I hear the weather is is positive in
Buffalo it is is above zero it is my job
to inform people that I wrote a bike
yesterday and today in Buffalo New York
and do you have like spikes on the bike
tires no I I did cool well let's get
started
hey everyone I'm your host Kyle with
iFixit and you're on repair radio we've
got Nathan Proctor from US PIRG here
with us
and Kevin Purdy from the wild and wooly
land of Buffalo how many how many
buffaloes are there in the town of
Buffalo Kevin you there
we lost Kevin well I'll keep but we'll
get going while we while we wait for
Kevin to fixes audio so Nathan Nathan
how are things how are things in your
neck of the woods
in Boston it's lovely we sun is shining
it's probably in the 50s which is you
know good for this time of year I
suppose I have been riding my bike so
that's feeling feeling that spring is
sprung here so we have I've got about
ten ducks and we have been doing our
best to steal all of their eggs and then
eat them and we went out yesterday and
we had seven baby ducks
so nature found away and has that's not
the proud proud papa of baby muscovy
ducks and that the babies are much cuter
than the adult ducks so i think i think
spring is fully enforced so let's dive
in and talk about some of our experience
Nathan and I have been traveling all
around the country the last few weeks
and there has been a lot going on on the
right to repair world starting up with
with what's going on in
so this week what's the situation on the
ground yeah so I mean we are in
negotiations for the kind of final
stretch before we see a floor vote in
Minnesota this is the time in a lot of
these you know right to repair
legislative battles where you get close
to a decision point and then you get
like a big surge of kind of stuff you
need to deal with like a crazy
opposition tactics to slow us down and
give and stop us but so I don't want to
necessarily tell everybody all the
secret things we have going on behind
the scenes in Minnesota but you know we
are in the kind of we are pushing to
kind of go that last mile and figure out
what are those last things that we need
to do but if anybody if you know anybody
or if you're from Minnesota absolutely
go to Minnesota dot repair org right now
give your legislator a phone call we
know that they're hearing a lot from our
opposition and it's just critical that
they also hear from you know the people
their constituents and and the people
that they are elected to represent yeah
so this is like we're on the five-yard
line we have the possibility to get a
floor vote this week right the first
time that a rate repair bill has ever
gotten the floor vote but that as we get
closer you know the opposition is
intensified and it is exactly all hands
on deck right phone calls particularly
in the Minnesota House right now go a
long way fantastic and and to admit we
have a you know courageous group of
folks Amanda Lagrange from tech dump
who's been on the show before Jen Larson
from a local IT company and I mean just
just a great network of folks everybody
from Environment Minnesota and a
coalition of repair shops so they're all
they're all working hard on the ground
but there their efforts are amplified by
by you know kind of how much how much
sort of activity the legislators are
hearing from their constituents which is
all of you
so if
if you even have family in the so they
give him a call tell him to come they
write their legislator next up is is
Oregon I was in I was in Salem Oregon a
couple weeks ago for the the right to
repair hearing Oregon this is an
informational only hearing so it was
just you know hey feeling things out
getting ready for the bill next year
that that went very well we had folks
from free geek who I'd really liked him
free geek on the show sometime have you
guys ever been to a free geek I heard
about them free geek is this amazing
open source concept where they're kind
of like an electron recycler merged with
a goodwill but they have open source
ethos so they get computers donated from
all over the place and they you know
they're building pcs from all the parts
that they can make and collect all over
the place and then they have volunteers
come in they teach you how to build a PC
and if you volunteer for 20 hours you
get to take a PC home with you and they
have a thrift store where you can go in
and buy computers for crazy deals it's a
it's a really phenomenal place I'm so
freaky as has been hugely in favor of
rate repair because one one threat to
their model is that they they're
currently you know harvesting pcs and
PCs are fairly modular but as they get
into things like tablets you know you
can't take a you can't get enough
screens off of tablets to make all your
tablets with busted screens work so they
need sources for parts and they've been
reliant on I fix it but we don't were
not as as widely we don't have I fix is
not comprehensive enough for the volume
of products the Freak gets up so I I was
really cool to get to well go to Salem
and testify along the free geek but also
go and wandering around their facility
and I'm always I was find cool things I
bought a bunch of MacBook power adapters
from them because we need we needed more
in the office they're really neat
organization and Oregon is is really
just just picking up speed I think I
think the so the the political
environment is is right there for
getting something done an Oregon is
interesting because in all the right to
repair gosh back in
I want to say something like 2007 maybe
maybe later than that the auto right
repair folks tried in Oregon and failed
so maybe we'll accomplish something that
they weren't able to i just believe you
that Oregon's interesting generally I
think so I mean Oregon has led the way
I'm a lot of these these policies and
certainly their Oregon is really
interesting because on the one hand
they're they're a progressive state on
the other hand you have a lot of
conservatives I mean Eastern Oregon is
in central organization graphically and
you have a lot of farmers you have a lot
of people that are really reliant on
accessing equipment Apple does not have
an apple store
east of the Cascades and so it's you're
reliant on you know the independent
repair community and and I I worked I
grew up in Oregon I worked at a Mac
repair center in and Bend an apple even
though they we were authorized Apple ran
them out of business they just I
remember we were selling IMAX for $12.99
and they the profit for the store was
$15 on a $1300 computer it's very very
hard to make money on those kind of
margins well so that's what what I think
is happening is they yeah we've seen
