Follow iFixit.com, as they’ve been reporting and spearheading efforts to get “right to repair” laws in place, as well as evaluating the repairability of new and old products. Most of the public is oblivious to the level companies like Apple have gone to insure local repair stores can’t fix your new phone. Other companies like John Deere have been caught locking farmers out of repairing their own equipment. This was all part of the planned obsolescence The Bone Writer discusses.
One of the best ways to recycle, is not to. Keep using until it’s no longer repairable. What Apple has done is embed firmware that shuts down phone functionality if 3rd party parts are used, like the screen, which can break or crack. Legislation has been put forth to stop this, but like anything, it’s a slog, and Apple games the new rules. This is over and above how difficult it is to even replace a battery in an iPhone. BTW, iFixit.com has repair videos on just about every computer and phone for at least 15 years, and will sell, or recommend, replacement parts.
The yearly upgrades are a marketing scam. I’ve observed it takes 4 to 5 generations of iPhones to experience a meaningful upgrade. The jump from my 5c to the iPhone 11 was camera and gpu speed for images. This is true in desktop computing as well. Most folks are unaware that CPU and memory peaked about 2012 for nearly all computing tasks, from office software to internet browsing. What as driven the upgrade cycles has been gaming, with ever more complex GPUs. Office software and MacOS peaked about the same time. Windows 11 is actually a letdown from 10, with mostly creepy AI integration. Most won’t do this, and I’m in that category for business reasons, but you can rejuvenate your window box by stripping off windows and installing Linux. Will run happy and fast for years to come. Unlike current Apple desktops, most windows boxes are very repairable.
Depending on your phone model, you can give old devices new life with something like LineageOS: https://lineageos.org/
Old x86/64 hardware still runs wonderfully on Linux, though modern web bloat is trying its best to kill this, too.
As you note, even for those of us who're trying to keep these old devices going, they've made them borderline disposable products. Even if hackers and tinkerers are committed to keeping them going with new software after Big Tech drops support, eventually a hardware component will give out that's not worth replacing.
I'm reposting part of this on my blog tomorrow. I hate the notion of getting the frickin' government involved, but the "enshittification-as-a-service" tech bros seem to be leaving us no other options.
My 2009 Toshiba laptop still works relatively well (for my needs). My Samsung tablet I use for reading is over 10 years old. I do have a newer tablet but seldom use it. I do most of my computing using a desktop 2021 Intel Nuc. I used my 3G flip phone for about 11 years before it became obsolete. I have a 2019 Motorola 4G (bought used) I use mostly for calls and texting only. My wife has a 2016 phone she uses and yes, the battery can be changed. I have no plans to update anything as long as these things keep working.
But that's what marketing us to death is all about...the constant need to replace equipment to keep up with the Jones's. You're a square if you don't have the latest greatest newest thing-a-ma-jiggy. I would not be sad if big tech planned its own obsolescence and faded into the nether world.
They took things way too far, developers attempt at running things. I wrote software for 30 years, and yes, Waterfall was brain death, but many times with Agile there was NO note, no use cases, nothing other than the local wizards who would lecture you about design philosophy and in the meantime the team was so adversarial because no one would communicate. Hugely unproductive if you need to bring in new team members.
Follow iFixit.com, as they’ve been reporting and spearheading efforts to get “right to repair” laws in place, as well as evaluating the repairability of new and old products. Most of the public is oblivious to the level companies like Apple have gone to insure local repair stores can’t fix your new phone. Other companies like John Deere have been caught locking farmers out of repairing their own equipment. This was all part of the planned obsolescence The Bone Writer discusses.
One of the best ways to recycle, is not to. Keep using until it’s no longer repairable. What Apple has done is embed firmware that shuts down phone functionality if 3rd party parts are used, like the screen, which can break or crack. Legislation has been put forth to stop this, but like anything, it’s a slog, and Apple games the new rules. This is over and above how difficult it is to even replace a battery in an iPhone. BTW, iFixit.com has repair videos on just about every computer and phone for at least 15 years, and will sell, or recommend, replacement parts.
The yearly upgrades are a marketing scam. I’ve observed it takes 4 to 5 generations of iPhones to experience a meaningful upgrade. The jump from my 5c to the iPhone 11 was camera and gpu speed for images. This is true in desktop computing as well. Most folks are unaware that CPU and memory peaked about 2012 for nearly all computing tasks, from office software to internet browsing. What as driven the upgrade cycles has been gaming, with ever more complex GPUs. Office software and MacOS peaked about the same time. Windows 11 is actually a letdown from 10, with mostly creepy AI integration. Most won’t do this, and I’m in that category for business reasons, but you can rejuvenate your window box by stripping off windows and installing Linux. Will run happy and fast for years to come. Unlike current Apple desktops, most windows boxes are very repairable.
Depending on your phone model, you can give old devices new life with something like LineageOS: https://lineageos.org/
Old x86/64 hardware still runs wonderfully on Linux, though modern web bloat is trying its best to kill this, too.
As you note, even for those of us who're trying to keep these old devices going, they've made them borderline disposable products. Even if hackers and tinkerers are committed to keeping them going with new software after Big Tech drops support, eventually a hardware component will give out that's not worth replacing.
I'm reposting part of this on my blog tomorrow. I hate the notion of getting the frickin' government involved, but the "enshittification-as-a-service" tech bros seem to be leaving us no other options.
My 2009 Toshiba laptop still works relatively well (for my needs). My Samsung tablet I use for reading is over 10 years old. I do have a newer tablet but seldom use it. I do most of my computing using a desktop 2021 Intel Nuc. I used my 3G flip phone for about 11 years before it became obsolete. I have a 2019 Motorola 4G (bought used) I use mostly for calls and texting only. My wife has a 2016 phone she uses and yes, the battery can be changed. I have no plans to update anything as long as these things keep working.
But that's what marketing us to death is all about...the constant need to replace equipment to keep up with the Jones's. You're a square if you don't have the latest greatest newest thing-a-ma-jiggy. I would not be sad if big tech planned its own obsolescence and faded into the nether world.
Agile. Fcking A Agilistas.
They took things way too far, developers attempt at running things. I wrote software for 30 years, and yes, Waterfall was brain death, but many times with Agile there was NO note, no use cases, nothing other than the local wizards who would lecture you about design philosophy and in the meantime the team was so adversarial because no one would communicate. Hugely unproductive if you need to bring in new team members.