How the iPhone 16's electrically-released adhesive works

Re:How the iPhone 16's electrically-released adhesive works by cruffle_duffle on Monday September 23, 2024 @11:18AM (#41627084)

Lots of repairs are like that though. The sum of the replacement parts can vastly exceed the price of just buying a new one (which is often a newer model). We even have terminology for that in the auto world where you can “total” a car because it costs more to fix than replace.

There are other hidden costs to repairs too. One is you’ve “broken the seal” and now your device isn’t “stock” anymore. The water seal might not work as well. The display connector might be slightly loose and tweak out. The screws might not be factory torqued down.

For a car it’s similar too… maybe after that accident the frame is now just slightly off kilter. Maybe there was that proverbial “extra mystery bolt” left over.

Then there is opportunity costs. Is repairing it really the best use of your time and money? What other things could you have done instead of repair? I dunno…

All I’m saying is, repeatability isn’t the end all be all. It’s yet another set of trade offs factored into product design like security, user experience, quality, cost, time to market, size and weight, durability, etc.

I think the score is fine. But there is a second score not mentioned that is “is it worth repairing”?

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Re:How the iPhone 16's electrically-released adhesive works by ghostpepper on Monday September 23, 2024 @11:51AM (#41627407)

> We even have terminology for that in the auto world where you can “total” a car because it costs more to fix than replace.

It blows my mind that I never made this connection before.

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Re:How the iPhone 16's electrically-released adhesive works by grues-dinner on Monday September 23, 2024 @01:19PM (#41628372)

It's also very common now for even superficially fairly minor danger to total a car because there's so much custom electronics all over a car that replacing the parts and wiring costs thousands in parts and days of labour, even if you can get the parts. Repairing aggressively unibody pressed frames with their aluminium and composite construction that can't just be welded is almost impossible. And even if it is, the insurers won't touch it because the manufacturers can't, won't and don't want to know how to agree that it's safe.

Phones and other electronics are not a lot different in that manufacturers don't really want you to fix them and any sop towards repairable phones is under duress from legislation or . Hell, good luck even finding a genuine battery, I can't even get one for a ThinkPad and they're supposed to be good for that.

To be honest I'm fairly cool on repairability for phones as they're so tightly engineered, it's genuinely hard to engineer and they cycle so fast the parts go out of production in weeks.

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Re:How the iPhone 16's electrically-released adhesive works by throw893298 on Monday September 23, 2024 @01:28PM (#41628461)

> superficially fairly minor danger to total a car because there's so much custom electronics all over a car

Even worse. Electric cars have a huge battery, that may have a compromised integrity after small bump. It is quite difficult to resell EV, if log shows airbags popped at any point!

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Re:How the iPhone 16's electrically-released adhesive works by consteval on Thursday September 26, 2024 @01:37PM (#41661061)

> there's so much custom electronics all over a car that replacing the parts and wiring costs thousands

This is being fixed as electronic components are being switched to 48v. 12v hasn't been enough for a while. Lots less wires and control modules with 48v.

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