with some of the documents that
motherboard has released Apple is you
know opening up they're saying hey we'll
let more people in the authorized tent
and that works great while there's
political pressure for right to repair
they're gonna open that up but then what
will happen is they're gonna they're
gonna increasingly you know crackdown
I'll say hey can we can we squeeze the
margins can we reduce how much we're
reimbursing people for a more into
repairs going make things more difficult
and it's kind of similar to me I feel
like with a union where if you're
authorized context you don't have a
union to fight back at you the
manufacturer can just dictate everything
doesn't it feel that like customers
outside they're kind of a major metro
areas are like the next growth frontier
for them for apples authorizer yes like
it seems like on its surface that being
able to allow people to own Apple
products outside of areas where they're
easily accessible to a Mac store or
Apple Store that just seems like
business sense like like you said
everything east of the cask
right I mean it seems like that's where
that they want to go as they're
expanding their authorized Network and
we're seeing this with all the cellphone
companies have realized ten years into
the smartphone revolution that they
still don't have a local service option
for their customers I mean where do you
go to get an HTC phone fixed the
independence can't get the parts and if
she doesn't have a nationwide authorized
network so you mail it into Texas that's
not a great option
no and you have to do something about
your phone in the meantime you have to
carry around a burner or something like
that right so Nathan and I were just in
Sacramento Nathan give us the lowdown on
what went down in California well I mean
one of the it's one of those things
where so the legislators we had been
we've done a number of attempts to kind
of talk to people about right to repair
so we'd had a lot of you know the
california bill is different than the
bill that we've run elsewhere right
right is it it's we kind of scaled it
back to you know maybe make it somewhat
more appealing and so the bill in
California only it kind of made some
changes to the warranty laws so that if
you wanted to have a warranty product
you would need to make parts and service
information available we didn't ask for
diagnostic software or kind of firmware
patches like we do another legislation
we thought this this will be easier you
know it there's still a bunch of stuff
that we wouldn't you need to actually do
all the fixes that we need to you know
kind of maintain the electronics in our
lives but we thought you know this is a
good because California has this very
strong warranty law and we can make
these changes too but that would be a
good way to get started and you know so
and probably about a month before we
were scheduled to have a hearing on the
28th or was it 29th I don't remember one
of those two days you know we'd had a
Lobby day we brought up you know our
kind of scrappy band of tinkerers and
makers and stem educators and repair
shop owners and it was it was it was
very difficult to get the attention of
the legislators like they this bill was
too far
for them they didn't want to talk about
it they were pretty uninformed about the
changes that we made to the bill how
much we've simplified the bill
yeah opposition it was the bill from
last year yeah they the opposition sent
a letter saying you know talking about
all the cybersecurity risks associated
with their diagnostic software but the
bill didn't even require them to provide
diagnostic software so they they just
send in a form letter and the committee
staff informed whether that they send
every other state for this in the last
year which is their our normal case or
the cavalcade of opponents you've got
CompTIA and TechNet and all these
organizations that are there you know
fighting against users that really are
just proxies for Apple there's a lot of
logos but really the logo behind the
scenes is yeah it's like it's we caught
the NASCAR letter like you know it's got
all the logos on it and there again
there are all these trade associations
which are just ways to represent the
manufacturers interests and then you
know so we've the bill is about to come
up for a hearing and then in California
bills basically in those hearings they
get voted on and so you know that
they're not just they're not just
learning about the bill they like need
to make a decision about the bill and so
going up to that hearing we felt like it
was again difficult for us to get in and
finally the legislature started paying
attention to the bill but by that time
you know that's kind of when you know
the verge and motherboard reported that
Apple sent in their lobbyists along with
CompTIA to open up at iPhones and show
legislators all the horrible and
terrible things that could happen if you
know somebody if you tried to fix a
phone this is crazy they're taking a
phone and they're saying if if you open
it wrong this is what will happen right
right like you know an battery which
would you know which would cause a small
you know a small thermal event but of
course the ISIS I just looked at the I
fix it
iPhone 6 battery guide because
an iPhone 6 and 2 million people have
used that guide so it's like obvious if
it was really dangerous to switch
batteries and phones like somebody in
that mix at two million people would
have found some kind of you know problem
with it but it's fascinating to me the
power of spin because we do this all the
time we take apart the phone we say look
it's simple there's the battery it's
really straightforward and easy and
people are empowered that so I'm blown
away that they were successful at doing
the opposite I'm opening it saying look
out scary this is because it is not
scary
I think unfortunate you that people have
heard about lithium battery ion fires
listen iam ion battery fires just from
things like the samsung galaxy note 7
and from you know stories about you know
you know when you fly in a plane now
they ask you about your lithium ion
batteries and you know whether they're
checked in your bag and you can't have
any loose as I discovered flying home
from I fix it a few weeks ago but like I
just feel like I wonder if there's just
kind of a general stigma about them and
people are aware of them as you know
maybe Congress people to about like what
they are state legislators about what
they are and how they're possible its
key are capable exploding and then
apples just kind of twisting the meaning
and the narrative of like you know the
