from Hacker News

New Anti-Consumer MacBook Pros – Teardown and Repair Assessment [video]

by sharno on 8/13/23, 11:30 PM with 42 comments

• by chazeon on 8/14/23, 4:47 AM

  It's really painful to look at all those screws. A few days ago I opened up a ThinkCentre m900. There is only one screw and you can get access to RAM, and SSD.

• by penjelly on 8/14/23, 6:28 PM

  the most insane examples ive heard of are the parts are ID'd so you cant swap out generic parts for even tiny repairs, the os will warn you youre using unregistered parts and prevent use

• by Moldoteck on 8/14/23, 5:59 AM

  Welp, maybe rysen framework will be good enough in battery life to motivate me switch from a macbook)

• by bitwize on 8/14/23, 2:44 AM

  Again, read this Mastodon thread by Hector Martin, who forgot more than most right-to-repair advocates know about how Apple devices work internally, about this issue:

  https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan/110803356645502548

  Unlike every other laptop vendor, Apple actually gives a shit about the security of their systems, and does much, much more to harden a MacBook against firmware-level exploits than anyone else in the industry. That includes moving the controller, firmware, and configuration/calibration data on-die to the M2 and having signed, verified firmware.

  Apple is simply built different as a company, and their concern for security and integrity of your personal data is simply UNMATCHED in the industry.

• by gregjor on 8/14/23, 1:13 AM

  Almost no consumer products get designed and manufactured in a way that allows self-repair or upgrade. Cars? TVs? Appliances? Phones? No. What off-the-shelf products do we own that an average person can repair or upgrade?

  People who need or want that feature can find laptops they can tinker with. Everyone else — the majority of consumers — will opt for price and convenience.