Tech Note

AppleCare Plus now includes unlimited maintenance.

AppleCare Plus may now be a lot better option if you’re the type of person who frequently drops their phone. According to an archived version of the AppleCare Plus page from last month, users were only allowed “two incidences of accidental damage protection every 12 months.” However, as MacRumors notes, the program now covers “unlimited repairs for accidental damage protection.”

The service fees and deductibles are still in place, so think twice before throwing your phone in the air in celebration. A screen or back glass repair will set you back $29, while “other unintentional damage” will cost you $99. Additionally, AppleCare Plus only applies to damage brought on by “unexpected and accidental incidents,” as stated in the fine print.

Surprisingly, the cost of the service itself remains the same. (Even though it came up frequently during Apple’s keynote on Wednesday.) It will cost $9.99 per month or $199 for two years to get it for a brand-new iPhone 14 Pro, which is the same amount it once did for an iPhone 13 Pro. The price difference between covering the iPhone 14 Plus and the ordinary iPhone 14 or the iPhone 13 is $8.99 per month compared to $7.99 per month, or an additional $30 if you choose the two-year plan.

The service has been upgraded, and not just for the phones that Apple revealed on Wednesday. Additionally, it is available for the iPhone 12, iPhone 13, and the remainder of Apple’s portfolio. Yes, this will also cover you if you repeatedly drop your iPad, sit on your MacBook Pro, damage your watch in a fall, wash your AirPods in the washing machine, etc. (It also applies to the Apple TV and HomePod Mini, though it’s difficult for me to envision how you’d damage a gadget that is primarily used for laying around the home.)

The modification also goes back in time. Apple sent me an email on Friday informing me that my plan “now protects your covered device from limitless occurrences of accidental damage from handling” and that I didn’t need to do anything to activate it. I had purchased AppleCare Plus for my iPhone 12 in December 2020.

One other significant point to remember is that even if you purchase AppleCare Plus with theft and loss insurance, you are still only eligible for two replacement iPhones annually.