Apple blocks the possibilities unofficial repairs on iMac and Macbook Pro 2018

If no new diagnostic software is used for some components, the machines are blocked and can only be restarted via the Apple Service Toolkit 2. The battle for the “repair right” is still long

NEW diagnostic tools developed at home. If not used to repair the iMac Pro and MacBook Pro will block the powerful Apple PC. These are the indications gathered by Macrumors and Motherboard through official documents of the colossus according to which for MacBook Pro any intervention to components such as screen, logic board, keyboard, trackpad and Touch ID not carried out in authorized centers or through Apple support would result substantially impossible. In addition to being harmful.

So, if you do not use that software in the interventions the result can only be a “non-operating system and an incomplete intervention”, as stated in the documents distributed last month to authorized centers. The two specialized websites obtained a copy. The battle of Apple in this sense is certainly not recent and the latest, stringent indications confirm instead that for the iMac Pro block could trigger if you put a hand to the logic board and flash memories.

The reasonably chilling aspect for any user is that the machines treated without that Cupertino software would remain unusable until unlocked via an Apple Service Toolkit 2 by an authorized operator. A move that, according to many, serves to increase the security of Apple’s computer chips, from encryption to the storage of confidential information. A news that, among other things, seems to come out with a frightening timing compared to the risks on the hardware, considering the Bloomberg investigation on the small Chinese chips that would end up in the production chain of the US servers.

The critics have always contested similar moves that make the machines difficult to repair, stimulate the purchase of new parts instead of encouraging the reuse of devices still in excellent condition and are a way to deeply control the repair market. In the US, 19 states – including Nebraska – have proposed a law for the so-called “right to repair”, which would open software and specifications to third-party experts, but no one has approved a provision that would prohibit the use of specific diagnostic tools. .