hello Facebook live this is Gary from
Greenpeace I'm here with Sam
it might fix it and we are here today to
talk about your devices are they
repairable or are they not and she may
have seen you're here today that
Greenpeace and iFixit released a report
this past week thinking about just over
40 of the best-selling devices of
tablets PCs and laptops and were
basically take time today to walk you
through some of our findings really
concrete turns talking to experts in the
field about how devices are designed
which ones are designed well for repair
ability and which ones aren't
but quick quick introductions my name is
Gary I work for Greenpeace on a rethink
IT campaign live in California and we
are here in I fix its world headquarters
in Southern California the epicenter of
the repair self repair of sector and
have Sam here and Sam on she finishes up
sure so i'm sam lean hard on the lead
tear down tire down engineer at i fix it
so that means i'm in charge of all the
tear downs you guys see also we make a
ton of repair guides for consumer
electronics all that is available for
free online and that's for any consumer
to help replace their battery or their
screen on their laptop or their phone so
this is really kind of our niche we do
those tear downs to assess the repair
ability and let people know which
devices are going to be more
long-lasting we also do a lot of repair
advocacy that will kind of give
consumers the right to repair their
devices despite what john gear or what
other manufacturers want you to do with
their devices okay I've been looking for
this all week long actually all month
long is a bit of a repair geek myself
I'm just chillin on expert but I like to
think of the things in here we have you
know the tools and experts to talk about
how we actually do this and I've
actually brought my iPad I've had two
that I managed
I cleverly sit on a couple years ago I
have this correct screen so when we get
done today I'm going to have Sam help me
figure out actually get this back in
full full good Nick say how did you get
started doing this so originally after I
graduated from college I had a graphic
communications degree which meant that I
can do a lot of good things with
pictures so I was actually doing photo
retouching for a medical supply company
whose cash cow was breast implants and
that was kind of like a less fun outlook
on the world where we're kind of selling
this like materialistic kind of strange
product and had a friend who was working
out that I fix it and they are doing
amazing things saving the world and
talking about making things more
sustainable and turns out that I could
edit those pictures as well so I ended
up being kind of the main photography
and photo editing person for the Kerr
downs and repair guides and I fix it and
I've been here for four and a half years
now and now I'm kind of in charge which
is cool that's great
so yeah super excited I've had the
opportunity to work with Sam and that
fix-it we're actually doing Kyle head of
odd fixes we're working with our
colleagues in Asia doing events there so
it's a big big push this week to draw
get more attention to the importance of
having our devices that are designed for
repair building and why is that
important for Greenpeace you certainly
look at we've been trying to be a
catalyst positive catalyst the IT sector
to improve their environmental
performance make products that are
designed for the planet we live on
and it certainly repairs really critical
I mean certainly we've had some success
and getting companies like Apple and
others to eliminate hazardous chemicals
from their products with the help of our
supporters putting pressure on the
company to do better we've seen that
they've risen to the challenge before
we're really here to try to do that
again with to the sector as a whole
because we see a trend unfortunately
where a lot of devices especially as
we're getting smaller and more complex
really hard to repair and if were to
avoid you know the you know right now we
have a huge problem with electronic
waste
it's a big part of it so you have all
this a ways you have collecting all of
the world and big part of us well people
you may have then one day people
yourselves at times like your device
cracks the battery dies and you're like
well it's I don't know how to repair it
I don't know exactly where to go and it
was like two days out of warranty right
right and so it's really expensive like
well I'm just I'm just by doing now
sticking the droid first or maybe you
know you try to keep all your recycling
ticket you waste recycler but this ends
up going somewhere and this is a big
problem another big problem is it's a
huge amount of resources that are going
into our devices you think of all the
mining and all the labor and all the
energy that goes into making these
things this is a huge investment of the
earth's resources we we're going to make
sure they last as long as possible so
repairs a big big focus for us this year
really trying to challenge the sector
and the big companies who are making our
devices to admit that there's a priority
and so we partnered with iFixit really
wanted to work with some of the leaders
in this field and did this report we
just read this past week so if you go to
waw
rethink - IT org you will have seen the
report gives you a really a sampling of
some of the bigger brands and the
smartphones tablets and laptops who did
well who which you're good to repair and
which are really a problem so we're
going to basically spend you know
sometimes they just walk you through and
also get your questions so be thinking
of what questions you have for Sam in
particular about how to get your device
repaired or what you should be looking
for in purchasing your device we have
the website is one resources will sort
of highlight some other resources the
end and some of the things you can do
but use your Facebook live input we want
some questions from you so keep them
coming
we'll take sort of go back and forth
between looking at the devices and then
taking your question so we'd start
laptops and I have actually here my own
laptop I used for many years
fo 2010 MacBook Pro you wrote all the
guide to the green internet reports for
many many years
still work actually I just switch for a
while because the battery died didn't
like it cracked the the trackpad so I
had to actually kind of expanded on me
anyway I've got some parts for my fix
and it kept it going otherwise replace
the cd-rom drives did it myself looking
online got some information for my fix
and others and replace the tractor I got
