511–520 of 562 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>but some consumers (and reviewers) really do like to chase thinness Honestly Apple started the thinness fetish, so IMO the reality is like this Apple pushes thinness fetish -> Reviewers and fanboys are now corrupted and will flaunt the size of their camera and thinness of the device.
You mean the Motorola Razr? and arguably the StarTAC.
Apple's fight against right to repair while pushing materials to the public that state they are trying to reduce their carbon footprint is the absolute peak of hypocrisy. I understand the closed off design of their products is a result of the Steve Jobs era, but why can't the current leadership make a change? Why can't Apple make their products easily repairable while making them aesthetically pleasing? The typical "…
It's because they can see the bigger picture, beyond these 2010s-era complaints of 'user-upgradable RAM.' This is totally irrelevant in a SOC world. Apple is indeed reducing the carbon footprint of computer manufacturing, by consolidating more and more components on a single chip (SOC) with M1, and creating smaller and smaller hardware. There's a ridiculous amount of carbon footprint saved by not having to source, sh…
A) Company consolidates hardware into a single unrepairable resin block
B) All customers are able to use their devices 50% longer because stuff is repairable
As someone who designes PCBs you could save the world by doing the math here for me and convince me how this is better for the planet than e.g. my fairphone where I can swap out my battery when it is broken instead of throwing the whole assembly away or trying to source parts and removing a glued in battery.
Replacing some component in a computer/phone is something every member of my extended family did within the last 3 years. Usually it was a screen, a battery, a home button, a headphone jack, a hard drive, ... Every instance where they did this they used a piece of electronics longer and thus reduced the carbon footprint more than any single engineering change Apple could have come up with.
Instead I'll be going with the Framework laptop: https://frame.work/
I expect to replace the RAM, Battery, and maybe even the processor over time. I really value this optionality and it will be much better for the environment as well.
Living in Shenzhen, it’s shocking how easy it is to go out and repair stuff. Living in Palo Alto, it’s frustrating how hard it is. I’m thinking maybe, just maybe, introducing repairability laws won’t solve the problem. I am perfectly happy upgrading the memory on my MacBook Air with a reflow air station rather than swapping out some dims if it means my laptop is half as thick and twice as rugged. I’m also just as hap…
The reason it can be done in China is because those shops illegally obtain the parts (whether counterfeit or stolen, since Apple won't intentionally sell them to anyone) and resources (schematics, software, etc) to be able to do so. This situation is both good and bad. Stolen parts are good, in the sense that this grey market at least allows consumers to repair devices cost-effectively. It's also bad, because besides…
People are not stealing macbooks and sending them to chop shops... they steal them and try to flog them so unsuspecting consumers. What grey market parts really mean is dead macbooks and phones that Apple would prefer to see shredded rather than used for spares.
RE counterfeits: I don't know how to seriously answer this, beyond saying: stop being so fucking precious about Apple electronics, no other computer manufacturer has this problem but Apple has to be fully vertically integrated - and the argument for quality has been thrown out of the window, deeo down everyone knows why Apple want this level of control over device life cycle, it's the same as their App store.
Living in Shenzhen, it’s shocking how easy it is to go out and repair stuff. Living in Palo Alto, it’s frustrating how hard it is. I’m thinking maybe, just maybe, introducing repairability laws won’t solve the problem. I am perfectly happy upgrading the memory on my MacBook Air with a reflow air station rather than swapping out some dims if it means my laptop is half as thick and twice as rugged. I’m also just as hap…
> I am perfectly happy upgrading the memory on my MacBook Air with a reflow air station Probably 0.01% of Apple product owners in North America also own a hot air reflow station and have the skills/practice to use it safely on a very densely populated laptop or phone motherboard. I would also wager that if you were to look at the pay scale for skilled electronics repair people capable of safely doing so with little r…
You are really overestimating the value of those skills. You don't need a college degree to run a hot air reflow station. It's a valuable skill but I'd be shocked if it was worth even a quarter of your estimate, even in NYC.
