this is what happens when we when we try
something the first time is it's it's
not supposed to work right we gotta find
all the kinks first if it worked it
wouldn't be I fix it okay
okay all right let's get started so we
sat here for about five minutes talking
to nobody
you missed it it was wonderful but now
we're starting again so this is I fix it
like the first one
Kyle is here with me I am Gwendolyn gay
and we're gonna do some talking back and
forth answering some questions we do
have a chat room be sure to check that
out
it's ifixit.com slash chat we will both
be in the chat room answering your
questions live on the Google hangout you
can use so you can ask questions in the
chat or you can post a question on the
Google hang travel check out our Google
hangout as well below we will be able to
answer those questions so today we'd
like to talk a little bit about our
right to repair as well as still phone
unlocking because that is a hot topic
right now and if you have questions that
are outside of that topic that's fine go
ahead and post them anyway we're here to
help and we're here to answer your
questions so you want to get started
absolutely all right we don't have fun
music but music so um first I wanted to
talk about I fixed it so people know us
for our tear downs of course and of
course our amazing tools but not too
many people know about iFixit org so if
you haven't checked it out check it out
now I do have it on my screen if you
guys want to see that this is what your
guys you'll get so why repair there's
some great information there we do some
amazing articles on I fix it so we just
relaunched I fix it that had been our
blog and where we were writing about
advocacy issues but we we found we were
writing the same thing over and over and
so we said well it would be nice if we
could I mean get a lot of kind of the
the fundamentals of why we think what we
think in one place and I have I have
been constantly surprised a lot of the
things that we assume things like repair
is better than recycling we're kind of
obvious but nobody's really been out the
talking about it and it's been kind of
fun ever since we launched the new
dollar excite I get emails
some people and I can just reply with
the link they'll ask me about recycling
and I just send them to the recycling
page on my fix-it the other word it's
been a really cool resource and major
props to our a design team who not only
made the site look great on the desktop
but it's it's the first complete site
that we've done that's mobile-friendly
so the sides completely responds it's
it's beautiful it's beautiful so not
only inform it but it is it's pretty
amazing so let's talk about the right to
repair a little bit on our site we do
have some more information about the
right to repair but what's going on
right now with legislation and and what
should we know as consumers about our
right to repair yes so the reason that
we started iFixit back in the day was
that we couldn't get Apple service
manuals I my very first job was as a
Apple repair tech at NAPA Auto Service
Center and so I knew with apples man you
look like and when I got to school I
didn't have access to their manual
anymore so that was a little bit
annoying so we said that's fine we'll
just make our own so we put the manuals
online and and they started to get
popular and the reason that they got
popular is nobody has access to apples
manuals and over the years we you know
built a bit of a name and that's why
everybody is here is you can go on
iFixit and learn how to do repairs it's
it's kind of silly that we have to do
this I mean if you look at Apple's
manuals apples internal manuals are
called service sores are there they're
actually pretty good they've gotten
better since we started publishing our
man I feel like this would be the
company had someone anytime you've got
an alternative and I would be interested
those of you that do have access to
service source if there are things that
you see Apple doing better than us
please do let us know with improve our
manuals and vice versa I I think that we
are comrades at arms with the team at
Apple that develops the manuals they do
a pretty good job and it's not their
fault that the man's aren't available to
everybody else so let's say you're the
website and you're like oh it would sure
be nice if I post with Apple service
manual on my blog and so you did it
within 24 hours you would get a cease
and desist takedown though this from
they're very proactive and they have
been very good at removing their manuals
from all across the internet which is
why people rely on I fix it
I would love to figure out a way to put
I fix it out of business and get the
manufacturers be the ones making the
manuals available or if every
manufacturer put the manuals out there
and then with you aggregate them while I
fix it that would be a nice way to do it
it's completely silly that we have to go
and get products to take them apart and
recreate the serviceman's now as I
understand it this is this is coming
from a copyright law that was written in
- in 1998 well is that correct I mean
there's there's a number of issues under
what I would call the right to repair
umbrella one of those issues is access
to service documentation okay service
manuals are copyrighted just like Mickey
Mouse is copyrighted any any work that
you create is covered under copyright
law and so you have to have permission
from the content creator to reproduce it
reproducing it could mean using a
service manual or posting a service
manual on your site and so you could
argue that the service manual isn't they
creative work and shouldn't be covered
under copyright law but it's it's kind
of a legal gray area so this is an area
where if we wanted to require the
manufacturer to share the information
you'd have to pass a law to make that
information available if if you wanted
to that there are other areas where
copyright law impedes our ability to do
things we want with our devices and
that's where the cell phone unlocking
thing came out last year and we've
written extensively about cell phone
unlocking I don't have to go into in too
crazy detail but the bottom line is that
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
that you're referring to that was passed
back in 98 makes it illegal to
circumvent a copyright protection
mechanism so what the heck is that the
copyright protection mechanism is just a
digital walk so on on my phone you know
when I get the phone it's locked to AT&T
to bypass that lock and switch to
Verizon is trivial it's just a bit in
the end the phone but there's a lock
over the over the cover of that bit
effectively and removing that lock
requires bypassing a digital protection
mechanism and violates copyright law
right
so that's not reproducing anything I'm
not copying anything I'm not doing
anything that traditional copyright law
would impact but the the reason that
they did this was that it was it was
they wanted to make it illegal for you
will copy DVDs so they wanted to make it
illegal and break the encryption on DVDs
so that you could you could you know
make copies like you could with with
cassette tapes mm-hmm and it has had
tremendous unintended consequences along
the way so back in 2001 Motorola figured
out that they could use this law to shut
down the people that were unlocking
cellphones
right and there's a good friend of ours
scenic conifer he's a he's a great guy
and he was the first one to get sued by
Motorola back in 2001 mother rolla's
lawyers found the sneaky way to use this
copyright law to prevent people from
being able able to unlock phones sued
Cena it went in the in the courts a long
way and eventually what what Cena and
some of our friends at the Electronic
