EU Want To Bring Back Replaceable Battery For Gadgets For Environmental Reason

[Cavadour 2,734]

That's it. It's your future, guys ! The planned obsolescence dictature has. to. end. Since years we're on the digital Highway to Hell. Being pushed in the back (even if some of you like it, I know...) but they cut the roadway short behind our heels so we can't but step on it head on...

This has to STOP. WTF about ecology and f*cking recycle ? These phones and laptops you have to throw away, just because of a dead battery or another rushed (and bugged) new OS forcing app devs and consumer all over the planet to swap for the last new gen tech Geez... Most of the time it only brings but a couple of 1000th of seconds gain... And first of all, all this obviously (hateful sarcasm intended here) to sell new and more resource hungry softwares... And I'm NOT talking about gamers here. Just about the plain and simple Mr and Ms Each & Every Citizen of the World.

On Apple side, years ago, the philosophy was 'User Friendly' today it's 'Consumer Junkie'. I'm an Apple user since 35 years. Under Steve Jobs, the idea was to innovate, but never to the detriment of older users. You had years to evolve, thanks to retro compatibility (Rosetta, anyone ?) Today, a MacBook Pro body is closed with pentalobe screws (you'll need a pricey special screwdriver to open it). But beware, this is just the beginning of the nightmare ! Inside Ram and SSD blades are soldered to the motherboard, mostly inaccessible without pulling the whole thing apart. Battery is heavy-glued and broken split like chocolate bars. You'll probably spend hours to pull it apart and this, if by chance you are skilled enough and don't ruin the whole machine, to end with a dead computer because the generic components aren't recognized anyway.

This is my job. Computer and phone maintenance. I once was an Apple fanboy but now I'm plain disgusted. This NEEDS to change ! for the sake of the planet, consumers and the whole digital world. STOP with the shameless planned obsolescence nonsense!!! Stop ruining everything on the Altar of the Mighty Profit !!!

This EU initiative is great. USB-c everywhere. Death to proprietary plugs and cables ! Good riddance. The battery step is a great move too. But, wait... If manufacturers are forced to take the road back to swappable batteries, we'll tend to keep our old phones and computers longer again !? In this case, what about new OSes ?! New software and apps !? Will devs be forced to work with retro-compatibility in mind again ?!?   I sincerely hope so.

But guys, again... I'm old. This is almost not my fight anymore... It's YOURS FFS! Is the whole big recycling idea so old fashioned ? Come on... Just put an end to this nightmare. Unite and rant !

 

 

Meanwhile, my old 2010 maxed out all SSD 64 GB 3.5 Ghz 12 core Radeon RX 580 8GB MacPro is purring and my old Samsung Galaxy S7 sports a brand new battery since last week ($ 15 + 1 hour job, with adequate tools)... 

[sarahb 17,207]

20 hours ago, PartySick said:

The phone I have now is the first phone I haven't been able to remove the battery on and it's SO ANNOYING. When your phone freezes (as they tend to do once they're a year+ old) it used to be as simple as popping the battery out but now? It just bricks itself and you're powerless to do anything about it  or at least I am 'cause the phone I have now can only be powered off by going to the settings and selecting "power off"

On my phone holding down the power and volume buttons at once for so many seconds makes it do a forced restart when it's frozen. 

Edit: oh nevermind just realised you probably don't have a power button

[PartySick 172,975]

4 hours ago, sarahb said:

On my phone holding down the power and volume buttons at once for so many seconds makes it do a forced restart when it's frozen. 

Edit: oh nevermind just realised you probably don't have a power button

No, I have a button that turns the screen on and off but when you hold it down, it just activates Google Assistant...for some reason

[RudraCNG 15,510]

Yeah, I agree. I didn't change my phone for the last 4 years and it still works perfectly, but the battery is slowly dying. Ofc big firms will be against this law.

[Sexxx 5,738]

Or just make battery changes more affordable via the manufacturer 

[narcoswing 1,146]

41 minutes ago, Sexxx said:

Or just make battery changes more affordable via the manufacturer 

I hope this is an option that manufacturers can implement. Otherwise its bye bye to water resistance that we've gotten used to.