difference between me a regular person
taking a battery out and putting anyone
in verses like everything we've heard
about the danger of lithium ion out
there I wonder if we should do some kind
of demonstration where we took a bunch
of different batteries and we punctured
them like let's let's trigger the fires
and see and show cuz you absolutely if
you puncture battery can cause it to
catch on fire but it would be I think
really hard I've got this wood table
here to even set this wood table on fire
using a lithium battery yes yeah I mean
yes they can catch on fire but like
working on the the fire risk of
operating a car is vastly higher than
the fire risk of a cellphone probably
probably also the lead acid battery in
your car is much more it's much more
danger yeah I mean every time I I had to
jump my car on Saturday and every time I
do it so okay
there will be sparks okay what's the
last time you did something with your
phone that cause sparks so I think I
mean I think it wasn't just the battery
danger right I mean I think that they
were also telling people like
like you talk to a lot of technicians
we'll talk about long screw damage where
it's like you know the iPhone is
multiple screws in it and if you put the
wrong if you just don't know what you're
doing and you put the wrong screw in the
screw you can drill a hole through the
components on the inside and break the
phone like right it's true so it would
be nice if you had a map that showed you
which screws go would be nice it would
be nice it would also be nice if like
high-level legitimate repair technicians
weren't being weren't having their
business model you know being undermined
by these tactics and is that I mean it's
it's we're gonna lose all the you know
the technicians out there that are like
actually really good at this and don't
make mistakes like that because it's
really hard to build a business when you
know these these big companies are kind
of undercutting you and the only people
you're gonna have left are more or less
the you know like the people who are
less committed to that field
I'm just astonished at how easy it is to
so doubt I mean if you thought we were
going in there and saying hey you know
we need independent tailors we need
people who can who can fix clothing and
they're gonna need these sewing machines
and they're gonna be modifying you know
the the manufacturer they're gonna be
modifying Patagonia or Levi's jeans
right they're gonna be using the sewing
machine to modify the jeans and think
about all the safety problems if yeah if
they use the sewing machine wrong we
make it they can hurt themselves and all
of this is true but society is built on
these principles of personal
responsibility and so I just I mean I am
continually astonished at how easy it is
to sow doubt what when you consider how
commonplace and everyday these repairs
are I mean you wonder I also maybe maybe
it wasn't easy for Apple to accomplish
this maybe in fact that it took some of
the most brilliant marketer of you know
creating this mystique that these
devices are so complicated and brilliant
and magical that people can't fix them
that they're different than the sewing
machine or an automobile and you know
and so yeah I mean maybe we should a
marvel at the you know what they've
accomplished kind of convincing as small
electronic device which we know as a
smartphone is more magical than all the
other devices that are made and I mean
it's a pretty impressive device but you
know if you've ever seen one he's taking
a heart you know that it's it's yeah
it's just like any other piece of
electronics but also do you guys feel
like that there's no particular fire
under them that like you know it
legislators if they have an option to do
nothing it's often a very attractive
position because if they do nothing it's
not like people are knocking down their
door saying hey I broke my iPhone screen
and I don't have a lot of options you
know that you know people are aware of
it people know that perhaps that they're
being forced to pay money for things
that should be easier to get done and
and it should cost less but like you
know Pete I guess people think of them
as first world problems like my iPhone
screen needs replacing whatever but you
know I know it's not I just wonder if
that that there's no there's not enough
it's not felt an impetus to to act yet
that's working around I suppose I mean I
think you raise two things one is that
legislators will have a natural
inclination towards the status quo you
know like the the do default option will
be the status quo and I and that's just
true right it takes them a lot to you
know to legislate something and there's
risk there so that you know they tend to
be a risk-averse kind of kind of
profession and so you know and and but
that's true with everything that gets
legislated it's easier to do nothing to
do something but then the other piece
which is you know like every issue has
both the breadth and the depth of the
support right and so and for a lot of
issues were it's like everybody has a
phone everybody is harmed in some way by
an inability to affordably maintain that
phone in your house there's probably
about there on average there's 25
electronic devices so this is an issue
that touches every household and you
know many many times over and it is and
and so there's a
of you know kind of there's a super
broad implication but then we we
struggle then to then represent like the
kind of depth and urgency of the problem
and I think that as for those of us who
do have those stories where we're like
we have an urgent story about like you
know how our life was interrupted in
some meaningful way by the by the
inability to fix something like we need
to make sure that we're getting those
stories out because we do need I feel
like this campaign needs a little bit
more of that urgency and and you know
sometimes that happens when you know
like drink battery gate we saw like a
huge uptick in in you know attention and
urgency around this issue because like
everybody was dealing with you know kind
of very annoying phone slowdowns and it
was it you know the kind of outrage
factor kind of peaked but you know
that's it's it's hard to yeah like it
like how do we need a lot more outrage
right let's let's generate a little bit
more I mean this is been a major issue I
saw motherboard stories on the other
tractor repair issue and some of these
brother Apple fighting things those
stories made it to the top of Reddit
something like four times over the last
week so reddit is outraged we just need
to get the rest of the country outraged