it all going works great so this is a
2010 2011 series MacBook Pro what about
the ones the new MacBook so yeah this
one you can see is significantly thinner
and I mean even back in the day and 2010
2011 let's still like a pretty thin
laptop but we're going really hard on
the design anorexia here this is
actually a 2017 retina MacBook and so
this is kind of like the new wave
MacBook that's kind of replacing the air
and the like less elite version of the
MacBook Pro of these days first thing
you'd immediately notice is that we've
got proprietary screws in here so these
are apples famous pentalobe five-pointed
screws which they basically invented
they've been used before in other
devices but not to any kind of like
large scale like Apple devices what's
the pin lip screw again oh yeah a
pillared screw is a five-lobed security
screw it's basically designed to keep
people out because no one has a
five-pointed screw until yeah give us it
you don't have it in your toolbox
already right so for example your your
2010 over there that's just got small
Phillips screws in the bottom so if
you've got I love is if you've got any
kind of like small turn screwdriver you
can just like super open that up anyone
has one in their drawer not so for this
one this is going to be a very specific
tool that you'll have to buy separately
which is silly because as soon as you
actually open the thing up then of
course like none of those screws are
used after that because inside that's
where the service techs are so you just
have this kind of lock on the door
before you're able to get in and then
after that then it's like okay this is
standard machinery
here so I'll go ahead and pop open this
bag so there's no that there are no
functional reason for having these
particular screws oh yeah no these are
100% for security these actually aren't
very great screws if you try to like
remove and replace them out of the high
likelihood that you'll actually strip
these screws because it's a pretty
shallow review actually compared to like
a flat head or a Phillips or a Torx is
really good actually about bouncing the
kind of force it's usually better than
Phillips for not stripping but these
guys are very shallow the screwdriver
can slip out of it really easily and if
you'll notice I'm kind of at an angle
here all of these screws are kind of at
an angle which is like extra challenge
of getting the driver in property and so
if you're doing this talk just a bit
about what you're looking for in terms
of a device that is designed for repair
so screws are actually a good sign
proprietary screws not so much but
screws are much easier to get into then
adhesive for example so if I'm a SAS
where we've got this guy is just
completely clean obelisk like how are we
supposed to get into this it's actually
sealed with adhesive so that makes it
extra challenging at least with screws
you can remove and replace them for the
most part adhesive and usually have to
go ahead and buy more adhesive after
scraping this out
so the first fun thing is that there are
so many cables in here holding these two
pieces together well as you'll notice
we've got like half of the laptop is
over here and half of the laptop is here
whereas the the 2010 it's purely just a
bad case about KPIX right off mm-hmm and
super easy to access I'm gonna reach in
here what disconnect some this
connectors here
one you got other connectors here it's
just like I'm nightmare actually one so
how you can just pull those out or
what's fun yeah so once we have this
open I guess I'll just like leave this
here to be on actually disconnect these
right away but when I'm looking at a
device that's an instant sign of like
okay this isn't meant just to be popped
open because we've kind of got these
like traps in here like if you tried to
open it up immediately
you might rip the trackpad ribbon cable
here you might pull the connector off
the board so that's obviously like this
requires specialized knowledge which is
why repair guides are so important
people like Apple don't post their
repair guides online that's only for
service techs but HP for example the HP
EliteBook really great you just pop off
the back everything is immediately
accessible just on one panel and then
just standardized screws throughout and
you've got a repair manual to walk you
through it right so a my my macbook I
could I could take out the memory and
finishing the bigger more memories to
make it go faster yeah and I could I I
could put in my own solid-state hard
drive right what about on this one yeah
if you'll notice this is that's all the
logic board is just this tiny little
piece right here
there's no removable RAM there's no
removable SSD there's not even a
wireless card in here they what are you
willing up and undo if you want to
upgrade what can you do you buy a new
computer that's that's kind of the Apple
business model nowadays is lo que you
got two years of the support and once
this starts slowing down then like okay
that's it pretty much
you can try and replace the battery it's
like really have to league lude in here
it's actually kind of got a tiered
battery design which Apple was very
excited about because oh it takes up the
maximum space inside the case but it
also allows for the maximum amount of
adhesive in there so this is really
dangerous to remove you've got to remove
everything else basically before you can
get to the battery so as you can see
here it's pinched underneath the logic
board right there
right yeah so if you needed to replace
the battery but you have this computer
what would you or your options being I
mean it's it's definitely something that
you can do with a lot of patience
if you can source the part which is
another struggle because apple doesn't
provide replacement parts or any option
to buy those so I'd probably recommend
going on eBay or on Craigslist and
trying to find a busted screen on one of
these laptops or something that is a
newer device so it has an okay battery
and then you might be able to do that
swap but basically you just need to
apply heat carefully you can use an eye
opener for example or a blow-dryer we're
going to be warmer on its a so it's a
gel formulation that we have where you
can just microwave this in many
microwave oven and it gets it warm
enough that you can warm the adhesive
and when you warm adhesive that kind of
makes it stretch here so you're more
able to pry that out and then a heat gun
is a little more dangerous because it
gets a little hotter and you don't want
to expose batteries to too much heat
because there's kind of funky chemistry
in there and then it just requires a ton
