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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

#281

Post by R0b0t1 »

alerighi wrote: post #196
bitwize wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not always true. If it's possible to shave pennies off the BOM by having the radio driven by, or sharing memory with, the main CPU -- and it is possible -- there will be phones in the wild with that configuration.

Yes the radio can be on the same physical chip, but still they are two different systems. Unlocking the bootloader you get the ability to run an unsigned kernel on the main CPU, but still it doesn't give you access to the radio part, that has a completely different firmware (stored on a partition of the same flash memory, yes, but you see it as a black box) that is signed and checked and you cannot modify it. See it…

There are very low cost devices such as those Allwinner or Mediatek produce that are more popular in non-US, non-EU markets that do not have the barriers you are describing.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#282

Post by salamandersauce »

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…

Monitors are more expensive for the size and lack features people expect. There is typically no remote control and you're not going to get component or composite inputs.

I use a monitor as a TV but it doesn't have optical out just a horrid horrid headphone jack so I had to buy a HDMI switch and universal remote just to mimic what a TV does.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#283

Post by cwkoss »

shkkmo wrote: post #260
bluescrn wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there's not much point having the right to repair if products are designed to be non-repairable and spare parts are unavailable. A battery is a consumable and should be user-replaceable. It might be a bit fiddly, with tiny screws and fragile connectors, but shouldn't require heat guns and chemicals to remove adhesives... (And if we're about to replace billions of vehicles with EVs, perhaps consuming the entire pl…

> But there's not much point having the right to repair if products are designed to be non-repairable and spare parts are unavailable. There is some nuance you are missing here. Mandating some design decisions, such as "user replaceable batteries" limits the products that make be made and sold and unfairly adversely affects users with different priorities (such as water proofness, durability or bulk.) However, there…

off topic: interesting that your last sentence has 4 off-by-one-to-the-left (on qwerty) typos on final letters of the words

I think these were just typos, but my initial assumption was that a cipher was embedded in this text for a minute.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#284

Post by kevindong »

alkonaut wrote: post #257
kevindong wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a mid-range Vizio about two years ago. Vizio has progressively made its OS more and more laggy every few months and filled it to the brim with unblockable ads. Software updates would regularly break things for a few days/weeks at a time until the changes get rolled back. When Apple came out with their new Apple TV, I bought one, connected that to my TV, and disconnected my TV from the internet. Now life is g…

The TV shows ads ? In menus? Or while watching TV channels? Or at startup? Or, when? I’d pull the internet cable in a heartbeat if I saw an ad on it, and I’m on my second smart TV for the last 10 years (although my current one is 7 years old). I mean I don’t actually use any of the “smart” stuff. No Apps or anything. Not sure why anyone would want to? I watch my TV channels on the built in receiver (90% or more of wh…

When I switch apps (e.g. Youtube, Netflix, Plex, etc.), the switcher has several rows of media that I must scroll past. That media usually comprises of media that I am not subscribed to and would have to pay to access (e.g. mostly random shows or movies). There were no ads (from Vizio) once I was inside of an app.

I don't subscribe to TV/cable/satellite. I only have Youtube Premium (ad free Youtube videos; not Youtube TV), Netflix, Amazon Prime TV, Nebula, and a local Plex server.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#285

Post by sunshineforever »

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…

This policy of smartphones has felt like a knife in my back for years.

I hope someday for the widespread return of real computers. Goodbye to consumer media/tracking nodes branded as computers.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#287

Post by sunshineforever »

spoonjim wrote: post #258
bluescrn wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there's not much point having the right to repair if products are designed to be non-repairable and spare parts are unavailable. A battery is a consumable and should be user-replaceable. It might be a bit fiddly, with tiny screws and fragile connectors, but shouldn't require heat guns and chemicals to remove adhesives... (And if we're about to replace billions of vehicles with EVs, perhaps consuming the entire pl…

User-replaceable battery means that entire product categories like wireless earbuds e.g. Airpods cannot exist. A better solution is that the manufacturer must provide battery replacement services at a cost specified at the time of purchase and only allowed to increase at the rate of inflation.

There definitely ways it could work.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#288

Post by sunshineforever »

celestialcheese wrote: post #166
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…

In the US, at least, unlocking devices is legal as of 2015(?) through DMCA exemptions, which has been huge for recyclers and refurbishers. Still couldn't get game console unlocking through, but at least phones / tablets / other devices that are locked can be unlocked and resold. https://resource-recycling.com/e-scrap/2018/11/01/digital-de...

There are loopholes.

I have a stack of smartphones I bought for 15$ but cannot legally unlock because I haven't paid simple mobile for a year of service on each. They're still fun and useful but not fully.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#290

Post by sunshineforever »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #138
jolmg wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you missing an /s or are you saying that it shouldn't be done because it would enable e.g. use of radio hardware that goes against radio regulation? If you're really expressing concern, what do you think of e.g. modem modules for regular computers or SDR hardware?

No, even if this is not the optimal response to the issue it's at least a popular concern to cite. Our ubiquitous radio devices only work because the invisible commons that is the radio spectrum noise floor is aggressively and totally managed. Intentional emitters can only be sold after testing to ensure that their output is within regulated power levels and frequencies. It is trivial for an end user with a high-powe…

I own a radio that I can turn to an illegal transmit power and has the ability to transmit on many forbidden channels... But I don't do it. Simple.
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