The Week in Repair: Dec 6-12
A right to repair in the Metaverse? Also: John Deere ducks shareholders’ questions on repair restrictions. iFixit teams with Microsoft on Surface tools and repair lessons from a 30 year old Nintendo
Well, it was another busy week in the fight for a right to repair. We’ve pulled together some of the most important repair news from around the Internet, culled from our daily newsletter, The Fight to Repair Daily. You can subscribe to that using this form and get the day’s top repair stories in your inbox each Monday-Friday.
Big News…
European Activists Fight for Right to Repair Electronics
The Danish events represent activism in its most direct, local form, but they also are part of an international movement calling for the “right to repair.” The movement, which has branches elsewhere in Europe and in the United States, is a response to the expense and environmental cost of personal electronics and appliances becoming obsolete within a few years because manufacturers make them expensive or difficult to fix. “We have to take care of the planet. We can’t afford to live like we used to live, so we have to make a movement about not throwing things out when they’re still working,” Repair Café Denmark chairman Stig Bomholt said. (Seattle Times)
Deere asks SEC to let it duck Shareholders’ Repair Questions
Tractor giant John Deere has petitioned the SEC to strike a shareholder resolution asking tough questions about its practices to discourage customer repairs. But the shareholders who put forward the petition say the company hasn’t come close to answering their questions. Green Century announced that Deere had petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to block the resolution rather than allow the issue to go before shareholders. According to Green Century, one of the arguments that Deere made to the SEC was that the company had already publicly addressed Right to Repair. But Green Century’s release notes its questions are very much unanswered. “We filed our resolution because we have questions about Deere’s approach to repair that haven’t been clearly addressed,” said Green Century Shareholder Advocate Andrea Ranger in their statement. “It doesn’t add up,” Green Century’s Ranger concluded. (US PIRG)
The Metaverse Needs a Right to Repair, too!
As companies like Facebook and SnapChat work to make so-called “Extended Reality” (or XR) technologies ubiquitous, those companies should respect and governments should protect people’s right to repair, alter, or investigate the functionality of their own devices, writes the Electronic Frontier Foundation. (EFF.org)
iFixit works with Microsoft to make tools for repair techs
iFixit Pro independent repairers, Microsoft Authorized Service Providers, Microsoft Experience Centers, and Microsoft Commercial customers can now purchase Microsoft service tools for Surface devices directly from iFixit.com. “Microsoft has taken a big step toward making repair accessible to their customers, and their timing is perfect as Right to Repair gains momentum across the US,” iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens said. “Having OEM tools available will give repair technicians the ability to help their customers keep their devices alive for longer.” (iFixit.com)
Right to Repair on Agenda at White House Economic Liberties Town Hall (Video)
The December 2nd event, hosted in coordination with theAmerican Economic Liberties project,featured a discussion of the national right torepairmovement, featuring Brian Deese the Director of the National Economic Council as well as Nathan Proctor of US PIRG and Tim Wu, the Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy. (Economic Liberties)
Sonos Promises More Repairable Audio Gear...Eventually
Smart speaker maker Sonos announced plans today to make its speakers and other products last longer and use less energy. The company said it wants to extend product lifespans by making its devices easier to repair and recycle, launching a “Design for Disassembly” program that it wants to guide the development of all of its new speakers starting in 2023. That includes changes like swapping out adhesives for fasteners, which can make it easier for consumers to take apart Sonos products for repair. The company found itself in hot water with customers, consumer rights advocates and environmentalists in January 2020 after it said it would stop supporting older model speakers - some purchased as recently as 2015. The company eventually backed away from that announcement. (The Verge)
Microsoft strikes deal with activist shareholders to expand repair options
The news site NeoWin reports that Microsoft has reached a deal with As You Sow, the shareholder group thatfiled a shareholder resolution in Juneurging the company to adopt environment-friendlyrepairpolicies. The group agreed to withdraw its shareholder resolution. In exchange, Microsoft agreed to increase the availability of documentation and parts needed torepairMicrosoft products beyond the existing Authorized Service Provider network and "initiate new mechanisms to enable and facilitate localrepairoptions for consumers,” NeoWin reported. The company will also facilitate independent third-party studies about the environmental impact of increasing access torepairoptions for Surface and Xbox devices. (NeoWin)
Latest iOS Update Throws Shade On Replacement iPhone Parts
An update to Apple’s iOS mobile device operating system will enable iPhone and iPad owners to identify if non-Apple authorized parts have been used to keep the device operational. In the process, the company throws some shade on parts like cameras, batteries and displays. iPhone and iPad users who update their device to iOS 15.2 and later can view whether replacement parts are used by visiting the device Settings>General>About.For any non-Apple part, owners will see an “Unknown Part” message if the part installation is incomplete or if the part was replaced with a “nongenuine” (aka non-Apple) part. The same message will be displayed if the part is “genuine” but was already used or installed in another iPhone or if the part isn't functioning as expected.
