Software-locked products are just be broken up and/or sold for parts[0] - so thieves will only be slightly less motivated. The downside is donated and estate sale M1 mainboards will be condemned to the trash heap. Less technical people are also more likely to throw the whole computer away.
0. I do this already to feed my repair addiction. I buy from my favorite charity thrift store, so the goods are not likely not stolen. A device with cracked screen can be fixed by parts from an activation-locked device.
Yeah, but the value is a fraction of a working machine. Base M1 Macbook Airs are selling for 800€, I doubt you'd get half of that for the parts in an activation locked Macbook. And it would take 10 times as long to sell it, because the market for parts is tiny compared to the market for working Macs.
If there was a big market for used parts, then the M1 MacBooks would not be getting scrapped as the video implies.
Battery and screen are about all that could be chopped and some imo
A way to unlock them should be provided. Report the serial to apple, they try to inform the owner by mail and/or push and after a 30 days grace period it should be unlocked. Another benefit of such a system is that it might even help to locate stolen devices.
If anything I want Apple to be even harder on this so that no used component could be put anywhere else and work. Ideally I would be able to remote detonate the battery to deter thieves, but there are sadly legal issues around this.
But if somebody were to steal my laptop I would have to buy a new one, which would cause more waste. The best thing to do therefore is to ensure that nobody steals laptops.
Apple already allows you to register a device as stolen.
Apple is doing the right thing here.
This might be avoided if our justice system was willing and able to go after these thieves, despite their relatively low-value crimes.
Backdoors can (and therefore, will) be abused, so it is better that there is no way around these security measures.
It would be great if they could engineer a solution in that the device is activation locked and be factory reset and reused.
There was a discussion around activation lock somewhat preventing thefts due to the risk that the device becomes activation locked. But I don't know how truthful that is. As stolen devices are often sold to unsuspecting users with activation lock enabled.
It requires very specific skills to dismantle it to resell-able parts - and even those are hard because the components are linked and can't be sold separately.
Then as a deterrent, device lock does not work much.
Because now the customer needs to get a new laptop whether the laptop is recovered or not. It also eliminates a secondary market increasing demand.
But I can see thieves making the case that it would be less wasteful to let stolen laptops be more fence-able.
Apples does have owner transfer service that works very well, I've used it for a few sales and now there's also a "Legacy Contacts" feature if someone passed away (added 2022).
Apple already have an owner-transfer service that I've used many times, the problem is how this would work if someone passed away.
It would make sense to disable some features, even if it's still in "stolen" status, so that it's not completely wasted.
Give owners a chance to reclaim it, but allow some degree of use over just bricking it.
The only people who have an issue with activation lock are people who want to resell devices from questionable sources.
At least one person claims to have forgotten their Apple ID's password - they don't have any personal Apple products - and the only available alternative is to ship it back to the agency, have them track down the original purchase receipt, and ask Apple nicely to unlock it that way.
So no - those are not the only people who have an issue with activation lock.
... and for what it's worth, I like the way it's currently set up.
Bad carmakers! Could you just allow us to use your cars without keys??!”
Seriously. Blame on the institutions that don’t unlock the devices, maybe they just have no idea. Blaming activation lock is totally silly.
Maybe a way to “ping” an activation lock “owner” for “lock deactivation” and allow deactivation if no answer in, say, 90 days, could be a useful improvement; but the fault of this is not Apple’s.
Still sucks because there are people who just cant afford a brand new Apple laptop but would make great use of a used Apple Silicon macbook. Instead they are going to get a used thinkpad/inspiron because those are resold for cheap instead of being scrapped. Wasted opportunity for Apple to get people hooked in the ecosystem
Are these MacBooks stolen?
Don't blame Apple for the MacBooks being scrapped, blame the organisations that resell them without resetting them because they really don't care if they are refurbish or just dumped in the landfill. Apple made a perfectly good anti-theft solution and now people are upset that they forgot to ask for these devices to be unlocked before buying them.
If these buyers are truly that upset about the environmental impact, send them to Apple and let Apple recycle them... But we all know that they won't be doing that, because what they are upset about is losing money.
Having apple unilaterally unlock the device is not the only solution, just the recycler’s preferred one.
This would also protected unlocked macs from being stolen en route, like in the post.
If yes, that would be more than enough at this point.
All that said, his proposed solution sounds reasonable.
Given Apple's limited responsiveness to customer pressure, the best approach may be to involve the original owners in finding a solution. This may involve ensuring that all owners are aware of the problem and providing a simple way to erase the hard drive and set up a generic account and password. Simplicity is key. Additionally, offering a small token of appreciation, such as a Starbucks gift card, could be a nice gesture to those who participate.
There's some pre-activation done out of the factory so that the Mac doesn't need to call home and check for lock on first boot out of the box, but if you wipe it, that's gone, and it does need to call home.
The operating system is not what is implementing the lock.
Legit resale people can be contacted. People who were tasked with destroying equipment, but trying to resale should be upfront about their operations and get unlocks before accepting delivery.
I'm sorry, but do you actually think that people steal because they weren't taught otherwise? I mean, perhaps this works with, say, wage theft but it just doesn't pan out to theft of laptops. Everyone knows this is frowned upon. You can lessen such theft by making sure folks don't feel compelled to steal by making sure you have a robust safety net that allows for pocket money and buying computers and things - but you simply won't get rid of it completely.
In any case, laptop theft isn't a question of "teaching people not to steal". Theft happens worldwide.
Oh. I see your point.
Yet again the blame is shifted from the ultra rich corp. to the poor?
(I’m doing my part)
- There were a few cases of the owner dying and their relatives being unable to unlock their devices. Starting in iOS 15.2 and macOS 12.1, the owner can designate a Legacy Contact who can access their iCloud data and unlock their devices if they die: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208510 So Apple did make progress in "working around" this problem for legitimate cases.
- If you bought it second-hand... then it's good thing there is no workaround, because preventing resale of stolen devices is the whole point. Return it to the seller and demand your money back.