of prying you've got weird like case
things in here where you're prying
options are pretty limited but then
after that then you'll have a new
battery and it'll last you another two
years before that starts to degrade
again and then you have to do the
process all over again hmm
yeah this one I was able to add a pull
tab like a pop the battery out I bought
an another battery put it in there and
it was basically work as good as new
yeah yeah I and form a laptop that was
absolutely the norm I mean if you think
about what like your first PC laptop
even you didn't even have to take it
apart there was just a latch and you
slid the battery off right and then you
can pop that back in that was also the
case with Android phones or any phone
really back in the day you just like
peeled off the rear cover and you could
pick the battery out that's just not a
thing anymore everything's built in and
it's it's irresponsible because these
batteries are dangerous so if you decide
well like I don't actually want to
repair this I'm going to give this to an
e recycler they have to take this
battery out before they can do anything
they can't harvest the parts they can't
shred it or recycle it without removing
that little explosive right so super
important point so it's none so the
design chosen here unfortunately not
only to make it difficult to repair it
makes it really difficult to disassemble
for recycling right and reuse of the
resources yeah so
so apples didn't score very well with
this particular MacBook who are the
better performance in laptops and and
and why why did you find them to be more
repairable right so historically HP has
been a very good performer in the laptop
industry still so as I said with so with
the EliteBook that was another one we
did an assessment for the rear case just
has a few screws you pop that out
everything is laid out in front of you
you've got the motherboard that has
immediately accessible RAM and SSD cards
that can just be pulled out and swapped
so for an upgrade that's like super easy
for the battery I think there were only
like two screws that you just like
unscrew those two screws you pull it out
and put a new battery in and like as
soon as you do those couple little
upgrades and repairs then like boom
that's it you've got a new laptop for
another you know few years so that's
something we really like to see is that
lack of proprietary screws the kind of
flat design where everything is
accessible especially the high wire
components like a display or a battery
because those are going to be more
likely to wear out and then the
upgradable components which are the
storage so the SSD or the hard drive and
then also the RAM memory and there's
also things like Wi-Fi cards that are
also useful to a lot of agree sounds
it's really familiar with what has this
position
yeah which which is unfortunate that
used to be the standard and that's how
laptops are made and now we've kind of
slipped down to this little glue filled
little nasty guy here okay so that was
laptops and so keep your questions and
get them in the queue I'm sort of taking
some of those soon we're going to switch
to a tablets in a second but maybe just
talk about some of the the myth or
really we're trying to make sure it's
not just about we want to get the
company's design products that are
designed repair I think there's a lot
about the companies really trying to
confuse the public about is it a good
idea to repair is it safe you know is it
you know so talk
it's dangerous to be doing this stuff or
is it you know what's the we want to
remove obstacles repair what should we
be you know some of these myths out
there that companies use all the time to
discourage put up obstacles and make you
think more well it's just easier to buy
a new one yeah there is definitely some
scare tactics I would say involved in
this and some of that just starts with
like the look of the device where oh
everything's so seamless and it's just
this kind of like black box you have no
idea what's inside you don't even see it
as like a mechanical object you just see
it as like a magic stone and that's it
and that's how it's made so part of that
is through the the design like gluing
things shut and making it just look like
flawless but there's always a way in the
repair Tech's
have to have somewhere to get some way
to get in where you've got if your logic
board dies and you're within warranty or
you're within AppleCare or something
then they have to get in there they have
to be able to replace it so human being
made this so a human being can open it
so don't let people tell you that you're
too stupid to get in there because
someone did it someone did it well
so repair documentation obviously helps
with that like if you're going to go in
blind I'm like you know not as easy but
it's really not as scary it's there's
there aren't booby traps like you're not
going to blow it up by taking the screws
out of the bottom batteries are scary
but you can do tons of other repairs
like putting a new SSD and are putting
new RAM in that would help refresh the
device and manufacturers can make it way
easier to take the batteries out period
so if you've got we've got like stretch
release adhesive I don't know if you
guys know like the command strips where
you like stick it on the wall and you
pull it and that kind of like makes it
unstick from the wall so you can like
hang posters in your dorm room or
whatever they've got the same thing for
batteries that you can just pull that
pad and then it the battery just lifts
off of the case so it's like if they say
that it's too scary to do and that
they're doing it themselves and they
have the capability of making it easier
it seems silly that they can just be
like oh yeah it's it's too much for you
like you're too stupid for this I think
that's pretty insulting yeah okay so not
the best example for companies making
design for
here with alumni I would say let's take
a look at tablets okay and I think we
actually have one that's a did much
better in our report this week yeah
surprisingly so oftentimes actually
tablets are kind of a throwaway device
that not many people expect the tablet
to last very long like gosh if you go on
to you know Amazon or wherever you can
find like a $25 $50 tablet which is
really kind of scary which one do we
have here oh this is the the Asus
Zendesk 3 s10 so this one did fairly
well
Asus is kind of in the business of
making a lot of tablets so maybe they've
got it kind of nailed down I'm just
pulling out a couple screws in the
bottom here next to the charging noise
the thing what kind of screws are these
