If your assembly was damaged or defective, you were out of luck. Until now, DIY repairs relied on keeping the Face ID speaker and sensor assembly intact, then very carefully moving it to your new screen, and finally ignoring some gentle warnings. As of today, you can buy an official Apple iPhone 12 screen and install it yourself, on your own device, with no fuss.

This strategy hamstrings third-party repair with feature loss and scare tactics and could dramatically limit options for recyclers and refurbishers, short-circuiting the circular economy. If you use an aftermarket part, there's an 'unable to verify' warning waiting for you. You cannot purchase key parts without a serial number or IMEI.

The firm adds: The biggest problem? Apple is doubling down on their parts pairing strategy, enabling only very limited, serial number-authorized repairs. 'As the doors open on this new venue, we're underwhelmed, and settling back into our usual skepticism,' iFixit posted on Wednesday. 'We believe we have a responsibility to customers and the environment to offer convenient access to safe, reliable, and secure repairs to help customers get the most out of their devices,' the company wrote in a document published Wednesday that outlines its plans. Apple said it designed the program to offer adventurous and capable people access to the same parts, tools and instructions it gives to its own certified technicians and partner repair shops, hopefully making it easier for people to repair devices instead of resorting to buying a new one. From a report: The tech giant's new program, called Self Service Repair, is starting out for US customers with Apple's iPhone 13 line of smartphones, the iPhone 12 and new iPhone SE. The goal, the company said, is to allow iPhone owners an alternative way to repair their devices. Apple on Wednesday followed through on its plans to begin publicly releasing repair manuals for some of its products, in addition to selling parts and tools online.

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