Apple's Giving its Customers a New Kind of Screw
Apple's got a new way to screw your iPhone 4.
There's a new type of screw that Apple is putting to its customers. We'd like to call it the iScrew, but the technical name for it is the "pentalobe" or "pentalobular," which is a rounded, five-pronged screw.
While most electronics with tamper-proof screws use the Torx head – which is available for purchase, but not readily available in most households – Apple has gone a step further with something completely new that even DIYers can't get.
The new screw first appeared in the mid-2009 MacBook Pro to prevent battery swaps, and now it's also standard on the new MacBook Air.
The iPhone 4 originally shipped with the Phillips head screws, but now those who have brought their phones into Apple for repair are getting their devices back with the pentalobe screw. Apple's certainly taken additional measures to make sure that customers can't freely open up their own property.
iFixit's posted some additional information and even makes a kit available with screw that will roughly fit the iPhone 4 to swap out for a Phillips.
- ifixit ,
- phillips ,
- pentalobe ,
- pentalobular ,
- screw
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freeeeeeeeeedooooooooom
ooh wait, wrong manufacturer: priiiisoooooon, bye....
This is truly sad, the products we buy from Apple are never truly ours, are they?
Sure screwdriver manufacturers will be producing these if there is demand, you'll just have to buy it specifically rather than getting it in a kit pack of household screwdrivers.
or just cast the screw head, make a mold, bang out a load of heads and sell them on eBay.
Problem Apple?
what about the trick they used on the gamcube
melting a biro with a lighter then pushing it on screw and waiting for it to cool
look guys surely you must understand that when you buy software you don't actually own the software you are only buying a licence to use that software and you are legally bound by it's terms & conditions.
With hardware from the likes of Apple it's the same thing. You buy a licence to use that device and if you try to open it that is against thier T&C and will screw you over on the warranty.
You want to own your hardware you bought? . . . . don't mess with it!
It's the law cos the T&C's says so.
actually the reason people are anoyed about this is becasue usually you can buy replacement screens for less than insurance would cost for the phone
and this is for people who's warenty has run out
Why I hate apple!
If M$ had done this a few years back then the reaction would be massive (and from Government trade organisations too).
I know all about licenses, T&C's and that but let's just say you bought a car but were not allowed to fix anything yourself and had to take it to the dealer to open the lid. Even then you had no choice but to use their over priced parts and over priced labour. In the EU we have a phrase for this - "anti competitive behaviour". Imagine a car where you can't change the battery yourself but have to pay some monkey 10x the price to do it for you. Apple had better reap the profits now because in future they will be getting kicked by their customers and market regulators around the world.