Right to Repair/Ownership

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1539142

LG to offer subscriptions for already purchased appliances and televisions, evolving into a provider for “Home as a Service”::Subscription fatigue is a thing and regulators are circling, but Korean giant reckons you're ready to cough up after buying hardware

Nicked a hose on my new dishwasher and had to repair it. In the app Bosch gives you the option to buy parts straight from them, with breakout illustrations showing each part to make sure you get the right one. Parts were extremely reasonable and came within 2 days. Could almost build the thing from spare parts! Best repair experience I’ve ever had.

Can't say anything bad about product quality, I've used this toothbrush for 4 years now and the battery still lasts for more than a month. I did treat it well though, almost never depleted the 9.36Wh cell or charged it completely to 100%. Just the USB cable was over 20 bucks when it was still available. Model is Oclean One.

Can't say anything bad about product quality, I've used this toothbrush for 4 years now and the battery still lasts for more than a month. I did treat it well though, almost never depleted the 9.36Wh cell or charged it completely to 100%. Just the USB cable was over 20 bucks when it was still available. Model is Oclean One.

If you are lurker please help us grow the community by commenting and posting interesting on topic quality info/discussions so we can attract more people and make this community more interesting to spend time on. ✌️

Previous milestone: https://lemmy.fmhy.ml/post/489828

This is going to be a long term effort from my side to build a library of resources on the topic of right to repair/ownership to make it easier for people to learn about the topic. Of course this sub is not Louis Rosmann circlejerk, it's just that he shared a lot of great videos/views on the topic of right to repair/ownership. I also don't want him to be the face of this movement (and he doesn't want that too) I just decided to start building the library starting from him and that's all. You can help me make this community grow by sharing the resources on the topic yourself to speed up the process of building the library. Please avoid sharing stuff from Louis Rosmann because no matter what you share it's guaranteed that I will find it myself later and it will result in a duplicate post because as of now I don't have a way of tracking what's in the library and what's not. Hopefully I find a scalable way to organise my workflow soon enough.

I've been using Graphene OS for a while now and it feels like a miracle to have access to the play store yet not be so locked in with Google. Changes like the ones in the video make me worry that this is a flash in the pan and that Google will lock the play store into their Android for that sweet tracking data

If you are lurker please help us grow the community by commenting and posting interesting on topic quality info/discussions so we can attract more people and make this community more interesting to spend time on. ✌️

Previous milestone: https://lemmy.fmhy.ml/post/376126

Next goals: 400, 550, 700, 850, 1000

The bill introduces a legal warranty of good working order for certain new goods that are commonly used. As regards the warranty of good working order for used automobiles, the bill updates the classes of such automobiles.

The bill enhances the legal warranty of availability of replacement parts and repair services for goods of a nature that requires maintenance work by specifying that the availability of the information necessary to maintain or repair the goods must also be guaranteed. Merchants or manufacturers who are bound by the warranty of availability must make the parts, repair services and information necessary to maintain or repair the goods available at a reasonable price. The bill also provides that it must be possible to install the replacement parts using commonly available tools, without causing irreversible damage to the goods. In addition, consumers have the right, under certain circumstances, to request the repair of goods requiring it.

Under the bill, merchants must provide information on legal warranties of good working order before entering into a contract that includes an additional warranty. Consumers may resolve such a contract, at their discretion, within 10 days after the contract is entered into. The bill proposes to prohibit the business of trading in goods for which obsolescence is planned and to prohibit the use of techniques that make it more difficult for consumers to maintain or repair goods. In addition, automobile manufacturers must provide the owner or long-term lessee of a vehicle, or the repairer of the vehicle, with free access to the vehicle’s data.

With respect to long-term contracts of lease of automobiles, the bill provides that merchants must propose an inspection free of charge of the automobile before the end of the consumer’s lease and specifies the cases in which the merchant may not claim charges for the abnormal wear of goods.

The bill gives the Government the regulatory power to determine technical or manufacturing standards for goods, including standards for interoperability between goods and chargers.

