including most licensing requirements, should be repealed. In America, states require licenses to practice more than 2000 professions, but only 60 professions require licenses in ALL states. The other 1940 licensing requirements should be repealed. No one should need government permission to cut hair (ever
Re: Simple: Vote with your money (Score:2)
The problem is, we can't necessarily count on Chinese companies to solve that problem for us.
Five years ago, I genuinely believed it was only a matter of time until hundreds of Chinese companies flooded the market with unlocked, universally-compatible phones running open firmware (like Cyanogen/LineageOS). Then, suddenly, every Chinese phone started getting locked down harder than a Verizon Motorola Droid of yore. Today, it's damn near impossible to buy a new, top-shelf Android phone that can be flashed wit
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I don't know how their most expensive phones are treated, but I've been happy with Moto. You can unlock their bootloaders, they are generally well-supported, and Lenovo has been at least decent about updates. I have Pixel Experience on my old E2. My X4 came with Oreo, OTA'd to Pie, and is allegedly going to OTA to Q. (It's the Android One edition, but the non-One phones are also supposed to get it, just later.) I don't really buy expensive phones, in case something bad happens to them. This one was $150 and
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If I take a Ford and replace the Ford stereo with a Pioneer stereo system, that doesn't mean I can't call it a Ford anymore or sell it with all the Ford markings and badges still on it.
If I take a MacBook and replace a fried chip with a new one, that doesn't mean I can't sell that laptop with all the Apple markings still on it.
And if I take an iPhone screen (which consists of a glass piece, a touchscreen, an LCD screen and a back light) and replace the glass (without doing anything to the other components)
Apple's pentalobe screws (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple can stick its pentalobe screws up its pentalobe butt.
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What do you have against pentalobe screws? Most hardware stores have all the screwdrivers and bit sets you need. I actually prefer the pentalobes because the screwdrivers fits into them a lot more snugly. Cross heads tend to turn into circular pits rather rapidly. Whenever I need screws, I always look for pentalobes first and only buy cross heads if no pentalobes are available. I don't know where the myth originated that this was something invented by Apple to make repairs more difficult.
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I don't know where the [myth] originated that this was something invented by Apple to make repairs more difficult.
Oh, I don't know, maybe the term tamper resistant? [wikipedia.org] If moneygrubber Apple hates being known as a bad actor, maybe it should stop acting badly.
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Oh, I don't know, maybe the term tamper resistant? [wikipedia.org] If moneygrubber Apple hates being known as a bad actor, maybe it should stop acting badly.
Total nonsense. Pentalobe isn't temper resistant. It's just a different screw driver, which is easy enough to buy. What it does is to keep clueless idiots from opening their devices where they will only cause damage. It filters out idiots who are too stupid to find a place that sells a pentalobe screw driver, which is a good thing.
Proper temper resistant screws cannot be unscrewed at all. There are some that you can screw in with a normal flat blade screw driver, but the head is at an angle, so if you tr
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Only slimeball companies like Apple use these screws, and slimeball Apple started it.
Re:Apple's pentalobe screws (Score:5, Informative)
It is yet another kind if screw which makes the list of tools you need longer.
Ever heard of Torx? Six lobes and otherwise pretty much the same advantages as pentalobes. And Torx is a widely accepted industry standard.
Pentalobe is resundant and only serves Apples desire to have something different that makes independent repair more of a hassle.
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Actually I think I mixed up Torx and Pentalobe, so you may be right after all...
What kind of loser can't find a pentalobe driver? (Score:2, Informative)
Where do you buy your tools, the shit-for-brains store?
Search on amazon for a "computer tool kit", or just buy the set from iFixit, masters of the "unrepairable" devices.
Re:What kind of loser can't find a pentalobe drive (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is it acceptable to use special screws that force you to buy special tools, when standard ones would work just fine?
Screws are only the half of it. iFixIt sell a special glue heater because modern Apple products are made from about 30% glue. Not the kind you can easily remove either, e.g. other manufacturers use pull tab adhesive strips to keep the battery in place which.
Only badly designed electronics used to be that way. Now it's become normal, although Apple is still one of the worst offenders (along with Microsoft, whose glue content is even higher). This is not acceptable.
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Where do you buy your tools, the shit-for-brains store?