Frontier Foundation elsewhere did was
appealed to the Copyright Office for the
exemption there's a mechanism to allow
exemptions to be able to unlock cell
phones and may be granted an exemption
back then that exemption was current for
the last decade or so but this last year
the Copyright Office decided not to
renew that exemption okay
long story short here we are the United
States is the only country in the entire
world where it's illegal unlock a sofa
and so we've been working for the last
year they're trying to get Congress to
pass a law to fix that now the reason
that we're talking about today is that
there's a bill up for vote next week
that could potentially real eagle a cell
phone unlocking mm-hmm that's fantastic
call your representative tell them to
support the bill right right
no so they just oh I just got word like
today that they they have tweaked the
law in bad ways and we don't know the
full ramifications of it but I don't
know right now whether this is a law
that we want passed or not so it's
gotten all the way to the floor but they
have adjusted the bill yes so mainly all
the way through committee we had a bill
that we weren't thrilled with and only
legalized unlocking cell phones it
didn't legalized unlocking tablets but
they've made some changes
to where
and wouldn't be possible to unlock more
than one phone you just be able to do
one phone so if you're a repair shop or
you're a recycler and you want to unlock
a number of phones that you owned we're
not sure if the current bill would make
that legal so Congress sucks and I've
been I've been kind of berries in this
world last year because we saw this one
there a thing we said well maybe we can
fix this and it's it's been very
challenging right so just backtracking
just a little bit to understand the bill
a little better or or the problem right
now is that if you take a book say it's
your book you own it you bought it
you can highlight it you can dog you're
it correct but with a phone we're not
able to do anything with it but use it
is that correct like with a book you can
read it and you can do whatever you want
with it but with this we can only use it
that's that's where it's going so I
think that's what the manufacturers
would like I mean if you're in Steve
Jobs head manufacturers and and the and
the carriers as well I mean their
perspective is they want to make the
product toss over the fence have you
used it for a little while and then
throw it away and buy a new one and
never tweak your modify and I don't
think they really understand that I mean
the world is a collaborative place
people are tinkering and modifying I've
got my iPhone that I put our transparent
rear panel kit on it and that's been
amazing that so I mean I don't know why
they are so divorced from from the
reality that of course things break and
we're going to tinker and we want to
paint racing stripes with our cars and
that's fine or the reality that you pay
for it it's yours and now and now
they're saying no right that's not
correct it's theirs
great okay so well if you guys have any
questions right now about that
particular thing we are in the chat room
again it's ifixit.com slash chat we
would love to hear from you there and
obviously we're very passionate about
this issue and so what do you what can
we expect maybe next week or is it next
week sometime and you know I'm not sure
we'll be posting on the blog and the
next week as we know but I think it's
totally up in the air right now and I
think it's kind of a shame on Congress
for taking so long to do anything and
then when the
finally do something the bottom line is
that the carriers and the copyright
folks are in they have friends that are
in Congress talking their lobbyists are
talking to the staffers every single day
and the the repair community doesn't
have anybody advocating for them right
so we're trying to start to get the word
out and that's part of the way I wanted
to do this this live hangout was just to
give a chance to interact with people
and see what what do people think are
maybe some options some solutions for
getting out and doing something because
I know I don't have the answers I don't
really know we've just kind of been
identifying and seeing some of the
problems and I tend to like to find a
problem and fix it
shame on me for thinking Congress as it
was possible for Congress to do that so
something that people may not know is
that does not only affects consumers
it's it's small repair shops they they
also do not get information about
repairing right I mean nobody can buy
parts from Apple right I mean the reason
that we sell parts is you can't get
service parts from Apple some
manufacturers do like with Dell you can
get parts for their laptop but even
della stopped providing service parts
for their tablets however you know we're
able to get parts and we're writing
manuals and the news this week is that
we we just released the service manual
for the iPhone 5s so I thought it would
be kind of fun than maybe and I'll close
my computer here and we can show you the
process that we've been tinkering with
now we got so we got the 5s last fall
did I turn down the day of it was all
sorts of fun where did where did we give
it 5s and 5c I believe we went to
Australia didn't we or then where do we
get it I think we should know so that
was Luke went to New Zealand I would
know if I had gone but but Luke went got
the phone we take it apart we do our
teardown and in the process that
teardown we use the tools that we have
so we used our normal suction cup but
the first thing we found of course is
that the the fingerprint sensor has a
little cable and it's tricky to get this
booby-trapped on both ends if you ever
take an approach apart an iPhone 5 it's
there when you take a sorry when you
take apart the top screen here you've
got the digitizer cable and everything
up top now we have both so both ends are
maybe trapped and you don't want to pull
on those because you will definitely
damage it but we got this found this
cool nifty thing tell us about this so
we've got some friends that make tools
so some friends that we have in Italy
may made the ice black very cool we're
selling it and the idea is you have
suction cup on both sides and you can
stick it on here mm-hmm and the key is
you wanna you want to have your suction
cup action on the phone without and so
you can see I got it on there and okay
so I've got I've got a grip on it so
what's cool about this is I can squeeze
on this and it pops the foam open but
only pops it open so far and so you can
see the cable there so you're not in
danger of pulling on anything now that's
pretty cool stay saying okay well so we
invented this this fancy tool to get
into that that's great
how in the world is Apple do it and
normally we don't get a scene but some
of the apples manuals actually got
leaked online so on my computer here I
have this story here from Colton Mac so
these are the secret little tools that
Apple uses to repair the 5s
so somebody an apple eat bleep the the
service manual and they've actually got
these little animated gif tutorials here
so this is Apple's universal display
removal fixture it looks like it weighs
about three pounds and you can see it's
basically exactly the same thing as the
ice clack you stick it in there you've
got a suction cup you lift it up it only
goes so far and you're good to go now if
you're saying do I really have to buy a
custom tool to get under the 5s I don't
think you do I think you can use a
suction cup and be careful but you have
to be very careful because it's a lot of
force the tabs have gotten a lot
stronger on the side of this thing and
then this is this is Apple's secret tool
from the other angle and then so this is