well they're actually yeah so that's a
standard p3 Torx a Torx is the one I was
telling you about earlier pentalobe has
five lobes and a Torx driver has six but
it's much better manufactured so the
driver actually sits much deeply much
more deeply inside the device so that
enables a really good bite out of the
screwdriver so you can take this screw
in and out as many times as you want
basically and that's going to what's
this gizmo oh I'm sorry I'm just like
speeding through this this is a nice
black it's basically just two suction
cups if you can see and it'll pull one
on either side you can also do this with
an ordinary suction cup like we've got
here it just helps you kind of lift
without prying so much so it's kind of
got a display that's it into what we
call a bathtub just because it's totally
round and then the lid is kind of the
display here isn't it go ahead and cream
so you get some special tools based
someone had a suction cup dick yeah it's
really about just trying to get some
leverage they pull stir it up yeah
exactly
and then so also there are other tools
like that you can use like even
sometimes just packing tape like if you
put packing tape on it you can get a
good grip alright to lift up on that so
just kind of get it in the corner there
now if I've got a prying tool
these are just it's just held by clips
there's no excessive in here so once I
have a little bit of an access point I
can go ahead and lift this out so it's
just different from my iPad so we did I
there's no stream to my iPad last time I
checked mm-hmm yeah yeah that's
illegally shut I wasn't so it's good
shot yeah there's the others glue all
the way around the edge and the display
is actually separated the digitizer or
the touchscreen glass is separated from
the LCD and there's no frame on it so
it's just bare glass by itself which
unfortunately makes it really fragile
when you're trying to get it open and
the problem with the iPad is that
anytime you want to replace anything in
there like if your home button stops
working you have to go into that glass
stop kind of frustrating for people who
are just trying to you know replace you
know one small component right battery
starts to die and you want to replace
yeah then you have to risk possibly
needing a display replacement as well as
a battery replacement right which stinks
this one is actually a very well
supported display frame okay so you're
inside yep so this is it this is the SIM
tray here but the rear panel is totally
empty which like we said before with the
MacBook it's kind of nice to see
everything all in one place and you have
immediate access to it so here we've got
a separate charging port which is great
we like to see modularity which means
that all the pieces are kind of
individual so for example if your your
charging port fails like it starts to
get Wiggly and you know you have to get
at that really weird angle to charge it
then you're able to take that part out
put it back in one new one and it's a
much cheaper part than say it's attached
to the motherboard where you know the
system memory and everything lives so
that modularity is really good the kind
of flat design is really good the
battery is immediately disconnectable
which is kind of
step for any repair just so you don't
have any street charge around right
these cables over the top are kind of
annoying if you can't get the battery
out before you do that but like that's
not too hard of it you can put them back
in room you know right yeah yeah they're
super easy to get out and back in I
don't even have to disconnect this one
on each edge I can just disconnect it
there and then if you can see we've got
just screws around the outside and this
battery is actually just mounted into a
tray so there's no adhesive connecting
the battery to the item itself so these
are the standard Phillips screws here
I'll grab that and we'll just pull up
this battery just for funsies just a few
screws okay
and so there's no glue in there and this
is so different that's what we see with
a lot of phones and with tablets in
particular I've actually in the laptop
as well a lot of adhesive so yeah tons
of it ease and that's that's bad because
you indicated it makes it really
difficult open so you can end up
breaking something and you know as part
of just opening the device yeah which
definitely definitely stinks so iPad for
example their batteries are really tough
as well they're definitely glued into
the rear case very strongly having the
battery able to pop out like this is a
pretty rare I would say in the tablet
world because like I said they're
they're kind of built to be cheap and
they're not supposed to last very long
so I think tablets are kind of becoming
like one of the biggest a waste kind of
sexers sectors where you you get like
the cheap tablet cuz you're like oh it's
my name is $50 like even if it really
looks then it's not bad but then you you
put that in your drawer or you put it in
a waste or you just throw it in the
trash can and then that stacks up and
then that device all the energy that
went into manufacturing that is lost as
opposed to something that's you know
repairable or upgradable then that
device can last much longer so instead
of buying five laptops you're buying or
your five tablets and you're going just
just one
we have a question all right we're going
to a question here uh we have a john
asking uh should we worried about of you
expose the insides of dusts or handles
you have to be aware of that what should
be done
should you be wearing gloves um there
there are certain things like ok you
definitely don't want to expose like
your camera to too much dust but really
unless you're working in like a barn or
something that's pretty unlikely we do
use canned air sometimes for like for
example Gary's iPad screen here I was
telling him earlier that once he gets
the glass out then there's going to be
kind of glass dust throughout and you do
want to like take that outside blow that
out and make sure that doesn't get
around because that can cause some harm
but for the most part like hand oils
that will be important on antennas but
as long as you're not kind of touching
too many things all of the guys I fix it
for example will tell you like ok handle
the board's by the edges make sure you
do clean this part with like high
concentration isopropyl alcohol
we have those tips kind of strewn
throughout ESD is not quite as big a
deal as a lot of like geek squad and
those kinds of people will tell you
about that electrostatic discharge by
the way for people that's yeah that's so
we do include like we've got bracelets
