Technology

Thank fucking god for the EU, for fighting for global digital rights where nobody else does.

Apple in 2027: This is not a battery, it's a.....umm ....... Ultra High Density Low Current Super Capacitor.

I came across this insane opinion piece the other day: https://www.laptopmag.com/features/mind-eurown-business-for-the-sake-of-the-iphone-apple-needs-to-fight-back

It's so surreal, it feels satirical

All we need now is a headphone jack

The fact that some of the gen Z crowd think it will be horrible have forgotten that it was much easier to carry 2 batteries and swap them out vs carrying a charger and cable with you everywhere. Pop in the new battery, power it on and carry on with you now full battery phone. Being tethered to a wall so you can have 10% from 20 minutes of charging is crazy.

It will also likely mean easier repairs. Louis Rossman just did a video on this

It's NOT just phones.

It's EVERYTHING with a battery. Including cars, laptops, e-bikes, video game controllers, headphones etc. (im not even sure if there are exceptions, such as tiny tiny "airpod" like things.. ?)

And they must be (with a few exceptions) replacable by a "layman", without the use of special tools - which means no heat pads, to soften up glue etc etc. (and for gods sake, i hope it also means apple can't hardwareID lock a battery)

an exception mentioned in the EU document about the law says, high power batteries for example in an electric car, must be done by a profesional - but of course it still has to be "replacable" and not.. tear the whole car apart and rebuild it using new batteries.

replacable batteries in headphones, bluetooth mice, laptops etc, is gonna be awesome.

and lets not forget, they have to recycle the old ones - and produce new batteries using recycled materials.

in fact, i will try to hold on replacing my current (2 year old) phone, and wait to get one before 2027. Usually the battery turns to shit in 3ish years.

Stand back everyone, I'm going to attempt nuance.

Industrial design is about tradeoffs. Making the battery easily replaceable will come with drawbacks. Maybe it'll be size, or water resistance, or durability, but something will have to be compromised. The extent of the compromises remains to be seen, and people will have different opinions about whether it's worth it.

Ordinarily I'm not a fan of regulators making product design decisions, because that's exactly the kind of thing market forces are supposed to be good at. In this case, though, there's a demand that's clearly not being met, and companies clearly have a vested interest in pushing consumers toward replacing their old hardware rather than repairing it, which creates externalities markets are unable to account for. Market failures like this are exactly the kind of situation where government regulation is needed.

My current device and the two before that all have had removable batteries. I've always thought built in batteries are stupid and it's nice to finally notice that other people agree. Hopefully they next mandate that it has to be able to be taken apart with a screwdriver and spare parts must be able to be purchased straight from the manufacturer.

Coming soon from Apple. Screws that require a 4D tesseract shaped screwdriver to undo.

But if you can undo them, feel free to change the battery.

Honestly good. Usb C is so good.

I have a couple of 100w chargers around the house, no messing about can charge nearly everything at full speed.

Pesky EU throwing their weight around giving consumers more rights! --Brexiteer logic

Oh well hopefully we'll (UK) still benefit from it. Easier to design one phone than "EU" and "Rest of world" versions after all.

This needs to be true of notebooks too. I love my 2015 Macbook Air, but the battery lasts about five minutes and I use it way too much to take the time to get it replaced. Especially when it's old enough to not be supported soon. But if I could just spend $50 and replace the battery myself without fucking things up, which I totally would as things stand now, I would be able to use it without keeping it plugged in all the time like I used to.

They should also demand unlocked boot loaders and open drivers for all devices. That or steep penalties if they don't support the devices for at least 10 years. We should have manuals and specifications for every component, really. We really need to reduce waste.

Can't want to be able to buy used phone and just pop in new battery. Still we need a law to allow easier mobile operating systems development for third-parties.

Will literally anyone in the EU help me immigrate? ill do anything to get out of Murica.

A portable battery should be considered to be removable by the end-user when it can be removed with the use of commercially available tools and without requiring the use of specialised tools, unless they are provided free of charge, or proprietary tools, thermal energy or solvents to disassemble it. Commercially available tools are considered to be tools available on the market to all end users without the need for them to provide evidence of any proprietary rights and that can be used with no restriction, except health and safety-related restrictions.

I'm glad they got specific. I wonder where Apple's self-service battery replacement program falls under this? AFAIK it's not free. They charge a fee to rent the specialized tools, which are also proprietary.

This gives Apple a few choices:

1. Make the tools commercially available, but at an astronomical price in typical Apple fashion
2. Make the tools commercially available at a normal consumer price (unlikely)
3. Make the self-service battery replacement program free (most likely, but will require a significant revision to the tools used since they are industrial-grade)

Honestly, I'm all for it if it means bringing back ridiculously sized phone batteries with huge bumps that can act as a finger shelf. My note 2 with a 4200mah battery was a beast in 2013.