Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

techspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 622 posts

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#331

Post by astrange »

vel0city wrote: post #86
arroz wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not my experience… I replaced my iPhone 6 because it was slow, not because battery was bad And since 2018 I have iPhone XR, and the battery is fine still. So is the phone speed. I’m not changing it anytime soon

> I replaced my iPhone 6 because it was slow, not because battery was bad iPhone slowness can go hand in hand with batteries going bad, especially in the iPhone 6 days. Apple phones will limit peak performance when it detects the battery voltage can't handle it without too much of a voltage drop. From what I understand its now an opt-out setting, but for most of the iPhone 6's life it wasn't an option.

If you opt out of it your phone will suddenly turn off, which is definitely not an improvement over being slow. Having the opt-out is nonsense and an example of bad regulation.

This isn't the only reason an old phone would be slow though, batteries are not the only consumable component in a phone.

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#332

Post by lrem »

deelowe wrote: post #120
surgical_fire wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please, EU: bring a law that forces manufacturers to release their drivers / firmware whenever they stop updating a digital device. I wish I could upvote this more. It's a crime how I had to throw away in the past perfectly usable devices because they were forced into obsolescence.

I don't see how this would work given modern supply chains. It can be extremely difficult to track down all of the owners of a particular IP and when you do, many of them may not even exist any longer making it near impossible to get any sort of permission to do something like this.

Nah, the government can change the law. The obstacle to overcome would be the software quality. Today your driver is a hairball stuck with chewing gum to a point release of everything. In the case of a smallest change of anything it goes up in flames. That’s something harder to overcome by decree. Needs incentives in place.

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#333

Post by dminuoso »

deelowe wrote: post #120
surgical_fire wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please, EU: bring a law that forces manufacturers to release their drivers / firmware whenever they stop updating a digital device. I wish I could upvote this more. It's a crime how I had to throw away in the past perfectly usable devices because they were forced into obsolescence.

I don't see how this would work given modern supply chains. It can be extremely difficult to track down all of the owners of a particular IP and when you do, many of them may not even exist any longer making it near impossible to get any sort of permission to do something like this.

The modern supply chains behave this way precisely because no such requirements exist.

It’s a typical facade argument you might hear from politicians when they parrot lobbiysts.

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#334

Post by wongarsu »

dmix wrote: post #306
notRobot wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no reason why devices can't have such a newer, better port alongside type-c. Until the new port gains traction the presence of type-c will help with compatibility, and presumably once this hypothetical connector has been proven better than type-c the regulation will simply be updated to mandate that instead.

How can it exist along side USB-C? You mean two ports or a converter or something?

Either a port that's compatible with USB-C charging but has otherwise different pins or electrical characteristics (just like how a USB-A port has 4 pins in USB 2 but 8 pins in USB 3, but is still compatible). Or you just add a second port.

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#335

Post by cout »

freeone3000 wrote: post #227
phan wrote: 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

There was a beautiful period where phones had a headphone jack and a USB-C connector and a replaceable battery and IP67 water resistance.

Which phone was that?

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#336

Post by [deleted] »

marcosdumay wrote: post #114
alex7734 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Engineers have become experts in selecting components so that they fail right after the warranty period. Replaceable batteries just means they will make something else weaker instead, preferably something that fries the device once it fails (see https://youtu.be/7cNg_ifibCQ?t=238 ). It's too dangerous not to, as nowadays phones (or computers in general) don't really need to be upgraded that often to remain useful. No…

Wow, Apple engineering a computer to fail destroying all the data after the guarantee and lying to their customers why their computers failed is pretty damning. Did anything come out of this?

[deleted]

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#337

Post by aembleton »

brookst wrote: post #198
prmoustache wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most waterproof norms are only valid for freshwater. Most usb/lightning ports rust after being subjected to salted water and you end up not being able to charge your device anymore.

Really? I've taken many an iPhone snorkling in the ocean, just in zipped pocket, and they have all been fine.

That's really impressive. I destroyed a Sony phone a few years ago just going for a short swim in the sea.

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#338

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

indrora wrote: post #271
nimish wrote: post #48

The tradeoff for sealed batteries was significantly improved ingress protection, larger charge capacity, and lighter weight. The market spoke and nobody seems to really care that much about user replaceable batteries except a vocal minority.

CAT has sold phones with replaceable batteries and good ingress protection.

They aren't particularly light or sleek though.

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#339

Post by refurb »

malermeister wrote: post #217
refurb wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe is about 20% of Apple sales internationally. It's not that much power. https://www.statista.com/statistics/382175/quarterly-revenue...

I don't think many companies would be able to take a 20% overnight drop in sales without it causing some major issues.

But the adjustment is not without cost itself.

Is the cost of a complete redesign > lost sales in EU? Then don't do the redesign.

Re: European Union votes to bring back replaceable phone batteries

#340

Post by oblio »

gevz wrote: post #9

I wonder what is the definition of easily removable and replaceable. Does popping a few screws and using a specialized tool qualifies as easy? What about re-sealing the device after to keep the waterproof rating?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36362032
Post reply on HN