Tag: right-to-repair

If You’re Going to Make Something, Here’s How to Make It Robust

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Christopher Tidy was 10 years old the first time he took apart an engine.

The carburetor—the block of machinery that supplies a gas engine with fuel and air and helps to spark ignition—was a mess. It was blocked with thick layers of congealed fuel and dust. Tidy saw the problem and just happened to have some tools nearby and a burning curiosity about how exactly this thing worked and what he could do to fix it. That quickly turned into an attempt “to assemble a kind of Frankenstein engine” out of the parts of many discarded petrol engines. He disassembled the rumbling machine piece by piece until he found the offending parts, then doused the carburetor in gasoline, followed by water and dish soap, then scrubbed it clean with a toothbrush. The carburetor sat shiny and clean on his shelf until he sold it to someone looking for the right part.

Since then, Tidy has continued to feel inclined to disassemble things with his hands, see how they work, and, hopefully, make them work better. Quickly, he realized that it is not always quite so easy to just gleefully take something apart.

Product repairability is an issue that is building to a boil. Advocacy groups like iFixit and PIRG have campaigned on making products more repairable in the US, Canada, and across the world. The European Union has advanced legislation in recent years that compels companies to let users repair their own devices. These efforts have led to companies like Apple and Samsung implementing repair programs that make it easier for customers to fix their own phones, tablets, and other small electronics. Still, humans generate an astronomical amount of waste every day, mostly because we tend to throw broken things away rather than figure out how to reuse or repair them.

Tidy wants to help that process, and to come at it from the source: by focusing on product design, and trying to provide a framework for how that can be steered in a more repairable direction.

Since tearing apart that first engine, Tidy has focused on fixing stuff throughout a career in engineering and academia. (Aside from a brief jaunt in the late 1990s where he helped design a robot bent on destruction for the show Robot Wars.) He studied mechanical engineering at Cambridge University, and went on to teach engineering and work on projects at schools in Germany, Russia, and at the Field and Space Robotics Laboratory at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now 42, Tidy runs a volunteer repair workshop in Ladybrand, South Africa. It is not a business, just a space that he uses to tinker or help others repair their lamps, trucks, and toasters.

After years in that workshop, Tidy has put together some big ideas about how to build more repairable products.

Think Different

Tidy’s manifesto for better product design.

Courtesy of Christopher Tidy

Tidy hopes to inspire product designers to focus on making long-lasting products from jump. It is an endeavor that he understands after a career of designing products and seeing how wasteful the process is. The trouble is that a product designer has to bring a product to market at a certain price and under a certain development budget, and what they have to prioritize doesn’t always translate to a long-lasting final product. Mechanical engineers developing a product can feel like they’re being pulled in many different directions, Tidy says, focusing primarily on consumer preferences, speed of manufacturing, and keeping costs low. Designing with repair in mind often gets forgotten. Tidy wanted to do something to fix that.

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December 2, 2024
The Right to Repair Movement Will Keep On Fixin’

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“The big question is, can we continue this pro competition populist movement?” Wiens says. “Can populism really infect and take over both parties? Because both parties have been very corporate for so long.”

That populism may translate to consumer-focused measures in the new Trump era, but it isn’t certain. Vance has talked at length about his support for more competition in the tech market, as well as policy that would aim to break up big companies like Google. Trump has also signaled his opposition to some of the Big Tech companies—often the ones that have upset him personally—but in his last term generally made lives easier for corporations and the wealthy with tax cuts and favorable legislation. The administration may be up for helping to push policies that address the right to repair efforts. (Though we’ll see how the newly created government efficiency department helmed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy decides to prioritize government spending.)

“Are we going to enable an era of increased competition, which will make America more resilient on so many levels, or is Trump going to go with his billionaire buddies?” Wiens says. “We just don’t know with Trump.”

Of course, the US isn’t the only battleground for reparability movements. The European Union will also drive legislation on product design and repair requirements that will ripple out to devices sold elsewhere. Nathan Proctor, the senior director of the campaign for the right to repair at the nonprofit interest group PIRG, says the best strategy is a varied one that incorporates repair allies from all over.

“I’m probably not going to put too many eggs in the federal basket,” Proctor says. Instead, he says that PIRG is focused on repair efforts on a more local or state level. “There are a lot of other great state and local lawmakers, other folks that really care about the right to repair. And there’s a lot of opportunity to keep going. I’m not counting anything out.”

Ultimately, both Wiens and Proctor say they will continue their fight no matter what political turmoil swirls around the White House and Congress. And appealing to a wide range of political views will certainly help. For example, Proctor cites efforts that PIRG has made to work with veterans groups to advocate for more repairability in the armed forces. Because it turns out that even active duty military and medical equipment aren’t immune to software locks and being bricked by service updates that the user can’t fix themselves.