for that you can ground yourself and
that's a very safe way to do it but I
would say that a lot of the you
shouldn't do this yourself stuff is is
less scary I think then a lot of people
think okay so are we ready take the
battery out yeah I would just pop that
out just to show that there's no
adhesive building this guy in which is
really cool just a totally separate
assembly and then we've just got
motherboard after that and we can pop
that in and he'll be ready to live for
another couple years okay example of
good repair and so this is tablets we
had some other tablets as well we
highlighted it was HP tablets yeah I
believe the HP Elite x2 was a 10 out of
10 on our score sheet this one I believe
got an 8 out of 10 but the early XT
actually had I believe replaceable SSD
which is kind of unheard of in the
tablet world we're like whoa what do you
mean upgradable storage that's nuts
in this case the the SSD in the RAM are
not upgradable on this and you only got
an eight out of ten
but yeah being able to make that device
lasts a little bit longer hold a little
bit more have the battery replace that
means you're going to have a much longer
life on your tablet okay
HP actually also includes a repair
manual so as I said before that's kind
of like the hardest part of getting in
so all of their repair manuals are
available online and they do supply
replacement parts that you can purchase
so you can put a new battery in or a new
SSD okay so those will highlight these
resources the end but the one look at
the score cards the rethink - ITI org
quickly those highlights and worlds so
we did laptops for them tablets we have
a brand new samsung galaxy eight over
here oh yeah brand new already cracked
cracked hahaha
you see a lot of glass in that phone
talk talked about that yeah alright so I
guess this inaudible real quick um this
one is actually I think someone called
it like the the most crackable phone in
the world people have been having a lot
of trouble of just like it's been in my
pocket and just it touched something and
now it's shattered it's got glass on the
back and on the front as well and it's
kind of this curved display so there's
even glass on the sides pretty much like
100% glass except for this very very
glass damage has been the Lord has been
turned around this guy yeah definitely
so I guess it looks cool but it
definitely hampers the repair ability
and I don't like they must have like a
heck of a warranty on here because like
how do you hold this phone you can't
even put in a case and then it'll still
break okay so it sounds like high
probability of display or possibly even
the back cracking no can you be easy to
fix
yes the question it's kind of awful it's
really hard to get in here so like a
little bit of a disclaimer this is
actually one that we've done teardown on
before so I'm going to take the back off
but it's going to be significantly
easier than it was before the seam
allowances are so tight on here because
it's luxury and they don't want any you
know dust or anything getting in there
which is fair but it's oh my gosh it's
so hard to get any kind of prying tool
in there we applied a ton of heat the
eye opener is a good use for that also
like is it was like muscle relaxer like
a rice bag right same thing on earth
where you're just applying some kind of
diffuse heat I'm just going to cut
through the excessive here sorry settled
a little bit so it's kind of tough so
ready just cutting through the adhesive
that right yeah so okay the idea of heat
is that the heat kind of loosens the
adhesive up a little bit and okay if you
guys have ever had bubblegum ice cream
have you ever had that where like
they're like little like hard rocks
because the the gum is frozen and like
generally like bubblegum is really chewy
so once you apply that heat it it
definitely loosens up the polymers and
kind of makes it stretchier and then
after that all you need is like a
cutting tool or a prying tool to kind of
get in that thin gap and pull that open
this guy actually has a fingerprint
cable here that's attached to the phone
most the time it pops off when you open
the back display but there is a chance
that it might rip just got a really thin
cable here plugged in okay so you got it
open now you want to replace the battery
how the heck you do that oh you got to
keep going
there's no berry access so sheet see
here we've got the battery you can see
here you can see the cable it was right
there but it's trapped underneath this
frame this is an antenna this is NFC
antenna and then we've got another
antenna speaker assembly down here so I
guess we'll just start going through
that trying to get that
and what about these guys same Jesus
yeah so actually that's why screw no
these are just Phillips screws okay so
they're relying on the glass back to
kind of keep most people out Samsung
actually their Tech's have an oven that
they will put their phones in and it'll
heat it up to a specific temperature
which is probably going to be about the
same temperature than you get with the
eye opener with a rice bag or you know
what have you but that softens up the
adhesive enough that they can take it
out and what about um for this guy since
then provide repair manuals or repair
instruction and how do you replace your
battery sort of information no that's
like that's a buy a new one kind of
scenario from Samsung or if you know so
everyone remembers the the note seven
kind of shenanigans we didn't imagine
being on an airplane and feeling your
phone get hot that's it like you're
screwed there's no real way to get in
there and avoid that catastrophe and if
if Samsung had been able to simply just
ship people new batteries just hey pop
out your battery and put in a new one
they would have saved themselves a lot
of grief and a lot of e-waste as well
right so yeah we know you may know we
have been asking Samsung when they had
the recall to the initial reports they
were playing to basically take all these
phones back had 4.3 million phones
globally they'd made and we're simply
going to dispose of them
we actually since gotten a commitment
out of Samsung so they heard from you
because the companies do listen that
they are going to work to refurbish a
number these phones actually I think
they're just initially going to start
rolling it out next month in Korea this
is a refurbishment sevens with you know
they've fit new batteries in so we
avoided the disposal of all that
material and all the energy that was
involved in that and putting it back out
certainly as you indicated if they just
designed it right in the first place
