The cost of beating Apple's shrewd screws? £2
Apple has been switching the screws that hold its latest iPhone shut, but cries of conspiracy are somewhat refuted by the realisation that a $2 screwdriver fixes the problem. The new screws are called pentalobe (five-pointed), but if it is really (as iFixit so eloquently put it) "Apple's insidious plan to sabotage our iPhones" …
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title? what title?
You don't 'own' it if Apple has to warranty things. Until the warranty expires, you have limited access unless you do not wish to exercise the warranty. You break it, you (should) buy it. But here in the States there are a lot of DYI types who think others should pay for their experimentation. Then again, we've had 30 years of Reaganomics where the neo-cons felts everyone else should pay for their experimentation. Perhaps it is only an extension of a culture in decline...
Not to quibble but....
"At least the world agrees that the slot screw is an abomination that deserves to go the same way as surgery without anaesthetic and public hangings."
Well, there are parts of the US that don't have a problem w/ execution by hanging.
And there is a growing movement (from the left oddly, the thought being that once people familiarity will breed contempt) to televise executions in the many US states which perform them.
So, by the transitive property I'd argue that the world does not, in fact, agree that public hangings are an abomination, although I think the author is on safer ground with respect to the slot screw.
ZERO sounds better
If you pay anything at all to defeat the pentalobe screw you are a fool.
Robertson
It certainly is true that Philips screwdrivers have a problem; the screwdriver tends to wear out if used to drive screws that require any effort to turn. So the slot screw is still appropriate for plain work.
But there is no need to use fancy and proprietary screwdrivers like the Torx. The Robertson screwdriver - with a square shape, rather than the plus-sign of the Philips, or other exotic shapes like a hexagon or a triangle or the Torx six-lobes and so on - has excellent torque transmission properties, and has been around for a long time.
Cheaper
People used to make slotted Torx screwdrivers by heating up the tail end of a cheap ballpoint pen until it started to melt, then pressing it against the head of the screw until it cooled. I assume this still works with Pentalobe.
The bigger Apple becomes...
...the more it looks like MS. It is one Fail after the other. I can't wait for the next one.
nothing new here..
it wasnt that long ago that I got a set of special screw bits to open up by Nintendo GBA to fit
an afterburner backlight system...once again, a quick search and purchase
doesn't mean it's not an attempt
The fact that screwdrivers are available that can take these screws out doesn't mean it's not an attempt by Apple to make it harder to work on these than it should be. This went all the way back to the Plus and SE when they used odd-sized Torx like T7s. Jobs explicitly wanted people to treat their computers as a sealed appliances back then, and I'm sure that's the reason now too.
Every time I've owned a GM car
I've needed to buy Yet Another Stupid Torx Driver to adjust the headlights or something else that has gratuitously silly screws to prevent owners from fixing their own cars. Now, sometimes that's because it's been long enough since I bought that last one that one of the Two Gratuitously Different Stupid Torx Drivers has wandered off, but it's still annoying.
Whoa..whiney geekette alert
She looked good right up to the point where she opened her mouth and all the self entitled whiney paranoia got regergitated from her brain and out her mouth.
wrong screwdriver
Am I the only person that noticed that the screwdriver listed is a pentagram screwdriver. Apple uses Pentalobe screws as far as I have read.
"pentagram screwdriver"?
Now *that's* a name to conjure with........
Recommended reading, ladies and gentlemen
Ah, the frontier! Never a dull moment. Bone up on the silliness of fastener fascism here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/When-a-Phillips-is-not-a-Phillips/
yeah, yeah....:(
The trouble is, if you want to replace something in your house that has broken after many years of service....
- would ya believe, an internal door handle - the internal spring broke!!!
After finding a good replacement, they helpfully supply screws... Slot head!!!! I wonder if there is vast warehouse of these, for stuff that they stopped making 20 years ago!!! :)
But back to apple... warranties are a protection for any company, from idiots who open a device, and then will swear blind that they never touched it, when something goes wrong...
Apple users being a higher class of idiot, due to:
1) breaking your lovely new toy due to curiosity,
2) thinking you can do anything vaguely intelligent once you have done so!!
And apple are forgetful idiots to, they forgot they used the SAME screws in their mac-book in 2009, so it has ALREADY been documented and many suppliers have the screws and drivers for that...
The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.
im pretty sure ive got a cheap security screw bit set thats got pentalobes in it, i know they definatly dont fit torx cos i keep geting the little c@@@ mixed up
on the subject of daft screws any one remember those torx with a pre machined flat head compaq went through an obsession with in 386 days?
Screwed once again
Just goes to show how you can get screwed without the right tool
( : ( : pete
http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/joke_32.png
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