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iFixit tells the sad story of how Samsung “ruined” its upcycling program

arstechnica.com

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Re: iFixit tells the sad story of how Samsung “ruined” its upcycling program

#41

Post by webmobdev »

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #32
webmobdev wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how exactly is an unlocked bootloader after 4 years of use going to help to reduce e-waste? It allows you install a different operating systems. When newer versions of Windows ran slower on old systems, many people switched to Linux to use the same hardware for some more years. And we do have different mobile OS too today. The free LineageOS also has breathed new life to many an old device. Jolla, a Finnish company,…

And absolutely none of these platforms will start working on 4-year old Samsung hardware because of an unlocked bootloader. In fact, the bootloaders can be unlocked right now on most Exynos devices, so why can't I run Jolla on a Samsung device?

    And absolutely none of these platforms will start working on 4-year old Samsung hardware because of an unlocked bootloader.
It is a chicken and egg problem - if there is no market to port an OS to a device, work to port it will be limited. LineageOS is doing a pretty decent job in supporting a lot of devices. All that said, the lack of any OS is no excuse to lock bootloaders.

Re: iFixit tells the sad story of how Samsung “ruined” its upcycling program

#42

Post by webmobdev »

gruez wrote: post #33
webmobdev wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a different perspective: Really hard now to do the fake replacement battery scams Really hard to replace battery. Period. It's a scammy tactic to make battery repairs very costly. Fantastic duration on updates An open system like the Sony Open Devices phone, that allows you to unlock the bootloader, is better for consumers as it allows users to even install a different mobile operating system on their phone! (…

> They are only getting security updates that plug holes that allow an iDevice to be Jailbroken. They sadly don't get updates for the default apps like Safari or Photos. This seems to be contradicted by https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212341 , which states it's getting security updates even for webkit.

Yes, they do issue security updates for Webkit / Safari as even that can be exploited to Jailbreak a device. I was however talking about feature updates for the default apps. Currently bundled apps appear to be tied to ios updates.

Re: iFixit tells the sad story of how Samsung “ruined” its upcycling program

#43

Post by wolfretcrap »

quadrangle wrote: post #6

Conflict-of-interest. If your business model is based on artificial obsolesence and 100% of the cost of e-waste and disposal is externalized, then anything that truly encourages effective continued use of older models is directly opposed to the business model. And while it's something to have marketable trust-building by taking some responsibility for the waste and longer life-span, that also invites people to start…

As someone who works in export/import business, here in India people make a lot of money importing Ewaste from foreign countries. Some villages in Delhi are filled with mountains of garbage brought from foreign countries, it's literally poisoning our under ground water, creating cancer but authorities don't do much about it. Stupidest things is, there are millionaires in India who live in the same place where this work takes place or atleast spend 5 hours a day at their factory and drinking same ground water maybe processed with RO but I am not sure how good is RO at removing heavy metal and other toxic contamination.

Re: iFixit tells the sad story of how Samsung “ruined” its upcycling program

#44

Post by commoner »

GuB-42 wrote: post #25

Interesting considering that until 2015 (Galaxy S6), Samsung phones had removable batteries, and even now, the Galaxy XCover Pro has one. Also, most Samsung phones, at least the flagships are easy to bootloader unlock / root and have an active community. It looks like Samsung position has always been "do whatever you want with your phone, just don't expect us to help you with that", which is actually much better than…

> Also, most Samsung phones, at least the flagships are easy to bootloader unlock / root and have an active community.

The North American versions of the Galaxy S series phones (which use Snapdragon processors) have bootloaders that cannot be unlocked. Only the non-NA ones (which use Exynos processors) have unlockable bootloaders.

Re: iFixit tells the sad story of how Samsung “ruined” its upcycling program

#45

Post by npteljes »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #12

It's pretty damn disappointing that ten years later, and my old Samsung Galaxy S2 is still the only Samsung device I have that can be easily rooted/re-flashed.

Newer ones can also be unlocked quite easily, I had no problem with the S4 and the S7.

