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Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by f6v on Sunday June 25, 2023 @06:32AM (#36466742)
I don’t know. I already have to click cookie buttons on every goddamn web site I visit, it’s annoying as hell. These EU initiatives can be a bit pointless.

Battery needs to be replaced like once every 2-3 years. Why change the device design to make battery user-replaceable when I can bring it to the repair shop?

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by BiteCode_dev on Sunday June 25, 2023 @06:41AM (#36466802)
Because most people won't:

- it's expensive

- it takes their phone away

If changing the battery is a one hour cheap deal, a lot more people may do it.

And I am very happy about those EU initiatives: this way I know what sites are tracking me and how much. This tells me which sites values annoying me with their banner so they can sell my data.

Have you noticed there is no banner on Hacker news despite the fact that:

- they serve in Europe

- they use cookies

That's because it's not about cookies, and the banner is only for privacy abusers.

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by f6v on Sunday June 25, 2023 @11:18AM (#36469123)
> Because most people won't:

> - it's expensive

> - it takes their phone away

Ok, people don’t go to shops to replace battery now? “oh, it’s 99$ to replace the battery? I’d rather pay 1000$ for a new iPhone!” That’s a bit silly.

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by cbg0 on Sunday June 25, 2023 @11:41AM (#36469378)
Most people don't have a $1000 iphone, which is even more problematic, because if you have a cheaper $3-400 phone, that $99 replacement would be very expensive.
Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by arepublicadoceu on Sunday June 25, 2023 @06:51PM (#36473478)
Exactly this! I keep seeing this nonsense that a $70/99 store replacement battery is a great cheap deal.

Yeap, only compared to a brand new phone. When you have a cheap iPhone from 5 years ago and you compare the price of a battery replacement to the actual price of your phone it quickly become obnoxiously expensive.

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by theshrike79 on Sunday June 25, 2023 @11:45AM (#36469422)
Expensive? It’s like 50-70€ to swap an iPhone battery and you get a warranty for the battery.

There’s no way a user-swappable battery will be cheaper than that.

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by leptons on Sunday June 25, 2023 @11:53AM (#36469549)
Back when phones had replaceable batteries they were nowhere near 50-70€. Half that, if that much.
Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by theshrike79 on Sunday June 25, 2023 @01:16PM (#36470495)
They were also really tiny capacity-wise.
Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by ascorbic on Sunday June 25, 2023 @05:12PM (#36472640)
Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by tzs on Sunday June 25, 2023 @11:47AM (#36469466)
In the US having a battery replaced at a shop is cheap and you can probably find a place that will do it in less than an hour. There are a few nationwide chains of third-parties that do it, plus numerous independent local repair places.

As far as HN goes it is not clear whether or not they are covered by GDPR. Yes, the site is viewable in Europe and people there can make accounts. But that's not sufficient.

GDPR asserts extraterritorial jurisdiction when you are either (1) offering goods and services in the Union or (2) monitoring the behavior of data subjects in the Union that takes place in the Union.

One of the recitals clarifies that the mere availability of a site to Europeans does not necessarily mean it is offering goods and services in the Union. The site has to envisage serving people in the Union.

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by fullspectrumdev on Sunday June 25, 2023 @04:04PM (#36472040)
You are probably the first poster I’ve seen in here who “gets it” about the cookie banners

If you aren’t being a bastard, you don’t need to show me a banner.

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by croes on Sunday June 25, 2023 @06:33AM (#36466752)
They cookie banners are the fault of the website owner. They did this on purpose so the users would blame the laws.

Could have simple valued the Do-Not-Track flag but they didn't want to.

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by nonethewiser on Sunday June 25, 2023 @10:34AM (#36468556)
If thats true then their competitors will gladly not ask for permission and enjoy higher user satisfaction and the banners will disappear due to that long term.

But we all know thats bullshit and the law actually did cause this.

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by kaba0 on Sunday June 25, 2023 @10:54AM (#36468794)
It’s almost like “the user will choose the best product” is bullshit. It has never been true, people are not rational agents, otherwise marketing wouldn’t work at all.

The best we have is to define small markets with strict regulations - within that some competition can happen that will tend to raise better products.

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by Timon3 on Sunday June 25, 2023 @03:01PM (#36471488)
Especially since it's not like there is a manufacturer for every cell of the feature matrix. Every single option has its downsides, and the optimal option most likely doesn't exist.
Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by croes on Sunday June 25, 2023 @11:08AM (#36468988)
All these sites make money from tracking, if they back out once the customers would knew they get screwed.