we've been a lot easier to solve but
fortunately they've at least heard from
folks and responded and starting to
whether than dispose of them or even
recycle them which is not you ideally
want to be angry always lose too
we always lose and lose a lot of
material but they actually agreed to
work to refurbish as many as they can
and starting to do that in Korea so you
got the battery so easy sailing from now
right I mean if you want to disconnect
it yes if you want to go any farther not
so much so the the main problem with
this guy is everything is so tight and
impacted and the battery is kind of down
in this well which might work well for
like durability and structure and maybe
waterproofing but it's just it's
impossible to get it out of there you
can't really get a prying tool down the
side and you don't want to pry against
the motherboard at all because you don't
wanna cause damage there but really the
easiest solution is like I said those
command strips if they can just poke out
the end and all you have to do is like
stretch it out and you can find those in
the the iPhones they just got stretchy
adhesive and no matter what kind of
container it's in you're still able to
just pull that tab and pull the battery
out in this case there's just tons of
adhesive lining the back so again you
have to heat without damaging the
display be very careful with prying and
you don't want to bend the battery
because then that can be dangerous as
well so this is just definitely not
meant to be repaired so sue me I have a
work phone from Samsung that's probably
a galaxy 2 and when I remember to
replace them better you could just take
a coin and sort of pop it back off yeah
and you could get into it and you went
in there so yeah don't really know how
to do it before but some what Apple they
seem to have gone to a lot more glue and
a lot more difficulty and yeah which is
silly because like okay if you need to
have this form factor than fine but
those those adhesive tabs they take up
no space it's just going to be the same
exact shape of adhesive it's going to
have the same tolerances but you'll have
immediately better access to that so if
you can't do the super awesome fairphone
to got a 10 out of 10 and they are still
doing the peel off the back and then
take the battery out LG also had the
pull out batteries until just recently
and people have just kind of abandoned
that which sucks because these devices
are so expensive and if they only last
as long as their batteries
right not a good investment so you know
talk to another third phone - we don't
have one here right here but why was
that right in terms of why would that so
repairable so the whole concept of the
fairphone - was basically like make the
best phone possible makes the most like
a moral I don't know fair phone so
beyond just sourcing the all of the kind
of like conflict materials and the heavy
metals and those rare earth metals just
from anywhere they they found very
specific like the the best most humane
mines and then beyond that from like
manufacturer onwards they thought about
the consumer and they thought about
end-of-life and every component in there
is meant to be replaced and there's
there's instructions and there are tabs
and they're numbered systems inside the
phone so it's really easy like you flip
this switch and it says unlock and so
you unlock it and then you can take the
display off and they have repair manuals
and they've got parts and that's like a
very responsible cradle-to-grave
kind of upgrade just you could have that
phone for a long stretch of time or give
it to the next person instead of
recycling it okay so good design base
easy access battery self can develop
customers can repair that with place
about themselves what else what about a
display yeah so we for phones definitely
that kind of like high wear or high risk
components are the display in the
battery because you carry this around in
your pocket all the time it's going to
get dropped eventually and even
sometimes if you have a case that's not
enough to save the display but even if
you are like the most careful person in
the world your battery is going to run
out there's there's you know no argument
with that the chemistry is eventually
going to wear down and unless you're
going to carry a battery pack attached
to your phone all day like you're the
battery life is going to wear down and
eventually it will need replacing so
that's kind of the timeline for that
device is only as long as the battery is
viable so that one is another like
really important part other high wire
components are the ports so the charging
port is a really big one because you be
charging that every night and unless
you're really perfectly precise
and then you're going to have some
looseness eventually and then you're
going to end up with the okay if I put
my phone on a book and then if I put
another book on top of the charging
cable then you like but get the perfect
charge so having a modular port which is
just the big jack itself very important
headphone jack also kind of same deal
less wear than the charging port those
kinds of replacements are very important
the hilar components okay we have a
question here from Chris and they kept
others asking similar questions what's
the best way to recycle electronics in
the components you take out to make sure
they're not causing more pollution or
you know make sure they're being
disposed of responsibly okay so um II
waste is is basically as you're saying
any of the electronics or the electronic
components things like batteries also
will fall into those kinds of important
to take care of responsibly for the most
part I'm not too sure about Europe I'm
assuming it's kind of about the same but
in the u.s. you usually have to find
your local organization that takes care
of a waste you can also go online there
are some resources where you can find
okay like where's my nearest recycling
center and for the most part your
cyclers are going to be certified and
they're going to be doing a good job
there I don't think that you can like
say like okay I'm not sure about this
Kyle look at the Yelp reviews like I
think as long as you find a good like a
waste group or a good recycler then
you'll be pretty safe I think some
manufacturers like I think Apple you can
turn devices into albums drawers
directly and then places like Best Buy
as well usually have good relationships
with your cyclers and stuff like that as
well yep fair that's fair I think also
there there certainly and there are some
differences in the certification systems
there's a couple out there in the u.s.
