British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

Post by Silhouette » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 4:57 AM UTC

netr0ute wrote: post #371

Silhouette wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which assertion is that? My contention since my very first comment has always been that messing around with radio transmission when you don't know what you're doing is dangerous. My anecdote was an illustration of what actually happened when incorrect transmission broke a system for real, how dangerous the situation became, and how difficult it was to fix. Maybe you disagree but I think the fact that the cause of the…

The problem is, the kinds of problems caused by modification of the radio and a manufacturing mistake can be totally different and so things that you encountered you wouldn't see if someone simply modified it to operate on a different frequency. Therefore, your story which hinges on this difference not existing doesn't hold up.

Post by schwartzworld » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 8:40 PM UTC

nemothekid wrote: post #313

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…

Louis Rossman has a distinction about this - the difference between right to repair and user-replacable. I can't find the video but the argument is this: Louis does not want to impede on Apple's ability to make devices smaller or more compact, as that is what the vast majority of customers prefer. Louis, as an independent repairman, has spent 10s of thousands of dollars on the appropriate tools to repair these device…

Post by GaryTang » Mon, Jul 05, 2021, 1:12 PM UTC

MrStonedOne wrote: post #262

spoonjim wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> User-replaceable battery means that entire product categories like wireless earbuds e.g. Airpods cannot exist. Acceptable, why turn an entire device into ewaste for a single component dying, especially one with a known limited service life, like a battery. 10 year warranties minimum on all electronics. Regardless of size and fragility. Any electronic device that can't last 10 years in service is unnecessarily contr…