The kind of loser that shouldn't be allowed to open their iPhone, or any other phone, because they are only going to mess it up.
shows us what is really important (Score:3)
it's pretty simple, don't buy those unfixable devices.
if you do, then apparently you don't have an issue with them being unfixable and other features are higher up the list of what you want in a device.
there is only one language they will understand, and that's money.
Request certification (Score:1)
So? (Score:1)
Sigh. (Score:3)
I just buy phones from companies that offer spare parts, have compatible parts available, and where all the consumables are replaceable.
I find that much easier, voting with my wallet, than pissing about breaking hardware I own to do things like replace the battery.
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Okay, and who are these mythical, friendly companies? I'm genuinely curious and would also like to throw them some business.
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Re:Electronics Safety (Score:4, Informative)
I am developing an interest in electronics. The more I read, the more I discover about the hazards introduced by the various components (such as capacitors, floating scopes, etc. etc. etc.) and just hooking up stuff willy-nilly.
The only dangerous things in modern computers are backlight inverters and batteries. Caps big enough to kill you last appeared in monitors, although there may be some in laser printers. Backlight inverters themselves are rapidly disappearing, since monitors are mostly using LED backlights now.
If we make it illegal to make it super duper hard to replace the battery (e.g. by gluing it in) and require that all flammable batteries have overload protection, then the battery won't be dangerous either.
Re: Electronics Safety (Score:1)
That is some retarded shit. There is no hazard in fucking with low voltage electronics. Don't short circuit a naked Li-Ioncell. Other than that you'll just brick the device. Which already wasn't working. Get out of here
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Really Old Discussion (Score:2)
Civil for Me, Criminal for Thee (Score:1)
Hacking and Apple's History vs Culture (Score:1)
What they should do (Score:1)
Re: Beauhd pee in butt (Score:4, Insightful)
So what legal grounds are they using? DMCA? I thought right to repair laws were already on the books.
Apple is making Microsoft look like an angel at this point.
Nothing wrong with pentalobe screws (Score:3, Interesting)
People keep mentioning the pentalobe screws as if they were some weird deviation invented with the express purpose of making repairs difficult. In reality, most hardware stores have pentalobe screws, screwdrivers and bit sets, and I actually prefer them over the classic cross heads. Screwdrivers tend to jump out of cross heads and turn them into circular pits, sometimes making them almost impossible to remove afterwards. That simply does not happen with the pentalobes. The screwdriver fits in so nicely that
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What I do hate, is different kinds of screws in the same device. Quite often they'll have cross heads on the cover, small pentalobes on the motherboards, slightly larger pentalobes on something underneath the motherboard, cross heads (but a different size than the cover) for some other connector next to it, etc. Jeez, just use the same pentalobes for everything already.
Re:Nothing wrong with pentalobe screws (Score:5, Insightful)
Ever heard of Torx? A widely accepted industry standard with six-lobe screws that are otherwise just like Pentalobe. Apple is the latecomer that refused to be compatible.
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I think I mixed up Torx and Pentalobe. Penta = 5, d'oh!
Yeah, in that case, screw pentalobe. I mean fck pentalobe.
The Torx screws are the ones I usually buy.
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> A widely accepted industry standard with six-lobe screws
With a deeper standard cup depth at the outside, which makes certain roles more difficult (but of course, YMMV). One of the advantages of philips is that it is deepest in the center, which makes it perfect for flat-head and pan-head shapes, which are widely used in electronics. Pentalobes are designed to offer the self-holding performance of a torx at much shallower cup depths.
When this whole pentalobe thing blew up I spend about 3 minutes in gogg
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With a deeper standard cup depth at the outside, which makes certain roles more difficult (but of course, YMMV). One of the advantages of philips is that it is deepest in the center, which makes it perfect for flat-head and pan-head shapes, which are widely used in electronics. Pentalobes are designed to offer the self-holding performance of a torx at much shallower cup depths.
They could have used E-torx, which is both a standard, and doesn't involve any cup depth. Instead they deliberately chose something even less common. Granted, that would require a slightly less cost-effective tool, but Apple is all about ineffectual tools.
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Apple was also known to quietly replace standard screws with pentalobe screws as phones came in for repairs. Sorta like when fiber installers tear down your copper, so you can't go back.
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Slashdot - the incel heaven, where virgin fatbois come from the basement to share their sexual fantasies.