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Comment by Grombobulous | Hacker News Reader

Interesting that it purposefully seems to burn compute cycles to discharge faster on purpose (it says that it’ll get warm while discharging).

I suspect that basically nobody will ever follow these instructions, though.

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USPS has just introduced a $50 “misuse of hazmat labeling” fee with supporting context that could infer a much stronger parcel scanning process behind the scenes (since it’s presented as a ‘you wasted our time’ fee). I would hesitate to say that nobody will ever follow these instructions. More likely, someone scalper will take a sob story to the press after USPS makes an example out of them.

So they will scan the package, notice the phone, unpack and start it to check the battery percentage and if the shipping mode is enabled?

I hadn’t considered that possibility until you suggested it, but your question does make a good point. I’ll have to look up the mail inspection rules but I assume(?) they have every right until a court finds otherwise. It sounds like exactly the sort of overbearing, petty nonsense that one can reasonably predict from this decade’s administration of the U.S. federal postal service. Are they likely to do so every time? Absolutely not. Will they do so until they get to make an example of someone? Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest, honestly.

I think they would be allowed to do it because it’s for safety (they could probably also open letters filled with powder to prevent anthrax etc.), but I don’t think they have the manpower and motivation to do it, especially because the risk is probably really low, even without shipping mode.

Anyone sending their 18 Pro Max to Apple’s central repair depot will, or they won’t get the label, it seems.

If the phone won’t boot, wonder if shipping is potentially illegal, and Apple would mandate driving it to a store?

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