WEBVTT

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Should you be able to repair something that you paid good money for?

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Seems like a no-brainer that the answer should be yes

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But Apple has long been notorious for making their devices very unfriendly to DIYers who just want to replace the battery or

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Fix a cracked screen. Not only has self-repair on an Apple device avoided your warranty in the past, but

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Apple intentionally designs its products to make them hard to fix at home. I mean, they've even used

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Proprietary screws, but Apple has done a face turn worthy of pro wrestling and announced their self-service repair program, which

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Ideally will allow users to fix their iDevices at home without voiding their warranties and Apple will even help customers do it

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Oh, sign me up, but How exactly is it going to work?

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The idea is that if you need a repair you can have a look at an Apple official repair manual and then order the parts

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you need from the Apple online store. The program, which will debut in the US and roll out to other countries throughout 2022, is

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Initially going to support the iPhone 12 and 13, with support for M1 based Macs coming sometime later that year. The online store is going to have

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200 plus parts and tools available for repairs on the two supported iPhone lineups, so

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Expect things like spudgers and suction cups to appear alongside actual replacement parts

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But what parts can you actually get and fix yourself?

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There wasn't an exhaustive list at the time we published this video

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But we can tell you that Apple will offer batteries

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Displays and cameras, so basically the parts of the phone that are most likely to get damaged or worn out during regular use

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With the exception of the lightning ports, which makes sense

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Especially as there has been a whole cottage industry around replacing broken and worn out iPhone screens and batteries for quite some time

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Apple will also give you a credit towards the repair kits if you return your old part for recycling

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Sounds like a pretty good deal to me, but what are the caveats and

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Why did Apple decide to change their mind on self-repair after all these years?

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The really big elephant in the room is exactly how much all of this will cost

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Apple is notorious for charging handsome sums to both buy their products and repair them later and

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They're still encouraging most consumers to have their repairs handled by a professional anyway

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So don't discount the possibility that Apple's pricing might push customers towards having Apple do the job anyway

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Especially once you factor in the time effort and risk involved in attempting a DIY fix

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And although Apple relented recently on allowing third-party repair shops to obtain official Apple tools and parts

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Something it did not permit for a long time. I must add

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It hasn't always been clear which of these shops was

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Authorized as Apple doesn't provide a list and some independent shops have even refused to join Apple's official authorization scheme as they believe the terms of Apple's contract

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Were unreasonable Combined that with Apple's history of crippling phone features if a user performs self-repair and it's pretty clear that Apple hasn't exactly had the best track record of

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Making things easy for folks who don't want to go through Apple itself for repair job

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But the hope is that this time things will be different

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Apple clearly isn't doing this out of the good things of their own hearts though as the company is feeling mounting pressure from several governments to give electronics consumers

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a right to repair the gadgets they already own

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Starting this program might help Apple get ahead of the ire of regulators if right to repair laws do get passed

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But it remains to be seen just how accessible it will be to the average iPhone user and if the company will end up supporting older products

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Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go try to pry the back off of my iPod classic that battery

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Ain't what it used to be. Thanks for watching guys like dislike check out some of our other videos

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