iFixit is a company famous for their new device teardowns. The site notes that during repairs, Apple is replacing the iPhone 4's standard Philips #00 screws with new "pentalobular" ones. Worse, to gain access to a tool for that screwhead, you have to prove you are an certified Apple repair technician or company. The tool is also very expensive.
iPhone 4s in the U.S. shipped with the aforementioned Phillips screws, but other countries received the pentalobular screws, and as noted iPhone 4s are receiving them upon repair. As sealed as the iPhone 4's OS is, apparently the device needs to be sealed the same way.
As MJ at iFixit said:
Apple won't sell me the screwdriver I won't need to fix my own phone. And all of this for what: to keep people from modding their phones to make them different colors? Heaven forbid!We're not sure the word "diabolical" is correct to describe Apple's actions, but at any rate, iFixit's interest in this is not totally altruistic. They have just released a new product called the "iPhone 4 Liberation kit." It includes a special Phillips driver to remove the tamper-resistant screws, Phillips screws like the iPhone 4 was originally shipped with, and a Phillips driver for those.
The only possible problem is since the driver to remove the pentalobular screws is not the precise tool required, it could render them useless. On the other hand, as MJ said, you're not going to need them anyway.
It would seem, to me, that you could probably find your own Phillips screwdriver that would similarly remove the pentalobular ones (destroying them as well), without forking over the $10, but it is convenient that there is a kit that provides the screws, too.
Ah, and similar, but differently sized screws are in mid-2009 MacBook Pros and the new MacBook Airs, and iFixit has users covered there, too. Once again, they're not being altruistic.
Apple's Diabolical Plan to Screw your iPhone from iFixit on Vimeo.
