17 minutes ago
I love just how committed this website is to its mission. It extends beyond content and tools, into influencing policy. They are doing good and being successful at it. It’s a template I hope to reproduce at a much smaller scale in my industry.
an hour ago
> “enter through either the front or the back” design
Not having watched The Office in a while, this immediately made me imagine Michael Scott's response, and made my morning a bit brighter.
3 hours ago
Their quote from the linked research paper:
”In the second scenario, anodic delamination is caused by the oxidation of the surface of the aluminum substrate and migration of Al3+ into the adhesive. This will lead to fast debonding since the substrate layer bonded to the adhesive is no longer supported.”
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/admi.202101...
The research team’s video of it in action (also linked in the article) is pretty impressive!
3 hours ago
On seeing "12V for 60 seconds" in the video, I assumed it was just a heat thing - if the adhesive strip is a low-ish resistance, you could heat it up by applying current, with a more standard adhesive. Which makes me wonder if that simpler approach has been considered?
39 minutes ago
Their description of aluminum-ion migration makes it sound like the physical bond is destroyed by the change in structure of the material due to the application of current.
26 minutes ago
Everything is a smoke machine if you use it wrong enough.
2 hours ago
That approach is the current strategy for every other phone on the market.
2 hours ago
The Idea was to embed heated filament in the adhesive and use that to release the battery, that's not used in every other phone on the market. Currently, you heat the whole phone/battery.
2 hours ago
Why are batteries usually glued to the body?
Wouldn't just some thin rubber layer prevent whatever movement they are trying to prevent?
2 hours ago
Rubber alone would require pressure pushing the battery against the housing to maintain the battery position during a drop. This pressure against the underside of the display module would mess with the display.
Adhesive is needed because there can’t be any pressure against the underside of the display module, and the battery can’t be allowed to move even a slight amount during drop impacts.
31 minutes ago
If this was true, phones with replaceable batteries would be impossible.
25 minutes ago
You can still put the battery in a box, and make it true inside the box.
2 hours ago
I think they want to leave some space so that the battery can expand. Easiest way to do that is to glue it on one side and leave a bit of space on the other side.
an hour ago
I love how they learned from their mistakes of the old macbook pro. Batteries need ability to expand ever so slightly. Same reason why cranes are able to move freely with the wind when not in use.
2 hours ago
Why not add a valve? Every cylindrical cell has one, but manufacturers seem to be allergic to adding one on lipo packs. Apparently having them swell to 5x the size and break the device casing is preferable.
an hour ago
Lipo battery gas contains flammable and poisonous chemicals - including Hydrogen fluoride. Swelling slightly in normal use and occasionally rupturing is safer over-all than off gassing all the time.
From wiki:
> Hydrogen fluoride is an extremely dangerous gas, forming corrosive and penetrating hydrofluoric acid upon contact with moisture. The gas can also cause blindness by rapid destruction of the corneas.
2 hours ago
Pretty sure the airtight casing is here on purpose to trap flammables gas a dying cell create. Without it it would be very unsafe to use this type of batteries.
an hour ago
A valve is a one time only device to prevent an explosion in the event of thermal runaway. It’s not going to accommodate the slight expansion and contraction which are a normal part of the charge cycle for lithium batteries. If the battery is kept under mechanical pressure in order to avoid movement (without the use of an adhesive) then there is no place for the battery to expand to. That sounds like a recipe for disaster.
19 minutes ago
My guess is that even the tiniest movement would wear out the battery's casing.
2 hours ago
The rubber mat is only going to work if the battery is pressed against it with a lot of force. An adhesive will hold with no pressure at all.
2 hours ago
Size, adhesive is thinner than any kind of physical layer surrounding it. I would presume as well it's better for thermals for allowing heat away from the battery.
2 hours ago
Drop protection is one of the main reasons, especially when you use batteries with soft shells.
7 minutes ago
I recently went to Best buy for a new iPhone battery for an iPhone 13 pro, $90 to replace a $20 battery ... I was shocked and horrified when the technician told me he was forced to spend 20 minutes verifying that nobody had ever touched the phone besides Apple & Best Buy! If anybody had ever touched the phone besides Apple & Best Buy they both would refuse to change the battery for me!
Let me tell you it does not feel good to get raped in public in this way!
The new idiotic battery adhesive is just another onetime-use item so that Apple can prove that somebody has touched the phone so they can deny all repairs! It's currently possible to change a battery seamlessly by moving the battery management circuit over from the old battery to the new battery, circumventing apples greedy policies! This new adhesive will allow Apple to deny repairs to any phone that has ever had a 3rd party battery replacement!
Okay apple slaves lets hear you defend your simon legree now ...
4 minutes ago
But security and privacy... Just think what foreign attackers could do if they switched my iphone battery...
That's unthinkable.
19 minutes ago
Next step: This electrical current is fed from the motherboard when you go into a service menu and hit "replace battery".
In fact, the screen and various other parts are held on with the same adhesive, and its strong enough that unless you go into this service menu you wont get it apart without damage.
And then the service menu is locked and will only work if you're apple authorized or meet some very stringent criteria like uploading 3 copies of your passport and driving license and a receipt showing purchase of the phone in the same name.
16 minutes ago
This seems very unlikely since the phones have been getting easier to repair rather than harder.
2 hours ago
I find the glue thing nice but my sceptic mind let me think that it could be another great trick to fight competition with generic battery manufacturers.
The glue goes with the battery, and there is probably a few patents on this magic glue, so generic battery manufacturers will be prevented to be able to add this glue to the new batteries they will want to sell.
