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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

#151

Post by hvdijk »

ezconnect wrote: post #114
emouryto wrote: post #16

Well, smartphones must be updated to include better spyware. And newer computers are also better locked down to allow better surveillance. So, the older ones can't break down fast enough! You don't want a repairable computer so creeps install, like, a Linux distro. You want disposable TPM machines with Windows 11 Home Edition and unstoppable "telemetry".

My Windows 10 Pro just got updated to Windows 11 for free via an update and I have no TPM module.

Windows 11 previews do not require a TPM module, but the final Windows 11 will. Quoting from https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2021/06/28/update-...:

> In support of the Windows 11 system requirements, we’ve set the bar for previewing in our Windows Insider Program to match the minimum system requirements for Windows 11, with the exception for TPM 2.0 and CPU family/model.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#152

Post by crazygringo »

ajkdhcb2 wrote: post #65
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…

It seems to me that it is a purely propaganda that these things are mutually exclusive. Like how all smartphone manufacturers had phones that were fine with removable batteries, but then suddenly that was gone from literally every brand in the world because it is so powerful for planned obsolescence

People want thin phones. A non-removable battery allows for thinness you simply cannot get otherwise.

And while you can argue about whether thin laptops are necessary, for people who carry their phones in their pants pockets, an extra couple millimeters gone is genuinely a meaningful difference.

There's no propaganda there.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#153

Post by fsflover »

bkallus wrote: post #129
fsflover wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

With TCL TVs, it's not hard to remove the wifi card. In the ones I've taken apart it's always just connected with USB internally.

Unless they implement some kind of hardware check against removing it.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#154

Post by bogwog »

midasuni wrote: post #140
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

How do you define TV There’s the LCD screen A driver to convert an input (hdmi, vga, ntsc, DVB/ATSC, MPEG, HLS) A speaker (or more), with input (from driver or not) A control plane of some sort to control the other bits (brightness, gamma, input, volume) It seems that people who want dumb TVs want most of that, including different inputs, but just a specific driver and/or control plane A computer monitor will do most…

Computer monitors are (typically) significantly more expensive than TVs (smart or not).

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#156

Post by handrous »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #147
asdff wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not just Roku. Every single TV sold is like this from every single manufacturer. They are all slower and shittier at being a TV screen than my 720p screen from like 2005. What's with that? It's like a giant cabal of an entire industry deciding that their customers aren't worth the hardware, no matter of its some Walmart only entry level TV or the top of the line thousands of dollars screen from a major brand. The…

I am sure there are plenty of qualified people doing the necessary due diligence to figure out which features, or perception of features, customers are willing to pay for. I doubt the executives at Sony, Samsung, LG, Vizio, Hisense, etc are sitting there and consciously choosing to keep people away from fast, dumb TVs for the hell of it. It is a cutthroat business with razor thin margins, no one is obviously making m…

> I doubt the executives at Sony, Samsung, LG, Vizio, Hisense, etc are sitting there and consciously choosing to keep people away from fast, dumb TVs for the hell of it. It is a cutthroat business with razor thin margins, no one is obviously making much money, so after all these years, I would surmise they are making decisions that allow them to stay in business after all these years.

Again, at least part of why this is happening is they can't sell ads and spyware-data with dumb TVs. Features that consumers want may be a factor, but I can guarantee you (as in: I've had some actual insight into the industry) that a big reason is that they can monetize their customers' data and eyeballs with smart TVs, and so undercut any competitors who choose not to do that. Price matters a lot to TV buyers, so this is effective at driving sales (and so, keeping your product on store shelves, and avoiding a product death-spiral).

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#157

Post by bogwog »

asdff wrote: post #132
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…

I just want a TV that actually responds quickly to button presses. With the latency you experience hitting the volume buttons or navigating menus on flat screen TVs, it feels like they haven't touched the hardware since 2002, and with the computing gains over those nearly 20 years you'd think a TV could at least turn instantly on and off like a desktop monitor by now.

You can! You just need to replace your Smart TV every couple of years to keep up with the software updates.

The expensive LG TV I bought ~5 years ago was snappy and fast when I got it, but today it's extremely slow and unresponsive. That's my fault for being a bad consumer and not buying the latest model every year.

On a serious note, I wonder if there's a jailbreak scene for smart TVs? It'd be awesome to be able to replace their spyware garbage with a basic OS that only lets me change inputs, or maybe something like Kodi if I'm feeling fancy.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#158

Post by als0 »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #149
okennedy wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A TPM is a chip on some motherboards that serves two purposes: 1. Using something not too dissimilar from blockchain/git repo hashes to attest to the the execution stack (BIOS, bootloader, kernel, userspace). 2. Providing cryptographic primitives that are only unlocked when the stack exactly matches a particular value. It's a handy tool for avoiding spyware, as any change in the attestation chain gets immediately fla…

I thought TPMs also prevent physical attacks by being configurable to require password for unlock and physical anti tamper features.

The bus between the CPU and the TPM is exposed, so there are plenty of physical attacks that you can do, assuming a certain level of skill and tools.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#160

Post by gnopgnip »

smnrchrds wrote: post #36
xroche wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple solve this by making spares super expensive and only available from partners. This is even more hilarious: they sell you a "spare part" which is the logic board, for nearly the price of the laptop. But they (1) do provide spare parts and (2) sell them at a ""reasonable price""

In my province, landlords cannot terminate a periodic tenancy except for a small number of causes, but they are free to change the rent price to whatever they want once a year. Result: if the landlord wants you gone, they just tell you your 2k per month rent is increasing to 20k per month and voilà, gone! No user protection is effective unless it comes with some sort of price cap. This is why GPL requires the source…

NJ statewide has is no cap on increases in rent, but there is a requirement for good cause to terminate a lease. An unconscionable or unreasonablerent increase is illegal
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