Enlarge (credit: iFixit )

Logitech has joined the likes of Google and Samsung in tagging iFixit to help build a self-repair program. iFixit will sell spare parts for Logitech's MX Master and MX Anywhere series of mice and provide relevant repair guides in the US this summer.

The iFixit Logitech Repair Hub will stock parts for what iFixit said in its announcement today are the most common repair needs, namely for replacing the mice's feet and rechargeable battery and opening the device.

"Once in store, the replacement parts for feet and batteries will be available for purchase individually or in our complete-solution Fix Kits," iFixit said, noting that the kits include tools like opening picks and a screwdriver handle and bits.

• 

  Opening up the new HomePod is a lot easier than opening the previous model. [credit: iFixit ]

iFixit has published a short video of a teardown of the new, second-generation HomePod that launched on February 3 for $299. There's perhaps not as much to see as there is in an iPhone or Mac teardown, but the important thing is that it's relatively good news for repair shops or users who want to go the DIY repair route.

When iFixit did its first teardown of the original HomePod, it was an ugly sight—plastic pieces stuck together required prying, and pieces had to be destroyed to get in at all. The original video was a bit comical to watch for how extreme the process was—Apple clearly did not intend anyone but its own technicians to open the device.

People eventually figured out better ways to do it, but it was never simple or easy. The discontinuation of that first HomePod was surely welcome news for a lot of fixers.

Enlarge / A new hard-case battery inside the Apple Watch Ultra is easier to remove for DIY fixers. Getting to that battery is still a tricky, tight-space operation, iFixit writes. (credit: iFixit )

Like the iPhone 14, the Apple Watch Ultra has a quietly revolutionary aspect that went under the radar—at least until the people at iFixit tore down the device . Apple's new category of wearables is "a potentially giant step towards making the Watch more repairable," iFixit writes, and it all starts with the screws.

Four pentalobe screws on the back of the Watch Ultra, unique among all Apple's Watch models, suggested the same kind of front-and-back access that iFixit's iPhone 14 teardown revealed . But opening from the back will almost certainly damage the Ultra's waterproof gasket. And the experienced teardown team at iFixit also lost one of the band release button's springs during removal. Most disappointingly, there's not much to be replaced from the back other than the back itself and its sensor array.

The promising but ultimately non-revelatory screws, making their first appearance on an Apple Watch exterior. (credit: iFixit )

As such, replacing the battery on an Apple Watch Ultra will likely take days, not hours, and will be done at a regional service depot, not in-store, iFixit's Sam Goldheart writes. "It's a missed opportunity—if Apple could get the battery under the [system-in-a-package], then these new screws on the bottom could enable a battery swap without going through the extremely well-sealed display."

• 

  Here's the iPhone 14 with front and back panels, and a middle frame. [credit: iFixit ]

As has become an annual custom, iFixit has done a teardown of the iPhone 14, Apple's baseline flagship iPhone for 2022. While the iPhone 14 seems almost identical to its immediate predecessor on the surface, iFixit found one vital difference Apple hasn't announced publicly: it's much easier to repair.

iFixit calls it "the most significant design change to the iPhone in a long time," for their purposes, at least.

In the new design, the bulk of the phone is in a midframe, but the frame can be opened on either side—both the front and the back. Other recent models—including the still-sold iPhone 13, iPhone 12, and iPhone SE, as well as the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max—could only be opened from the front.

• 

  The MacBook Air after the teardown. [credit: iFixit ]

The M2 MacBook Air has been arriving to those who pre-ordered it over the past few days, and repair supplies vendor iFixit is among those who received a unit. If you've been tracking iFixit's work after other Apple launches over the past several years, you know what that means: teardown time .

Like the 24-inch iMac before it, the MacBook Air is mostly full of... a lot of empty space. The battery dominates the device's interior, but beyond that, we're mostly just looking at mechanisms for the trackpad, keyboard, and a small logic board.

The teardown revealed thermal paste and graphite tape, but no active cooling and not even a heat spreader. iFixit notes that the machine will likely run hot, which we found in our throttling tests .

Enlarge (credit: iFixit)

The iFixit and Google partnership that was announced in April is now live . iFixit says that genuine parts for Google smartphones are now for sale in "the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and European countries where Pixel is available."

It looks like iFixit is offering screens, batteries, and rear camera assemblies for most models of the Pixel phone, along with smaller odds and ends like adhesive and cooling graphite tape. Despite the official partnership with Google, we wouldn't call the iFixit Pixel store a comprehensive source of Pixel parts. For the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro—which are currently in production and should have tons of available parts—you can't buy replacement glass back panels, charging ports, front cameras, or any of the delicate cables you could accidentally rip while you're taking the phone apart. Just compare the official Pixel 6 Pro parts list, which has only six items, to any of the iPhone part lists , which have about 30 parts, and you can see there are a lot of missing items.

iFixit says it's just getting started, though, and that it will "continue to add more types of parts to our catalog" for the Pixel 2 and later. For the Pixel 6a, which comes out at the end of July, iFixit is promising "a full selection" of parts "as soon as possible."

Enlarge

The fight for the right to repair remains an active battle as various companies and lawmakers claim worries around safety, cybersecurity, and design innovation. But with concerns about e-waste, device quality, and the health of independent repair shops mounting, advocates like iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens are keeping their gloves up. In the lead up to Ars Technica's first annual Ars Frontiers event in Washington, DC, last week, we held a livestream with Wiens exploring this critical tech issue.

Making a federal case of it

Tech repairs got complicated in 1998 when Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [ PDF ]. Section 1201 of the copyright law essentially made it illegal to distribute tools for, or to break encryption on, manufactured products. Created with DVD piracy in mind, it made fixing things like computers and tractors significantly harder, if not illegal, without manufacturer permission. It also represented "a total sea change from what historic property rights have been," Wiens said.

This makes Washington, DC, the primary battleground for the fight for the right to repair.