East stewards which is certified or it's
been designed by a boss election network
which is really started to try to avoid
the shipping of hazardous waste
and so I think the ether is that's the
one yeah the company's recyclers that
are uz stewards they are required to
make sure they're not exporting waste we
still prank some of the other
certification systems actually still
allow that that waste be sent overseas
and that and that ends up in places like
okra Ghana and in certain key ways kind
of dumps in China as well right where
that ends up kind of there's there's
less oversight up there so bad so I
think you have a number there are apples
for example you can't take it back a lot
of the electronic stores will take back
a ways in the US and elsewhere but local
governments typically want to segregate
this waste stream but it is a big
problem really I think one of these
replacement opponents you want to make
sure we're seeing them back and put them
into a closed-loop system so the
materials there will be reused but of
course wartime mess today is trying to
make sure devices to take we get the
most out of them
before they start being repurposed or
reused yeah another like the the reduced
part of the cycle I think it's also
really important there's like a freakish
amount of e-waste out there if you think
about like you go into a grocery store
and you've got like the singing birthday
cards like that's a waste
that's not recyclable anymore you have
to like pulled a little like noisemaker
out and then you can you know put the
paper in the recycling bin but I think
being very conscious of your consumption
is also a very important part of that
and like well I mean you're going to be
stuck with the phone any phone it's
going to be a waste but I think there
are other kind of smaller more nefarious
ones out there that you don't think
about most times great so we went
through three device categories so
highlighting enough stones who are the
best performance to be fined um so yeah
fairphone is still pretty much at the
top Apple actually does like a fairly
decent job I mean 7 out of 10 isn't
anything to like cheer about compared to
the Sarah phone twos 10 out of 10 but
they do a ton of rework on their phones
they do refurbishment and they do
reselling so they've actually kind of
got that dialed down where it's fairly
modular fairly easy for their text to
take your phone that
- like afraid or that you've been you
know convinced not to repair they can do
that repair and then they can sell it to
the next person and they've got double a
profit off of you basically which sucks
but it also means that if you're you're
brave enough to kind of go through with
the the battery replacement of the
screen replacement and I totally believe
in you you can definitely do it for sure
they've got the pole trips they've got
kind of mostly modular components and
all you need are a couple tools and I
think that that's a pretty good
especially couple with at least improved
for the phones that here we are ten
years from today from the anniversary of
the iPhone going on sale yeah mates
where that advice I remember correctly
was Square almost rock-bottom I had was
that was a rough one um so it's early
shows they know how to do it first when
talk about make sure we we certainly
think it's important but maybe just
explain for folks tuning in why is it
why is it important for companies to
provide spare parts and the manuals oh
yeah
I I mean I can go to Apple Store and for
my Apple device to probably get them to
do something right from the remember
overall and in terms of trying to get
more devices to last longer why is that
important yeah so I encourage you to
find your nearest like Apple store like
not just like an Apple reseller or a
Best Buy or whatever but like an actual
Apple store that has the ability to
actually do these repairs for a lot of
people in the US like maybe that's ok
but there's like you know one Apple
store in Alaska and there's like there's
a lot of traveling distance if you want
to go down 400 miles we had one guy on
our on our blog he lived on an island
and you could only access it by seaplane
and he was like 20 hours from the
nearest apploud or so like okay yeah
you've got a warranty but that means you
have to send this off and pave whatever
and spend six months waiting for your
you know your phone to get back and
that's just not feasible so outside of
the like perfect ecosystem I can walk
down to the Apple store and they can fix
it you know in 20 minutes that's not
really a reality so that kind of even if
you're inside warranty sometimes that
means that you have to
repair yourself and the way to do repair
yourself is going to be like all the
repair manual like why don't they have
that repair manual available here is
this one replace your battery there
should be like you know there's plate
you know there's some things there
something weren't complexity's yeah yeah
the relation of the battery would help
would be one thing you could be able to
provide basic information yeah and like
so for example the iPhone 5s when they
started introducing the touch ID there's
like cable in there and if you you can
only open your phone like a certain
amount otherwise if you open it too far
then you rip that cable and then you
don't have touch ID anymore because it's
matched to the logic board so all of
those kind of like secret problems
you're not going to know about that
unless you have the documentation and
then you're going to know if you know
hurting your phone so a very important
part is getting around those little
cables or finding the exact techniques
and that would help so many people if
they have the tools which you know the
penile obe isn't that's alright obvious
one and so there's we've had a number of
u.s. states introduced right to repair
legislation I think there's some more
things going on other parts of the world
talks a bit about that why is that
important yeah so that's trying to make
information more open-source so like if
you want to replace the alternator on
your car I guarantee you you can go
online you can find some kind of like
officially published repair manual some
manufacturers make it pretty difficult I
think Kia you have to like sign up for a
certain service and then you have to you
know get in and do that but that's
accepted that's accepted that you can go
and you can I like down to like
windshield wiper fluid like that
something that runs out the battery is
something that runs out so in the car
world very acceptable to have an online
set overpair manuals and have users be
able to replace things themselves so
that should be an obvious thing and
that's what we're trying to push with
the right repair legislation in
different states as make this obvious
make repair manuals and make repair
parts available and not you know
punishing to to use like it shouldn't be
illegal to you know find repair
documentation use it fix your phone okay
more information on that on the ice
org sites on that number of US states of
you're in Massachusetts or New York the
bills are coming up for both this year
hey let people let your elected
officials know that this is important
you want better access to repair
information the ability you bought the
product you should have the right to
repair it right I think New Jersey just
the other day just introduced us and
others together other parts of world see
this becoming something recognized that
hey we're starting to lose control of
our ability to repair things we owned
and we need to solidify that lock it in
because it's really important I
mountains for people's pockets and it
certainly matters for the planet as well
so I think we're almost at the end here
but let's sort of recap resources and
