Top all-time · #614
iFixit News
Company blog · ifixit.org/bloghardwarebusiness
iFixit News is the company blog at ifixit.org, writing about hardware and business. Since 2012, 101 different Hacker News readers have linked it 121 times, most often “Apple’s New Audio Adapter (2016)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-25, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 0 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link iFixit's blog for teardowns and repair reports on Apple hardware, such as keyboard, screen, AirPower and touch-disease failures, and for its right-to-repair and e-waste material.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Repair saves the environment. It connects you to your things. And it saves you money. Ditch the throwaway economy. Join the repair revolution.
Most-linked posts?
- Apple’s New Audio Adapter (2016)5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2017-07-25
- Inside Apple’s New Audio Adapter4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2016-10-05
- What Finally Killed AirPower4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-03-30
- Design flaw behind MacBook Pro’s “stage light” effect3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-01-22
- iPhones are allergic to helium3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-10-30
- Mac Pro Teardown 2: Teardown Harder3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-01-04
- A Design Defect Is Breaking iPhone 6 Pluses3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-08-23
- The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-07-14
- Policy push for consumer product longevity2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-09-28
- AirPods Are Disposable and Hard to Recycle (2016)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-03-20
What Hacker News says?
> It’d be interesting to see the results of a survey on this I think ... I like the new keyboard Gruber put it rather succinctly: "These keyboards are the biggest mistake in Apple’s history." https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/04/26/johnston-macboo... There has certainly been more criticism than praise for the butterfly keyboard: The New MacBook Keyboard is Ruining My Life https://theoutline.com/post/2402/the-ne…
Comment linking /blog/14776/apples-butterfly-keyboard-continues-to-plague-macbook-owners/
on “Jony Ive to form independent design company with Apple as client”Submitted iPhones are allergic to helium as a story · 1289 points
HN discussionSee efforts to pass Right-to-Repair laws in several U.S. states: https://repair.org & https://ifixit.org/right From http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a2... "... farmers have worked on their own equipment "for decades, generations even." Brasch also pointed to the emerging DIY sources of information in the world as a way that farmers and others who want to make repairs can learn about their eq…
Comment linking /right
on “Demon-Haunted World”Submitted Apple Engineers Its Own Downfall with the Macbook Pro Keyboard as a story · 1183 points
HN discussionWe repair these as part of our business, and to be clear, both the keyboards and the screens are failing on these at an alarming rate. iFixit detailed the issues with the screens, which (in Apple's unending quest for "thinness") use a thinner flex cable to connect the display to the rest of the laptop. This thinner cable is prone to breakage, and we are already seeing 2016-2017 MacBook Pros in our shop regularly for…
Comment linking /blog/12903/flexgate/
on “Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro”Submitted Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms as a story · 1064 points
HN discussionThat applies to computers and all of the other un-repairable ewaste generating electronics. All purchases of smartphones, laptops, in fact pretty much all of bestbuy would fall in that category. Can we get a ban on those too? https://ifixit.org/ewaste
Comment linking /ewaste
on “Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030”Submitted Why I Drilled Holes in My MacBook Pro and Put It in the Oven as a story · 621 points
HN discussionLink: https://ifixit.org/blog/14883/what-finally-killed-airpower/
Comment linking /blog/14883/what-finally-killed-airpower/
on “Apple Cancels AirPower Product”Submitted Motorola and iFixit partner to sell phone repair kits as a story · 457 points
HN discussionCheck out "Fig 2" on this page (coil diagram): https://ifixit.org/blog/14883/what-finally-killed-airpower/ Or "Fig 5" on this page: https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/02/19/airpods-wireless-... P.S. Glad to finally find a technical comment, after scrolling through 200 marketing/business comments. :)
Comment linking /blog/14883/what-finally-killed-airpower/
