Apple updates self repair program to no longer require you to call to complete device calibration

[hishnash]

 

Summary

Apple have updated the self-repirar program adding new phones and some new Macs to the list but the big update is a change to the diagnostic mode that allows it to complete ether device calibration and retrieve the calibration profiles from apples servers without needed the user to call up apple on the phone. 

 

Quotes

Quote

Self Service Repair users can now initiate System Configuration by placing their devices into Diagnostics mode and following onscreen prompts. Users no longer need to contact the Self Service Repair support team to run the final step of a repair..

 

My thoughts

This is something apple should have done form day one, if not only to reduce the number of people they needed to have pickup up phones clicking buttons that could be automated by the device itself.  

 

Sources

https://nr.apple.com/DH0l5U1xi0

[SorryBella]

DRM part in itself is tyrannical. Push further.

[Dracarris]

Bets accepted on how long it will take people on this forum to find something negative about these news.

[yolosnail]

To give Apple the benefit of the doubt here, maybe they had to rebuild the calibration system to allow users to do it by themselves, and having to call up to was a necessary stop-gap to allow the program to be rolled out earlier....

 

or maybe not lol

[Kisai]

33 minutes ago, yolosnail said:

To give Apple the benefit of the doubt here, maybe they had to rebuild the calibration system to allow users to do it by themselves, and having to call up to was a necessary stop-gap to allow the program to be rolled out earlier....

 

or maybe not lol

They likely didn't have servers provisioned for it, so "phoning apple" was likely someone text-chatting with whoever had the access, because it was likely intended to be used by the repair depot, not end users.

 

[Commodus]

8 hours ago, SorryClaire said:

DRM part in itself is tyrannical. Push further.

Finance-motivated and poor for repairability? Probably. Tyrannical? Er... no.

 

Some of Apple's authentication requirements are clearly meant to keep its repair service chain going. But the biometric systems... yeah, I wouldn't want to risk a third-party component that might intercept data and compromise security. And Apple isn't some horrible authoritarian government silencing dissidents; it's a company out to make money.

[hishnash]

26 minutes ago, Commodus said:

Finance-motivated and poor for repairability? Probably. Tyrannical? Er... no.

 

Some of Apple's authentication requirements are clearly meant to keep its repair service chain going. But the biometric systems... yeah, I wouldn't want to risk a third-party component that might intercept data and compromise security. And Apple isn't some horrible authoritarian government silencing dissidents; it's a company out to make money.

I believe the main reason they need this is that the parts are all calibrated in the factory but they do not put an extra little chip on them to store that info instead they just save the profile to a server and reference it with the part ID. 

The other aspect for things like Touch ID or Face ID is the crypo parring and for some sensors they also need to reset/0 them (like the angle sensor) or any pressure sensor. 

I expect there is also the angle of anti-theft.  Crime rings know that the amount they can sell a stolen iPhone for is limited since unless they can get the passcode it will be locked and even selling it for parts will have limited value as all the high value parts are not going to work.   

I suppose what would be nice is if apple had a way for suers to flag that they have rycelecd a device and thus unlock those part IDs for use in other phones/lapotps when the user de-activates findmy on the device and logs out of iCloud. 

[hishnash]

7 hours ago, yolosnail said:

To give Apple the benefit of the doubt here, maybe they had to rebuild the calibration system to allow users to do it by themselves, and having to call up to was a necessary stop-gap to allow the program to be rolled out earlier....

 

I believe you are right, apple clearly put some work into the iPhone12 to change the lower level iBoot system so that this could be done remolatly but they did not finish this until now.  Pre iPhone 12 you need to connect to a Mac running the diagnostic software.