Apple blueprints warranty Big Brother

Galen

Don't open that iPhone

Apple has filed a patent application for a technology that could detect, time-stamp, and remember "whether consumer abuse has occurred in an electronic device."
Apple's many patent filings usually focus on technologies that could benefit consumers. This one is aimed directly at benefitting Apple itself.

The filing, "Consumer Abuse Detection System and Method," describes a system that can determine when an "abuse event [is] detected by the one or more sensors [and] includes at least one of a liquid ingress event, a thermal event, a shock event, and a tamper event."
The system could then let customer-service personnel know that a device which had failed had been mucked around with by its owner and not simply failed on its own. Thus alerted, the service provider could determine that the problem was not covered by the device's warranty.
All well and good. What concerns us, however, is the following:

Consumer abuse may include exposing an electronic device to liquids, extreme temperatures, or excessive shock (e.g., the resulting impact from dropping the device). Consumer abuse may also result from tampering which may include any interaction with the device that is not related to operating the device in a normal manner (e.g., opening the casing or housing of a device and adding, removing, or altering the internal components).

Liquids? Of course. Excessive heat? Reasonable. Shock? Likewise. But "opening the casing or housing of a device"? That worries us.
Ever since the iPod was introduced, Apple has been sealing up its devices tighter than a drum, making such traditionally user-serviceable parts as batteries inaccessible. iPods, iPhones, MacBook Pros - all are locked up tight.
What's more, the filing indicates that the system could be employed in such a way as to disable a device if "customer abuse" - including "tampering" - were detected.
As alpha-geeks, we prefer to be able to open up any and all of our devices whenever it suits our needs - or, for that matter, even our whims.
The idea that a tamper-sensing system could disable our Apple devices if we had the temerity to open them up gives us pause.
Detecting that a dishonest cad had lied about how he dropped his iPhone into a pot of boiling beef broth is reasonable enough. But disabling said smartphone simply because an adventurous soul peeked inside seems a bit extreme.
Preventing a jive-ass mo-fo from gaming the warranty system? Good. Punishing curiosity? Bad. ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/07/apple_warranty_watchdog/

MACHEAD

Hmm! interesting, for a considerable time now I've been a fan of all things Apple, but recently they do seem to be taking an increasingly 'big bother' minded approach to the hardware and software. Recent upgrades to Safari and Leopard to restrict/disable the ability to download video from You Tube and similar sites, one example. But this idea of rendering a device inoperable if a user opens it up to have a 'look-see' inside is in my view a little bit sinister. Granted some type of detection of tampering is needed for warranty purposes, but outside of a warranty period it's every technophile's right it check out the innards of these wonderful gizmos's we've spent our money on.
If it becomes known that a device will stop working altogether simply by the mere fact that you looked inside it, would be a device that I think people will refuse to buy.

Galen

Corporate arrogance shows no bounds...