the part where you know as we start
talking about these right to repair
issues sometimes there are things where
we start working on the manual and it's
just not completely intuitive what
exactly the right way they take it apart
is so on my on my eye
on here I'm sectioned to it there we go
alright so once once I get the okay so
once I get this out we're looking at the
battery and we're saying okay I've got
the battery out so this one we didn't
put the adhesive back so the first time
we wrote the manual for this we told
people to get in there and start prying
the normal way and pry the battery up
then we saw Apple secret repair manual
and in their secret manual may they have
this fancy adhesive thing where you
saying they're saying pull the adhesive
out cut it and then you can actually
pull it all the way around to get to
pull the adhesive out of from under the
battery so this is a fancy new thing
called a command adhesive 3m and then to
that Anapolis aside a little bit easier
to remove the battery in the iPhone they
did this they didn't tell anybody about
it and so we wrote the manual the first
time we did it wrong how that happens
sometimes once we were able to actually
get once we saw the leaked process we're
like oh okay that makes sense and we
updated our manual and the 5s manual
that we just released uses this
technique for pulling the command
adhesive so the idea is that the
adhesive shears as you as you move did
we lose it shutting down this event yeah
you
so wait 30 seconds and see if somebody
says a lot of us in the chat yeah cool
all right so so we were talking about
some of our new devices and we had a
question from David that you might want
to answer will you ever do a refresh on
old guides using new ways to open or fix
them yeah that's a good question the
iPad is the perfect example of that
where the first time that we the first
man who we wrote for the iPad 2 we use
the gun which is absolutely a valid
technique for taking the iPad apart the
problem is that it's easy to damage the
LCD by overheating the LCD so you can
get spots and part of the LCD it's also
pretty easy to melt the home button I've
seen a few home buttons and then of
course there's the antenna once you want
to get the screen up breaking the antha
so the guys are changing all the time
I'm shocked I'll go back and look at the
guide and it looks nothing like it did a
few years ago and sometimes that's us
making changes sometimes that's
community members going in and revamping
things that's the idea behind the flag
system you see a guide and they'll say
hey this guide has grammatical issues
too this guy could use better photos or
sometimes this guide is overly
circuitous meaning that it takes too
long to give in to something so I'll
give you an example on the 5s something
else that we learned from Apple the
first man that we wrote we had you
basically disassemble the whole thing to
remove the speaker and then when we
looked at Apple's guide we saw that they
had a technique for getting the the
speaker out without dismantling the
whole phone so you can actually just
once you get it open there's a couple of
screws and you can get the speaker out
we hadn't realized that so over time you
know feedback so you know if I read the
guide you'll be using it right make
tweaks and that's that's the whole idea
of I fix it being a wiki in the case of
the iPad 2
we basically through the entire manual
away and develop the new type
for doing it and the new technique is I
absolutely love it I use it all the time
so that direct heat without overheating
it's just wonderful so and that's a case
where the the heat gun tool is still a
very useful practical way to take apart
an iPad and honestly once you once
you've gotten good and you know what
you're doing with my eye opening iPad I
think the heat gun is maybe even the
better technique it's just more
error-prone
and a lot of what we're doing is
optimizing if we have a hundred thousand
people following our guide to fix this
thing
we don't want anybody breaking their
stuff and so we pay a lot of attention
to the comments we're trying to really
reduce errors and sometimes that means
developing a technique that's safer even
if it takes longer sure in case of the
this these guys that we have going on
right now we do have obviously using
this first but we do have the option of
using just the single suction cup but
again this will give you more control so
I think you're gonna see a little bit of
that with our newer guides having those
two options but going back and revising
some guides I think it's great I great
ideas I really think a repair manual is
not something that should be static it
should have a path to get better at the
time I was I have a 92 Honda Accord and
when you go to replace the headlight on
that there's a bolt on the on the
headlight assembly and after you had a
car for 20 years that book corrodes so
it's not the engineers fault when they
wrote the service manual the process for
removing the headlight assembly was
fairly straightforward but if that bolt
is is corroded on there there's no good
way to get the headlight assembly off so
you have to you have to remove kind of
the left fender which involves removing
the entire front bumper and it goes from
being a five-minute repair to being
something that several hours I was doing
it on a Sunday night I had to take my
car to work the next morning like damn
it
if this if this manual had been you know
anybody who had done this manual had
done this process in the last five or
ten years on a car that was leveled
would no one would realize and well
they've added a note and so that's I
mean something I'm really hoping we can
do is let's get more and more of these
manuals online so people can comment and
it's just kind of natural for for these
things to be
it should be a week if you didn't know
you can contribute you can make your own
guides and you can contribute to the
guys that we have that are existing so
please do that please let's make this a
nice big repair community so what are
some of the things that you would like
to see on I fix it comm that are not
already happening this well this chat is
kind of a fun new experiment so let's
see if it works I'm also I'm looking
forward to getting I we're trying to
figure out how we can get more community
interaction going so we you know we both
the reputation system we've got the the
badges and I'm really kind of looking to
the community for ideas and saying hey
what should we do next I don't have any
any grand plans in terms of the
infrastructure of the site I think what
we built is pretty good we've got a lot
of people contributing we just want we
want more people contributing we have
the the rate that questions get answered
on answers is always something that we
want to try to increase if people post a
question we want to get them get them
answers and so we've got some ideas that
we're kicking around for for how to get
more people answering questions but I'm
really open I mean that's the cool thing
about meta method of ifixit.com if you
haven't been there is our suggestion
board where anybody can give us ideas
for how to run iFixit better great in
terms of the types of manuals that we do
I think I think that's an open question
is I mean well you guys want to see well
I see how I fix it the next time you
take something apart take some pictures
and put it online we're always open to
suggestions anything you want to see
here read let us know if you're
interested in a topic and you want us to
research it more we have some amazing
writers on for our advocacy team and
they do an amazing job and that's what
you're seeing when you see our blog and
of course back to iFixit dot