and and I'm very open to ideas on this
one thing that I think is helping to get
more of the country on board is we have
hit so far had three presidential
candidates come on board and support
rate repair we had Hickenlooper from
Colorado and Elizabeth Warren came on
board and the latest one is that Bernie
Sanders has added at least a great
repaired to his political platform just
super cool we know we just got to get we
got to get some of the Republican
candidates on board I don't see any
reason why President Trump wouldn't be
supportive of Wright repair if you think
about his background as an asset manager
dealing with with company you know
running buildings and all the HVAC and
all the complicated equipment that I
mean you're you're building a big
complicated skyscraper you're planning
on 50 or 100 year support life of course
your maintenance people should be able
to take care of that equipment
I mean obviously this has been a
bipartisan thing all across the country
pretty much every place we've worked on
it it's been part of you know Republican
platforms I think the Republican
candidate for governor of Virginia had
Rachel Peron his platform last year in
2018 that was last year so I think we
think we can get there but it would
certainly be nice to get more
Republicans running on this we Kevin you
read the story about how how Rachel
Repair is really a free-market issue
yeah there there have been arguments
made by such non-liberal bastions as
Reason magazine and you know folks
across the spectrum about how you know
just that right to repair is not an
issue of trying to get in the middle of
you and a contract you have with a
company it's you know which is a fear
that some people have a spouse that
it'll that you know allowing people the
right to repair their stuff without
fearing certain kinds of tactics by
companies well you know that will make
warranties invalid and I'll make
warranties these big clinging things
that companies will never get out from
under but most of the time you cracked
me if I'm wrong but most right to repair
legislation has nothing to do with your
warranty that's just a agreement you and
the company have come to you about like
what you'll do within a certain time
period very limited under very you know
laid out circumstances really it's just
about being able to have a choice to fix
things without kind of you know market
manipulation tactics so yeah let's up on
this is about our blog if you want to
search for it or find out our you can
add the link to the show notes
fundamentally what copyright is taking
freedom away from society what copyright
is saying is that if we are going to
make it illegal for you to take a book
that I wrote and photocopy it and sell
it right that and the copyright is
actually in the US Constitution so that
is we're fundamentally we're taking
freedom away from individuals and saying
you do not have the legal right to you
know mass copy other people's works so
that makes sense for protecting the
creative works protecting authors but
when when manufacturers start using it
in ways that were not intended you start
to have this creeping over
of the intellectual property regime and
that's where I think things get really
dangerous and where we should be looking
at legislation not to pass additional
regulation but to roll back some
unintended consequences of these
protections that we put in place for our
creators so I'm looking at the comments
here and we had some folks talking about
boombox repair and III I hadn't remember
having a boombox ramp but Kevin you have
a boombox or your friends at the boombox
what is this a friend of mine had a used
the jawbone big Jambox
and if you remember the jawbone and it's
like it's it's tiny it's only about six
inches long what they made him they made
a model called the big jambox and it was
it's big it is if you threw it at
someone they would be injured heavily
they would have to go to the hospital
but jawbone you know they used to run
the Bluetooth speaker market and so this
is going back quite a few years when he
bought it but he it was dead and he
loved it though because it was you know
perfectly working fine you know the
technology of playing music in your
backyard has not advanced that fully
since you know the heyday of jawbone so
he wanted to replace the battery in it
and using iFixit guide me and my friend
did it at a bar no less so we didn't
even have a nice clean area to work with
just a tabletop but I saw your pictures
on Instagram I was really surprised at
how big this thing is yes it is very big
it's interesting in market contrast
because the original boom boxes you know
they had the battery port on the back
and you'd stick your C or D batteries in
it and and of course the bettors are
removable I think it's interesting that
the jam box decided to make the
batteries non-replaceable yeah and once
you once you kind of break free of that
mental trap of you know this thing is
old this thing seems to be
malfunctioning in some way ergo it is my
city it is my duty as a capitalist
citizen to go buy a new one like once
you kind of break free of that molding
like actually the battery goes out the
battery goes in and now I am listening
to Coldplay in my back yard again like
you know it's it's kind of wondrous once
you like realize that like I don't have
to go buy a new thing I can go to swap
it um
I'd say about 30 minutes but it was e
beers well that was Bjorn umber - okay
so if it had been your beer number zero
it might've taken less than 30 minutes
but you know we good to talk about stuff
too and so we had a guy Don I fix it I
think was to communicate the guide that
you used no where did you get the part
I believe he made it somebody some
factory is making you know you just look
at the model number of the part number
and someone is selling them it works I
check in with him last week earlier this
week and he's working quite well so I
went to uh I went to the Belmont Fixit
clinic in Belmont Massachusetts and
somebody brought in a big old boom box
from like the 1990s and so if you guys
don't know what fix it clinic is you can
they're these free community events that
was held in the library
you bring your broken stuff and somebody
who knows how to fix things fixes it
with you and Jonathan Crohn's who was a
volunteer at for fix a clinic replaced
the drive on the tape player with a
hairband got the boombox working again
that was like the that was like the
coolest most MacGyver fix I've ever seen
anyone do in my life that's answer yeah
it's you know if you've ever been to one
of these repair events but they're like
it's such a great way to spend a
