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Apple makes some pretty great phones. We should know, we get to see how many people walk in with broken iPhone screens all the time, and so many people wouldn’t have iPhones unless they were a great phone.
However, it’s hard to not be frustrated at how anti-consumer some of their moves have been in recent years.
The most recent anti-consumer move by Apple just recently came to light, with how they treated their older iPhone batteries. People talked about “planned obsolescence” all the time, even making jokes about it, but apparently, it’s been true the whole time. They are even facing lawsuits over it.
To be fair, their reasoning for throttling older iPhone speeds has some merit. However, they didn’t disclose what they were doing which makes it pretty clear that they knew it was wrong. Also, unlike most Android phones, it is very difficult for a consumer to remove and replace their battery. Which would’ve mattered a whole lot more if they were open and honest about what is slowing down the customer’s iPhone (an old battery).
The iPhone 7 had a big stroke of “innovation” as Apple would call it, which is a thinly-veiled way of saying it won’t be compatible with other typical products. While Apple and Apple-followers stuck to that line of reasoning, it’s pretty obvious that removing the headphone jack did not make the iPhone 7 better, but it did help Apple’s bottom line.
Not only does it force people to get either the little converter attachment (that is SUPER easy to lose, meaning you need a replacement) or the Apple headphones. Or, if you want to get wireless headphones Apple owns Beats, which is a massively popular Bluetooth Headphone company. People might just move to wireless headphones – which is that innovation they like to reference – and buy a pair of Beats.
There are plenty of other examples similar to this one – Macbooks got rid of their USB and Ethernet ports while the rest of the first world still uses them, forcing people to get adapters. It’s really a testament to how much people love their products that they are still so successful. A lesser product definitely couldn’t do something like this.
I already mentioned how it’s very difficult for iPhone users to access the battery (that’s where we come in) and Apple wants it that way. They don’t want you to be able to swap out your battery for a new one because they want you to go to them for that service.
Better yet, they don’t want you to fix your iPhone after it starts showing it age, they want you to get a new one. We’re seeing it in products everywhere, people don’t stich up their clothes as much as they used to, or take as much care of their car, or even swap out a hard drive for a new one! People just get a new one.
Once people are accustomed to getting a new phone every couple of years, it’s not wasteful – it’s just what you do.
Apple (among other big tech companies) has been lobbying against the “Fair Repair Act” for the last few years. The bill would require companies like Apple to sell tools and replacement parts, and perhaps even guides, so that customers can repair their phones and computers.
That sounds like something we wouldn’t really want either, but we don’t mind this bill at all.
Let’s face it, a lot of people just want to have an expert handle it. I can change my own oil, but I’ll usually have it done at a Jiffy Lube or a Sears Auto. Just because customers will have more access to the tools and parts to fix their computers and phones, doesn’t mean they’ll stop coming to us.
In fact, there are plenty of guides on how to replace iPhone screens online, but it requires delicate care, and often some tools that people don’t have. That’s why so many people choose to come to repair shops like us.
Apple is opposing this legislation because they want to make their phones nearly impossible to fix by repair shops like us. Forcing you to go to them for repairs is only part of it, because they don’t actually want you to fix your phone, they want you to get a new phone entirely.
You may have heard recently that many of Intel’s Central Processing Units (CPUs) have a design flaw that could allow malicious attackers to steal private information. Passwords, emails, etc. could be stolen because of “kernel memory areas” in the CPUs.
However, even though the focus is on Intel’s screw-up, it’s believed that CPUs sold by other vendors may have the same problems. Intel is just taking the heat because they’re the biggest and most reputable name.
If you’ve ever seen a CPU (above) – also casually known as a processor – you would know it’s probably the strangest-looking part of a computer. It’s relatively inconspicuous, but it is regarded as the “brain” of the computer, because pretty much everything needs to run through the CPU. That’s why keeping the CPU at a low temp takes a lot of work, but is very important (if your computer is overheating it will probably shut down to protect the CPU).
The two main “vulnerabilities” have cool names: Spectre and Meltdown. They both can be exploited by malicious programs on your computer to get secret information from your currently running programs (password managers, emails). The nitty-gritty details of it are complicated but the gist of it is pretty simple.
Your processor wants to act quickly and it makes information readily available, in an attempt to give you a faster and more fluid user experience so you don’t need to wait for the information. These flaws take advantage of that optimization and the software patches to fix it might affect that.
The initial reports from PC Mag were saying that the software fix would be a big problem, and that it could potentially slow down your computer up to 30%. Intel has pushed back at that statement saying “any performance impacts are workload-dependent, and, for the average computer user, should not be significant”.
So, if you’re a really intensive computer user you might notice your machine slowing down every now and then, but hopefully you won’t.