22 minutes ago
In my experience, 3rd parties aren't worried about being identical to the original design. They'd just give you a square of double sided sticky tape to hold the battery down with, and accept that if you ever wanted to replace the battery again you'd have to destroy it to get it out.
an hour ago
iFixit speculated that the tape is from Tesa. Tesa says it has filed "50+ patents for 'Debonding on Demand' adhesive tapes' … 'using various mechanisms such as temperature, electricity, laser and electromagnetic induction': https://www.tesa.com/en/about-tesa/press-insights/stories/de...
So generic battery manufacturers could presumably buy the tape from Tesa, license production themselves, risk producing their own variants, or supply replacements without electrical debonding (the consumer probably doesn't care that the replacement battery doesn't use the same debonding tech their original battery used).
2 hours ago
Would this be really necessary for a replacement battery? Are many people replacing the battery twice over the life of the phone?
3 hours ago
Random question related to the photos of the phone's motherboard: Why does the PCB have so many holes in it? It looks very unusual. There's quite a large area with nothing but holes.
2 hours ago
If you’re referring to the edges then those are vias. Apple has been stacking PCBs like this since the iPhone X. See step 14 in https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone+X+Teardown/98975
26 minutes ago
I'm not quite up to date on modern electronics, but I assume they are ground-stitching vias - connections to the ground plane optimized in size and number to reduce electromagnetic interference.
Here's a decent explanation: https://circuitcellar.com/research-design-hub/basics-of-desi...
2 hours ago
Not exactly sure what you're looking at, but aren't they just stitching vias placed there for shielding purpose: https://resources.altium.com/p/everything-you-need-know-abou...?
2 hours ago
Are you sure these are holes? Looks like soldering pads to me.
2 hours ago
Weight reduction, presumably?
an hour ago
Clickbait. They don't show the actual process.
"Revolutionary battery"
an hour ago
Funny, 20 years ago we had hard cased batteries in our cell phones and we could just pull them out.
I fully expect Apple to release a phone in the future with a removable battery and claim it is some incredible invention of theirs when it was Apple that pushed everyone to the non removable battery in the first place.
28 minutes ago
20 years ago we didn't have today's battery technology or capacities.
AIUI Apple didn't push anyone, Apple would be happy to be the vendor with the longest battery lifetime: If you use a thin foil instead of a hard shekll and glue it into place for stability, of course you have a bit of extra space inside the battery.
8 minutes ago
> Apple didn't push anyone
They indirectly did. The "Free Market" showed that it is way more profitable to sell a shinny skinny phone that many replace instead of fixing after a year. No one cares about what is actually better for the user when more money can be made. Prime example of that is when apple removed the ESC key in favor of a touchbar. That doesn't even address the other issues such as the environment which has an even smaller interest.
12 minutes ago
> Apple that pushed everyone to the non removable in the first place.
How so? If removable batteries were favored by consumers it would seem the Android devices that offered them far longer would’ve continued to have them.
4 minutes ago
The "Free Market" showed that it is way more profitable to sell a shinny skinny phone that many replace instead of fixing after a year.
Apple successfully brainwashed consumers via their brilliant ad compains that thinner and shiny is better than usability, longevity and the environment.
Samsung and others copied what made more money.
29 minutes ago
I imagine making a phone IP68 rated with a swappable battery is not trivial.
a minute ago
All iPhones pre the iPhone 7 were not water-resistant (IP67).
2 hours ago
If removing the battery requires an electrical current, it wouldn't be surprising if, in the future, Apple adds another layer of control, like requiring a digital signature to authorize battery removal
an hour ago
It would be surprising to me, considering this is one of several actions done to make iPhones easier, not more difficult, to repair.
2 hours ago
It can also be a good thing: given the EU's 2027 requirement for user-replaceable batteries, this could ensure the battery can only be changed if the phone isn’t stolen.
an hour ago
Or maybe just ensure the phone can only be used if it isn't stolen?
Maybe I'm misunderstanding this. Do we have data on changing the battery of a stolen phone having any meaningful impact on people/society?
an hour ago
Given the activation lock on phones most stolen iphones are now used for parts.
an hour ago
> Maybe I'm misunderstanding this. Do we have data on changing the battery of a stolen phone having any meaningful impact on people/society?
At least we know one boundary - in London, about 91k phones were stolen in 2022, of which a lot are expected to end up shipped to China [1] to be either parted out or its identifiers reflashed so that they can be re-sold. The true number is likely to be significantly higher, as not everyone is willing to go to the police and deal with the paperwork when someone snatched their older-issue phone on the subway when the police doesn't do shit anyway.
And the latter part is the problem. The UK could impose inspections on outgoing parcels, say to listen for Find My BTLE beacons, and China could impose the same kind of inspections on incoming parcels or shut down the companies buying up clearly stolen property. But UK politics are too busy embroiling themselves in bullshit scandals and China most likely actively wants to contribute to the growing sense of destabilisation in Western societies, so here we are.
Assume an average value of 300 € per stolen phone, and alone London's citizens and visitors experience 30 million € in damage from stolen phones alone. It's utter madness.
[1] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13757041/Chinese-ci...
an hour ago
Most people I know who have had a phone stolen only bothered reporting it if they had an insurance.
Otherwise making a report seems to take about half a day anyway and achieves precisely fuck all.
an hour ago
Since iOS 18 they added a software lock to parts previously linked to another iCloud Account. Currently you have to authenticate to the previous iCloud or you can "skip" this and the part will show as "third party" but I bet they'll lock usage soon.
2 hours ago
> we hustled over to their battery guide, which sure enough described passing 9V through this fancy new adhesive.
Oh, come on guys, you don't pass a voltage through something, you apply a voltage to it and then (if it's conductive) a current will pass through it.
an hour ago
Would it be possible to clip the ground and red wire in reverse to glue the same battery back again?
an hour ago
Unfortunately, no. When you reverse the polarity, the adhesive is left on the housing instead of the battery. iFixit has shown it in a video [0].