Slashdot Mirror
WSJ: We Need the Right To Repair Our Gadgets
An anonymous reader writes: An editorial in the Wall Street Journal rings a bell we've been ringing for years: "Who owns the knowledge required to take apart and repair TVs, phones and other electronics? Manufacturers stop us by controlling repair plans and limiting access to parts. Some even employ digital software locks to keep us from making changes or repairs. This may not always be planned obsolescence, but it's certainly intentional obfuscation." The article shows that awareness of this consumer-hostile behavior (and frustration with it) is going mainstream. The author links to several DIY repair sites like iFixit, and concludes, "Repairing stuff isn't as complicated as they want you to think. Skilled gadget owners and independent repair pros deserve access to the information they need to do the best job they can."
Pffft! Come on.. PSU, main board, sound board, breakouts for controls, driver board.. Come on. Not a big deal.. Sure, you aren't doing any component level repair any more beyond some shitty cheapo dried caps , but that ship sailed a while ago unless you are a hobbiest with good tools and a steady hand. It pisses me off to no end that you cannot even buy a repair manual unless you are a "factory authorized service center" no matter how out of warranty.
"A mind reader? That sounds like sci fi." "Honey, we live on a space ship"
You can still fix those cars/devices, it's just a little harder, especially for the people used to the old 'bolt and ratchet' style.
The same exact thing can be said for phones in this case... If all you have is a n00bs experience and the 30 dollar Radio Shack toolkit you're going to have a hard time of it. We see plenty of non-manufacturer-trained techs out there setting up businesses for replacing screens, batteries, etc. I guess the "lock-in" is more a matter of "I can't do it as easily as I could with the phone that did half as much but twice the weight and volume."
This, to me, is like the guys who remembered a time when you could replace daughter boards in a PC that are now mostly integrated devices. When's the last time you seen a consumer level PC with a discrete ethernet card or sound card?
You're going to have to put up with this if you want your spiffy phone with all the bells and whistles in a slim form factor while maintaining an acceptable battery life.
I think in general there is hostility towards consumers, and not just with things like consumer electronics.
Digital media such as music, books, video or films?
While there is an immense catalog of choice with what we can consume, we are are getting less and less able to have control over their choices, due to how "rights holders" and others corral us into their vision of how to consume and deliver this media.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
For various values of the word 'skilled'. I've been working in electronics for over 30 years. To 'repair' something used to mean 'replace components', but after a certain point it became 'replace an entire circuit board', which will always be a weak substitute so far as I'm concerned. But the real problem is that with the advent of surface-mount components, the door to repairing a circuit board largely became shut and locked to the vast majority of people. When you need (high) magnification and some specialized soldering equipment and supplies just to replace common passive components (YOU try to remove and replace 0402 SMCs with the naked eye!) it puts the job just out of reach of many. Of course most times passive components aren't the problem, and when the integrated circuits are in BGA (ball grid array) packages, and you need a $3000 setup just to remove one, and help from a diety to install a replacement, for 99% of anyone thinking of trying it, it just went entirely out of reach. This is not even touching on the subject of schematics for the device you're trying to repair, which for many/most things you're not getting your hands on for any amount of money, and in some cases you might get threatened with legal action just for trying to get it. Then there's the subject of proprietary software tools that might be necessary, and you're not getting those for any reason from a manufacturer. Even the manufacturers themselves often don't bother repairing anything, they'll just 'recycle' it and send you a new one because the cost in labor alone to repair exceeds what the thing costs.
Of course I'm going to be reminded that nobody is trying to repair the circuit board in their phone, they just want to replace the battery or cracked screen or whatnot. Manufacturers have never wanted consumers repairing their own devices, so yes they make it as difficult as possible sometimes. It's always been like that. Don't expect that to change, either. You're always going to have to go to 3rd party sources for parts and supplies and information. When we really need to cry 'Foul!' is if they try to make it illegal, though.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Phone batteries tend to be around 50-60% of their original capacity after a couple of years. Here is the thing though, it may be difficult but it is not impossible to replace the battery in something like an iPhone. It requires a special screwdriver, but that is easily found online from the same places that sell replacement batteries. The actual procedure isn't especially difficult on most phones. It's not something you would do regularly, but as something you do maybe once to a phone its really not so bad. The tradeoff is that the phone is thinner and lasts longer on the charge. You also lose the ability to carry extra batteries with you on a trip and swap them in as needed, but that was not typical even when it was possible, and less necessary with the higher capacity "permanent" batteries on phones.