Saturday afternoon helping your
neighbors fix things especially when it
ends with a boombox being fixed in like
you know they break out the cardboard
people start breakdancing okay I I don't
remember what tape was in there like I
want to believe for for whatever reason
that I was like the beginning of lame is
but cassette tapes are coming back when
I was I was talking with the folks at
homeboy industries in LA and they're
repairing all kinds of things they do a
lot of audio equipment and cassette
tapes are all the rage right now
particularly for hip-hop I think the
sound reproduction is just a little bit
better for hip-hop with with cassettes
and they that the original the original
you know pocket was selling awkward yeah
yeah
yeah the they are crazy popular because
guardians of the galaxy so if you have
an original right Sony you want to make
sure you keep it keep hang on to it and
get it to someone that fixes it because
it's probably worth a chunk of change
and the headphones that worked on the
Sony Walkman could now work on your
phone depending on the phone you have
headphones there you go assuming you
still have your headphones spring of
headphones we have a new Android phone
in the building I'm just crazy excited
about this Google rolled out their new
pixel 3a Kevin tell us what's the deal
with the pixel 3a sure well our teardown
team has been taking it apart and I can
see that they're still arguing one right
here they're still arguing some of the
finer points and grabbing some photos
and stuff but yeah so Google's new kind
of mid-range pixel is being torn apart
and you know we're not going to give
away too much you can check out the
teardown when it goes up on I fix it
pretty soon we think but you know just
taken apart it's pretty interesting to
see what decisions Google's made to get
it down to about a four hundred dollar
price point so the morally dramatic
about this right is it's basically a
full blown pixel 3 it's got the same
camera yeah at least the same eight
primary camera as the pixel 3 but it's
half the price yeah my dad always told
me not to negotiate against yourself but
Google is we really trying to make the
case that nobody should pay for their
more expensive phones anymore
the the camera is the same as the pixel
3 the you know the back is plastic but I
wonder how many people really care about
a glass back or a metal back it's
plastic but it feels pretty nice it's
got the same kind of dual color tone
thing going on on the back that they
have with the other pixels but the other
pixel is it's glass on top and metal on
the bottom and the glass up here breaks
so I kind of like the plastic well it's
perfectly fine in your hand and then
also you know because that's gonna be a
not as easy to break as glass or metal
on the back the interesting two of the
more interesting things to us is that
you can take the screen out first it's
easier to replace the screen on this
then with em I think any pixel they've
torn down
double-check that when I go chance feel
like and then also it's a pretty modular
pretty easy to take apart you we didn't
even have to heat up the eye-opener that
I usually throw in the microwave and
toss onto the glass to loosen the glue
it's remarkably pretty very good and
here's the best part of the whole thing
is this piece right here which does not
take up very much space inside the phone
what do you think I'm holding the camera
this is the headphone jack oh I see
which is I maybe I'm just just
personally a little bit obsessed but I
love my headphones they're fantastic
they make my life better every single
day and and you don't have to buy a lot
a series of small batteries to use them
a series of small batteries oh they're
gonna wear out that I deal with
bluetooth pairing issues or you know
deal with the air pods being this you
know completely I didn't have my even
though I had an iPhone 6 oh it has a
headphone jack I was on a flight and I
only had bluetooth headphones and there
so I couldn't watch the little TV for
you you had to work instead I'm not
gonna say the airline but it was one of
those Airlines yeah that does not have
enough room for a human being of
abnormal stature to fit a laptop between
them so what did you do you couldn't use
your laptop you couldn't watch the show
what else is there to do in the world I
found some inner peace meditate on the
plane and stare at the stare at the seat
probably that's a nice engine home
there's really you know there's just
people around you it's a good toys a
good chance to be in touch with yourself
you know Nathan before tablets there
were these paper tablets that would you
come and actually they folded which is
something we're working on with that
woods and but they were texts on them
yeah you're good things yeah I you know
I should have come prepared I was not
the fourth where's the worst case you
have to read the in-flight magazine
which is its own special brand of
catastrophe Sudoku was already done so
now
well I think you know Google's clearly
going down market and price which is
probably a good thing because you know
all the budget Android phones there's a
lot of good ones but some of the
challenges have been getting software
updates certainly Google has I mean the
best camera tune right that Kevin is is
the pixel three the best can a cell
phone camera in the market with some
hedging yes and the pixel 3a has the
exact same camera as the pixel three you
know they looked at it
our team looked at it and it is the
exact same camera and you know it's also
bolstered by Google's ooh its bolstered
by Google's own you know software that
kinda helps with stuff like nitesite and
things like that that during their
presentation on Monday Tuesday at Google
i/o they they showed a comparison shot
the exact same shot taken like a dark
roller rink type scenario and they said
they had a pixel pixel 3 a shot and a
phone X shot
I wonder what fun fun X is I don't know
so they you know so that that's that's
their strong point is that they can
power you know some of the features of
this phone with their gigantic crushing
amount of servers but it's it's
interesting like I said it's interesting
to see them basically come out and say
like oh we understand you don't want to
pay $900 for a phone so here's the
foreigner dollar one and I I don't know
if most people will notice the spec bump
I mean whatever the opposite is the
other one has an additional camera it's
got a higher spec Qualcomm processor
it's got the metal back its NFC charging
those are kind of the main features that
left out on the cheaper one wireless
charging yeah but you know like I don't
