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What does Apple and the TV show Hogans Hero's have in common?

Now we know why since 2013 getting parts has been harder!

Apple Once Caught Factory Workers 'Digging a Small Tunnel in a Corner' in Attempt to Smuggle iPhone Parts

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@danj Ha! I love how the article mentions that they were digging a hole "Shawshank Redemption" style too! Some Apple/tech company employees certainly go to extreme measures to release/smuggle information. I don't know if you heard about Tesla recently but a former Tesla employee admitted to uploading some Tesla source code onto his own account, and then left Tesla to pursue a job at a similar EV startup in China. It seems like every company is susceptible to leaks nowadays!

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@jogihara - Yes! I can't fault Apple or Tesla during the development phase clamping down on pre-release of parts or information. It's afterwards service documentation & parts should be more available! I like what you guys did with Motorola being their clearinghouse. I which Apple would just do the same thing with a few partners. Its such a waste of time and money fighting.

I did think people would enjoy it, clearly you did ;-}

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Sadly, it's all about profits nowadays, and these companies see that producing a new product annually generates more profits. But I'm hopeful that more manufacturers will get on board and realize that making repair accessible will lead to lower costs on the company and environment.

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@jogihara There is still a practical limit to repair unless you want to find a donor device or get used parts.

My threshold is 4-5 years and anything beyond that I can't get a universal part for (Ex: RAM/HDD) is donor only if it costs too much or I will part out the device and pass on the remains I don't want to others when I sell the parts. The exception to this is things like phone boards that still have the previous owners data; I destroy the entire thing to protect the data as a way to thank them for the donor.

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@nick Yes most definitely there is. It's also interesting to see what the breaking point is for when someone wants to repair their device. For example, people are probably more likely to repair their device if it's $500 vs a device that's $100. But then again, this is also dependent on the type of device, and we're still actively trying to figure out if there is a certain price point that people will stop/start repairing their devices :P

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@jogihara My magic number is 40-50% (20-30% for low end devices) of what it costs for a working used replacement or in some cases, a upgrade. Less for phones - 20-30%. I don't consider it fair to cut repair attempts off at the price of a new device, so I use a similar used one as a baseline average. I don't count RAM and drives against machines where that stuff is modular but if it's soldered it counts. I generally live with a dead internal optical drive since I own an external anyway, but it does devalue the machine $20-30 to cover for the loss in value from not having it work.

Depending on what I came from, I probably took an upgrade when I called it - which is why I waited for the right 2011 MBP. I ended up with a discounted due to cosmetics machine for a price that was very agreeable compared to sinking money into that A1181.

I considered my A1181 MB a lost cause at $20 because they generally only get $40-50 on average. The other reason is I wanted to get away from is the Fixed SATA III drive rejection problem.

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Dan will be eternally grateful.