The one thing you do miss is the ability to pull the battery from your phone if you suspect it has been compromised and is spying on you. With baseband hacks you can never be sure if the phone is completely off the way you could back when you could yank the battery.
I read the internet for the articles.
it is that more people would rather have a thinner phone
What is it with that, can anyone explain to me? My LG G3 is maybe a centimetre thick and I don't need it to be any thinner. Honestly, why do you need your phone to be thinner than that (and probably more likely to bend)? Are you planning to use it as a credit card?
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
No, you are looking at this wrong.
Those rotors or bearings or half shafts are like the circuit boards, capacitors, and transistors. Sure they are a bit more specialized (IE this rotor works on model years 95-02 on these ford and mercury vehicles) but you usually have numerous brands and retailers to choose from. For example here in town I can go to Autozone, Advanced Auto, Napa, or O'Rielys. I also have the option of choosing from online retailers like rockauto.com (highly recommended) and Amazon. All of those retailers will at a minimum have two different brands for most parts.
you can't manufacture your own half shafts or wheel bearings or brake rotors, you must rely on those who have the specifications and the ability to produce items of sufficiently high quality.
So do you expect people to produce their own touch screens, IC chips, hell even their own capacitor? No you buy it.
You can easily find parts, choose brands, and even choose performance levels for parts. There are MANY options and it is very independent. You don't even need to own the tools, all of those retailers will let you rent any tool you need for FREE. (You pay the deposit, or price of the tool, use the tool and the return it for a full refund.) Very very independent, very very DIY friendly. Hell the diagnostic computer that many cars "require" for "proper" service is replaced in many cases by a 10 dollar obd2 bluetooth dongle and a 5 dollar smart phone app. I keep a dongle in my car, my gf's car, and give them away as gifts to my DIY friends. Its nice being able to pull your own computer codes and watch your vehicles performance in real time.
When it comes to fixing a phone you can only get parts from the manufacturer, except maybe for batteries it is hard if not impossible to find a third party part for your phone.
Ohh and in your example car manufacturers say a lot of stuff like that so you don't sue them if something crazy happens. In your brake example, you can easily work on your brakes in most cases without ever loosening the lines. Replacing pads, rotors, drums, etc can all be done without ever being "in danger" from the high pressure. In fact I can bet that it should be safe to work on the lines themselves. That warning is in case the ABS system has malfunctioned and is keeping the pressure turned up to max, in that case you should disconnect the battery (which I am sure it tells you to do, hell it will say to disconnect the battery to change the tire half the time) and then loosen the bleeder, all of the excess pressure is relieved and you can work on the car normally.
TLDR: You are incorrect, if anything it is more independent to work on vehicles then it ever has been to work on consumer electronics. In fact I bet if I ask all of the guys in my office (strictly IT) if they would feel more comfortable replacing blown capacitors or bad brakes I would have at least a 90% response for replacing the brakes. My guess Fran is you have never in your life even changed your own tire. If that is the case I would refrain from speaking about which you know nothing, it makes you look like an idiot.
That's a bunch of BS. Cars built in the last 2 decades are lasting longer than ever and easily going 100-200,000 miles without any major repairs. And who cares about reverse-engineering the software in your power steering controller anyway? If it goes bad (which it doesn't, because there's no hydraulic pump any more and rubber hoses to degrade, just an electric motor), then you just replace the parts; it's a simple bolt-in affair, and certainly much easier than messing around with hydraulic fluid taking a circuitous route around the engine compartment.
Honestly, things are *simpler* now, from a repair perspective, and far improved in reliability. Those shitty old cars needed a LOT of work all the time; constant "tune ups" and adjustments, which modern cars don't ever need.
Finally, electronics never fail, unless you have bad capacitors. No moving parts, remember?
I wish that were all true, but...
Time required to change headlight bulb in my car 15 years ago: 1-2 minutes.
Time required to change headlight bulb in my current car: usually faster to drop by the dealer, because they seem to know a shortcut for doing it without disassembling the entire front of the car per the handbook and have whatever tools they need to take that shortcut.
Time required to change headlight bulb in next generation car with state-of-the-art lighting: it's not one headlight bulb, it's a whole assembly with multiple lighting components, associated sensors, and software. And you'll be needing a mortgage if it ever goes wrong.
Also, MTBF for headlight bulbs in my car 15 years ago was probably 2-3 years, while for my current car it's probably under a year despite all the claims that bulbs in modern cars should last the lifetime of the vehicle. $DEITY help the poor schmuck who gets a shiny new executive car with the cool new lighting technologies if those lights are similarly unreliable, though.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.