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Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

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471–480 of 615 posts

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#471
post #269

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2023 concerning batteries and waste batteries Article 11 Removability and replaceability of portable batteries and LMT batteries 1. Any natural or legal person that places on the market products incorporating portable batteries shall ensure that those batteries are readily removable and replaceable by the end-user at any time during th…

My main concern here is that i live in an area that regularly get's below -20° and my electronic devices are regularly dying around me. And while I try to keep my hands warm-ish, they do get cold sometimes, and it would suck if a non replaceable battery died on me early because of this.

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#472

> How long does the battery last? > Roughly 12 to 15 hours of recording. On average, I use it 10-20 times per day to record 3-6 second thoughts. That’s up to 2 years of usage. I feel like I’m usually good about being able to imagine a market for different devices even when I’m not the target audience, but I’m having a hard time with this one. Having 20 different 3-second thoughts transcribed to notes that I have to p…

I on the other hand love it. I am often out without my phone closeby and having a way to take notes with one hand during some activity would be great.

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a ring. It's a tiny amount of waste.

So is plastic straws and we know what happened with those.

The problem with plastic straws was properly disposing them. For a piece of jewelry I doubt many people would throw it away on the side of the road. A ring that last for years is different than a disposal product that people may use for a couple of minutes.

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#475
post #463
post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some sources say so, e.g. "Declining Replacement Cycles Among Consumers" on https://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-sma... And https://www.unibocconi.it/en/news/disposable-smartphones-tri... has replacement cycles in Italy going up. Anecdotally, 2023/24 all media in Germany was full of ads for shops trading refurb phones. Most of those talked lower prices, but some mentioned sustainability.

The first article does not look to be informative; it values the EU smartphone market at around 465 million USD, which is impossibly low. If you assume a smartphone is valued at $1,000, a market of that size would only amount to 465,000 devices sold; this is around 0.01% of the EU’s population. The second article links to a paper which appears to be more informative (though it has not been peer reviewed): https://pap…

It is standard to list market size data in units of $1,000; i.e. that report is 465 billion USD.

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#476
post #314
post #96

Instead of a stand-alone piece of e-waste, how about this: a device with the same format (a ring and an button) but the only thing it does is trigger the pebble watch to start recording a message. This way the microphone isn't needed, just the radio (and much weaker radio at that), and the battery will last exponentially longer. Then just expose the charging terminals so that we can at least hack the device with cust…

That could be achievable without a battery, using a Piezo button like some Hue remotes... Though not sure with the small form factor.

That's interesting. A Piezo Button generates enough power to send a radio signal?

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this law pushes back against the idea that it's ok to make endless tech products which are essentially future rubbish as soon as you buy them, then I think that's a good thing. Perhaps products like this just shouldn't exist until we have better ways of dealing with the remains.

The problem is that it makes it impossible to have a version 0 to iterate on until a whole lot of other industries have advanced. Imagine the situation of in-ear hearing aids: they shouldn't be allowed to exist until they're perfect, unless we're happy telling deaf people they have to wear much larger than necessary devices and advertise their disability. I'm glad we're reducing e-waste. I'm not thrilled about the id…

"Invisible In-the-Canal" hearing aids are battery replaceable. That argument just won't fly.

1: https://assets-ae.rt.demant.com/-/media/project/retail/audik...

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#478
post #476
post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That could be achievable without a battery, using a Piezo button like some Hue remotes... Though not sure with the small form factor.

That's interesting. A Piezo Button generates enough power to send a radio signal?

Indeed, I have a remote doorbell where the outer button is a piezo button and the inside bell part is connected to a socket. But the button is quite thick, presumably because it needs a bit of travel to get enough energy. Granted that's for a device that sends multi-wall penetrating strength of 433Mhz radio waves. For something like this where the distance is only about 25cm you might be able to get a button small enough.

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#479
post #269

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2023 concerning batteries and waste batteries Article 11 Removability and replaceability of portable batteries and LMT batteries 1. Any natural or legal person that places on the market products incorporating portable batteries shall ensure that those batteries are readily removable and replaceable by the end-user at any time during th…

While I sympathize with the intent of the law, this is a great example of why it's dumb. There's no possible way you could make that ring, in a reasonably ring-sized form factor, with today's manufacturing processes in such a way that an end user could replace it.

If their official sizing kit 3D models are accurate(better be!), there's exact amount of space for an SR721W watch/hearing aid silver oxide coin cell. And these are not even the tiniest of standardized replaceable batteries.

1: https://imgur.com/a/yupC9lN

Re: Pebble Index 01 – External memory for your brain

#480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its going to be interesting to see what will happen with Airpods and the like…

I don't think it will be possible to make wireless earbuds or a ring with replaceable batteries without seriously compromising the ergonomics of fitting onto or into the human body. I have a pair of earbuds designed to be as diminutive for sleeping comfortably and I have no idea how you would do that with a replaceable battery even if Airpod sized devices can be done.

What are those sleeping earbuds?
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