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British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

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Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#51

Post by c0nfused »

axelthegerman wrote: post #35
bombcar wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will work but it will have junk it really doesn't need complaining now and then, and be generally slow. Your best bet for a "non smart TV" is either a commercial/industrial one, or just use a monitor instead.

Yea a monitor is not a bad idea but they don't come in very large sizes or are way overpriced. Also if you'd want a decent speaker build in, monitors are not always the best

Look into conference room monitors they run around 1k USD and typically are available for reasonable tv Sizes. I think the Dell ones are Up to 55 inch

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#52

Post by sascha_sl »

Aeolun wrote: post #41
Someone1234 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like there's a large subset of people who don't understand what TPM does, so just assume the worst and hand wave about how it [somehow] causes [random bad thing]. In this case I guess TPM causes telemetry?

No, no, don’t mistake correlation with causation. They just always come together. Note: I have no idea what TPM even is.

It's what Apple calls a "secure element", essentially a mini-HSM or multi-feature smartcard. "Put keys on it and it lets you use it with a PIN and rate limit" seems to be the main use case (they can implement FIDO2 with that too for instance).

These things are very useful for authentication and have been on business laptops for this very reason forever.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#53

Post by Silhouette »

nradov wrote: post #18
oneplane wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is part of the problem: a lot of people just don't care.

Is that a problem? Should customers care?

Given the awful environmental cost of "disposable tech", everyone should care about reducing waste and extending the working life of our hardware if only for that reason.

Of course it's also bad for society that we have so little effective competition in tech markets now that users think substandard products and user-hostile behaviours are normal. The race to the bottom is bad for everyone, and everyone being sold those products is being abused in the name of profit, whether or not any given individual is aware of how much it is happening to them or understands that better alternatives exist.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#54

Post by fsflover »

nerdawson wrote: post #47
ShaneMcGowan wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trying to find a good non smart tv is impossible now, I want dumb tv and dumb fridge

TV manufacturers are responding, often clumsily and based on their self-interest (data collection), to what consumers want. Trying to find a dumb TV is like trying to find a car without a built in radio. You're welcome to leave it switched off. Smart TVs are dumb if they aren't connected to the internet. Some may be slow. Some may have a poor interface. I'd worry about solving for that rather than expecting manufactu…

> Smart TVs are dumb if they aren't connected to the internet.

Unless they find an open WiFi network.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#55

Post by z2 »

nerdawson wrote: post #47
ShaneMcGowan wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trying to find a good non smart tv is impossible now, I want dumb tv and dumb fridge

TV manufacturers are responding, often clumsily and based on their self-interest (data collection), to what consumers want. Trying to find a dumb TV is like trying to find a car without a built in radio. You're welcome to leave it switched off. Smart TVs are dumb if they aren't connected to the internet. Some may be slow. Some may have a poor interface. I'd worry about solving for that rather than expecting manufactu…

The worry I have with these TVs is that basic functions like channel seeking or brightness controls now rely on a computer running Android. It feels like a 1000-fold increase in complexity and risk for something to hobble the TV part of the TV. Say the CPU overheats due to poor heat design after 3 years--it doesn't seem like manufacturers have a dumb mode to fall back on. Similarly, I'd be very worried if a car's radio prevented the car from driving.

It is sad that wanting a simple, modular display that we can upgrade peripherals around is niche these days. In a way, car makers took a step in the right direction with more radios adopting CarPlay & Android Auto, acknowledging that their own radios can't outsmart an evolving mobile ecosystem.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#56

Post by [deleted] »

fsflover wrote: post #54
nerdawson wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TV manufacturers are responding, often clumsily and based on their self-interest (data collection), to what consumers want. Trying to find a dumb TV is like trying to find a car without a built in radio. You're welcome to leave it switched off. Smart TVs are dumb if they aren't connected to the internet. Some may be slow. Some may have a poor interface. I'd worry about solving for that rather than expecting manufactu…

> Smart TVs are dumb if they aren't connected to the internet. Unless they find an open WiFi network.

[deleted]

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#57

Post by bennyp101 »

kleiba wrote: post #30
ShaneMcGowan wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trying to find a good non smart tv is impossible now, I want dumb tv and dumb fridge

I don't own a smart TV, so this question is probably a bit naive - but what happens if you don't connect your smart TV to the internet?

I have mine going via pihole, and every few days it basically comes crashing to a halt and needs turning off/on at the plug.

I guess keeping it totally off would be better, but then it kinda defeats the point of getting a smart tv

edit: It's a Roku, so probably worse than others.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#58

Post by aand »

jrkfkgmfmr wrote: post #29

I don't want a right to repair if that means a bulky phone/laptop with terrible water sealing. Typing from a 4 year old non-repairable phone (Samsung S8). If you want a repairable phone, good, but don't take away my choice of slim water resistant phones. Get off my lawn HNers keep on complaining about big screens, non removable batteries, and lack of headphone ports, but nobody cares because people actually want thos…

Hard to repair =/= impossible to repair.

Also I've had my S8 fixed twice (motherboard change).

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#59

Post by kwhitefoot »

bluGill wrote: post #46
cunidev wrote: post #40

Not even mentioning the hardware bits, I have been collaborating with postmarketOS for a while now, and believe that the main thing we need to make those devices longer-lasting would be an unlockable bootloader by law. This sounds so logical (why cannot I run, by voiding the warranty, any code I want on my machine, whatever it is?), yet apparently so hard to make openly illegal, since the problem is barely acknowledg…

You can't do that because someone (probably not you) will then unlock the phone and [insert something evil here - perhaps involving the radio]

The radio is a completely separate sub system that is not affected by unlocking the boot loader of the main computer.
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