Will the EU change smartphones for all?

[DaveW]

Will it be too expensive to provide smartphones for two different markets? Also can they afford to lose the EU market if not? Therefore will most electronic devices in future have detachable batteries and also be repairable?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo-k-Qosy8A

[ohugal]

Thank you for the informative video. My brother used to work for Apple. He regularly talked about how Apple was making their devices consumer unfriendly. Which means repairs are expensive and can only be done by certified repair shops. Apple attempts to squeeze every last penny from their consumers and is also the company with the highest netto profit when it comes to smartphones. I can't really tell how the right-to-repair act will turn out eventually, but I'm happy regulations are being set in place. Not just for us as consumers, but also for the enviroment. Something tells me Apple will be able to give it a spin and eventually advertise themselves as enviromentally concious.
I wish to add that reading the comments on YouTube can be informative if you wish to know more about the topic.

[DaveW]

One other scam to watch out for is stopping printers using third party inks. That is rather like you buying a Ford car then finding you can only use more expensive "Ford Petrol (Gas)" in it or the engine disables itself.

I have an Epson 2010 printer that was successfully using compatible cartridges but got a message on the computer of an upgrade to the firmware, therefore uploaded it presuming it was to improve its performance. However I soon found out it was intended to stop you using third party cheaper cartridges and the firmware concerned was then not on your computer and easily removable by System Restore but in the Epsom printer itself. Meaning very hard to revert back to its previous firmware state. Therefore if you buy a printer always reject any notice to update its firmware. You can also disable this ability in your computer to prevent it I believe.

Anyway it seems there is already a class action challenging printers disabling the ability to use third party cartridges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36ZSytMUCoM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S2lYXf-uu0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOMjeCiMn8g

Lets hope the EU will also jump on this practice as a restriction in trade, since loss of the EU market if they did not reform would be financially untenable for them. Meanwhile once you have bought a printer never download any upgrades to its firmware it offers since that will probably stop you using third party cartridges. At least until these get around to beating the printers firmware update again.

Printer manufacturers should charge an economic price for their machines, not subsidise them and then let the buyer who then owns the machine decide what they want to use in it. Its a wonder they have not yet developed a chip that only lets you use the printer manufactures own paper, but no doubt they are working on that too!

Even research commissioned by Epson shows that usually only half the ink contained in the cartridge is used up when the printer says it is empty. That is because the electronics simply measure how many times the cartridges is activated, not how much ink remains. The first Epson I had did not stop you printing on a low ink signal so you could keep printing until any colour got faint, but unfortunately no longer since it stops on the low ink message.

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/PCWor ... by%20Epson.

[DaveW]

Also the EU is set to stop the charger con where you need a new charger for a new smartphone or tablet since the manufacturers keep pointlessly changing the charger socket. As many of the affected firms are US based America will not reform them itself but the EU market (which the UK is no longer in) is a large enough market to force it. It remains to be seen then if it is economic to provide different devices for both the EU and rest of the world or simpler to just provide a now standard universal charger socket? Maybe the standard charger socket will come with the detachable batteries the EU also wants?

https://www.thecut.com/2022/06/the-eu-a ... 20chargers.

[DaveW]

EU regulations evidently forcing changes worldwide?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech ... dwide.html

There is also a possible move to make all electrical devices easily repairable rather than being changed for a new one every year.