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Comment by kccqzy | Hacker News Reader

I normally much prefer screws over glue but Apple has at least been using repair-friendly glue like the electrically debonding adhesive in use for iPhone 16e/17e.

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Making these devices repairable is not just about taking it apart, it's also about getting it back together. If I need to electrically debond the adhesive, then I'd also need to new strips of this special adhesive to hold the new battery in place. All of this is after needing a heat gun to weaken the adhesive just to get into it, which I assume also needs to be reapplied on reassembly to retain the same level of water and dust resistance.

It's not just a matter of buying a battery and using some tools the average person has on hand. A whole kit of specialty tools and parts needs to be ordered to facilitate the repair. Apple's own repair kit is the most extreme form of this, where they ship 70lbs of tools, which would be comical if it wasn't so sad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjsc6UypDOI

Friendly for who? I certainly cant electrically debond chemical compounds, but I sure do know how to undo a screw.

And you can't follow a guide either? All you have to do is clip a 9v battery on.

Do you also consider yourself incapable of jump starting a car because you might have to look up instructions first?

Yes. Dont assume that everybody is technically minded such as yourself.

I know plenty of people that would never even consider jump starting thei car. However are also quite happy with poppping open a battery cover and doing a simple swap like any other battery powered device.

You don't have to be "technically minded" to figure this out. It's not spinning up a Kubernetes cluster, it's a picture with an arrow that says "Clip red wire here". Simply driving a car is a thousand times more complicated, and we expect most everybody to be capable of that.

There's also a difference between not wanting to do something, and not being capable of it.

You seem to judge the world by your own accument and ability, which is very dangerous.

Many milions of people are scared by things such as red and black wires and wont touch them with a barge pole.

It's ridiculous to baby proof the world to that level. For a significant portion of that group, taking a screwdriver to their phone is also beyond comfort — those people can take their phone to a mall kiosk just like they do now.

It is probably a good idea to review some instructions before jump starting a car because even though it is simple, if you do it wrong (connect the battery terminal last) you can blow up your battery from the ignition of hydrogen gas.

Agreed. But having to reference instructions is very different from being incapable of something, which was my point.

Well yeah any glue is worse than screws: this I agree with you. But attaching a 9V battery to the glue is about the same difficulty as aligning the screwdriver with the screw and applying torque with a screwdriver.

There's little metal tabs you can alligator-clip a 9-volt battery onto, which will release the adhesive. Way better than the stupid pull tabs you had to pull and roll in a very particular way in order to not tear them and render the battery unsafe to remove.

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