of our everything on there let's go back
to the right to repair now recently at
the beginning of the year we launched
something called the pledge can you tell
us a little bit more about the right to
repair pledge yes so the idea was we
were thinking I mean we're talking what
are you gonna do for your new year's
resolution and my new year's resolution
was I wanted to fix my truck I we were
we were talking about with the truck and
burn the transmission out and it's like
well I know I could pay somebody to
replace the transmission on my truck but
I've never done anything like that
before it's a huge stretch for me I'm an
electronics guy said well I'll try to
fix my truck
so the idea what the the repair plugs
was you could place to fix a certain
number of things and then we would put
it all on a Mac and that has worked
pretty well in Dolan's got it up on
their screen here so you can see the
other repair plug so the idea was really
simple I want to learn to fix new things
I'm going to try to buy things that are
built to last so buy it for life and I
want to fight for a right to repair and
sure where they learn along the way and
we've gotten a lot of check out that map
everyone who's taking the pledge so over
4000 people that's that's great
that's me right there that's my god just
kidding uh-huh if you haven't taken the
pledge and that's something you're
interested in please go ahead and check
that out especially if you're in
Greenland we don't have yeah i'm
greenland represent come on iceland get
on that got like at least four yeah and
all of our European friends in her sleep
the Europeans were all bummed we did
this so late so we are open to a
timeframe if we do this again help us
figure out the the best most ideal time
to do it so we have a question for you
from cigar Wendelin and also know how
you would fix the u.s. national debt
says we should tax everyone making over
$250,000 with 100 percent tax rate what
do you think sure let's do it do you
believe that the government should
reduce its spending to fix this problem
yeah I would say that's a reasonable
suggestion that's kid to me so we have
the scope of things on iFixit that what
what is permissible on the site and
weather's not we get people asking us
questions all the time is this something
that can be on I fix it how the idea I
mean the the framework that we set out
is it has to be repair related repair
related means something that is going to
make a product last long it has to apply
to a physical thing I'm not sure if the
u.s. national debt or the US government
is a physical thing or just something
that was dreamed up in the worst
imaginations of a Stephen King that's
what we've got in terms of the
government but um I fix it we're pretty
open as long as it's it's hardware
related then you're making
something last longer it's okay the
Paloma say if you ask this question on I
fix it answers I would probably believe
so that's not a good question that's not
really a good question
Shawn has a question I don't know if you
seen this one so Shawn is to think pad
userland and I'm planning to switch to
MacBook Pro strong said I think that I
can mess with it I replace the DVD ROM
on the second day and put the second
hand hard drive upgrade my RAM and
recently upgraded a dual band wireless
card can I do anything similar on the
Mac it depends on which Mac so for the
love of although this holy do not buy a
retina macbook pro if you want to know
this sir the tinkering be sure to check
out our repair scores before you buy a
product like that yeah and I'll pull up
on my computer the teardown I'm just
kind of Google this here we go so any of
the retina laptops are built in such a
way that they're they're pretty much
glued together so they this is the
entire disassembled computer which is a
little bit frustrating if I go a little
bit farther in you'll see the RAM is
soldered to the mainboard so you can't
upgrade the RAM the CPU is is other than
we've had that with laptops for a long
time so I'm not really complaining about
that but soldered on RAM is really an
issue I mean I like you can see this
particular unit that we bought didn't
have the maximum RAM that came from the
factory and so these spots on the board
those are just empty spots for extra RAM
that they didn't put on there because
you didn't pay on the hundred dollars at
the time that you bought that computer
and it's it's beyond the scope of
anybody that has a same number of tools
to be able to add additional chips under
this board so I'm we're really
disappointed with Apple for the current
retina MacBook Pro product design but
you know what I have so the laptops that
we have here about the the previous
generation I've got a 15 she's got 13
and they're fantastic so on on this
machine I have I have I say the optical
drive here the optical drive slot isn't
really an optical drive anymore I put we
have this expansion bay slot where you
can drop an SSD in there and that's been
really cool
so I
an ad gig SSD that's got the OS on it
and I've got my I've got a 500 gig or I
think 750 gig hybrid drive so that's
been really nice and I've got this thing
I think I've got 8 gigs of ram in here
and there's newer RAM chips come out of
it I've got more in so the previous gen
MacBook Pros are fantastic but I think
if you're looking over the long term to
products that you can thinker with
apples trend is toward less and less
modifiable product which means that
where I was able to hang on to a laptop
like this for five years probably the
new Retina MacBook Pros I think you know
I have our time using it for more in the
back - so let's talk about design then a
little bit do you think design will help
or hinder people when they come to the
point where they could repair what are
some some companies that are doing a
good job with design and furthering they
yeah I mean it's gonna be totally
different by products if we're talking
about laptops we haven't taken apart a
broad spectrum of PC laptops out there
so I already really be interested in in
the communities feedback we've done a
few back when I mean a year and a half
ago when the retina MacBook Pro came out
we were looking at it we took apart the
Zenbook and some other ultrabooks to see
if there's a big difference and that
really seemed like Apple was the one who
was going things together the most I'm
seeing some people talking to chat room
about other Apple products yeah Apple
has historically made pretty darn
repairable products and I mean this
computers of this 13-inch and well
15-inch 2011 era MacBook Pros were just
fantastic in terms of I mean the hinge
is extremely reliable for years they
have issues with the hinges breaking and
over time they're really I think reached
a very solid very repairable design
Apple's done done a great job with the
Mac Mini the current Mac Mini that looks
like it came from a completely different
company than the company that made the
retina MacBook so you think it's more
per product than actual or product or a
design team I mean it's not the
engineers that are the problem it's the
design team that's deciding that sure
the thickness of the device is the most
important thing and it's possible to
make a thin device that's that's
repairable like if you look at our our
cell phone repair
HRT's I'll pull it up here so we you
know when we did the tear downs we we
score everything from one to ten on how
we're parable it is and this is our cell
phone chart so the the the phone that I
would say I like the most in terms of
the design was mother all as Atrix 4G it
was pretty good but you'll see the
Samsung Galaxy s4 has scored very very
highly galaxy s4 is just about this then
as an iPhone 5s so it's possible to make
a thin phone and get a great repair
