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European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

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Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#321
post #296
post #143

Just broadly, let me just echo my full throated support for regulation in this space. Forget the vast majority of the goofy "innovation" arguments I hear, the fact that 3 family cell phones, 2 laptops, Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and Oculus can all use the same charger makes insanely more sense that what we were doing before.

So you're really happy that there is regulation requiring what the market already did on its own?

lol. do you remember times before microusb? which was also somewhat forced by the EU? so no.. the unification on the USB wasn't all pure force of market...

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is waterproof even a real needed feature? Like, I've been owning mobile phones for 22 years at this point and it's literally something I've never cared or benefitted from. On the other hand, having replaceable batteries is definitely something that's been useful in the past.

> literally something I've never cared or benefitted from I'm happy for you, for never having lost a phone due to an accidental encounter with water. I haven't lost one recently, but: - I fumbled an old flip phone while having a night out on the town and dropped it into the toilet. - I replaced it with a really cute small Kyocera candy bar phone, that my girlfriend at the time didn't notice was still in my pants pock…

I'm not sure about the iPhone, but my AirPod Pros went through a wash / dry cycle on more than one occasion with no apparent loss in functionality.

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Cameras have been weatherproof They usually can resist some splashes. Not in any way comparable with modern phones.

I wash my pentax under the tap if it gets dirty, not sure how that compares to an iphone?

Iphones can be submerged for significant amounts of time.

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> many of them may not even exist any longer making it near impossible to get any sort of permission to do something like this So plan ahead. For the 2024 model of each iPhone, get all the permissions to release all of the firmware in year 2032.

The usual concern with regulation is not the big players. It’s the smaller products and businesses that cease to exist because it’s too expensive to meet regulations. Bad regulation raises the cost of entry into the market and strengthens the big players like Apple.

That argument is often used in bad faith/FUD by the big players themselves to halt any regulation attempts.

Regulations can be adapted to affect only the companies that reach X percentage in sales or in market share. The EU's Digital Markets Act does precisely this, for instance.

The regulators can let smaller players grow and thrive, and regulate them once they've exceeded a certain threshold.

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The usual concern with regulation is not the big players. It’s the smaller products and businesses that cease to exist because it’s too expensive to meet regulations. Bad regulation raises the cost of entry into the market and strengthens the big players like Apple.

Not sure how much weight this really has in a market such as mobile phones in which additional external competitors are never going to become a reality.

OnePlus was a nobody when they launched the OnePlus One in 2014. They could have easily gone out of business.

And that's one that got big enough to remember them. Wikipedia lists 188 mobile phone manufacturers [1]. A lot of them very local (e.g. EvertekTunisie making phones for Tunisia and Morocco) or defunct; But even my local (German) retailer offers 35 brands. Big ones like Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi, budget brands like Oppo or ZTE, niche brands like CAT or Beafon. It's a crowded market that doesn't seem particularly hard to enter.

And judging by the spotty compatibility of LineageOS they don't all use the same hardware either.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mobile_phone_manufact...

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#326
post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must be joking if you think its just a BOM adjustment and a small cost... way to oversimplify the actual implementation

All I'm saying is that you used to be able to get smartphones that were like this, and they weren't any more expensive than any other smartphones. (EDIT: I was wrong, they were about $25 more expensive.) So this is demonstrably possible. The only reason I can think of that it's not done anymore is cost savings.

And shaving 0.3mm of the thickness!

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#327
post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The usual concern with regulation is not the big players. It’s the smaller products and businesses that cease to exist because it’s too expensive to meet regulations. Bad regulation raises the cost of entry into the market and strengthens the big players like Apple.

Thankfully people here are asking for good regulation, once which states that at some point in the future every phone ever sold in market X needs to have its core software open sourced, so companies can plan ahead.

The EU isn't making good regulation, they don't have any tech companies and are just attempting to make it illegal to make anything in a fit of pique. The end result may be nobody selling phones there anymore.

Europe has an unhealthy culture of naturalistic hippiedom, so this is just the same thing that causes Germany to shut down nuclear power.

(If you think this one's good, try combining it with their six other giant laws you haven't heard of some of which conflict with this.)

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#328
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://fdn2.mobgsm.com/vv/pics/kyocera/kyocera-duraforce-pr... I don't want my phone to look like that by law.

It looks awesome.

Looks like what a 15 year old at a 90s LAN party would have their desktop themed to.

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#329
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's batteries too. And water/dust/fluid ingress protection. Modern phones are sealed up pretty tight because users want them to be waterproof. This makes it very difficult to build in replaceable batteries!

I don't. I just want it splash resistant - it's more than enough. just because there is a promile of morons that can't handle the phone doesn't mean that a lots of users should be prohibited from easily changing the battery... because of that lots of devices end up on landslide because users can't get enough charge I fit anymore... I loved lumia devices - easily openable back to replace battery, nice materials (rubbe…

If the battery was easier to replace, the phones would still end up unusable either because the storage would wear out, the cell modem would become obsolete, the display would get burnin, or someone would drop it and crack the screen.

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Carrying around bulky power banks or worse, chargers to then tie you to sit close to an outlet and wait for the battery to charge, is not entirely ideal when you're on the go, foreign or domestic. It's also less anxiety-inducing to not have to worry about where will I get my next charge and how long will it interrupt my plans for.

I've got a little 2_000mAh 3.7V (7.4Wh) USB battery pack here that was vendor swag from a conference, a probably 3.7v? 10_000mAh () that I'll then assume is ~37Wh. and a Canon NB-13L 3.6V 1250mAh (4.5Wh battery pack) for my camera. For mm^3/Wh, the results are: Small vendor swag power bank: 96 x 21 x 26 52_416 / 7.4 7,083 Canon battery: 42 x 30 x 9 11_340 / 4.5 2,520 10,000mAh dual USB power bank: 139 x 22 x 60 183_4…

I'm dumb. Should have been 37, not 37,000. So actually 4,953 mm3/Wh, meaning the battery pack is definitely the winner.
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