A right to repair advocate praises Apple’s early efforts, but says the company still wants too much control

Announced in the fall of last year, Apple's Self Service Repair program officially went live in the United States earlier today. For the most part, Apple has seen a lot of praise for the new effort, giving at least a little bit more control to the device owner when it comes to self service repair. However, there are some things to be aware of, and at least one advocate believes Apple's still leveraging its own power a bit too much.

Apple has reportedly slowed hiring of Geniuses at its retail stores

Geniuses, the fine folks at Apple retail stores that are supposed to know all the ins and outs of the company's latest devices in an effort to help with any troubleshooting needs a customer might have, are a staple. They've been around for so long, it's just an expectation to get help from a Genius when you set up an appointment to get a device fixed or otherwise checked out. But it sounds like Apple is slowing down on hiring this particular member of the staff.