score the iPhone 5s is way down here and
a six is still pretty good and it's
totally possible to repair a nice try
this tablet now the company who is in
the doghouse right now is HTC for the
one and the HTC One variants are pretty
similar because that phone is completely
glued together I have seen some
techniques recently where people have
come up with some ways to get into the
HTC One but I haven't I haven't tried
any of them myself but in general this
phone is really a challenge to work on
okay let's talk about your article here
that you were interviewed for Wired I'm
Val you were talking about how thin
thinness of your phone and glass yeah so
a friend of ours over at wired Matt
Honan was at CES and he had his mother
ex in his pocket and he had a USB thumb
drive in his pocket as well and this is
how it ended up he shadowed the screen
on the screen yeah so he he busted the
screen windows good okay yeah we lost
the feed off her computer I can pull up
so what what happened was the the Moto X
is a little bit less rigid than some
other phones and so it as you if you
have something in your pocket they
didn't design that the frame of the
phone would be quite as rigid or
something like this so so if you if you
haven't by the pressure on one side it's
more likely to tweak and torque the
glass then then on the Galaxy s4 so that
the overall
is somewhat similar to the s4 they just
didn't spend as much time on durability
engineering and so this is an
interesting trade-off where it's more
about any time you're looking at making
something harder so a glass is really
hard but that means it's easy the
shattered sure so they need to build the
rest of the phone around it to be able
to support that rigid glass that can't
stand can't handle much of a deflection
and said that this story was just kind
of interesting because they compared the
Moto X to the Galaxy s4 and the iPhone
5c and actually I have another phone
here so you'd think that the Moto X
would be less durable because it's
plastic but they have actually got a few
other phones here so I have this is a
disassembled iPhone 5c this might be a
hint that we're working on the 5c repair
manual so in the end the fight see
you'll see they've got the plastic back
and then they've got this metal frame on
the inside now that metal frame is
partially to provide torsional rigidity
you can see this this has some flex as I
do this but not a whole lot and then
yeah you can compare that I have over
here this is a this is an iPhone 5 that
where the case is mobile out of aluminum
and there's there's less flex this way
so so the design needs to be made around
the glass and not vice versa we're
building the phones from the wrong
direction is that what years no I
wouldn't say that I think it's it's
about it's just how strong the mid frame
is really has a big impact and and I
think that the bottom line out of that
article on the lesson that Matt learned
is that mother always screwed up with
the mother X and it's kind of a poor
product design we were kind of surprised
there was a bunch of other things in
that phone we were looking at we're
saying yeah well it's okay but cuz I'm a
lot better and you know coming out of
all this then you're seeing Google's is
it's nothing mother or lenovo they're
selling it entirely and and it's kind of
a shame because I was I was really
excited I had I had this expectation of
syncing who bought Motorola there
thumping billions of dollars into this
at some point they're going to come out
with this magical awesome mother all on
Google phone that's gonna be amazing
instead they came out with the mother X
the hardware is sort of man I mean the
strikes weren't really all that great
and I'm thinking okay well this is a
stopgap they're going to have something
better and then so we got a question
from leo do you think the block phone
concept can actually compete with non
modular smartphones yeah so phone blocks
is really interesting a mother all is
talking about project ara so that's a
that's their concept actually implement
what you know the most fascinating thing
to me about palm blocks was how popular
it got so you had I mean over a hundred
million people talking about phonebloks
rights and almost so clearly there's
huge demand and I would think any
manufacturer but what in terms of with a
phone like that actually work I'm not
really sure I don't know that we need to
be able to completely upgrade every
component of the phone sure but it would
help with repair as well right yeah more
modular phone would help with repair but
yeah yeah there's a difference between
you know there's durability upgrade
ability and repair ability and it's sort
of a sliding spectrum and you if you
make a far more durable you might trade
off for para bility I in some ways you
make a far more upgradeable you might
also trade off upgrade that there of
repair ability because as you have more
connectors or more things in there that
can break so I you know honestly I would
I'm not super feeling like I need a
phone that is completely modular I would
love to just be able to upgrade the
storage right I'd like an SD card in my
phone right and and not I I would love
to see that we're able to do that
without any consequences so maybe that's
the answer as opposed to more modular
phone I don't know but any consequences
like opening your phone sure you know
and doing what you want with it
yeah yeah I mean I would hope that it's
a it's a sign the manufacturers I think
I think phonebloks is a shot across the
bow that the current
design trends toward things they're
completely glued together isn't okay
right and we have to start shifting in
the direction where people have more
control over their products agreed for
sure so if you're listening to us on the
Google hangout be sure to check us out
in the chat room we are taking your
questions
that's ifixit.com slash chat both of us
are in there and we're answering your
questions live go ahead and send that
there if you have any more questions
about this particular issue or any
others that we're talking about James
wants to know why all laptops are made
in China why is that I'm asking you oh I
don't
James so I you know there's a few
reasons
there's doing some experiments so the
Mac Pro is assembled in and we've
actually we've got a Mac Pro over here
here I'll paint around the room one that
should either run real quick oh this is
our this is our video studio so most
whichever to this this camera we've got
Michael's around the Michael and then
there's our Mac Pro powering the thing
so that's that's actually that's the Mac
Pro that we did the teardown on so why
are they making the Mac Pro in the US
why can't that if or if they're making
the Mac Pro and you notice why can't
they they make my laptop and everything
else yeah it's not so much about labor
it used to be about the labor
differential but now it's more about the
supply chain all the the product
suppliers are over there and it's the
number of components that go into this
are incredibly complex and it takes a
long time now that we've got a critical
mass of suppliers over there if you want
to send products in the boat which is
the cheapest way to get yet to get
things back and forth your dock in a
couple weeks and you know all the
manufacturers run there their supply
chain so tight that they might schedule
it to where a shipment of transistors
comes in to go into a phone an hour
before they're going to start getting
put into a phone so you've got an entire
integrated supply chain and it's an
impaired ecosystem of manufacturing I
think it's gonna be very very hard to
shift large-scale manufacturing back
here to the US but repair absolutely
can't happen sure
so we're manufacturing there's a lot of
there's a lot of benefits of
