Apple’s self-repair store is now open

Here are the repair kits you get if you need all the tools to do every possible repair - you rent them for a week. I imagine this will be really popular.

/s

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Queue the flood of lawsuits from people who have water damage after doing their own screen or battery repairs :)

Most people don't have the ability (dexterity and a mind for mechanical work) to repair their devices themselves. In the highly litigious regions (such as the US), this is going to end up being a PITA for Apple's legal team.

And, yes, I'm sure the T's & C's that Apple has certainly put into the rental agreement state that...doesn't mean that people won't kick off nuisance lawsuits anyways.

Heh - and I hypothesize that people will use future kits to find a way to logically clone SSD's to be able to upgrade their MacBook storage. :)
 
Meanwhile, iFixIt complaining this isn’t good enough.

Nobody is looking for this.
 
Cmaier said:
Meanwhile, iFixIt complaining this isn’t good enough.

Nobody is looking for this.
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What people are probably looking for is not likely to reappear anyway, is it? I mean the repairability of stuff now is so minimal compared to what older gear permitted. Not sure anyone wants to make tradeoffs in future device designs that might allow more user repair options but jack up unit pricing (having to finish some interior edges, compartmentalize more of the interior etc) or somehow otherwise impede performance innovation... plus add weight and bulk to the gear.
 
Cmaier said:
Meanwhile, iFixIt complaining this isn’t good enough.
Click to expand...

I used an iFixit kit to change the battery in I think my 3G. Maybe my 4. It was right when they went to the pentalobe screws and you had to buy the special screwdriver.

I was able to do it, but not worth the hassle to do it again.
 
Dad use to fix all of our electronics years ago. He had the equipment and years of futzing around. He tried fixing a smartphone and gave up. Said it was too difficult and not worth it.
 
ronntaylor said:
Dad use to fix all of our electronics years ago. He had the equipment and years of futzing around. He tried fixing a smartphone and gave up. Said it was too difficult and not worth it.
Click to expand...

Miniaturization really starts to stress fine motor control. When you have people putting together your boards/etc, people can do board repairs. When you have people assembling the final product, people can replace components. When you have machines doing everything from surface mount part placement, to being part of the assembly process itself, it becomes a lot harder.

I'll happily do work on stuff from the 80s, soldering included. 90s starts to get sketchy for me because my surface mount work is sloppy. Once you get into the 00s, things start getting packed to the point that fewer and fewer people have the practice and fine motor control to do board work. The GameCube is pretty packed on the boards for example, I had "fun" doing a region mod on mine. Fast forward to today, and assemblies are packed to the point where the same is now true for component replacements, where fine motor control is needed to disassemble things properly. While there's still stuff you can do to customize some stuff, making a custom case for a PS4 is a lot different than repairing a PS4.
 
I sure gave up on most repairs before I ever laid eyes on a MacBook Air. But I used to fix G4 powerbook problems sometimes, stuff like ribbon cables shorting out under the keyboard or whatever. I don't miss it, always hated all those damn tiny screws. But living in the boondocks made repairs otherwise a matter of shipping boxes to Texas or Tennessee and back again which was a drag, and it seemed profligate to pay someone just to open the case and swap in a different hard drive.

Wow have we been treated to a long way forward over the years though, eh? I remember the first Powerbook I got was a 170, and I was totally thrilled at the idea of having a 40 MEGABYTE drive.
 
Nycturne said:
Miniaturization really starts to stress fine motor control. When you have people putting together your boards/etc, people can do board repairs. When you have people assembling the final product, people can replace components. When you have machines doing everything from surface mount part placement, to being part of the assembly process itself, it becomes a lot harder.

I'll happily do work on stuff from the 80s, soldering included. 90s starts to get sketchy for me because my surface mount work is sloppy. Once you get into the 00s, things start getting packed to the point that fewer and fewer people have the practice and fine motor control to do board work. The GameCube is pretty packed on the boards for example, I had "fun" doing a region mod on mine. Fast forward to today, and assemblies are packed to the point where the same is now true for component replacements, where fine motor control is needed to disassemble things properly. While there's still stuff you can do to customize some stuff, making a custom case for a PS4 is a lot different than repairing a PS4.
Click to expand...
This kind of work is profoundly easier with the right tools: a stereo microscope and a high end soldering station designed for SMD rework (Metcal makes amazing stuff). It turns out that your fine motor skills are incredibly better than you thought when you can actually see what you're doing, the distance between fingers and soldering iron tip is similar to the distance between fingers and pen tip when writing on paper, and the iron has fully automatic power delivery. (No need to fiddle with a knob, it just always runs at the right temp, and doesn't need to be turned up to do things like solder a pad with a solid connection to a big ground plane.)

However, this is very expensive gear for most hobbyists.
 
mr_roboto said:
This kind of work is profoundly easier with the right tools: a stereo microscope and a high end soldering station designed for SMD rework (Metcal makes amazing stuff). It turns out that your fine motor skills are incredibly better than you thought when you can actually see what you're doing, the distance between fingers and soldering iron tip is similar to the distance between fingers and pen tip when writing on paper, and the iron has fully automatic power delivery. (No need to fiddle with a knob, it just always runs at the right temp, and doesn't need to be turned up to do things like solder a pad with a solid connection to a big ground plane.)

However, this is very expensive gear for most hobbyists.
Click to expand...

Seeing generally hasn’t been my problem since you can get good magnifying lens setups that while not as good, does the job for a lot of the stuff I’m willing to do with the equipment I have.

But you are probably right that having a soldering iron meant for fine work helps a lot. I like my Hakko, but it does place you a bit far from the tip and my hands are not as steady as they used to be.
 
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