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The EU’s fight for user-replaceable smartphone batteries

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Re: The EU’s fight for user-replaceable smartphone batteries

#231

Post by bluescrn »

systemtest wrote: post #12

It is interesting that the EU only wants to regulate markets that they are not participating in. They don't make smartphone anymore so any regulations isn't hurting them. It would be admirable if they held the same standard for vehicles, including brands from the EU.

EVs should absolutely be required to use standardised and replaceable battery modules. (Replaceable by any competent mechanic, at least). Although theft would become a concern, when the battery pack makes up over half of the value of any EV.

But it's amazing how many people are so quick to essentially say 'F the planet, I don't mind buying a new phone every 2 years, and I really don't want my next iPhone to be 2mm fatter!'.

Re: The EU’s fight for user-replaceable smartphone batteries

#232

Post by lost_tourist »

askonomm wrote: post #211

No more waterproof phones I guess. This saddens me. I find it very useful when driving my bike outdoors with it being mounted to my bike.

You have that little confidence that engineers can make things waterproof? all it takes is a sealed environment with a gasket and a bunch of screws. Making "clip in" backs that are waterproof is a challenge, but there's no reason that has to be the norm, screws have worked for centuries and don't break nearly as often as clips

Re: The EU’s fight for user-replaceable smartphone batteries

#233

Post by andrewaylett »

sroussey wrote: post #155
andrewaylett wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently replaced the battery in a Pixel 4. Definitely not latest-and-greatest, but also still just about getting feature updates. I think the biggest challenge for most people would be confidence, rather than it being intrinsically difficult. iFixit sold me a kit with all the necessary (OEM) parts and (iFixit) tools, and they have a web page with sufficiently-detailed instructions.

Last time I changed a battery in a phone I paid apple $69 and walked the mall for an hour. Pretty painless.

That (or the independent retailer equivalent, and for an Android) was plan A, but over a year after formulating that plan, it hadn't actually happened. The kit was a smidge cheaper, and honestly I quite enjoyed doing it myself.

As a bonus, I still have the tools.

Re: The EU’s fight for user-replaceable smartphone batteries

#234

Post by cbzoiav »

jacquesm wrote: post #157
sroussey wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So a communist phone for the lower class? That’s the not-nice way of saying the same thing. I’m not sure if I am for or against that without more thought.

I'm still on a dumb phone and that's because I think spending $800 on a phone is ridiculous. And it's not like I can't afford it.

I'm on a pixel 6A. It cost me under £200 factoring in the trade in deal that let me trade in a 10 year old phone (if you don't have one eBay one for £5).

And there are plenty of reasonable smart phones for less than £100 these days. You can get something like a Motorola E13 for under £70 that will do everything most people use their phones for well (beyond the camera being nothing special, but we're comparing to a dumb phone).

Re: The EU’s fight for user-replaceable smartphone batteries

#235

Post by hyperdimension »

jacquesm wrote: post #66
poetaster wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also perhaps of interest that one of the few alternative OS efforts is still being led by ex-nokia folk out of Tampere, Finland. Jolla. Much of the Plasma development for mobile is spear headed by devs in Germany (KDE folk). Point being, the heritage of Nokia is not quite dead yet.

I have one and it is a pretty good and solid phone. Not quite a smartphone (it runs Linux) and I very much like it. Absolutely indestructible, cheap and unbelievable battery life (so long I sometimes forget I have to charge it at all).

What model are you talking about? I'd like a portable Linux device. I was born too early for the N900, and it wouldn't get cellular coverage in this day and age even if I were to buy one...

Re: The EU’s fight for user-replaceable smartphone batteries

#237

Post by cbzoiav »

tomjen3 wrote: post #163
jacquesm wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is going to meant that Android can't take advantage of the high end features of the new phones that are being released That's perfectly ok, what you don't have you can't use. > and that old and slow phones are going to get updates that makes them run even slower. It would be up to the manufacturers to ensure that this is not the case. One way to do it would be to reduce bloat. > To top it of, it is not like manu…

>This makes no sense: manufacturers are competing with each other, if the prices on the cheapest phones will increase more then surely someone will exploit that. You assume it costs nothing to maintain software for old phones.

So release a handful of budget models and support them well instead of 60+ per year.

Re: The EU’s fight for user-replaceable smartphone batteries

#238

Post by stjohnswarts »

algas wrote: post #182
vletal wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Submarines are not glued tight, yet they are waterproof. Much bigger deal for Apple is design. Exposed screws sealing the back cover would give Jony Ive OCD ticks, I'm sure

Every part of your first sentence is inaccurate. Submarines are glued tight; all the body panels are welded together. They do this because making waterproof riveted joints is hard [0]. Riveted joints would flex and open up, requiring constant maintenance and caulking, and early riveted subs would leak trails of fuel behind them (and significantly into the sub itself!) Second, submarines aren't even waterproof. There'…

None of that really matters since we have the technology to seal phones now, Apple just chooses not to because it makes engineering, manufacturing, and designed in obsolescence a bit easier for them.

Re: The EU’s fight for user-replaceable smartphone batteries

#239

Post by stjohnswarts »

mantas wrote: post #9

Iphone battery is already pretty close to replaceable by this law. You need a common tool to get in (trident screwdriver is available in most DIY shops), then glue tabs can be pried by hand. Doable for layman? Well, some people are afraid of opening up a device in any way. How do we (or, rather, lawyers) draw a line?

People understand screws and covers, use screws and covers. The gluing is done because it's cheap and easily done on mass production scales. When people have to start prying apart glued together parts they get nervous and stop, especially on a $1200 phone.

Re: The EU’s fight for user-replaceable smartphone batteries

#240

Post by seanmcdirmid »

crote wrote: post #153
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is ROM really used anymore? It seems like these days, everything is OTA update compatible. Customers aren’t forced to buy new devices, they just no longer get software updates after N (5?) years. You would need an alternative OS, like a version of Android that lacks google apps or something.

"ROM" is just used as a term for the system image. It is no longer truly "read only". And replacing that is often intentionally made difficult by cryptographically signing the image, making it impossible to boot a custom one.

Oh wow, that’s a weird anachronism that I didn’t expect. Here is the explanation from wiki:

> The term "ROM" is sometimes used to refer to a ROM device containing specific software or a file with software to be stored in a writable ROM device. For example, users modifying or replacing the Android operating system describe files containing a modified or replacement operating system as "custom ROMs" after the type of storage the file used to be written to, and they may distinguish between ROM (where software and data is stored, usually Flash memory) and RAM.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read-only_memory

So what was once a very hardware term had become a completely software one.

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