It must be nice to have leaders that actually do useful things.
For every good thing they do 2 bad things come next. The grass is always greener on the other side.
Curiously as someone who only usually sees the greener side. As a US Citizen, what EU laws would I be shocked to see?
Well… I can cite a few laws. First, the part that protect DRM, second, the law that require search engines to make contract to quote article, third, the interest in policing private communication, and last, a project that isn’t really advanced to infringe net neutrality.
I doubt a US citizen will be shocked about them. But they are likely to dislike them.
(but I tend to see the greener side of “for 1 bad things, 2 good things come next”)
There’s currently a law in the pipeline that would scan all conversations, videos and images sent over social networks as well as chat apps like Whatsapp for illegal material. It would also include backdoors in encryption technologies and possibly banning any services that don’t comply with the scanning, e.g. Signal. Love the EU in principle, but unfortunately it’s often used by national governments to push things like increased surveillance.
Now require manufacturers to provide like 5 years of OS updates so devices aren’t insecure bricks once you get updates.
OR disallow banking apps from blocking custom ROMs/root, so you can just install your own updates ROM without losing updates.
Already a EU regulation.
Huh? Which part?
Five years OS upgrades. I was mistaken though it’s not law yet, just a finished commission proposal, scroll down to the end and look at the annex.
Oh wait that’s actually the same thing that’s promising replaceable batteries.
Oh shit, amazing!
Yes! mandatory usb C and replaceable battery, and i’d like the 3mm headphonr jack to also be a standard 😁
Wouldn’t this affect water resistance? One argument for “sealed” devices is better protection against water/dust/debris.
I’m all for allowing easier replacements and repairs for the consumer (No reason a device should be unusable after a few years due to a battery), but I can see this issue being brought up.
Th Galaxy S5 and the Active versions before it were waterproof and had a removable back to get to the replaceable battery pack.
As an added bonus, the back had a rough, soft plastic surface so you could actually hold onto it without a case.
It was early in wireless charging, but the back could be replaced with one that haf the charging coil.
I like replaceable batteries but there is no doubt that the simplified unibody designs have other benefits besides the planned obsolescence companies seek. Battery life or thickeness will certainly take a hit. I feel like having some form of incentives for more repairable phones would work better to bring better, more renuable options without blockingotherr designs
We heard the same things from the laptop industry. But framework proved you can make laptop that’s modular and still thin. And battery density keeps improving so even if it adds 2mm it’ll catch up in a generation or two.
The big issue for me is waterproofing. It seems that this would present a significant opportunity for fluid ingress. Personally, that is a design trade I would be unwilling to make.
We’ve had waterproof phones long before glass and metal sandwiches with irreplaceable batteries became the norm. Sure it’s probably a bit more difficult, but not impossible.
If nothing else there are fairly simple steps that can be done to at least make a battery swap not too painful.