“We just have to get to work,” Proctor says. “I don’t want to prognosticate, like, ‘Oh, everything’s fine.’ Because I don’t know that. I don’t have that information. But I do know that no matter what hand gets dealt, we have things that we can do to speak truth to power and to protect our communities and to move things forward.”

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November 18, 2024
Google Is ‘Thinking Through’ How to Make the Pixel Watch Repairable

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If you break the Google Pixel Watch—whether the first-generation smartwatch from 2022 or the latest model launched earlier this month—there is no way to repair it through official channels. Instead, if you successfully make a warranty claim, Google will send you a replacement unit instead of repairing your model. This lack of repairability highlights the company’s inexperience in the smartwatch space. You can take a broken Apple Watch to Apple to repair cracked glass or replace the battery, and the same is true for Samsung’s Galaxy Watches.

There’s some good news though. At a Climate Week NYC panel focused on repairable technology—hosted by Back Market and moderated by One5c—Nicole Azores, a manager of Government Affairs and Public Policy at Google, says the company is thinking through the design of the Pixel Watch to make it more repairable.

“Watches and wearables are still fairly nascent and we are thinking through how to make this repairable,” Azores said on the panel. “We’re thinking about repairability on a broader scale, not just on phones and tablets, and we want to make sure that all of our products eventually become repairable. I think watches being so new as a category, there are some design elements that need to be considered on how we make them repairable.”

When Can You Fix It?

Azores did not provide any additional information, including a timeline. Consumer tech products typically have a two- to three-year development time. But it’s unclear whether this more repairable framework will show up in the Pixel Watch 4 next year, or even later than that. Google has stuck with the same design for its Pixel Watch over the last three generations, though the Pixel Watch 3 launched in two sizes for the first time.

This is the first time the company has publicly commented on the irreparability of its smartwatch. Until now, Google representatives have typically said the company has nothing to share when repairability concerns are brought up.

The Pixel Watch is a latecomer in the world of smartwatches, but the software it runs—Wear OS—has been around for a decade (formerly called Android Wear). Google managed the operating system, as manufacturers like Fossil and LG made the smartwatches themselves. That changed in 2022, when Google released its very own smartwatch, following its effort to jumpstart the waning platform alongside Samsung and Fitbit.

Google reportedly captured 8 percent of the wearable band market share in the fourth quarter of 2022, the timeframe of when the first Pixel Watch launched. Research group Canalys says the company shipped 880,000 Pixel Watches in that period (the rest are Fitbit devices).

Just the Starting Point

Lack of repairability will doom many of these watches as electronic waste to the landfill, which according to a recent UN climate report, has already reached a crisis point. In 2022, there were around 137 billion pounds of e-waste, and only less than a quarter was recycled. By 2030, e-waste is expected to grow by 33 percent, outpacing the recycling rate.

There are ongoing efforts to enforce repairability in tech. Last year, the European Union passed regulations requiring smartphones and tablets to have longer-lasting batteries or easier methods for users to replace batteries using common tools beginning in June 2025. While it doesn’t have to comply with this legislation, Apple’s new iPhone 16 debuted a new adhesive that makes the battery inside easier to remove,

Whether it’s in the Pixel Watch 4 or Pixel Watch 5, this design change is a win for consumers. Now Google needs to focus on improving the repairability of Fitbit’s wearables. Despite the prevalence of its trackers, the company doesn’t have any repair centers to send your device in for fixes.

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September 24, 2024
The iPhone 16’s Battery Is Easier to Replace, Finally

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This only affects new smartphones launching in the EU after June 2025, which means the iPhone 16 does not have to adhere to this law. The regulation doesn’t just touch on batteries though. Manufacturers need to sell critical spare parts for 7 years and offer at least 5 years of software updates. These laws often influence other regions, hence why Apple is likely testing this battery replacement process in its latest phone. It’s unclear if the new adhesive would be fully compliant with the EU’s regulations.

“The point of the legislation is that it won’t most likely require [Apple] to completely change the design of the product,” says Ugo Vallauri, codirector of The Restart Project and a founding member of the Right to Repair Europe coalition. “As long as they can supply the spare part as well as the tools needed to perform the repair and it can be performed by a generalist person—someone with some level of competence—they would not need to change much further, which can be potentially be seen as a weakness of the legislation. We will see what happens in that respect.”

Matching Game

But easier battery replacements are just one part of the story. Apple is notorious for “parts pairing,” the policy where it uses software to identify and approve parts. Apple will disable certain features if it finds the part wasn’t sourced from Apple’s official channels—even if the part comes directly from another iPhone. For example, as iFixit’s website says, if you replace your iPhone’s screen with a genuine but second-hand part, your device will lose access to Apple’s True Tone and auto-brightness features, even though the screen will otherwise function normally. You may also see warning messages for replaced parts that Apple cannot identify.

New laws in Oregon and Colorado prohibit the practice of parts pairing to discriminate against otherwise compatible parts, and Apple earlier this year said it would expand repair options to support used genuine parts starting this fall. That now applies to the Face ID sensor in the TrueDepth selfie camera—you can now swap this component from one unit to another without compromising security, safety, and privacy, according to Apple.

