Apple Is Locking Its Components To Particular Systems

This teardown by IFixit of the new M1 Imac <https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/26/m1_imac/> gives it a repairability score of 2 out of 10. This isn’t helped by a new trend in Apple’s hardware: iFixit had a go at swapping the sensors between keyboards and found that while the key part of the sensor worked just fine, the Touch ID bit didn't. Much like the rest of the iDevice family; the Touch ID sensor is paired with its original keyboard. A previous article <https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/25/m1_imac_ifixit_teardown/> reports how far this has already gone with Iphones: If you switch a camera from one iPhone 12 to another, it won't work properly. If you re-use a display panel, Apple will disable TrueTone and warn the owner they're using a non-genuine part, as recently noted by Aussie right-to-repair advocate Hugh Jeffreys.

I quoted:
... the Touch ID sensor is paired with its original keyboard.
It is worth clarifying that, unlike the Iphone case, this was a component locked to a subsystem (the keyboard), rather than the entire system (the Imac). But still, you have to wonder why they found this necessary.
participants (1)
-
Lawrence D'Oliveiro