The bill also allows a court to declare, on an application by the consumer, that an automobile is a “seriously defective vehicle”, in particular if the defects affecting it render it unfit for the purposes for which it was intended and several attempts have been made to repair it.

As a hobby, I like buying broken phones off the internet, fixing them up, play with it for a bit, then resell. Recently, I bought a Redmi 8A from Facebook Marketplace. The phone in question has a corrupted firmware/operating system. I've resurrected phones (mostly Samsung and older Xiaomis) with such issues before, so I thought it was an easy fix.

With my past experience with resurrecting a bricked Xiaomi phone, I would normally just disassemble the phone, short out some pads on the motherboard, flash the firmware, and off I go.... This time though, you have an extra step. Before the computer even starts flashing the firmware into the phone, it will ask for an authorized Xiaomi acccount (that has special permission to flash devices using EDL).

Older Xiaomi phones: Disassemble phone > Short out pads > Connect phone to PC > Flash firmware > Done

Newer Xiaomi phones: Disassemble phone > Short out pads > Connect phone to PC > Log-in to authorized Xiaomi account > Flash firmware > Done

It's not as simple as creating an account and then logging into it. You have to buy a special account for around $30 from some sketchy sources, and that would only allow you to flash one time. If you made a mistake, that's $30 down the drain. Another option you could do is use a special software, but requires a subscription. Which is $20-30 for three months. I went with this. At least, I can flash as much as I want.

Now the phone is question is now fully functional. Which is good, but imo, I shouldn't have to pay for anything in the first place, like I did in the past.

You might be saying, you should have just went into fastboot and flashed the firmware that way. Or even unlock the bootloader, and then reflash. Well, it's not that simple. In order to flash anything using fastboot, you have to unlock the bootloader. And in order to do so, you'll have to boot into Android, then enable OEM unlocking in the settings. Which isn't possible in my case.

I believe, most Android phones are gonna be like this if you have to unbrick it. Had this happened on a Motorola, Huawei, and on a Pixel too (with a locked bootloader).

Samsung and LG phones are easier to recover, which has a download mode, which allows for recovering/unbricking regardless of the bootloader status (just hold the volume up button, the connect to PC). Even iPhones are also easy to recover. You just have to hold down the home button, connect to the computer, and then let iTunes do the rest. All three manufacturers makes it easy, that an average Joe can do it at the comfort of their own homes. They don't even have to take the phone apart. I wish all Android manufacturers would make it that easy.

TL;DR: It used to be that Xiaomi (and most Android phones) are easy to recover/unbrick, but sometime down the road, they made it a bit difficult by requiring an special account, which you'll have to get through sketchy sources. Or use a special subscription-based software. LG, Samsung, and Apple are the exception since they make it easier.

Official spare parts, batteries, and repair guides for select Logitech hardware will be available through iFixit starting ‘this summer.’

1. What is right to repair/ownership

Video format:

• Linus Tech Tips - https://youtu.be/nvVafMi0l68 ("We need Action - Right to Repair Explained")
• Marques Brownlee - https://youtu.be/RTbrXiIzUt4 ("What Is Right To Repair?")
• Louis Rossmann - https://youtu.be/JORnFzbN5F0 ("A New HOPE (2022): Right to Repair - You Should Have the Right to Fix What You Own")

Blog/Article format

• ifixit - https://www.ifixit.com/News/61140/what-is-right-to-repair ("What Is Right to Repair?")

Pages/Tools

• https://www.looria.com/reviews ("Learn how products perform over their lifetime")

2. Examples of anti-repair/ownership behavior from the side of corporations

We never hear about broken and worn-out products. Pretty much all gear nowadays is baseline ok, it’s the negatives that really set things apart.

That's why I'm building ExitReviews to change the way people review products. Let's reflect upon how a product performed over its duration of service instead of when it first arrived and people haven’t spent much time with it to learn the quirks.

We can then build a collection of how long products last, where they break, and how to fix them. Even if certain products are not available anymore, it still gives a good picture of brand deterioration.

Let me know what you think! I'm sure this sub could contribute many submissions :)

Any thoughts on how to promote this community? It's currently still facing the chicken-egg problem, so we would need some PR or partnerships to make this popular.