To those considering doing this, please keep in mind that if you do this, you will not be able to "unbrick" or receive authorized repairs for your phone. That's probably exactly what's desired, but as "wireless charging" models are nearly a thousand dollars, epoxyer beware.
Or, you could make your device supervised via MDM or Apple Device Configurator, and disable "Allow devices to pair with other computers". This will generate a keypair on the machine running Device Configurator + the iPhone, and no other USB data connection will be allowed - you won't get prompted for "Trust" at all (except for CarPlay etc.).
On top of that, since iOS 11 (or maybe 10), trusting a USB device requires the passcode by default, so even having your phone ripped out of your hands unlocked does not lead to the ability to take a USB backup directly anymore.
> Or, you could make your device supervised via MDM or Apple Device Configurator, ...
I haven't looked into this so I apologize if it's an easily answered question but... is this (MDM/ADC) something an individual can do for their own devices? I know it can be done at the organizational level for, e.g., employer-owned devices, but how hard is this for Joe Blow to set up for, say, his kids' iPads and iPhones?
Yes. This is a very old article I had written back in the iOS 9 days, it still mostly applies.
A few warnings:
1 - Changing an iOS device to "Supervised" will wipe it (so you can't supervise someone else's device and data).
2 - Backing up iOS devices over USB after requires that you keep the keypair, and makes restoring to new devices much more complicated. I would not recommend relying on USB backups if using this method unless you play around and understand it well.
3 - Be sure you set the profile to be removable only by wiping the device, or using Device Configurator, otherwise, the profile could be deleted to enable USB.
4 - One could wipe the keys completely to be sure that NO machine has USB access to the phone, meaning it would need to be restored to factory defaults for USB to work again.
Configurator is awesome, especially for VPN profiles. But do note that many of its features can only deploy to managed devices under an Apple enterprise cert.
Thanks for the correction. I can’t afford $700 any more than $1000, so I left my wording intact. Note that the exact price point is entirely irrelevant until it drops to “throwaway”, which $700 is not.
iPhone 8 starts at 950$ in Europe. Other phones (e.g. first tier Chinese brands) don't suffer the same insane markup. 8plus is 1075$ and X is 1365$. All for basic memory models.
I think it's articles like this that disprove the "insane markup" comments. There is a differentiator that justifies the increased cost. Increase privacy is not more expensive, decreased privacy is just cheaper.
You usually don’t even need that. 99% of the time someone posting flame bait like that will be comparing unlike things - slower CPUs, worse displays, etc. Equivalent hardware tends to be very close because markets usually do work efficiently.
I'm comparing the lowest models that meet my needs. Why should I have to pretend there's not cheaper, less powerful handsets that can fulfill my needs just to make Apple look better?
(Granted, my strict needs could be met with one of TI's sub-$0.50 microcontrollers and a seven-segment display since they're "make phone calls" and "generate two-factor authentication codes")
Because it’s mislesding, just as it would be to say that a restaurant is overpriced because you wanted a takeout burrito.
If all you need is enough to run a TOTP app, you could get a dumb phone with a $10 token but you could also make an honest comparison with the $350 iPhone SE or $450 iPhone 6S rather than comparing the iPhone X/8 to devices which weren’t intended to compete with current generation flagship models.
Chinese brands aren't known from protecting your data. Usually the opposite.
Android handset makers just manufacture the handset. Google provides the OS, and the underlying services for the Android ecosystem.
Apple bears both the cost of handset manufacturing, and the entirety of costs for the smartphone's ecosystem. That cost is reflected in the price, making the markup less "insane."
The Chinese handset makers in question may provide their own software, but it's typically considered "bloatware" and no where near the quality of software that Google provides.
