Apple Infuriating Customers By Auto Bricking Their iPhones!

[crmcsh01]

The whole issue with this is complete B.S. and the worst kind of B.S. it's "Apple B.S."

Apple if you are so concerned about security then why do you not brick an iPhone that connects to an insecure public WiFi? I will guarantee your users have a MUCH higher chance of having their data compromised connecting to a public insecure WiFi network than having a fingerprint scanner replaced.

How about 3rd party USB chargers or airport charging stations? Why don't you brick those phones as well? This magic hacker chip you claim can be installed in a fingerprint scanner could also be installed in a 3rd party USB charger right?

C'mon Apple don't go just half-@$$ed why not go all out?

 

[cr6]

What I find interesting is who they "used" as the face of this whole fiasco.

....a journalist covering the refugee crisis in the Balkans, who broke his iPhone and had a small Mom & Pop place repair it and after taking the latest OTA update, lost all his data. ...sigh...can we make it a little more dramatic than this? SMH
Not that this whole story doesn't suck for iPhone users, I'm just sayin....you'd think a journalist in the field like this guy would know to keep his stuff backed up regularly, in the off chance that his phone was lost, stolen, or perhaps hit by a sniper round.
Drama....


S5 tap'n

 

[crmcsh01]

What I find interesting is who they "used" as the face of this whole fiasco.
....a journalist covering the refugee crisis in the Balkans, who broke his iPhone and had a small Mom & Pop place repair it and after taking the latest OTA update, lost all his data. ...sigh...can we make it a little more dramatic than this? SMH
Not that this whole story doesn't suck for iPhone users, I'm just sayin....you'd think a journalist in the field like this guy would know to keep his stuff backed up regularly, in the off chance that his phone was lost, stolen, or perhaps hit by a sniper round.
Drama....

I agree and as someone who works in the industry, it is STAGGERING how many people I come across that do not back up important data. It blows my mind that in this day and age there are many easy, cheap, or even free options you have to backup your pictures and other data. Many people do not do it and freak out when it is lost.

With that said, I am still completely opposed to the tactic apple is using here. To me it is a money grab for them and they just say "security" and that makes this OK, it is NOT IMO. There are better ways to remedy this than destroying a phone and its data.

 

[cr6]

I agree. I think now that people are talking about, Apple will take action. Even if it's just to publicly remind people that replacing their touch id by someone other than an authorized Apple facility, is against their rules & regulations. It probably won't stop a class action from popping up being the lawsuit happy society we are....

S5 tap'n

 

[tech_head]

They can disable functionality related to touch id. They cannot kill the phone. Google disables pay when you root or the secure chain is broken. They do not brick your phone. Killing a device is inexcusable.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[UrbanBounca]

Which would be acceptable at least in my book, if i owned an Iphone and the only way to get a non-apple authorized repair on the screen or TouchID sensor was to wipe the phone and reset it back up. The fact is that this is not what's happening, it's basically giving them an error, and Apple is saying you can pay us for a new phone (refurbished) or your device won't work again, is unacceptable. As another user states that TouchID is a feature that can be toggled on and off in the menu's, and if that's possible, then why not just permanently disable TouchID until it can be fixed by an authorized apple repair shop? It's not like apple doesn't know that people get their devices fixed at other places.

I don't believe you know the depth of encryption. I'll give you an example.

I repair ATM's for a living. The keypad that you use to type in your PIN is the most encrypted device on the entire unit. If encryption is broken on that device, whether it be someone tampering with it or age, it will completely disable the unit. You will either get "This ATM is currently unavailable," or the entire unit will power itself down until the keypad is replaced.

The reason I explain all of this is because that's the route that Apple has begun to take. The TouchID is the encryption point of the device. Once the encryption is broken, the device is useless (as it should be).

 

[xsylus]

Law firm searches for plaintiffs for class action suit against Apple over 'Error 53'
Law firm searches for plaintiffs for class action suit against Apple over 'Error 53'

 

[New2u]

I don't believe you know the depth of encryption. I'll give you an example.

I repair ATM's for a living. The keypad that you use to type in your PIN is the most encrypted device on the entire unit. If encryption is broken on that device, whether it be someone tampering with it or age, it will completely disable the unit. You will either get "This ATM is currently unavailable," or the entire unit will power itself down until the keypad is replaced.

The reason I explain all of this is because that's the route that Apple has begun to take. The TouchID is the encryption point of the device. Once the encryption is broken, the device is useless (as it should be).

I do understand the depth of encryption, i'm saying that Apple says that the TouchID lives in it's own Enclave, or basically it's own partition. To say that they cannot disable one area without bricking the entire phone, in this age of technology is basically inexcusable. You could have a partition that is encrypted, inside an encrypted drive. All they would have to do is either disable or destroy that enclave (as they call it) when it shows that it was repaired at anywhere other then an authorized apple repair shop. The fact that these devices are ONLY breaking when the update is applied pretty much tells the entire story here, it didn't happen the minute that the repair was made, which means Apple did it knowingly. Even, to say that they CANNOT do this, which i doubt is the problem, all they would have to do is wipe the entire device, at which point a user could reset up the device for future use. In this case that is not what they are doing, they are bricking the device and telling the user base that they have to purchase a new phone, which to me is basically taking your phone away from you, and in some cases the people have done nothing wrong, and it is apple's fault, but from looking at the matter, they don't care. Apple's stance is that if you are getting this error, you did wrong and you owe them money to get a new phone.

BTW, TouchID is a feature, not a requirement to use the device, unlike an ATM. You can actually toggle this feature on and off. TouchID is not the single point of encryption for the devices, as it requires you to set this up if you want to use it, which you don't have to, and many people don't use it. There are more then enough stories of users who don't use this feature at all, that it still bricks their phones. I could understand if Apple REQUIRED you to use this feature.

 

[liftedplane]

BTW, TouchID is a feature, not a requirement to use the device, unlike an ATM. You can actually toggle this feature on and off. TouchID is not the single point of encryption for the devices, as it requires you to set this up if you want to use it, which you don't have to, and many people don't use it. There are more then enough stories of users who don't use this feature at all, that it still bricks their phones. I could understand if Apple REQUIRED you to use this feature.

Exactly, you can still lock your phone with a pin password or swipe key.... disable touch ID completely and leave the rest of the device alone. Just like @New2u stated, the ATM pin pad is the only way to use that device, it is the entry point.

touch ID is NOT and can be completely disabled while still allowing the device to be usable.

 

[thunderbolt_nick]

Looks like they decided to reverse that view: http://www.macrumors.com/2016/02/18/apple-ios-9-2-1-error-53-fix/

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