really feel like wireless charging to
the point now where it's like a must
have right well and I would argue you
know if you think about from an
environmental perspective you don't want
to use wireless charging because you
know that heat is the charge beds heat
up all that is lost your phone you're
going to use something like four times
as much electricity if you're charging
your phone wirelessly then that's you're
plugging to them oh you're about your
electricity bill or the you know and
minimizing your carbon footprint you
always want to plug your phone and not
use wireless charging I never thought
we were working on the the green
cellphone standard as part of our rate
repair advocacy we get that we gotta
weigh in on these green standards for
cell phones and one of the things that I
proposed was that we should just ban
wireless charging on all phones purely
on the bare milligrams if if everybody
in the in the country switched to I was
charging for their phones you're talking
like instantly Forex the energy usage of
of everybody I mean you plug into the
wall and and the charging particularly
Apple chargers are quite good it's 90 or
95 percent efficient and you're nowhere
nowhere close to that with wireless
charging and not to mention all that I
mean like everything in someone's house
when all of a sudden new standard comes
along and you just have to go buy a raft
of gear you know you know I've got it
now I gotta have a wireless charging pad
for the kitchen now I gotta have one for
your bedroom and you know now you're you
wanna have all these things my dog
doesn't like it either he does like this
out of it yeah it's just more stuff you
gotta buy and get rid of right
absolutely well I mean I will see how
this goes but we it's been we've been a
little bit frustrated over the last few
years if you look at the repairability
rankings that the the flagship phones
have been getting worse you know we
downgraded Apple a little bit as they've
gotten a little bit more challenging to
open Samsung has been consistently
rolling in a four out of ten on our
scorecard so it'd be really nice to see
a phone that was higher and I'm looking
forward I haven't seen the final score
on this but I'm looking forward to
seeing what our engineers assess of that
well yeah a really great I guess it
depends on whether we've sorry about
that my dog was being in daughter jerk I
guess it depends on whether this is a
one-off attempt to recapture some of the
low-end market or if it really is like a
signal direction from Google well I
don't see why you can't have a spectrum
of options I mean Apple said hey we've
got the XR and the XS and there's a big
price difference between them why can't
you have a sure with the bottom still
being $700
correct well and so then apples bottom
is the iPhone se which we've talked
about in the past and I still think is
the greatest iPhone Apple's ever made
but its processor is getting a little
bit long in the tooth and it's it's
coming up against the edge of iOS
support now I think well they just need
to bump the processor keep everything
the same and just give us a better
processor and maybe in your camera a
little bit yeah
well we'll see I'm sure that Phil
Schiller is listening to me suggestions
on on Apple's market direction the other
thing I think is this is interesting
I've had other people reach out to me
and say well what is the if i if i don't
have a thousand dollars to spend on on a
phone whether my option so of course
this is a good new $400 option but
whether the other can the top Android
phone options right now um the Nokia 7.1
the I think it's a seven point one as an
interesting one the Moto G 7 is an
interesting kind of cheap mid flagship I
don't like to use the word flagship like
everyone else like a lot of tech sites
do to refer to like because then a
company will have multiple flagships and
that really defeats the purpose of a
flagship which is the one ship that's
out front of your navy it's a very
confusing structure of fleet to have
multiple ships bearing your country's
flag well maybe these companies have
confusing navies yes that's true Steve
Jobs had a lot of metaphors about the
Navy um so yeah there's there's your
you'd actually don't lack for options if
you're like I don't want to I don't want
to take the cheapest phone my carriers
willing to give me for free but I don't
want to pay a thousand dollars for a you
know super high-end device that you know
looking at our teardown of the 3a and
comparing it to things like Samsung's
and high-end iPhones like the things
that make them premium also just make
them far more likely to be broken like a
glass back you know of the super fancy
OLED display that is you know not front
first
as our team calls it like that's harder
to get to inside the device wireless
charging another thing that can break
you know it's just it's funny that all
the things that Google's said to
everybody like hey do you think that
this is do you think we can do without
these things and I think people are
gonna say yes
yes certainly yeah I mean NFC wireless
charging that kind of thing yeah I think
that's a not necessary even for the
people that really like it I think you
could you could live without that we've
done without them those features in our
phones for a long time so I totally
agree I mean and maybe the glass kind of
you know fit and finished polishes with
a lot of people talk about but I think
they'll look the same and you're going
to put
anyway so yeah it's interesting as you
think about repairability of these
things the Nokia is I'm not very
familiar with that phone and we had
repairability analysis of it so I don't
know if you buy the Nokia 7.1 how
fixable it's going to be but we do know
on the Motorola phones because they're
the only cell phone manufacturer that is
selling parts to consumers right now
that that's gonna be a pretty solid
option right of course you can get those
parts from iFixit and we've had a lot of
fun putting those putting those kids
together so the other major thing I mean
this is just been there's so much
activity happening in the right to
repair world April 30th was the day that
we had our hearing in Sacramento but it
was also the deadline for comments to
the Federal Trade Commission as they're
on their big nixing the fix campaign and
so I think all of us have been involved
in one way or another writing comments
of the FTC Nathan what does the FTC
looking for I mean I think you know if
you want to go back to get a little
context I think you could start with how
they sent out warning letters last April
to six companies telling them that