what can people do so let's start with
some what can people do so we have
definitely want people listening if you
have a sign already please go to the WVW
rethink - IT org website signed a
petition indicate which of the both
brands if you're one of those three
brands there but signed a petition we're
going to use that with people power for
you indicating this is important as we
have in the past to tell the companies
in the sector that we want devices are
designed to last and can be repaired and
upgraded so saves you money and it saves
upon it as well there's a lot of great
resources on the ifixit.com and org
website yeah telling people what's going
on particulars I think we actually have
some images here from the sort of you
guys have ongoing list of sort of from
each category yeah so the three
categories that we broke down here
laptops tablets and smartphones
we've got repairability lists online so
we really encourage people to be
conscious of their purchasing decisions
and kind of like the whole vote with
your dollar idea that if you're going
for getting a new laptop then you want
to know how long that's going to last
and you want to kind of back like the
best manufacturer that will have the
best repair ability so the laptop repair
ability list is going to be the way to
see which ones are the most repairable
and which ones you can actually upgrade
and
all have detailed links to tear downs
and blog posts that will kind of walk
you through the reasonings behind those
scores and you'll be able to choose like
okay yeah I want the the repairable a
laptop I want to replace a little
battery I want the upgradable RAM and
that's another way to encourage people
to the manufacturers to change their
designs to say that okay this is what
the people actually care about versus
just them assuming that Oh slim is
better those kinds of things we've also
got the tablet repair ability list and
the smartphone repair ability list and
again those are all sort of old by score
and you can look through the
manufacturers and whatever phone you're
looking at and then we trying to tear
down the day of the release basically so
if we don't have anything on that list
you can look at our tear down list and
find out the the very newest device and
see what those scores are getting and
see kind of like what beyond what the
manufacturer is saying about the
features and everything see what the
repair ability features are okay and you
guys had a graphic that showed sort of
by brand how definitely out different
companies know performed so it'll to
layer on so it gave me a sense of you
can certainly some companies it's not
you know some companies actually did
quite well and some products but and
others quite poorly right yeah
definitely so yeah we've got a graphic
the kind of stretches out by
manufacturers average score and then the
scores of their devices so you'll see
for example Microsoft has been doing
pretty poorly they've got two ones I
think on their laptop and their tablet
and then we've got other options like
Apple they've got a very low laptop
score but a fairly high phone score but
that still puts them towards the the
left edge of the not-so-great
manufacturers because their score has
been dragged down by that failure of
design I would say and then
manufacturers more towards the right
side are in the greener pastures where
you'll find HP and Dell and fairphone
and people like right you actually might
the Microsoft actually wasn't
the score Cory pred this week's you guys
just on the charity oh yeah for the one
of the new laptops and they actually
have an image of it alright so they're
just like how difficult it is to open
this dang thing right so we are saying
about how the it's built to be monolith
or whatever so like the s8 that has a
glass back at least the MacBook has
screws on the back of it but this
surface laptop was just like a
completely sealed fabric nasty cocoon
that we actually had to cut open there
was no way to get in besides cutting
that open there was no eclipse or
delamination or anything it was just
like really just take a box cutter so I
was a sort of big fat zero I think right
i I think so because there there's
literally no component that you can
replace without damaging something all
right
we know Microsoft can do better and so
they need to hear from you let others
other companies know so please sign the
petition need you to be more informed on
this to let you vote with your dollars
as you're choosing which brands to go go
by next time when you enter repair or
buy new if you get a device stolen but
ideally won't want to use your device as
long as possible and so there's some
great resources that I fix is providing
so when your your phone starts to you
know maybe not quite get through the day
like it used to
which you know generally gets there
after so many cycles yeah you probably
need a battery not a new phone and
certainly there's you know you can do it
yourself
there's tools out there online to walk
you through that there's certainly
independent repair shops and all the
answers some manufacturers do provide
Apple for example those they have
actually gotten a little bit better
about lowering the price some of their
standard standard repairs which is good
we want to do more of that and make it
more affordable so people don't feel
it's just well it's going to cost me
$200 replace this so I mean you know
stuff in the drawer or put it you put an
e-waste in a Best Buy and start over now
most of these devices can last much
longer with just a bit more attention
replacing batteries and replacement
displays or two good examples but
there's often like simple things that go
wrong because you they got wet or happy
these things are totally repairable or
that they should be we shown some
companies are much better than others
other resources you guys want to flag
before you before we sign off yeah
basically just ifixit.com we've got a
whole spread we've got the repair guides
or if you want kind of the more one on
one touch we've actually gotten answers
for them so if you are concerned about
like well can I actually do this repair
you can go online and you can say hey so
like I think this is wrong and we've got
tons of community members who are super
helpful and they'd definitely be willing
to help you either walk you through the
process or kind of walk you through the
troubleshooting of like okay well like
your yes your your battery is draining
slowly but I think that maybe you know
these issues could be addressed before
you have to replace the battery if
you're afraid of doing that so the
answers forum is definitely a good place
and good good people power I would say
definitely work for me when I fix my
laptop so pretty slick it out and thanks
for joining today look forward to
hearing more from my fix it later we'll
be working in partnership throughout the
year try to bring more attention to the
issue the importance of repair will be
continued update our analysis of how a
chem-20 performing repairs the focus
right now be coming back in the fall
with the relaunch the guy degree in
electronics at rethink - ikea org or
that - ITI org and see look at a brand
level of how companies are performing we
get one one really important slice here
on which companies are designing prepare
and which ones need to improve but they
need to hear from you people power is
what motivates these companies the
customers are really important to them
they want to keep them and they need to
hear from you to let them know that you
expect better thanks again for having me
down it's been a treat to come to I fix
a headquarters it's been on my list I'm
glad to come down and hope to come back
again soon yeah it's definitely good to
have you all right okay thank you
goodbye everyone
you