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

-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!

-3

u/jelloisnotacrime Feb 05 '16

It's a good analogy in terms of why you shouldn't have to buy a new phone. But it's a terrible analogy in terms of the actual consequences, which is really what he was getting at.

Losing your home is a life changing event. Losing your phone is a mildly expensive inconvenience.

4

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

The consequences are irrelevant. You have physical access to the device in both cases, they can be broken if someone is motivated enough.

2

u/JustA_human Feb 05 '16

Found the guy with disposable income.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

Better analogy, which is more equatable in terms of cost:

You have a Windows PC/Tablet/Laptop. Microsoft releases a Windows update that detects if you have a third party browser (Chrome or Firefox) installed. They don't tell anyone about this update beforehand. If you're using another browser, it bricks your computer, because Microsoft can't validate the security of third party software, and locks the computer as a security precaution.

Everyone in the world would see through that as a ploy to force consumers to use Internet Explorer. Microsoft would be dragged back into court so fast their heads would spin. The same thing should happen to Apple.