centralizing manufacturing for a repair
your repair is always going to work
better if you can repair product right
where
it's at so you're never gonna apples
never gonna have enough Apple stores to
fix all the iPhones in the world you've
got they sold 750 million iOS devices
and they have 450 Apple stores so every
single one of those devices needs a new
battery every year to the Apple stores
can't possibly handle it and that's
where on one of the pages we launched on
iFixit the other org that maybe we can
talk about more depth next time is that
you know repair jobs make a lot of sense
and if we want to build the next
American economy building it around
service and and local repair shops are
distributed across the country makes a
lot of sense and and to do that you
gotta you gotta allow the training
infrastructure so that's something I
think I've been really excited that
we've been able to do so far is get
repair information out in the hands of
people that consider businesses so
that's a long-winded answer to your a
very terse question of you know where do
you think laptops could are made or why
are they made in China now but I think
they certainly couldn't be made here it
would just be difficult right right and
you're gonna have a competitive
disadvantage we got a fun question from
Emerson he asked if the Xbox was hard to
tear down well I did it on Twitter well
I didn't but I was I was there and we
did it live so yes and no the hard parts
were actually the very beginning taking
off that first panel it likes to stay
there those clips are pretty extreme and
then once we got in I believe it was the
fan heatsink combination that did not
want to come off the board but other
than that it was pretty easy to
disassemble I think it's in the category
of it's a little bit tricky the first
time I got an 8 so it really wasn't that
hard it just you definitely don't want
to pull those that first panel to hard
because the clips will not be there our
perspective was basically once there's a
repair manual for the device it's gonna
be pretty easy for anybody to take it
apart it's just if you're trying to take
it apart with either repair guide it's
gonna be a little bit tricky and that's
why we're here we want to make those
mistakes so you don't have to will make
all the mistakes first we should have
maybe something where we show our big
mistakes the worst things mounting up
our buttons on a taking apart the place
for we mural it's still got an 8 out of
10 but he wanted to it was like blood
dripping off the 8 yeah that says work
we're here bleeding so you don't have to
at least we don't have the titanium
PowerBook g4 s anymore those were brutal
when we we'd sell the the hinges for
those and they get the hinges you had to
disassemble the display assembly and
Apple trying to be clever decided to
make the case out of super super-thin
razor thin titanium sheets and pulling
with titanium off you had that you had
to pry the glue off and you were we were
slicing our hands open every single day
no more the aluminum I I vastly prefer
the aluminum I I'm getting a question
here what are your thoughts on software
tinkering jailbreaking and routing so
I'm guessing you didn't hear the
beginning of our chat and that's fine we
will go back to that so give us your
thoughts on jailbreaking again well let
me just pull up cydia on my phone I love
it I you know so we we sponsored the is
iOS 7 jailbreak and yet comm site and we
were trying to help incentivize
jailbreaking I've got to here's my phone
I have a switch over this I've got I've
got a city on my phone here so this is
fantastic so the coolest thing about
about for me about having a jailbroken
phones is that I can get an app that
tells me how many cycles are on my
battery that's something on the Mac can
you pull up Apple system profile will
tell you hey your battery has 400 cycles
on it
there is nothing anywhere in the and the
purposes of this phone that will tell
you how many seconds on your battery and
if you write an app that is you know
show me my battery cycle count and you
read the number that you can get from
from an API on the phone and submit to
the App Store Apple will block you so
there are no apps in the official App
Store that will tell you the cycle count
on your battery because that the fact
that the battery wears out I'm a dirty
secret dirty secret so i jailbreak my
phone so I could get the cycle count and
something that I think is a little bit
crazy but no I think I think
jailbreaking and tinkering and tweaking
is awesome we have not necessarily
talked about it much on I fix it because
we've been so focused on hardware side
of things but we do have some software
tutorials and I think over time we're
gonna have to relax our iron grip on
Hardware only tutorials on I fix it
because there's a lot of things that you
need to be able to do in software to
make sure that the hardware works but
that's really up to the community is my
perspective would be in the tutorials
belong on I fix if they help people make
their devices last longer
so have you deal working your phone I
have not
why not I should I haven't done that yet
I was waiting so I was stuck on iOS 5
because I didn't upgrade the 6 fast
enough and so the Apple revoked the cert
4 603 and I was stuck on on 5 for a long
time and I can install fewer and fewer
apps because they weren't supporting the
old phone so at the moment there was an
iOS 7 jailbreak I jumped on it and you
should if you're watching you haven't
you broken your phone yet the moment of
Apple updates to the the new version of
iOS 7 they're probably going to revoke
the old certain they'll fix the security
issues so you can jailbreak your phone
now it's very easy and you know in a
couple weeks I think it's gonna be hard
for a while until we find some new
security vulnerabilities and by we I
don't mean us
I mean evasion and the awesome folks at
the jailbreak team we have a question
from Molly and I are we good
he's just Paul the question ok alright
great we have a question from Molly and
I think we should both interest why is
her brother angry for knowing more about
fixing computers than she can't then he
can and my answer is you're obviously
more awesome yeah which is just smarter
than he is you can show this video to
him and maybe he'll start fixing you
should just like the rite of passage
around here is will take people's stuff
apart and leave it on their desk for
them so you should do that for him as
well yeah just take something apart that
he uses take it on take it apart lay
that on this bed and
and then he's gonna have to yeah you got
to put people in a survival situation
yeah I with when I go on tekzilla I was
tekzilla is a pretty fun TV show from
our friends at revision3 and I know
Veronica and Patrick and the other folks
over there really well and I was I was
showing an iphone repair and I had my
phone and so I'm in San Francisco and I
know I need my phone to figure out how
to get out of San Francisco back home
but I was the process of putting my
phone back together was very much if I
didn't get it back together I wasn't
gonna get home because I had no clue how
to navigate and but the first time I put
it back together it didn't it didn't
work it was yeah black screen and I oh I
didn't connect the cable quite right so
it's kind of fun to put yourself in a
situation where you have to get it fixed
that's a really good suggestion I'm
gonna do that too like my mom or
something no I think I think it's put
people in a situation where they need to
that's what the Train bonded by the
writing cracking their screens I mean it
sucks that these these phones are made
out of such a fragile material but on
the other hand it's getting a lot of
