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Europe Wants a ‘Right to Repair’ Smartphones and Gadgets

nytimes.com

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Re: Europe Wants a ‘Right to Repair’ Smartphones and Gadgets

#201

Post by catalogia »

OJFord wrote: post #195
nix0n wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean "feature phones" or landlines?

I haven't heard 'feature phones' since I used to read consumer electronics news sites (like Engadget, then This is my Next/The Verge) years ago. I don't think anyone else uses the term; to the layman, they're 'dumb phones', to contrast with 'smart' (although increasinly 'smart phones' are just 'phones'). Or since those are American sites, perhaps it's actually a variation of regional colloquialisms.

"Flip phone" is another common term (for those that fold anyway.)

Re: Europe Wants a ‘Right to Repair’ Smartphones and Gadgets

#202

Post by emiliobumachar »

oytis wrote: post #198

The success of the whole story is going to depend on whether they will be able to push it on everyone else. Otherwise we're going to have normal phones for everyone except EU, and bulky, outdated, but repairable "europhones" in Europe. Probably good for local producers though.

I'd think the EU market is big enough to foment enough competition for cutting-edge-within-the-constraints europhones, if it comes to that.

Re: Europe Wants a ‘Right to Repair’ Smartphones and Gadgets

#203

Post by catalogia »

listsfrin wrote: post #50
simion314 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am thinking that extracting metals from mines is also polluting, the big issue with plastic is the fact is contaminating waters, for CO2 emissions the major problem is the burning of oil/petrol and I think construction(creating cement creates a lot of CO2). About glass, some people say that sicne glass is heavy you will use more fuel to move it around(I have no idea if this is true).

Then maybe they should strive to recycle instead to repair.

Reduce, re-use, recycle, IN THAT ORDER.

Re: Europe Wants a ‘Right to Repair’ Smartphones and Gadgets

#204

Post by TomMarius »

lm28469 wrote: post #187
TomMarius wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, no, my country is one of the best of EU in recycling and waste management. I dispose of all waste exactly as I should in a clear, structured and very practical way. (any) phones are taken back for recycling by most sellers, for example.

Which country is that ? You can easily check recycling import/export per country online so that should be trivial to fact check. Pro tip: it doesn't look good for US/EU.

It is not my fault what the state does with it after I correctly dispose it. I am not sure how that looks for my country and I mostly don't care - not my job to do, I (have to) pay taxes for that.

https://zpravy.aktualne.cz/czechs-become-eu-leaders-in-plast... ;-)

Re: Europe Wants a ‘Right to Repair’ Smartphones and Gadgets

#205

Post by kabdib »

I'd like to have standard rechargeable batteries in products. Not necessarily "hot" swappable (though that would be nice for devices like cellphones). But at least available in standard forms, and replaceable by someone with a screwdriver in a few minutes.

I'm sick of "renting" batteries that are permanently installed in devices that would otherwise work for tens of years, but their batteries wear out after only a few years. I'm sick of paying inflated prices for batteries that have bizarre configurations and that go out of production.

I understand there are significant engineering challenges for some things (e.g., earbuds that are basically some electronics wrapped around a lithium cell). But there's no reason a set of headphones couldn't have a replaceable cell (I'm looking at you, Bose). I'm happy to have slightly heavier headphones and slightly thicker laptops and tablets if it increases the device lifetime and reduces e-waste.

Not gonna happen without a mandate, that's for sure. Gotta keep customers on the upgrade treadmill.

Re: Europe Wants a ‘Right to Repair’ Smartphones and Gadgets

#206

Post by VBprogrammer »

oytis wrote: post #198

The success of the whole story is going to depend on whether they will be able to push it on everyone else. Otherwise we're going to have normal phones for everyone except EU, and bulky, outdated, but repairable "europhones" in Europe. Probably good for local producers though.

I don't think the right to repair is about the design being specifically repairable (i.e. uses exclusively sockets and through-hole components), rather it's about avoiding things which are deliberately constructed to prevent repairing them and legal barriers to reverse engineering items in order to repair them.

Examples are components which, while identical to the component requiring replacement, will refuse to work until coded to match the intended device with some proprietary cable (which is really a normal cable with a couple of wires reversed or some other dick move).

Re: Europe Wants a ‘Right to Repair’ Smartphones and Gadgets

#207

Post by TomMarius »

simongray wrote: post #160
TomMarius wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On the contrary, it very clearly tells us that your society is apathetic about the EU and does not care about decisions made in the European parliament. Exactly, that is the only thing that is clear. And the reason is that we have much greater political problems to deal with so the EU is not that relevant to us, especially not issues like right to repair (which is not an issue to anyone I know and google gives me m…

> Our society didn't want the Lisboa agreement, but our politicians signed it anyways - so what exactly does our society want and what exactly should the EU be saying about it? Then vote for a different set of politicians and leave the EU. The UK paved the way. I believe in you! > Even if 100% of people voted, still the 2.85% of voice don't seem like much space to express what our society wants, you know? And why the…

> Then vote for a different set of politicians and leave the EU. The UK paved the way. I believe in you!

That's nice of you. I am not a leaver, I believe in European cooperation, maybe even federalization - but I don't believe in centralization.

Re: Europe Wants a ‘Right to Repair’ Smartphones and Gadgets

#208

Post by clarry »

jotm wrote: post #193
clarry wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing in Finland. There are new cars here and there but if you take a stroll around a dealership's lot, there are lots of cars shipped from Germany that have been used for a few years. I think the average age of a registered vehicle here is around 10 years; it's not uncommon at all to see >20yo cars in local traffic and parking lots.

Really depends on their condition when purchased, but 15+ year old cars is pushing it. Not worth buying imo, but I guess as long as they're allowed people will buy them. I think the taxes are higher on really old cars?

There are people who simply can't afford or don't want to put any more than a few thousand eur into a car. The other thing is that you can buy a 10-year-old car that is in good condition, and drive it as long as its lasts.. which can be many many years. (My first car was about 20 years old when I got it for free, and my current car was more than 10 years old when I bought it -- now about 13 years, and still feels almost like brand new to me :P)

Taxes are higher depending on emissions, but it's rarely enough to offset the purchase price. For example, if you buy a stinky 90s car that emits 200gCO2/100km, tax would be around 300 eur/year today. A new car that emits 120g/100km is going to be somewhere around 150 eur.

Re: Europe Wants a ‘Right to Repair’ Smartphones and Gadgets

#209

Post by yakovdk »

oytis wrote: post #198

The success of the whole story is going to depend on whether they will be able to push it on everyone else. Otherwise we're going to have normal phones for everyone except EU, and bulky, outdated, but repairable "europhones" in Europe. Probably good for local producers though.

I'm serious enough about libre principles, though, that I'd be happy to buy weird europhones if I knew I had more control of my technology.

Re: Europe Wants a ‘Right to Repair’ Smartphones and Gadgets

#210

Post by yakovdk »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #206
oytis wrote: post #198

The success of the whole story is going to depend on whether they will be able to push it on everyone else. Otherwise we're going to have normal phones for everyone except EU, and bulky, outdated, but repairable "europhones" in Europe. Probably good for local producers though.

I don't think the right to repair is about the design being specifically repairable (i.e. uses exclusively sockets and through-hole components), rather it's about avoiding things which are deliberately constructed to prevent repairing them and legal barriers to reverse engineering items in order to repair them. Examples are components which, while identical to the component requiring replacement, will refuse to work…

It could have other interesting implications. Like, no more grinding labels off of chips so a customer has a fighting chance of replacing things. That would be a nice world to live in, I think.
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