And not all websites have banners

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by _gianni_ on Sunday June 25, 2023 @08:04AM (#36467326)
Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by noirscape on Sunday June 25, 2023 @11:39AM (#36469359)
Better gamechanger: https://consentomatic.au.dk/

I don't care about cookies takes a very secondary approach to tracking privacy - if it can't figure out the cookie form, it'll just agree to whatever is being asked of it.

Consent-O-Matic will leave the window up if it can't figure it out so you can reject them yourself.

Edit: IDCAC also has been bought by notorious crapware antivirus scanner manufacturer Avast, so that's another reason to stay away from it.

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by progfix on Sunday June 25, 2023 @09:10AM (#36467856)
> Why change the device design to make battery user-replaceable when I can bring it to the repair shop?

You'd rather go to a repair shop and pay a service fee for something that you can probably do in a couple of minutes at home?

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by ChuckNorris89 on Sunday June 25, 2023 @10:50AM (#36468745)
>You'd rather go to a repair shop and pay a service fee for something that you can probably do in a couple of minutes at home?

HN userbase in a nutshell

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by f6v on Sunday June 25, 2023 @11:12AM (#36469045)
I think that making battery replaceable by user will affect the phone design. I had a ton of first-wave Android devices back in the day. I don’t remember carrying an extra battery with me. Maybe someone did, but how many of total users?

Another point is that making a phone water-resistant is likely not trivial when you can take the whole back panel away.

My point is: are these dramatic changes worth it when the battery degrades only couple years after purchase?

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by Levitz on Sunday June 25, 2023 @12:49PM (#36470172)
I've replaced batteries with tools. It's a slab inside the phone and it tends to get somewhat hot, there really aren't that many places to put them, I have a really hard time believing making repairs difficult is not the main reason defining the current standard.

Now, things like bluetooth earphones, those I'm curious about.

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by algas on Sunday June 25, 2023 @12:57PM (#36470262)
Yeah, the waterproofing concerns me. Neither of the examples they brought up in the article had ip67 water resistance, which I consider a bare minimum after water damaging too many cheap phones. The best phones are more water resistant than that. As a meche, you'll always get a better water seal with glue than with screws or snaps. I can see this being a real issue.
Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by nonethewiser on Sunday June 25, 2023 @10:32AM (#36468545)
Its so much worse in Europe too. Didnt realize until I traveled there after this regulation.
Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by leptons on Sunday June 25, 2023 @11:52AM (#36469539)
I want to be able to change the battery far more often - possibly every 8 hours if I'm using the phone a lot during an off-road adventure or other adventure where having a charging device isn't a great solution. When I used to travel a lot I had a smartphone with a replaceable battery and I carried several replacement batteries. Going from 5% battery life to 100% battery life in the few seconds it takes to change the battery was a very useful thing when I wasn't able to charge the phone easily. And no, battery charging bricks are not convenient. They are way more bulky and take far longer to charge the phone than popping in a fully charged battery.
Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by sroussey on Sunday June 25, 2023 @12:21PM (#36469848)
You will be able to change your Tesla batteries after this as well!
Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by leptons on Sunday June 25, 2023 @09:52PM (#36474797)
I don't give a rats ass about Tesla or their batteries.
Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by torginus on Sunday June 25, 2023 @02:15PM (#36471096)
According to the wording of the draft legislation (according to the article):

It also says that spare parts should be available for up to seven years after a phone’s release, and, perhaps most importantly, “the process for replacement shall be able to be carried out by a layman.”

This means, that basically every phone where you can unscrew the back, disconnect the connector, remove the glue with a pull tab, and put in a new battery, is already compliant. Its basically the same set of steps any corner shop repair tech would do (but its something you could do yourself).

It just states that manufacturers cant interfere with this process, and have to sell the parts to you for 7 years after purchase.

Re:Making sense of the EU’s fight for user-replaceable smart... by lawn on Sunday June 25, 2023 @02:38PM (#36471303)
> Battery needs to be replaced like once every 2-3 years.

Having a replaceable battery is a godsend when you're traveling. Changing the battery in my Fairphone 4 takes less than a minute.

I also live in a small village without a repair shop (closest one is probably a 1-2 hour drive away). What a shitty option.