Everything seems like it can be hacked. The Equifax security breach, the Showtime cryptocurrency mining scandal, the OTHER Equifax security breach, KRACK attacks, Ransomware… there’s a lot of bad hacking-related issues lately and it seems like it might not get better.
Unfortunately, this is just the age we live in right now. We can just stick with our personal best practices. Use a virus removal you trust, keep an eye out for phishing attempts, and update your software frequently.
Many people have said (somewhat justifiably) that the newest iPhone is the same thing as the last one, with a new number. In fact, some of the newer iPhones have had LESS features than previous iterations cough cough iPhone 7 audio jack cough.
However, my over-used joke aside, the iPhone 7 was incredibly popular and Apple added it to their tally of successful bold moves. The next bold move is supposed to be the iPhone X.
With Apple releasing two different branches of iPhones at once, people may wonder why? Well it seems that the iPhone 8 might fit into the typical category of iPhones – it’s the new one but it’s not that special. It’s basically a nicer, newer iPhone 7 with a few more added features that probably won’t affect your daily life too much.
However, the iPhone X is to be their next big step up. Among a host of other improvements, it has facial recognition software, which is also the main reason you might need to pre-order the iPhone X if you want to get it soon.
It’s the Facial Recognition bit that has production slowing. It makes sense, given that this truly is a huge step forward. According to PC Mag, Apple may have had to lower their facial recognition accuracy to make it easier to produce enough iPhones on time. That means if you want to get the new iPhone X soon, you probably need to pre-order!
Apple has made a statement about their facial recognition software, saying that they are not compromising its quality and that they fully expect it to become the new “gold standard” in facial recognition technology.
Obviously, they don’t want to admit if they are providing a sub-optimal product, but it is hard to expect the first iPhone to come with this technology to have it perfect. Just look at how far we’ve come when viewing the iPhone 3 to the iPhone 5, and then from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 7.
I was just saying how the new iPhone is often just like the old one with some new shine on it, but those subtle changes do ramp up quite quickly. Therefore, it is reasonable to think that in a few years we might look at the iPhone X’s facial recognition capabilities as buggy and imperfect when compared to the iPhone XII, or whatever we’re calling it then.
If you’re looking forward to snagging one of the new iPhones (whether that be the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, or X) and have an older version, you can trade that in for some credit toward your new phone with most cell providers (or other places like Amazon and Best Buy) will just buy the phone off of you! However, they only accept working phones so if you’ve just been dealing with a cracked screen, make sure to get it fixed first!
People are often hesitant to get their screen repaired through a 3rd party provider because Apple used to void the warranty on the phone then. However, they changed their stance back in February and as long as the repair is done well (do your research and look at the reviews!) they won’t void your warranty.
It’s a small step, but it’s a nice gesture from Apple to notice that it’s unfair to consumers who might not live near an Apple store to get their phone fixed – and we’re all just replacing the screens anyway!
Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy series are probably the most popular phones on the market, in a general sense. I mean it’s really the iPhone by some margin, then the Galaxy is leading the pack left behind Apple’s top seller. However, while Samsung probably wishes they were leading the market, or at least at a 50/50 split with Apple, don’t worry about them.
In addition to being a massive manufacturer of their own phones, Samsung creates a lot of parts that get used in the iPhone. This is extremely relevant right now because according to PC Mag, Samsung will get approximately $110 for every iPhone X sold. So, the new iPhone that is going to keep Apple moving forward, is going to be paying Samsung’s bills too, keeping the iPhone’s closest competitor in the race.
In fact, there are projected to be approximately 50 million Samsung Galaxy S8 sales (which are thought to net Samsung $202) but 130 million iPhone X sales. You can do the math, that means Samsung would legitimately make more money off of iPhones than their own Galaxies.
In the simplest of explanations, it’s really a result of supply-and-demand. Apple wouldn’t be paying Samsung for their parts if they didn’t have to – they probably wish they could be manufacturing every part required for use in their iPhones, but they can’t. And every recent iPhone uses parts from other manufacturers, the real problem is the iPhone X’s OLED screen.
The iPhone X’s screen is huge and Samsung may be the only potential manufacturer for it due to the enormous demand Apple is needing to fill. If the iPhone X wasn’t expected to achieve such high sales numbers, they could probably go to a different manufacturer, or try to keep the entire process inside their company.
Samsung stands to lose a lot if they stop providing parts for iPhones, and they can’t guarantee that their phones would then skyrocket in popularity (if the iPhone’s quality suffered as a result). For the time being, it seems the two competitors are tied together.
Samsung wins either way. Either the iPhone outperforms the Galaxy by a huge margin like expected, and they still make a lot of money from both their own phone and the iPhone. If the iPhone X doesn’t reach the high projections, the most likely candidate to replace the iPhone X in a consumer’s hand might be the Galaxy S8, which Samsung won’t be upset about either.