they're void warranty if removed
stickers that they were sticking on
products were a violation of the you
know warranty law the magazine Moss
Warranty Act which is a federal law that
governs warranty policy and I eat on and
if you look at the call for research I
think that they're looking for ways to
show you know the impacts for consumers
if the marketplace for repair is
undermined by you know various tactics
of the industry so they wanted to know
kind of what the industry was doing that
would undermine repair you know what
harm or what impact that has on you know
consumers and then they also kind of
live left space for the manufacturers to
kind of give their side of the story
like why they felt it was necessary to
you know set up these barriers to repair
right and so we hope that that process
will yield some you know some clarity on
you know is it good that this is
happening or and how bad is it
you know I think from our
part we submitted some research that we
did that looked at the way companies
routinely deny or claim tell consumers
that their warranties are no longer
valid because of independent maintenance
or of the product which is generally
considered to be a violation of their
consumer rights under the medicine Moss
Warranty Act just like those those
stickers are violation well it's a first
arranging investigation they're curious
about just obstacles to repair in
general and one of the things that I
don't think gets talked about enough is
how we generally out there fixing
iPhones when they break iPhone screens
and they break but most people are not
fixing Samsung's screens when they break
and if you do the local repair shop
they'll tell you that most of their
business is iPhone and not Samsung but
Kevin you did a little bit of
investigation into why that's the case
what what's going on
well it's it's a it's not one straight
answer but basically the shortest
version I can give is that Samsung is
the predominant maybe ninety-five
percent market share runner of OLED
screens for phones and OLED screens are
the kind use an iPhone X line and then
most of Samsung's s phones of recent
vintage so that's great you get really
rich black you get vibrant colors there
may be more energy-efficient if you
apply up user interface exactly yeah
they're they're great you know they're
they're interesting and they're probably
the way forward or the one thing that
we're looking at but they're very fickle
they're hard to repair to refurbish to
reach you know to rescue from damage
this the used market for them isn't very
good because they also burn in overtime
something that you know TVs have a long
up problem with in the early days of
OLED TVs and then also just a lot of
market forces in that Samsung like I
said controls the market for how many
are out there how much they cost and how
much profit they want to make from them
any screens that are made and available
for the repair market are generally
snapped up by carriers and by insurance
programs because they're the ones we
have customers that have paid out a lot
over time and so they've got very
profitable customers who they want to
keep happy verses independent shops who
then have to get where they get what
they can to you know fix up phones and
stuff like that so it's a it's a
multitude of factors but really at all
points to just nobody it's it's in
nobody's incentive including Samsung's
to make a bunch of available that may
change in the industry news which I've
now subscribed to a number of all led
newsletters I never expected to
subscribe to their you know Japan I
think it's called like OLED Japan is
investing a lot of money into a new
factory I there are three different
companies in China that are creating
their own Samsung's not gonna have the
bulk of the mountain for this for too
much longer there's gonna be competitors
there's gonna be things like that and
you know it just shows in the fact that
like Apple has to turn to Samsung for
their OLED screens a company a samsung a
company who Steve Jobs once declared
thermonuclear war upon and has you know
was this receiving end of a 10 year like
15 billion dollar lawsuit so yeah
Samsung is fabbing their their main
processors as well so this is a this is
a connected industry it's it's crazy but
yet so that's one thing where you know
unfortunately the answer is not one
thing or one one place you can push to
fix the problem it's a it's a it's a
general kind of need that we all have to
get more LEDs available for fixing
instead of just asking people to upgrade
all the time I feel like this is an
inevitable part of technical progress
where you get some new innovation
there's only one or two companies that
have it they signed contracts to the big
manufacturers your integrator than and
what their their product it could be any
technology right it could be the face ID
you know projector right pick your your
your technical innovation because the
manufacturers have a lock on it there's
no way for the aftermarket 2 to provide
those parts and that's what we're
running into right now where we have
aftermarket options for LEDs there is no
aftermarket option for o LEDs because
only one or two companies have figured
it out
sure a one to one notable contrast
though is that with LCDs the screen
technology we'd all been using for about
a decade before that and you know still
pretty common in a lot of devices TVs
and other things they could be
refurbished generally like you could
you could restore them if someone traded
one in because it had a dead pixel or
two they could be fixed they could be
extracted more easily from devices and
harvested by recyclers or by others to
resell them and eventually yeah I mean
probably at first LCDs were the
exclusive of one or two companies but a
kind of a market of remake errs and and
right and OAM parts and overruns and
stuff like that flourished but right now
we're just a time for the the led after
market to get to the quality level that
yeah oh yeah but it's also a very
finicky technology it's like writing the
name organic LED and that material that
layer of material as Samsung found out
with its Galaxy fold it does not take
well to any bumps water dirt dust
anything and that I think that's going
to be the nature that's moving forward
so what we're going to be rooting for
Japan display as they improve their
technology rooting for LG is they're
bringing some of their new LED fabs
online and hoping that some of this
makes that in the aftermarket because
even like with without app the Apple
watch there's stories this week the
Apple has run out of parts internally
for Apple watch series to repairs and so
