I'm tired of my closet of broken devices, too. But I'm also tired of my closet of perfectly working devices, which the manufacturer just up and decided to no longer ship software updates for. Hardware that's totally functional as the first day I bought it, except 1. with software that no longer does what it's supposed to because backends have been turned off, and 2. the device will be 0wned instantly if I ever connect to the Internet.
We need mandatory bootloader unlocking for products that the manufacture finds unprofitable to ship software updates for.
My work want to force me to update my PERSONAL phone because apple do not support very old Iphone anymore. ( they gave me another phone for work stuff, 2FA and what not... )
this old phone works really well still. I do not conduct any work related activities on it. But they see it as a attack vector I guess?
If you don't do any work-related activities on it and you have a work phone, how/why are they requiring you to get a new personal phone?
If one does do work things on their phone and, especially if you have MDM installed, it is of course reasonable to require you to be on a current OS. And Apple is pretty good about length of support but it's not forever.
It makes everything disposable. I’ve seen a few 200 dollar health devices that fail quickly because they use cheap cr 2032 batteries that can’t be accessed.
I miss the days of clip in batteries. I still have a 2013 laptop like that.
Agree. Non removable batteries is an aesthetic approach to consumer devices. It has no place in industrial applications. An analogy would be a decorated plastic bag selling seeds at hardware store, Or a brown ugly burlap selling seeds to landscape contractors. One is for consumers. The other is for the expert.
You joke, but LG makes a <3lb (1.36kg) 17” laptop. That’s impressive. (I can’t vouch for its quality, I don’t have one).
Samsung makes a 15.6” laptop that weighs 2.6lbs, which is extremely practical. I’m planning on getting one. I wouldn’t be if it had the bulk and weight of a removable battery.
I literally just don't believe that this is a real problem. Old school laptop batteries were large, but how much of that is really needed? In theory you could add a connector and be 90% of the way there. Put a panel on attached with a simple screw and you're golden.
Maybe we could build laptop cases out of carbon fiber and get the best of both worlds? Or at least make laptop cases easier to open for servicing, with standard screws and no plastic clamps.
Why would a removable battery be more heavy? More bulky, probably and with more plastic also a bit more heavy. But not much, as the heavy part is not the plastic.
Standardized would be nice too. I have at least 3 laptops that could be put to good use but the batteries are no longer available, 2 of them don't even work with the plug unless there's a battery in there for some god awful reason.
That’s the risk you take on with promoting right to repair.
It’s be better if we had stronger consumer legislation globally that forces manufacturer responsibility rather than demand we can do the job ourselves.
Imagine if you bought a laptop and the battery died after 2 years and the state mandated option was for the manufacturer to buy it back at 60% of the original value because it didn’t last the prescribed 6 year life span. Removable batteries would appear overnight in everything.
Imagine that at the end of the useful life the manufacturer had to buy it back for 20% of the value to recycle it. Global trash heaps would disappear overnight.
I like the idea of mature, self-responsible people.
Who can be trusted to make decisions by themself.
And the right to repair aims not, that everyone should fix their devices by themself, but that everyone who is capable, has the possibility to do so. Like repair shops. Or skilled individuals. And those who think they are more competent, than they actually are ... find always ways of shooting themself in the foot. I would not want to punish everyone else because of it.
I think if you look at the actual current state of the repair industry it’d scare you off the idea fairly quickly. There are very few competent people and even fewer business where competence is promoted.
I’m going to slap Rossman here as well who does some pretty scary hack jobbery and passes it off as a fit for purpose repair rather than a data recovery last resort.
Non-removable batteries are annoying, but they allow you to make devices which are much more compact, or which have a larger battery at the same size.
The battery in e.g. an iPhone 6S takes some work to replace, but it's still quite easy for a repair shop to do, so that seems like a very reasonable trade-off to me.
> There is the valid argument, of sealing it in, for water protection.
There is an argument, perhaps, I don't know about a "valid" one.
The difference between "the battery can be swapped with a screw driver" and "the battery can be swapped by a repair shop in 15 minutes" isn't really that large, so if it can make devices more compact, sure, why not?
Batteries that outright can't be replaced are something else entirely. Maybe some consumers are willing to make the trade, but it's environmentally irresponsible. The Airpods in particular really piss me off given all of Apple's environmental messaging.
That is incorrect. The Samsung Galaxy S5 had a removable battery and headphone jack and was still waterproof. It was a $550 phone and was a flagship with the latest hardware/performance stuff, so clearly this was practical from a cost/manufacturing standpoint. Waterproofing is not a valid reason against having removable batteries or ports.
The move to non-removable batteries always seemed like a thinly veild money grab to me.