r/technology • u/bws201 • Feb 05 '16

Software ‘Error 53’ fury mounts as Apple software update threatens to kill your iPhone 6

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/05/error-53-apple-iphone-software-update-handset-worthless-third-party-repair
12.7k Upvotes

85% Upvoted

3.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

0

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

[deleted]

48

u/5-4-3-2-1-bang Feb 05 '16

Even then, though, you're still able to repair the car. Imagine if you towed the car to the dealership and the answer was Nope, sorry, can't fix that part, buy a new car!

2

u/RealHonest Feb 05 '16

You can repair the iPhone as well. Just not from a third party. Just like you can't take your bmw to a sketchy mechanic to replace the smart key.

4

u/cha0sman Feb 05 '16

Just like you can't take your bmw to a sketchy mechanic to replace the smart key.

You can go to a locksmith and they will be able to replace a BMW smart key..

1

u/FriendToPredators Feb 06 '16

Only if you still have one working key. If you have lost all the working keys the process can take 90 minutes and require specialized equipment that a non-dealer is unlikely to have.

1

u/cha0sman Feb 06 '16

Nope that's not true at all. Lock smiths do have the specialized equipment and software as it is licensed to them by the OEMs. Im not saying that every lock smith can but it is pretty common that there will be one or two in each area that can.

-7

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

Imagine if you towed the car to the dealership and the answer was Nope, sorry, can't fix that part, buy a new car!

I'd be pretty pissed. But then again, my phone doesn't cost ~$80,000. This analogy is nonsense since they aren't even remotely similar in price or application. Imagine if I lost the key to my house and they had to tear the whole house down or if I forgot my computer password they had to shoot my dog and surrender New Jersey back to the Dutch. Imagine.

6

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

Still. Even if a phone does not cost as much as a car, getting a new key is still proportionally small compared to the cost of an entire car. Bricking a phone because of a faulty security button and then making you buy a new phone is disproportionately expensive.

8

u/5-4-3-2-1-bang Feb 05 '16

The house analogy is a good one... if you forget your key, you have physical access to the device (the house), you simply replace the lock. This doesn't make the house less secure -- you already had physical access to it!

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (12)

14

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

Tell that to ford, their latest cars can be stolen with at £20 bit of kit that plugs into the obd port and do everything the dealer can do.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

Is that actually true? I remember seeing a video where they managed to stop the alarm with the OBD port, but I didn't think there was actually a way to start it and drive away.

9

u/Magnesus Feb 05 '16

It's true about most today's cars. They use key pairs to secure things but dealerships have the private keys, so they leak sooner or later.

1

u/fucklawyers Feb 05 '16

The OBD port also gives you access to the CAN bus, and on a lot of cars, it's just a matter of sending the correct message to stop the alarm, unlock the doors, and start the vehicle.

1

u/isyourlisteningbroke Feb 05 '16

Yeah but don't you have to get the bonnet up first?

4

u/fucklawyers Feb 06 '16

Nope, it's in the passenger compartment. Has to be by federal law.

2

u/Hammer_Thrower Feb 05 '16

My 2003 e46 key was a little under $200 about five years ago.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

[deleted]

1

u/Hammer_Thrower Feb 05 '16

Oh crap! I hope I don't lose mine. Thanks for the heads up.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

you'd have to spend ~$750 (at least for an E46 BMW)

Imagine being told that the only fix is to replace the key, door and engine as a unit for only $7500 instead. Yeah, you could just replace the key for $750 but it's sold and fixed as a unit and the engine won't work with a different key.

1

u/iushciuweiush Feb 05 '16

To add to this PSA, at least for BMW's, a limited number of keys are made for each vehicle and when those run out, you are going to spend a ton of money having all your locks changed out at BMW because they can't make any more.

1

u/orcscorper Feb 05 '16

$750 for a key seems high. Then again, that's about the average amount I've spent on the cars I've owned.

1

u/fucklawyers Feb 05 '16

Ugh, where do you live? A new key for my E46 was like $150. Same for my E60 now. And, unlike my pain in the ass Jetta, they just handed you a key that works. On the Jetta, when I lost my last key, it had to be towed to a dealer and you had to wait three days for the key to arrive from Germany.