on “Apple Cancels AirPower Product”Submitted The Great Apple Keyboard Cover-Up as a story · 406 points
HN discussionMy theory: they couldn't make it past the FCC. Managing overlapping harmonic frequencies is incredibly challenging, and gets harder the more coils that you are integrating. From patent filings, it looks like Apple’s ambitious plan was to use considerably more coils than other charging pads on the market. https://ifixit.org/blog/14883/what-finally-killed-airpower/
Comment linking /blog/14883/what-finally-killed-airpower/
on “Apple Cancels AirPower Product”Submitted Design flaw behind MacBook Pro’s “stage light” effect as a story · 401 points
HN discussionThat's correct. Additionally, although there are many ways to work around these static code checks Apple performs at app review time (due to Objective C's runtime capabilities), you can bet an app as popular as f.lux would get pulled very quickly with potentially long-term damage to their relationship with Apple* (* See https://ifixit.org/blog/7401/ifixit-app-pulled/ )
Comment linking /blog/7401/ifixit-app-pulled/
on “f.lux for iOS is no longer available”Submitted The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable as a story · 353 points
HN discussion> When did MacBooks became famous for "bad solder joints"? There has been more[1] than one[2] case where GPUs in MBPs stopped working because of bad solder joints. And ifixit has a guide about how to fix your mac by putting it in the oven[3] to reflow the solder joints. 1: https://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/product_info.php?product... 2: https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/ 3: https://ifixit.org/bl…
Comment linking /blog/6882/why-i-drilled-holes-in-my-macbook-pro-and-put-it-in-the-oven/
on “Apple releases software fix for MacBook Pro slowdown”Submitted DMCA exemption for repairs, modifications, research on your vehicle takes effect as a story · 342 points
HN discussionI can only speak for my mid-2015 15" Retina MacBook Pro, and the whole pad is clearly flexible and very slightly sprung (and yes, it's made of glass - thin glass is quite flexible). You can see it flex and bend by looking across it while deflecting it - it's most easily seen by looking at the gap around the edge of the pad, between the pad and the laptop casing, while deflecting it close to the edge. The gap varies…
Comment linking /blog/7084/force-touch-track-pad/
on “Linux touchpad like a Macbook: progress and a call for help”Submitted A Design Defect Is Breaking iPhone 6 Pluses as a story · 327 points
HN discussion> I really don't understand Apple's obsessions with thinness. Do they really think that a few millimetres off the depth of a laptop is worth sacrificing reliability like this? My favorite is when they wanted thinness so badly, they sacrificed the "bulky" hermetically sealed crystals in favor of super thin non-sealed oscillators of some type. As a result, iPhones would stop working in the presence of helium atoms (su…
Comment linking /blog/11986/iphones-are-allergic-to-helium/
on “Design flaw behind MacBook Pro’s “stage light” effect”Submitted What Finally Killed AirPower as a story · 270 points
HN discussionSome tests are referenced in this article: https://ifixit.org/blog/8448/apple-audio-adapter-teardown/
Comment linking /blog/8448/apple-audio-adapter-teardown/
on “Microsoft Paint to be killed off after 32 years”Submitted Right to Repair is already hurling into action in 2019 as a story · 258 points
HN discussionReliability? They can't make a laptop keyboard that survives an encounter with a crumb and if you open your laptop too many times the video cable gets severed: https://ifixit.org/blog/12903/
Comment linking /blog/12903/
on “Apple Lays Off 200 Employees from Autonomous Car Unit”Submitted Apple’s repair kill switch hasn’t been activated yet as a story · 235 points
HN discussionYou're not expected to keep them that long, it's targeted to people who buy the new generations pretty much as soon as they are released. Who's going to pay 30%-50% of a new version to replace his airpods or apple watch battery ? [0] It's the same with all these hi tech gadgets relying on tiny glued/soldered batteries. You can't replace them yourself because it's either proprietary hardware or you need to literally…
Comment linking /blog/8690/airpods-are-disposable/
on “AirPods with Wireless Charging Case”Submitted iFixit App Pulled from Apple’s Store as a story · 211 points
HN discussionUpdate on the first article: http://ifixit.org/blog/8343/touch-disease-isnt-going-away/
Comment linking /blog/8343/touch-disease-isnt-going-away/
on “A Design Defect Is Breaking iPhone 6 Pluses”Submitted Apple’s 2018 MacBook Pros Attempt to Solve Flexgate, Without Admitting It Exists as a story · 202 points
HN discussion
