Apple: Jailbreak and Kiss Your Warranty Goodbye

[Simple11]

I don't believe apple has much of a warranty to void. I bought my 3G back in November of 09, and in April of 2010, I dropped my phone on the concrete right on the corner of the phone (where the silent/ringer slider is). This causes the phone to stay on silent, and the slider was not usable. I took the phone to AT&T, and they said the case has been opened (maybe a nanometer wide, but what do I know I'm just a general user, which apparently everyone is) and my warranty has been voided. To get a new 3G, I would have to pay 150$ (50$ More than I paid for the phone when I bought it). Whereas my buddy has had a Droid for maybe 2 months and has broke his phone 3x and lost it once and has received new ones free no questions asked each time.

Needless to say I know who is not getting my next purchase. Oh funny thing is, a month later my slider decided it wanted to work fine.

Also, I upgraded my 3G to OS4, wow that was a mistake. So many crashes to home screen, so many messages loaded after 20-30secobds. I downgraded to 3.1.2, jailbroke, and now I enjoy any ringtone/texttone/mailtone/tethering I want

 

[Ragnar-Kon]

[citation][nom]djsting[/nom]Actually, here is how companies like Dell, HP, and Lenovo deal with issues like this. In the name of full disclosure, I used to be a Dell Tech. I currently support all the hardware at a school district, so I deal with all 3 companies I've mentioned.So to my point, if you buy a computer with say XP Home. You decide you want to buy a retail copy of Windows 7. A few weeks later you discover you have faulty RAM. These companies will replace said RAM as it really is not affected by the OS. Same thing for hard drives, motherboards, ETC...It's a slightly different story for say the video card where drivers can be a problem. However, if you can still prove it's the hardware and not software conflict, they will replace the hardware.Granted on an Iphone, it may be a little harder to prove hardware VS software. Still, Apple should warranty the hardware.[/citation]
Well I agree with you, but Dell supports all versions of Windows and even some versions of Linux. Apple only supports that one operating system for the iPhone. Plus the iPhone's operating system plugs into the hardware much more than other operating systems do.

This isn't saying that they shouldn't warranty some parts. The screen, for one, obviously won't be affected by the OS. But certain parts, the battery for example, can be severely impacted by not using the intended OS.

Not saying it is the most noble thing Apple can do, but from a business standpoint, I can completely understand why Apple took the stance they did.

 

[eddieroolz]

Yeah, yeah. Whatever, Apple.

 

[alextheawesome]

I jailbroke my ipod touch, they took it and gave me a new one, no questions asked.

 

[long2know]

[citation][nom]zaznet[/nom]The DMCA (US Law - Digital Millennium Copyright Act) has a stipulation that makes it illegal to circumvent copy protections on any device.[/citation]
You obviously did not read the first paragraph of the article:

"According to the new Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) update, owners of cell phones may legally jailbreak or root their devices, as well as unlock them to use on other carriers."

I personally see no problem with Apple doing this. Cell phone carriers do the same thing. A good example is Sprint. They will void the warranty on your EVO 4G if you root the phone. Will that stop someone from rooting the device if they want to? No. Is it illegal? No. But, they can forget about warranty support.

 

[elbarto1977]

Just don't hold it that way

 

[angelraiter]

How can Apple deny warranty if it's now legal to jailbreak? It doesn't make any sense! I can understand them denying it a week ago, but now, I don't think they legally can, or am I wrong?

 

[chriskrum]

[citation][nom]AngelRaiter[/nom]How can Apple deny warranty if it's now legal to jailbreak? It doesn't make any sense! I can understand them denying it a week ago, but now, I don't think they legally can, or am I wrong?[/citation]

Because they are two different things.

Say you buy a car with a three year warranty and then ruin it driving off road. Your warranty doesn't cover the damage because it's not normal usage. It doesn't matter if you have a recreational vehicle license to make off roading legal.

It's legal to drop your iphone from a 2 story building but apple doesn't have to perform an warranty repair on the remains.