Re: iFixit tells the sad story of how Samsung “ruined” its upcycling program

#46

Post by ppf »

gumby wrote: post #15
quadrangle wrote: post #6

Conflict-of-interest. If your business model is based on artificial obsolesence and 100% of the cost of e-waste and disposal is externalized, then anything that truly encourages effective continued use of older models is directly opposed to the business model. And while it's something to have marketable trust-building by taking some responsibility for the waste and longer life-span, that also invites people to start…

> If your business model is based on artificial obsolesence and 100% of the cost of e-waste and disposal is externalized, then anything that truly encourages effective continued use of older models is directly opposed to the business model. You’d think more companies would skip that model: bmw and Apple benefit from the high sale value of their devices, in part due to continued support. It doesn’t hurt that Californi…

I don't understand how BMW hold on to their reputation for making cars that run reliably for years. In recent years, their cars are largely shiny toys for the lease market, with an excess of gadgets and value engineering.

Re: iFixit tells the sad story of how Samsung “ruined” its upcycling program

#47

Post by bzzzt »

MomoXenosaga wrote: post #34
gumby wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If your business model is based on artificial obsolesence and 100% of the cost of e-waste and disposal is externalized, then anything that truly encourages effective continued use of older models is directly opposed to the business model. You’d think more companies would skip that model: bmw and Apple benefit from the high sale value of their devices, in part due to continued support. It doesn’t hurt that Californi…

My Poco cost me €349. In two and a half years I'll replace it for something new. Long term support isn't even a concern, for that price who gives a shit?

Not giving a shit _is_ the problem: Poco doesn't have to pay for all those 349 euro phones going to the recycler after just 2,5 years (while probably the components could last years longer).

Re: iFixit tells the sad story of how Samsung “ruined” its upcycling program

#48

Post by SkittyDog »

ketralnis wrote: post #27
SkittyDog wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They aren't Samsung's phones. They're yours and mine... In English, the grammatical "possessive" is not only used to mean legal ownership... It can refer to nearly any kind of proprietary relationships: • "Their husbands all laughed at the joke." • "Their jobs disappeared when the factory closed." • "Their comments are disagreeable and combatative." The previous poster's use of the possessive was entirely appropria…

> In English [...] I'm a native speaker, I'm not responding to the grammar. I'm responding to the very notion that Samsung "allow" users to do what they want with their own devices. Quotes like all of these... > by allowing users to unlock the bootloaders of devices Samsung decided to no longer support > Samsung was going to let users replace the shipping Android OS with whatever they wanted > Samsung [...] should se…

Whoosh!

Re: iFixit tells the sad story of how Samsung “ruined” its upcycling program

#49

Post by slownews45 »

webmobdev wrote: post #42
gruez wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are only getting security updates that plug holes that allow an iDevice to be Jailbroken. They sadly don't get updates for the default apps like Safari or Photos. This seems to be contradicted by https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212341 , which states it's getting security updates even for webkit.

Yes, they do issue security updates for Webkit / Safari as even that can be exploited to Jailbreak a device. I was however talking about feature updates for the default apps. Currently bundled apps appear to be tied to ios updates.

The idea that Android phones are getting these feature updates and iOS security updates is an absolute joke. Seriously. HTC Wildfire E3 just came out, running android 10. Released 2019. And chances of it getting updated to Android 11 (released 2020) or Android 12 and 13 (coming out in 2021 and 2022) are pretty much zilch. HTC U Play was on Android 6 maybe forever? Did they EVER release an update? It might STILL be stuck on Android 6. Do folks not understand the benefits of updating phones?

Re: iFixit tells the sad story of how Samsung “ruined” its upcycling program

#50

Post by [deleted] »

gumby wrote: post #15
quadrangle wrote: post #6

Conflict-of-interest. If your business model is based on artificial obsolesence and 100% of the cost of e-waste and disposal is externalized, then anything that truly encourages effective continued use of older models is directly opposed to the business model. And while it's something to have marketable trust-building by taking some responsibility for the waste and longer life-span, that also invites people to start…

> If your business model is based on artificial obsolesence and 100% of the cost of e-waste and disposal is externalized, then anything that truly encourages effective continued use of older models is directly opposed to the business model. You’d think more companies would skip that model: bmw and Apple benefit from the high sale value of their devices, in part due to continued support. It doesn’t hurt that Californi…

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