people experience in the in the world of
repair I'm I what kind of questions we
have going on on Google+ here are you
seeing any licensing questions here so
James is asking about Ubuntu edge phone
ideas you know I'm actually not familiar
with that James so post post a bit more
information about it and I I mean I know
that the Bunty was working on the phone
but I hadn't really heard the details of
if they're actually going because the
last I heard they had tried to crowdfund
a ridiculous amount of money and they
didn't get quite to the to the benchmark
and I haven't seen anything since there
okay kin I am a retired electronics tech
and I've been in the South Pacific for
almost forty years wow that sounds like
fun
I'm very interested in Android products
and things that are not Mac or Windows
based fair enough so we have
historically been completely
comprehensive with Apple we're working
really hard on on getting Android
manuals on the site and the community
has been working hard here's the the
problem with this is that where there is
well
now there are two iPhones right there's
the there's the 5c and the 5s
there are hundreds and hundreds of
Android phones and and so if you if you
look at it you can switch back to my
computer here so I've got so in the you
know macro parasu so that we there are
125 Mac's that we have repairman nose
for there's 484 cell phones we've got
manuals for you can go in and you can
see HTC we have dozens and dozens of
manuals it's just so hard to be
comprehensive where there's so many more
products that we have to take apart so
that's something that I think over time
we're going to be able to solve we're
certainly making great progress how
about this I'll make a deal with you if
there's an Android phone that we don't
have on I fix it and you send us one
will get a manual written and get it on
the website so the biggest challenge
that we have with all these phones is if
we buy them brand-new they cost us
$500,000 they're really they're really
difficult to get our hands on but we we
have a network of fixers people all
around the world that they're eager the
right manuals I just don't have the
hardware so what we're doing is
connecting the people hardware and want
to see a repair manual written with the
people I'm going to give you my jet skis
alright because I have not for the life
of me Billy able to figure out how to
fix this jet ski so I'm going to donate
it to science
I mean Gwendolyn science yes yeah I'm
not gonna promise anything but I would
love to take it apart taking things
apart is is too much fun I think there
were many more things to take part
so definitely send us what you'd like to
see taken apart and if you have one and
you'd like to see a guide for it yeah
definitely so at the bottom of the site
there's a donate your device button and
if you click on that it takes you to to
this page and on this page then you can
click here donate device photo form and
we will happily pay for shipping for you
to send us stuff by the way you know
we're looking for donations not just for
for cell phones we I get an email from
somebody who fixed their toaster using
our toaster is it a really cool toaster
guide I think it's this one this is kind
of a cool toaster and so you can you can
maintain your crumb tray
Oh No then power wait so this is I mean
I was shocked somebody's email me all
abou and said oh yeah this man that was
great then let's let's see I mean this
is kind of crazy crazy guy bit 500 views
on that that's pretty cool so they're
soldering involved in them
yeah what are your thoughts on people
who avoid attempting fixing their
devices because they're afraid or can't
be bothered and end up paying a premium
for a newer model instead what are your
thoughts on those people well I I
totally understand that fixing things
takes a lot of time and not everyone is
going to be fixing their own stuff
that's fine
sometimes it's that's better for the
rest of us because I mean you can go and
yeah I mean I know lots of folks oh hey
I cracked this game my iPhone do you
want it yes yes I will happily take that
and you can go and spend your money on a
new phone and I'll take the phone and
fix it so over time I'm hoping we can
shift the culture sure but do you know
what a minute's fear breaking something
and the cost of the device to begin with
before they buy it and then break it the
parts you know is it do you think it's
sure I mean there's a little bit of work
do you change your own oil yeah well
I've tried so this is you know most
people these days don't change their own
oil it's actually really easy on almost
all cards unless you have a Mazda 3 to
the skid plate underneath it so we have
to figure out a way to make repair easy
I mean I think the easier it is the more
people can do it but there's always
going to be the rest of us who
understand the way the world works a
little bit better than the people that
aren't willing to try to fix things and
that's okay I I think the important
thing for all of us is to be encouraging
and providing the easy path for people
to get in so like on an iPhone it's on
this phone it's a it's a challenge to
replace the front panel it's a it's a
difficult repair but replacing the rear
panel is something absolutely anybody
can do I mean and it's the opposite on
a5 so what I think we find the
way they get people people what's up
good maybe gateway repair to get the
rear panel on on my phone it's a good
gateway repair very much anything like
what's the what's the first thing you
remember fixing I fixed I did seven
different repairs on an iPhone five so
that was that was my first scary repair
I did get into my computer and change a
couple of things but that was the first
scary one because it had to work but
again I really feel like the more you do
it the the less scary it is
and you realize that it is easier than
you think it is so there's something
about having to pick something that you
need like it's very intimidating to be
working on the car that you have to have
to get to work sure next day but if you
if you have a second car or you've got a
bicycle so you can take a couple days to
do the repair or if you get stuck you
can bail out and get a friend so anytime
you can sort of remove some of those
intimidation factors I think it helps so
this might be a little off topic but I
wanted to ask you a little more about
repair cafes we've seen those popping up
all over the world well I saw I saw in
the chats of the fix-it clinics folks
are watching so hello to the fix-it
clinic so the fix-it clinic is an
awesome group of folks in the Bay Area
in California they're about four hours
north of us and they have monthly events
where people come by and bring stuff in
and tinkering are able to learn how to
fix things and that's been a useful way
to get people exposed to repair I think
they told me they have almost 100
percent success rate repairing toasters
so we're seeing a movement of a lot of
these things stuff all over the place is
pretty fun to see we have a question
from David will you be willing to sell
any of the guides products I don't have
any idea what you're asking I don't
understand clarify that so check this
out while we wait for him we have a new
a new product we've been talking we just
recently watched so this is the pro
screwdriver set that box is brand new
we're really excited about the 90 so if
you if you buy a
if you buy a screwdriver Septimus today
you will not get this pretty box but if
you promise like week
these boxes are brand new but you'll get
the awesome screwdrivers
so screwdriver this is one of my
favorite toys right now when I'm
repairing so this thing so we have the
the protect toolkit and it's got a
modular bit set that you can get in but
