And whilst I'm having a rant about Microsoft, I'll balance it out with my recent experience with Apple.
Basically, my first generation Apple Watch that I pre-ordered when they first came out 6 years ago finally needed a new battery. It's a 42 mm Stainless Steel version with Milanese Loop and cost a tidy sum at the time. It does everything I want and for the reasons I bought it - no complaints at all and I also use it all the time for paying for goods using Apple Pay, so saves me carrying my wallet and is far safer, as no card details are used in any transactions.
So as it was starting to show fully charged, but shortly afterwards started showing the low power warning, I contacted Apple to arrange a battery service: a tad under £100. I don't have an Apple outlet anywhere near me for 100 miles so they sent me all the packing and pre-paid packs via courier.
A few days later I was notified that they have run their diagnostics and will be sending me a replacement product. So what did I receive, but a a later Series 2 generation Apple Watch - with the same finish as mine.
Issue 1) Unable to Pair the watch using my iPhone as my iPhone 6 Plus is limited to the last IOS 12 update. The watch requires IOS 13 on my iPhone to set up my watch - so I am left with an expensive paperweight.
I spent the best part of a day on and off the phone to Apple, stating that I had no intention of upgrading my phone at this time , just to pair my watch, as it serves my needs perfectly well. After being cut off several times and being passed backwards and forwards, I finally got though to a Manager, who said that I would have to send the watch back to them again in order for its firmware to be downgraded several versions to allow my phone to pair it. After another 20 minutes on hold, I lost the will to live and gave up. Apple you have won by grinding me down.
So, I thought, I've either got to send it off for another week or 2 and get a downgraded watch back, or bite the bullet and buy a newer phone. So another 2 days researching phones and models and I've settled on another phone - yet to arrive at some considerable cost.
Issue 2) I noticed when putting a tempered glass screen protector on my Watch in readiness for when my phone arrives, that there was some slight pitting around the bevel where the glass meets the stainless steel. So called Apple up and waited on and off for another 2 hours, sending pictures to them - only to be told ultimately that this will be cosmetic damage and is acceptable!
Granted, you may have to zoom these up to see the issue - but in the sunlight, it looks like dirt and you want to keep wiping it. This combined with my OCD = stress!
So looks like I will have to get out the Brasso and see if I can polish them away. I suspect it is where the glass has been separated previously for battery replacement where they have to pick the glass out with a sharp object....
No need to guess why they don't make the battery user-serviceable.....
So Apple has been doing for years what Microsoft is now starting to do with Windows 11 - it is so obvious. Every IOS update now generally sees one or two phone models dropped from support and the same for Apple Watch, Ipads and everything else. This is going to become the norm.
As it stands, you can't get any original Apple parts anywhere - period. Apple have seen to it that they are locked into Apple. Resistance has been mounting for years as Apple have steadily been making their products more difficult to service by after-market repairers. They are doing this by locking components to each individual device. So if you take for example, 2 brand new identical iPhones and unbox them, and remove the camera module from each and swap them over, they will not operate properly, giving you a poor image and disabling features! This is effectively stopping your Apple devices from being repaired by anyone other than Apple, who will charge you about 3-4 times what a third party repairer would charge and this is being seen on more Apple devices.
Despite the various 'Right to Repair' cases being heard in the USA, The tech giants are using their money and power to influence or bury right to repair bills in various states:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... epair-laws
