I think signed hardware components are actually a good thing. The problem is that Apple makes it so that unapproved hardware doesn’t work at all. I think the device should warn the user, but allow them to override and continue at their own risk.

Of course, Apple isn’t going to allow that unless they’re forced to. Glances sideways at the EU.

I can understand why installing the wrong part should give a warning, but the IDs are unique to the part, not the model of part, so even identical parts are not interchangable.

There’s exactly two positives to this system:

1- theft risk/reward is crushed. It’s simply no longer feasible for stolen iPhones to be parted out if the valuable bits don’t simply work. Sure, dumb and non networked components like frames and glass can probably be salvaged, but when even batteries are involved in the handshake process, you lose out on the ability to sell anything of value.

2- positive supply-chain validation. Not important for the majority of people, but for those who require a little more security, they can be a little more sure that their device isn’t compromised from illegitimate parts. I imagine this to be a fringe benefit for executives and the like. I know at one point government officials had access to some “special” variants of iPhones which were more locked down, but specifics are difficult to come by.

For everybody else, this plain sucks. We move farther and farther into not even owning the physical things in our possession.

True but the Mac G4, especially, was an absolute dream to work on. So I don't agree they remained this way.

Apple's excuse is that it is to prevent stolen devices from being used as a source of parts for repairs. What is surprising though, is that many people parrot that line. They are either astroturfing or are brainwashed enough to believe it.

Edit: I found examples of this further down the thread. SMH!

But they make incredible hardware,

But do they though? I get it that those are mostly nicely designed, sleek devices with great performance but then you have fuckups like the terrible keyboard and the touch bar (by fuckup I mean that people criticized the idea from the start and were proven right by Apple dropping it after few models). For me the hardware is a hit and miss, some things are nice, some features are terrible. And with Apple you can't choose and pick like with PC. When they decide to try silly things like the touch bar you are stuck with them for years. You either don't upgrade or have to get a product with a feature you don't like.

They make ok hardware but it's not spectacular or anything. The new chips that they put in all of the computers are very very good, but it's not unique you don't have to get Apple products to get that kind of performance and you certainly don't have to pay their Apple prices.

I have no love for Apple's hardware (primarily price related*), but since I am completely dependent on Adobe for my work, my OS options are MacOS and Windows. I love MacOS and passionately hate Windows 🙄

My solution was a Hackintosh; chose my own hardware (within compatibility restraints) and built my own computer. The price is miles from what I would have to pay Apple. My system cost roughly $3K (with two 4K screens), compared to the (roughly) equivalent, non-upgradeable options from Apple that start around $5K without screens.

The caveat is that sometimes I need to upgrade hardware to make sure it's compatible with the latest (ish) MacOS versions (because software like Photoshop requires it), and it is a difficult process. Recently had to switch out my graphics card because I was stuck on High Sierra (old card was Nvidia, no support beyond HS), and it took me the better part of a week to get everything working.

Now it works, I'm on Monterey, and everything is chugging along perfectly. For now. Not sure what the future of the Hackintosh will be, but most likely there's a dead end out there somewhere (nearby) as Apple fazes out Intel support.

Still worth it, but I'm dreading the day I have to give up and either pay Apple for hardware, or switch to [shudders] Windows.

Or maybe Adobe will start supporting Linux! 🤣

* I think I might hate iOS even more than Windows, though.