these are a little bit more durable so
if you if you're fixing things day in
day out you want a rubber grip these are
pretty darn sweet and they're a little
longer - I mean you have that extension
in the protects but but I love these
these are wonderful so then we took it
and we have we have a laser cutter in
the office everyone should have a laser
cutter can their office and we made this
handy dandy little
stand and this is just kind of yeah this
thing is pretty cool so then I mean
every work imagine and this this stand
is something we're gonna have to make
into it at some point but this is
totally killer if you'd if you're a
professional and you're doing repairs
day-in day-out carrying case while it's
in the in the stand I mean it's just
genius we have some great tool
developers iPhone 5s so if you want to
know sure we lost video for just a
moment we'll be right back the crasher
yeah
usually clinic put their website up
that's great we can wrap up pretty quick
Oh Molly wants toast
you
it would wait this is do you want one
more question or we can do one more
question
well this is a pretty good one but we
couldn't see the Google hangout
you
these are illegal you can't buy these so
where did you get it I was at I was up
in Palo Alto by a store near Stanford he
said that every time they got four lokos
in they they sold out like they would
combine it with my cases of these things
so I had I had and now this is like you
can't get this is this is a historical
relic
are we back online and we're thinking
about being back on man there we go okay
back online all right sorry about that
um quick four loko break and we're back
we are freshly energized and ready to go
we had a couple of shots david has a
quick question the devices that we use
during the repair guides are they thrown
away are they recycled what do we do
with them we usually pull back and we
use them so like the the computer that
the Google hangout keeps crashing on is
a Mac Pro it's not the computers fault
that computer is totally stable it's
it's Google hangout we're gonna work on
this we will have this look for next
time but ya know we are trying to think
of a device where we broke it oh the
plea oh the plea Oh is probably the only
thing that we have ever taken her for a
teardown and never put it back together
yep the skin can come back right you
can't can't get that back on yeah we hit
the kind of skin open can you blow up my
computer and I will show you play a plea
Oh is probably my favorite teardown ever
play our robot dinosaure and in order to
get in the plio we had to cut him so
this is he's not repair open what was
this score I don't think we scored blip
but Pluto is pretty neat I mean you look
at this this is like ghost in the show
this here so plea I didn't go back
together we have a boxing part still
with Leo but everything else we I mean
we're Parramatta for and we use some of
them we'll hang on to if we need to
update the repair manual in the future
we'll hang on to the device if it's not
something that we need to use something
like I mean extra electrons we have we
have friends with lots of recyclate so
they'll go on exactly
whoa recycle it but in general we use
this up or sometimes we can write a
repair manual for my device that's not
working so it doesn't have to be
functional to be able to show other
people how to take it apart sure it's
it's helpful but it doesn't have to do
pretty much everything we have in the
office though has come from a teardown
that Mac Pro we showed you earlier was
was our teardown Mac Pro our laser
cutter machine is HP it's been taken
apart it's been opened usually pretty
much everything in our office has
already been taken apart yeah um quick
question and maybe we'll wrap up if you
have any more questions go ahead and
keep putting on them in there we'll keep
the chat live for a while is that
correct yeah even if we're not online
live with you guys but real quick what's
your opinion on buying the cheapest part
for fixing a device just to keep the
spending issue down well so it comes
down to cost versus quality and how much
of a risk that you're willing to take so
I tend to prefer to buy more expensive
parts because I really want to make sure
if I'm putting my time into it I want to
yeah it's useful what we've found is you
can go on Amazon or Ebay
and they're actually pretty synonymous
these days when you're looking at repair
parts online you can buy parts from from
sellers as a direct in Hong Kong and
it's super cheap and the there is very
little quality control it's kind of
weird on Amazon if you look at the
product you'll see a product and you'll
see 50 reviews and ten sellers for the
same product and they end to the reviews
aren't tied specifically to the seller
so it's very hard to find reviews on a
specific part so our philosophy has
always been our parts cost a little bit
more but it's worth it because we stand
behind it and we test everything that we
know that we sell you've got to spend
more for an iPhone display from iFixit
than you are from somewhere else but the
screen for my fix is going to work and
we're gonna stand line right and we test
ours before we sell them so so
definitely knowing those things before
you buy a product is probably better and
worth the extra cost and some other
questions to fajn wants to know why
tools in the EU store cost more than the
same tools in the US store the
is that they they include the DAT tax in
Europe so tools over I mean that's just
how it works if you buy tools from us in
the US and have them shipped to Europe
you have to pay the b18 tax when you get
your package from the FedEx guy and it's
annoying to have to have to deal with
paying them and then hold the package
until you pay them so that's the big
benefit to having a European store as we
collect the v80 upfront one more
question and then we will wrap up come
to Brazil we enjoy writing think about
it
yeah my husband's watching so be careful
in that chat room thank you guys so much
for coming in and watching us and
submitting your questions like I said
we're gonna keep the chat room open so
you still have questions for Kyle and I
we will be here answering your questions
and we'll we would love to hear from you
guys so we're gonna use a hashtag it's
gonna be hashtag I fix it live so you've
got a Twitter account go ahead and use
that hashtag let us know what you want
to see next what do you want us to talk
about who you might want us to talk to
give us give us a shout out there you
can use either our Twitter's handles the
app iFixit Twitter handle but definitely
use that hashtag we'll be monitoring
that and definitely use that hashtag to
complain about how we can't seem to keep
them I know sorry about that thank you
guys so much really understanding one
other question I have for all of you and
you can respond in the chat or on
Twitter is would you be interested in a
like weekly what we're not sure how
often we're going to do the live video
feed but what we were thinking is that
it would be interesting if we put I fix
accom slash chat if we turned it on
between a certain a certain hours once a
week
so we would all know hey community
hangout Thursday at 4 o'clock come come
you know chat and see if and I'm just
wondering if that's something that would
be useful to hang out with each other so
let us know if you're interested and if
so what would be a good time for you
because we know where time zones all
around the world
to find the time that that is best for
everybody the first one we're just
trying things out and we really want to
hear from you so be sure to use that
hashtag and we will see you guys next
time thank you so much for tuning in bye
guys I think we definitely need to do
this again sometime maybe