 

[Strider-Hiryu_79]

So I guess TH staff now have two choices:

Cease and desist your articles on jailbreaking which subsequently and inadvertantly promote the voiding of apple ipod and iphone warranties.

Or start adding a disclaimer to any future jailbreaking articles to avoid the legal "red tape."

As for "am I an apple fan?". Far from it.

I just wouldn't want to see TH in any legal BS matters. I could care less if an apple fan bricks their ipod/iphone.

 

[zaznet]

[citation][nom]Strider-Hiryu_79[/nom]I just wouldn't want to see TH in any legal BS matters.[/citation]

Tom's reports on jail breaking news could not be taken as enticing someone to jail break any more than a Chinese factory suicide report encourages people to jump off buildings.

Tom's does not provide direct downloads for software to jail break nor technical specifics on how to accomplish it. This article is actually about an Apple statement related to the recent exclusions allowed by the Library of Congress.

 

[applegotmelaid]

God bless us, EVERYONE! - Tiny Tim

 

[Guest]

because the people who jailbreak their phones are going to pause to think, wait im going void my warranty, just like overclockers worry about making their systems unstable

the issue at hand is that a user should not need to void their warranty to get whatever app they want on their own bloody phone

if your not aware of what the bloody app is going to do to your phone then i dont think you deserve to own a smartphone, it's a damn smartphone not a stupidphone

 

[hakesterman]

who gives a crap about your warrenty? It's the worst on the market and the Tech's you have hired have 5th grade educations. I have called them 4-5 times and everytime they have lied and mis guided me. I would never let Apple Warrenty tech's touch my device. The only reason they are saying this is because they don't want you getting any free Apps.

 

[hakesterman]

How can Apple deny warranty if it's now legal to jailbreak? It doesn't make any sense! I can understand them denying it a week ago, but now, I don't think they legally can, or am I wrong?

You are correct, and apple will fight it and will soon be in court with a class action lawsuit and Apple will get their butts kicked again.

 

[tas1978]

Question. Does this apply to gaming systems too?

 

[tas1978]

[citation][nom]slm_casper[/nom]That violates the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. I hope someone takes legal action against Apple.[/citation]

Are you referring to this provision?

"Warrantors cannot require that only branded parts be used with the product in order to retain the warranty.[2] This is commonly referred to as the "tie-in sales" provisions[3], and is frequently mentioned in the context of third-party computer parts, such as memory and hard drives."

 

[zaznet]

[citation][nom]tas1978[/nom]Question. Does this apply to gaming systems too?[/citation]

Not directly, but the main consoles don't allow for "unauthorized" software to be installed similar to smart phones. The exclusions revealed recently apply to smart phones and the gaming consoles clearly are different devices.

The parallels exist though so in another 3 years maybe we'll have a decision that legalizes hacking your Xbox 360 or PS3.

 

[union6]

[citation][nom]npadger[/nom]What you guys don't realize is that you can un-jailbreak the phone. My jailbroken iPod Touch decided to stop using its wireless chip, so I simply restored it in itunes and took it back to the Apple Store. No hassle, they just gave me a new one.The only people this new regulation is screwing is the iPhone unlockers, as their change is permanent from what I've heard.[/citation]


They can tell if you did jailbreak it because my sister works at the Apple store and some numbers when they bring up there tools are different. But if you know someone who works there then you cant get them to "not see" it.

 

[orionantares]

[citation][nom]beayn[/nom]Except they aren't overclocking, they're just removing a software lock so that they can run other programs they want to run. If Dell only allowed you to run Microsoft software and you circumvented it to put Word Perfect on it, that should not void the hardware warranty in any way.[/citation]

That's not an accurate comparison. A more accurate comparison with Dell would be if you tried to alter the firmware/BIOS of some of the hardware in your PC with custom firmware. If you do that and mess up the hardware you're SOL if they find out that's why the hardware broke. That would be a "software" change that would void your hardware warranty.

Apple views jailbraking the same way but as long as your phone is at least operational enough to revert back to factory default before taking it for warranty service, they'll never be able to tell you had "released" it.

 

[megamanx00]

Doh.