Even if running a hot air reflow station were a supremely difficult skill which required decades to master, the market value of a skill like that depends on the employee's ability to demand better compensation from competing employers. How many repair shops even have equipment like that? It's a very specific skill set, particular to an industry which is struggling due to lack of right to repair protections.
Living in Shenzhen, it’s shocking how easy it is to go out and repair stuff. Living in Palo Alto, it’s frustrating how hard it is. I’m thinking maybe, just maybe, introducing repairability laws won’t solve the problem. I am perfectly happy upgrading the memory on my MacBook Air with a reflow air station rather than swapping out some dims if it means my laptop is half as thick and twice as rugged. I’m also just as hap…
The reason it can be done in China is because those shops illegally obtain the parts (whether counterfeit or stolen, since Apple won't intentionally sell them to anyone) and resources (schematics, software, etc) to be able to do so. This situation is both good and bad. Stolen parts are good, in the sense that this grey market at least allows consumers to repair devices cost-effectively. It's also bad, because besides…
Rossmann is an important voice in the right to repair, however I do feel like he leaned into a certain audience, pandering to them a bit as a reliable target for ad impressions, and it has undermined his credibility. I hear about Rossmann most now when some vicious Apple detractor uses him as an authority on things having nothing to do with repair. For instance Rossmann did a video titled "Apple watching & logging EV…
Hell, if Apple addressed his concerns he would be out of this (very lucrative) business. So do not trust him to actually care about your right to repair. As always, follow the money.
Rossmann is an important voice in the right to repair, however I do feel like he leaned into a certain audience, pandering to them a bit as a reliable target for ad impressions, and it has undermined his credibility. I hear about Rossmann most now when some vicious Apple detractor uses him as an authority on things having nothing to do with repair. For instance Rossmann did a video titled "Apple watching & logging EV…
> Rossmann is an important voice in the right to repair, however I do feel like he leaned into a certain audience, pandering to them a bit as a reliable target for ad impressions, and it has undermined his credibility. I don't see how pandering to your audience or making money on ad impressions is undermining credibility. Every politician is pandering to their constituents counting on their votes. > When you see some…
Using politicians as an example of how the guy is reputable isn't the argument you are looking for.
>Apple contractually forces recycling partners to shred old devices
https://www.apple.com/environment We’re all fucked.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You mean the Motorola Razr? and arguably the StarTAC.
I was thinking at the hyper publicized Macbook Air. I am personally clueless about smartphones.
https://gizmodo.com/groping-sonys-vaio-tz-wonder-notebook-27... is another review from 2007
> The VAIO® TZ model incorporates the power of a larger PC into a small, portable form factor. Luxuriously sleek, it weighs just 2.65 pounds and measures less than 1-inch thin.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Sony-Vaio-VGN-TZ-Series.10632....
> It's generally reckoned that there are four categories of laptop. Desktop replacements weigh in at 4kg, mainstream models are closer to 3kg, thin and light models weigh 2kg to 3kg and then you get the really desirable models called ultraportables that weigh less than 2kg.
https://www.manifest-tech.com/media_pc/sony_vaio_notebooks2....
> Sony actually took a shot at such a system with its Sony VAIO X505 notebook introduced in May 2004 as a limited experiment. It was thin like the MacBook Air, tapering from 0.8" at the back hinge to 0.38" at the front, and smaller, with a 10.4" screen (so it fits comfortably in a regular 8 1/2 x 11 envelope). As a result, the X505 weighed just 1.84 lbs, so carrying it really was like a thick magazine. The price at that time started at a hefty $2999, and the power and storage were limited to a Intel Pentium M 1.10 GHz processor, with 512 MB memory, and 20 GB hard disk (with an external CD/DVD drive, and a dongle connector for video and network).
----
The chase for having the thinnest laptop was already in full swing when Apple came out with the Air in '08.