iFixit has decided to rail Apple in an awesome video that they’ve put together to illustrate Apple’s underhanded attempts at replacing iPhone 4 screws with Pentalobe screws while phones are in for repair.
iFixit has not only released the awesome video (attached below), but they have also put together an iPhone liberation kit that includes tools to get rid of the Pentalobe screws altogether as well as tools to replace the screws with something a little more standard.
Normally this isn’t something that most of us would get annoyed about, but what’s different this time around is finding a screw driver that actually removes the pentalobe screws. Tracking down the proper driver isn’t something that you’ll have an easy time doing. Apple screwed iPhone 4 users by using a screw that’s almost impossible to remove unless you have Apple’s blessing.
Most people I know have no business pulling apart their iPhone 4s. I can understand why Apple’s made it difficult to take apart the device, but that also means that Apple thinks that we don’t have the right to tamper with a device that we outright own.
I’m a big fan of Apple, obviously, but these types of things are where I draw the line. It’s pretty clear that Apple’s trying to limit the number of repairs that they have to carry out on devices that were tampered with, and broken by, the hands of users, but that doesn’t mean they have the right to lock us out of electronics that we own.
We own these phones, and if I want to take it apart a million times and put it back together again, I can. What I don’t expect is Apple to fix it when I break it.
iFixit Video
Header Photo Credit: shotam