Apple also says now if you use a third-party part that isn’t available in its cloud-based calibration servers, the phone will try to activate the part and make it work to its full capability. It will also show the repair history of the device within Settings and list which parts have been replaced. Any used Apple parts will now be able to be calibrated after you install them, and these and will appear as “used” parts in the device’s repair history. That means features like True Tone will finally be enabled for third-party displays, and you’ll be able to see health data for third-party batteries. The front camera and lidar scanner will also stay operational if the module is replaced.

“I’ve always felt like the goal of right to repair is to create the incentive for these manufacturers, who are the ones good at making stuff, to prioritize or at least incorporate repairability into their objectives,” says Nathan Proctor, senior director of the Campaign for the Right to Repair at Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). “And once they do, they are actually coming up with new ways to make things easier to fix in ways I couldn’t have predicted or thought up. It’s exciting to see Apple engineers coming up with solutions for making things more fixable.”

Lock Step

Photograph: Apple

But there’s a new concern on the horizon with iOS 18 rolling out to Apple devices: Activation Lock. You might be familiar with this if you have erased an iPhone in the past but forgot to remove your Apple account details, essentially locking a new owner out from the device unless they have your password. In iOS 18, this Activation Lock feature now extends to iPhone parts. The idea is that this will deter thieves from stealing iPhones to sell parts. If the iPhone detects that a used part has been installed, it will ask for the original part owner’s Apple account password.

Proctor says the number one complaint he’s heard from device refurbishers is around Activation Lock—these companies have devices legally acquired from donations or recycling programs, but they cannot do anything to unlock the phone. (Apple has ways to bypass Activation Lock if you have proof of purchase documentation.)

“We need a way to verifiably say this is not a stolen part,” Proctor says. “I really respect and appreciate and understand the value of the way Activation Lock thwarts theft, but there’s got to be some middle ground where a reputable recycler doesn’t have to shred working parts and working phones. It’s ridiculous. It has the potential to undermine any environmental gains from all the other stuff that they’re doing.”

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September 19, 2024
iFixit Portable Soldering Iron Review: Worthy of Your Work Bench

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The right-to-repair movement has a catchy name, but before you can worry about the right to repair, you need the ability to repair. If you don’t know how to take your device apart, there’s no sense worrying about whether it’s legal to do so. Without basic repair skills and a helping of innate curiosity, the right to repair is useless.

This is where iFixit’s new Hub Soldering Iron enters the fray. iFixit, a longtime supporter of the right to repair, has thousands of tutorials online to help you actually repair things. Now the company has made a soldering iron to help you roll up your sleeves and get into the physical world of repair.

The Right to Solder

I grew up around soldering. My father built his own tube-powered ham radio gear, but for whatever reason I never actually did any soldering until rather late in my repair life. An electrician friend of mine was appalled that I didn’t solder on a regular basis and gifted me a bare-bones soldering iron, which was all I had for an embarrassingly long time. Later I bought a Pinecil, mostly for the small, portable form factor, but that cheapo soldering iron was all I had for years.

While a cheap soldering iron is better than no soldering iron, I’ve come to think the reason many people are intimidated by soldering, or have problems when they first try it, is due to cheap soldering pens. Cheap tools are the source of many a problem, but with soldering irons the big one is that they don’t get hot enough, which makes the solder stick to the tip rather than flowing nicely where you want it. Cheap irons also lack interchangeable tips, which make soldering easier by fitting exactly where you want them to go.

iFixit, which made its name in the repair world creating guides, tutorials, and more all designed to help consumers be more than consumers, has launched a new store called the Fix Hub. The first product is a portable USB-C soldering iron.

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

iFixit’s new soldering iron is actually several products. The core is the Smart Soldering Iron for $80. It’s powered by USB-C and comes with a beveled, 1.5-mm tip. (There are six tips available, and iFixit plans to have more.) Then there’s the Portable Soldering Station for $250, which includes the iron and a battery pack designed for the iron. The final option is the Complete Toolkit for $300, which includes everything from the soldering station package, plus useful tools like wire strippers, flush cutters, solder, flux, a wire holder, cleaner, and more.

The thing that jumps out at you the most when first opening the kit is the magnetic cap. This is a thing of genius. It not only covers the tip, but you can put it on even when the tip is hot, and it will automatically power down to the idle temperature (which you can set in the app). Every soldering iron should have a cap like this. This feature alone makes iFixit’s soldering iron great for beginners. The cap also has a wire attachment that allows it to be mounted on the battery pack.

There are other user-friendly features, like an LED system that warns you when the iron is hot and motion sensors to detect when you set it down for a while (which cause it to automatically shut off). The motion sensors can also detect if you drop it and will shut it off automatically. I tested all three of these features, and they worked without issue.

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September 19, 2024