The Last Design You’ll Ever Make
Right to repair is as much mindset shift as engineering challenge and retaining all of the power with manufacturers is little better than providing no repair option at all. To conserve the resources we have, repairing products to extend their lifespan is critical as there are currently no viable alternatives. Re-manufacturing of electronics has yet to appear at any significant scale...Designers were brought up to design from cradle to grave. Our new challenge is to postpone that grave as long as we can. How can we design the last product our customers will ever need buy? (Interactionmagic.com)
If It’s Broke, Fix It.
One thing is clear: Apple’s announcement that it will begin making parts and repair information available to iPhone owners demonstrates that change can happen and should be industrywide. And as a public interest advocate, I am working to ensure that all Marylanders have the right to repair not just their phones, but anything they buy and own. (MD PIRG)
Australians face ‘Significant,’ ‘Unnecessary’ Barriers to Repair
The report released by the Australian Federal Productivity Commission last week found that there are “significant and unnecessary barriers” to consumers’ Right to Repair and recommended sweeping changes to Australia’s consumer and copyright laws that would make repairs to consumer products cheaper, easier, and far less wasteful for the community. Among other things, the report recommended that the government require suppliers to provide access to repair supplies; undertake more detailed investigations into specific products including mobile devices and medical devices; and amend copyright laws to allow consumers to access repair manuals. (The Fifth State)
Circular Economy a Triple Win for Environment, Supply Chains, Finances
The circular economy is steadily climbing its way up the corporate buzzword ladder. Gartner analyst Sarah Watt posits this model as a “triple win” through its environmental, financial, and supply chain benefits — but successful adoption of a circular economy hinges on a shift to a fundamentally new way of thinking. By striving to keep raw materials in use at the highest quality for as long as possible, circular economies allow for the decoupling of resource consumption from enterprise growth, Watt explained.(SDX Central)
Teardown: Framework Laptop
The idea of not simply a fully repairable but also continuously upgradeable chassis would seem well aligned with the zeitgeist. The disposal of high-technology products is a source of ongoing environmental concern and, within both the EU and USA, the coming year is likely to see ‘right torepair’ legislation move forward at transnational and national levels (the UK has instituted its first ‘right torepair’ laws also but so far covering essentially major domestic appliances).(Engineering & Technology)
What restoring a 30 Year-Old Nintendo taught Me about Right to Repair
Those that defend the manufacturers will always argue that you can just buy something else if you don’t like it, but that argument misses the point. By making it next to impossible to repair the products you own, it creates a sub-business that, at best, makes it easier to justify covering both sides of a phone in glass or soldering components that don’t need to be soldered, and at worst, incentivizes building shoddy products in the first place. (Mike Wehner/Medium.com)
Look out Big Tech. We’re coming for You.
When Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, put out a notice about new enforcement policies around “right to repair”—the right of end users to repair electronics free of manufacturer restrictions—the result was Microsoft and Apple opening up, so that small, entrepreneurial companies that had been denied access to important information were suddenly given the keys to provide repair services. Khan’s enforcement statement was like an “Open Sesame” command to Microsoft and Apple. (The New Republic)
Apple shifts Direction on Right to Repair
The community of repair advocates and environmental Davids have long criticized their Goliath, Apple, for repair-thwarting design, lobbying and policies. While newer and more nimble consumer electronics companies such as Fairphone and Framework have incorporated repairability and modularity into their design DNA, they remain the exception rather than the rule. (Greenbiz.com)
How Businesses can fight the mounting e-Waste Crises
Outdated and irreparable equipment is a deliberate maneuver, Werner argues, which is where ‘take back’ and ‘right to repair’ laws come in, so people are liberated to reuse or repair devices to give them a longer lifespan. Indeed, the right to repair is becoming more popular, with Apple’s concession that iPhone and Mac users were now allowed to repair their devices, in particular, raising eyebrows. Independent technology analyst Scott Stonham says big tech may need to be incentive-ised to do more. “The idea behind the right to repair bill is to try and make sure that when my battery dies I have the right to replace it rather than replace the whole device, which is the behavior that big tech companies are encouraging,” he says. (ITPro)
Security Firm RBtec releases ‘Repair-Friendly’ Fence Alarm System
Part of RBtec's vision is to support the “right torepair” movement for electronics, providing customers with the opportunity torepairand replace parts of a damaged processor. In contrast to simply discarding the entire processor, this modular design allows damaged components to be easily replaced, thereby preventing unnecessary e-waste and additional cost. (Securityinfowatch.com)
3G’s Demise May Produce Tidal Wave of Obsolete Hardware
The sunset of 3G is scheduled for the end of next year. But with over 80 million 3G devices active in North America, what does 3G’s demise mean for consumers and industries like healthcare, where 3G connected devices are used to monitor patients in care settings? (All About Circuits)
Home appliance makers take shortcuts, make cheap products that don’t last
Consumers’ desire for cheap appliances has let to manufacturers cutting quality at the expense of product longevity, Consumer NZ says. “Manufacturers sell appliances based on function and features, not durability,” Consumer NZ test manager Paul Smith. The quality of materials, ease of replacing parts, such as using glue not screws, and after-sales service, such as spare parts, help lower the cost of an appliance. “Appliance manufacturer business models mostly aren’t set up to make products last a long time. They depend on repeat sales of products that need replacement,” he said.(Stuff.co.nz)
Other Headlines…
Digital technologies in Europe: an Environmental Life Cycle Approach (Greens-efa.eu)
Take this right to repair survey! (Wolfgang Sperger)
AAPEX 2021: Industry Leaders Update Right to Repair Act (RemarkableResultz.biz)
Activist investor platform Tulipshare raises $10m for US expansion (Moneymarketing.co.uk)
Nissan to create mechanical repair partnership (Ratchet and Wrench)
The intriguing implications for repair of SFC vs. Vizio (Opensource.org)
Did Apple really embrace the right to repair? (IEEE Spectrum)
Right to Repair report reflective of issues facing Australian farmers (North Queensland Register)
Apple’s self service repair explained! (TechPlanet)
Proximus partners with Fairphone for greener smart phones (Marketscreener)
Deere’s Letter to SEC hinges on “modification” vs “repair” (SEC)
Petition: give everyone a real right to repair (Restart Project)
Sony NEX-EA50 camera repair - look how easy they made it! (Louis Rossman - YouTube)
Right to Repair: the battle against planned obsolescence (Policylabafrica.org)
Recent developments in the right to repair movement (JD SUPRA)
Step by step instructions to check whether an iPhone has veritable Apple parts (Broadcastcover.com)
Right to repair on Law Bytes Podcast (MichaelGeist.ca)
Apple losing ground in customer loyalty poll (Bestgamingpro.com)
Cost of Living Podcast: right to repair, roblox and the robots ruining Christmas (CBC)
Repairing things in Australia could soon become easier (sbs.com.au)