if you go in right now to get your
series to fix they just give you a
series three watch because they don't
have the parts well that's nice I guess
I guess but I mean the the right you
know repair parts supply chain is is you
know it's a challenge to get that sir
that's that's a lot of what we do what I
fix is figuring out alternative sources
for these things and we do have Apple
watch parts from time to time we don't
have them regularly it's one of the
harder things for us to source and there
is no robot that is currently tasked
with recycling Apple watch series - yet
yeah there's no there's no death bot for
Apple watches that I know maybe maybe
next time it's it feels may be possible
the Daisy could unglue the Apple watch
but it's it's tricky well that's that's
my rundown of the major news for the
week oh you know the other thing that
that is I thought were really
interesting is Vice ran this amazing
kind of cultural exploration of the
earpods and this story has just taken
the web by storm I see it everywhere you
know some
days later it's still the top red story
on vice.com what what do you think she
struck a nerve with there yeah I mean so
III also had like 10 people send me that
article and I mean I think that there's
something that's just fundamentally
absurd about having disposable
technology like I mean just the idea
that you would make something that would
be you know I mean it's like weird I
don't know hiragana I was just thinking
about this because we were talking about
airplanes being stuck in airplanes and
they give you those terrible headphones
it's like there's disposable electronics
but like the idea that you would get
like you these expensive earphones that
would essentially just have a very
limited lifespan and then be guaranteed
to end up in the waste stream is you
know I think people are starting to
realize that we're in a moment in
society where like we really can't
afford to be doing that and you know
we've kind of gone too far with how
disposable we've made everything and you
know and then Apple you know I think
part part of it that you know they they
tend to get a lot of these headlines
when it's Apple stuff because I think
that they have such a you know they have
such a you know tidy brand and the
environment is such a big you know part
of the story that they like to tell
about themselves but yet that they make
disposable electronics and it you know I
mean there's no other way to describe
the airpot but like you know this absurd
disposable piece of electronics and they
could have made it another way but they
didn't and yeah and I do think that like
people are starting to question that and
and I you know this is a lot of the
energy we see especially in the
environment space about right to repair
like you know why this issue is getting
so much more attention and interest
across the country it's because people
are worried about our relationship with
electronics it's not it cannot last we
cannot not healthy yeah you know make
use and toss at this speed the plan
will not abide it you know we're gonna
run out of this stuff in the ground and
it doesn't make any sense it's not it's
not good for anything but short-term
profit right we need that we need to
shift beyond this world of disposal and
yet you know the way that lithium
technology and you want to make
something this small and compact it's
extra work to make it make it
serviceable and it certainly doesn't
doesn't help the bottom line well what I
find amazing about this is we did our
original air pods teardown on December
20th 2016 and we gave this product a 0
out of 10 and I have been screaming from
the rooftops
ever since that the air plugs are
absolutely terrible product and we get
people paying attention to us to some
extent but not a lot it hasn't made it
mainstream I'm sure that her story this
week has gotten far more attention than
our teardown a few years back and
there's this cultural thing where even
though we're telling people this product
is going to fail like it's going to fail
in 18 months it's gonna fail in two
years we're telling you now do not buy
this it will fail people still buy it
and then two years later they're shocked
it stopped working and I guess I mean
that's just that's the I don't know I
hope that the cross that we bear the the
Vice article earpods our tragedy goes it
also goes into the social implications
of wearing you know $170 devices loose
in your ears the sigh at a size that is
very easy to lose you know as noted with
a you know definite sales end of life
you know within 18 months or two years
and just the implications of everybody
agreeing that yeah this makes sense
carrying around a you know device I can
lose that is like you know days worth of
salary for some people that I'm just
carrying around just cuz I I can't stop
listening to podcasts for like ten
minutes so while I'm walking down the
street I don't like I don't like the the
minor inconvenience of a wire that I can
hide under my coat we buy all of our
staff headphones and we have our
internal policy basically these are the
headphones that we will spend our you
know hard-earned money that people have
entrusted us with and yeah air pods are
absolutely not allowed to be purchased
with iFixit money unless we're doing a
teardown to inform the public
I'm not going to support financially a
product like this it's it's just it's
not an ethical product well there you go
this has been a vast you know set of
topics we've talked about everything
from Oregon to California to what's
going on in Minnesota this week Google's
got a really interesting new product
stay tuned for a teardown coming out
very soon on the new pixel 3a as well as
the FTC comments and we we sent to the
FTC extensive comments during their
nixing the ficks investigation and we
will be posting our comments publicly
soon to our new site so stay tuned for
that
coming up next of course we will
hopefully we'll have about in Minnesota
soon and then there are a number of
other states they're waiting in the
wings in this word as soon as we're
through that the FTC is going to have
their hearing in July but we're
interested in hearing from you what
would you like to hear us talk about on
repair radio if you wants to keep doing
more episodes it would be fantastic if
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what you're interested in and we want to
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leave us a comment rate us you can also
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will be back in two weeks thanks
everybody talk to you later
hasta luego