Apple's senior director of iPhone product design Richard Dinh recently spoke with The Sydney Morning Herald's Tim Biggs about the design of the standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, including internal changes that simplify repairs.
iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are equipped with a removable back glass panel for easier repairs, making them the first models that can be opened from both the front and back sides of the device since the iPhone 4S. The change does not extend to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, which can still only be opened from the front side.
This new structural design with a central aluminum frame "helps to dissipate more heat across the entire surface more consistently," and the ability to access the logic board from either side of the device results in "improved repairability," according to Dinh.
Image Credit: iFixit
iFixit's Kyle Wiens last year said the iPhone 14 represents "the most substantial iPhone redesign" since the iPhone X given the increased repairability. He added that the changes are "such a big deal that it should have been Apple's big announcement—the iPhone has been redesigned from the inside out to make it easier to repair."
Dinh also touched on Apple's approach to designing the standard iPhone models, noting that the company does not have any strict formula.
"We don't always follow a recipe, as much as maybe our customers would like to predict what we're going to go do next, but it always starts with the customer experience," he said, adding that "sometimes we do draw from the Pros because they're just incredible" and "sometimes we go do something different."
Thursday January 23, 2025 6:41 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 18.3 should be released to the public next week, following beta testing since mid-December. While the software update is a relatively minor one, it still includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes for iPhones.
Below, we recap everything new in iOS 18.3.
Notification Summary Changes
Examples of inaccurate Apple Intelligence notification summaries
Apple Intelligence...
Thursday January 23, 2025 7:32 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today.
A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient...
Friday January 24, 2025 1:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is set to release iOS 18.3 next week, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a couple of neat new capabilities to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices, and bug fixes.
While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.3 still introduces capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've...
Wednesday January 22, 2025 6:01 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year. In this article, we recap rumored features and changes for the device.
The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, which would be an upgrade over the current Apple TV's standard Wi-Fi 6 support. Wi-Fi 6E extends the...
Tuesday January 21, 2025 4:31 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what's new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes.
The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for iPhone 16 models, it tweaks Notification summaries on all...
Friday January 24, 2025 8:16 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 18.3 is expected to be widely released next week, and that means the first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner.
Apple has previously implied that iOS 18.4 will be released in April, as that is when it promised to make Apple Intelligence available in even more languages.
Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far.
Apple Intelligence for Siri
Siri ...
Wednesday January 22, 2025 2:07 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Popular caller ID app Truecaller is rolling out an update that brings real-time caller ID support to its iOS subscribers.
Apple introduced Live Caller ID Lookup in iOS 18, allowing third-party caller ID apps to securely retrieve information about a caller from their servers, hence today's Truecaller update.
iPhone users can enable the Live Caller ID Lookup feature by going to Settings ➝ ...
Wednesday January 22, 2025 9:39 am PST by Joe Rossignol
New information has surfaced that indicates the rumored iPhone SE 4, iPad 11, and new iPad Air models are nearing launch.
A private account on social media platform X today revealed that iOS 18.3 or iPadOS 18.3 will be preinstalled on all of those upcoming devices when they are released. It is still unclear exactly when the devices will launch, but this information suggests that Apple will...
Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app.
Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
The fastest way to fix a broken iPhone is to buy a new one. All or this ifixit guff really grinds my gears. We want thin gorgeous devices not thick repairable bricks.
You know what really Grinds my Gears? These new iPhones. New iPhones with all those new features and fresh batteries, taking pictures of things in the dark. Ya know what? You're a.. You're out there jumping around with your new iPhone and I'm just posting here in Mac Rumors. So what am I supposed to do? We taking that new phone on a trip? Going to the mall? What do you want new iPhone? Tell me what you want!
This is a pretty obscure Family Guy reference I expect almost no one to get, but maybe one person will laugh at it, so....
Not sure this deserves any kind of ‘pat on the back’. Unless an average consumer can get parts and replace by themselves, really doesn’t matter. Still need to take somewhere and pay. Not going to be any cheaper if saves like 2 minutes repair time.
The fastest way to fix a broken iPhone is to buy a new one. All or this ifixit guff really grinds my gears. We want thin gorgeous devices not thick repairable bricks.
We? Thin? Hey Jony (Ive), speak for yourself.
Making it so that it's a little easier to repair than it is now doesn't mean it has to be thick like a brick. There's a happy medium somewhere. Take the Fairphone 4 ('https://shop.fairphone.com/en/buy-fairphone-4') as an example. It's not ugly or thick and has an iFixit repairability score of 10 ('https://www.ifixit.com/News/55818/fairphone-4-teardown-if-only-apple-made-phones-like-this').
This however is yet another piece of whitewashing from Apple, as their current third party/self repair renders any such repair difficult if not impossible not from a purely technical point of view - but due to draconian control of spare parts supply, pricing, "calibration" and tool costs.
