Inside the mysterious iPhones calibration machine that can give Apple a monopoly on its device repairs

Much is said and little is really known about the mysterious calibration machine for newly repaired iPhones which Apple started to employ in its official stores a few years ago. Today, however, the world got some more information and a new picture of the technology after a journalist from Motherboard offered a reward for this data.

Hey there:

Apple Store iPhones Calibration Machine

In the image sent by a former (obviously) Apple Store anonymous employee, we can clearly see some details: the concentric shapes of a triangle, circle, square and star used to calibrate the device's cameras, and the components Gray Card (gray card) and Flock Paper (paper camura), employees in adjusting the screen just do not ask me in what way.

Another informant (Apple must have been paying very little for these people to be so hungry for money) who used to work at a Ma store gave more information about the machine:

It was a big, clumsy machine that honestly looked like something someone had built in his backyard. There were different "molds" that different models of iPhones were snapped into before entering it, and the whole process took about 30 minutes. There was also a weird liquid that needed to be put in the machine, and we needed to wear gloves to operate it. Lots of gas valves and stuff. It literally looked like a backyard job at all. Apple-like no way.

According to other information, these obtained by AppleInsider, the description and photo are true, but correspond to a model of the machine that has already been surpassed. The newer units, it seems, are more autonomous and have a slightly more refined industrial design. Each Apple store has an unspecified number of these machines, varying in appearance but always with the same functionality.

A detail is worth mentioning: these beauties have the unique ability in the world to make the replacement of the Touch ID on a particular iPhone. They perform the process connected to a Mac, which automatically validates the new sensor on Apple's internal servers.

This information rekindles the lengthy discussion of the “right to repair” that Apple's (authorized or unauthorized) repairers have claimed for some time. As is well known, these service providers, when changing the front panel of an iPhone, do not interfere with Touch ID because it does not have the technology and permission necessary to make the replacement of the component only Apple's own stores, thanks to the above eccentric machine, can perform sensor exchange; Devices whose Touch ID component has undergone unauthorized repairs no longer offer biometric lock.

This raises the question: If Apple really introduces a smartphone with the built-in Touch ID display, as it seems to do with the "iPhone X", this leaves a number of repairers unable to make virtually any repairs in these future. iPhones; if one of them has a cracked screen, for example, only Apple could change the front panel, because theoretically it would be the only one with the ability to authenticate the new fingerprint reader. That is why Apple's authorized companies claim access to these calibration machines, which, judging by the level of secrecy of the whole thing, is a prospect far from reality.

What do you guys think? Should the technology be restricted to Ma or better than granted to third parties?