Right to Repair/Ownership

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1539142

LG to offer subscriptions for already purchased appliances and televisions, evolving into a provider for “Home as a Service”::Subscription fatigue is a thing and regulators are circling, but Korean giant reckons you're ready to cough up after buying hardware

Nicked a hose on my new dishwasher and had to repair it. In the app Bosch gives you the option to buy parts straight from them, with breakout illustrations showing each part to make sure you get the right one. Parts were extremely reasonable and came within 2 days. Could almost build the thing from spare parts! Best repair experience I’ve ever had.

Can't say anything bad about product quality, I've used this toothbrush for 4 years now and the battery still lasts for more than a month. I did treat it well though, almost never depleted the 9.36Wh cell or charged it completely to 100%. Just the USB cable was over 20 bucks when it was still available. Model is Oclean One.

Can't say anything bad about product quality, I've used this toothbrush for 4 years now and the battery still lasts for more than a month. I did treat it well though, almost never depleted the 9.36Wh cell or charged it completely to 100%. Just the USB cable was over 20 bucks when it was still available. Model is Oclean One.

Hi there, I'm from Singapore and I'm trying to fix the battery on a Samsung Galaxy Active3 smartwatch. However, I can't seem to find any sellers for replacements - Samsung doesn't seem to sell any non-appliance parts, iFixit doesn't ship outside the US, and I can't find any for sale online.

Besides this watch, I tried to replace the back glass on an old burner iPhone, and couldn't find a good enough replacement that would ship at a reasonable time, so I had to resort to AliExpress. The glass is fine, but the print on the back looks off, and the adhesive that came with it feels like it could come off at any moment. I was wondering if there are any distributors in Singapore/SEA that sell higher-quality spare parts? Thanks

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Previous milestone: https://lemmy.fmhy.ml/post/473853

Next goals: 550, 700, 850, 1000

So my left ear bud is having issues with the ambient sound pass through. Any nearby noise makes it click and pop. It's almost unusable at this point.

Has anyone had good luck with a repairing these?

I've been using Graphene OS for a while now and it feels like a miracle to have access to the play store yet not be so locked in with Google. Changes like the ones in the video make me worry that this is a flash in the pan and that Google will lock the play store into their Android for that sweet tracking data

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Previous milestone: https://lemmy.fmhy.ml/post/376126

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Honestly, if we could upgrade the RAM in phones, I'd probably be fine with this one for a decade. (Or until they start making phones with qwerty keypads again.)

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If you’re wondering why we need right to repair laws, consider home appliance maker Bosch, which refuses to give customers service manuals, necessitating unnecessary and expensive service calls.

The bill introduces a legal warranty of good working order for certain new goods that are commonly used. As regards the warranty of good working order for used automobiles, the bill updates the classes of such automobiles.

The bill enhances the legal warranty of availability of replacement parts and repair services for goods of a nature that requires maintenance work by specifying that the availability of the information necessary to maintain or repair the goods must also be guaranteed. Merchants or manufacturers who are bound by the warranty of availability must make the parts, repair services and information necessary to maintain or repair the goods available at a reasonable price. The bill also provides that it must be possible to install the replacement parts using commonly available tools, without causing irreversible damage to the goods. In addition, consumers have the right, under certain circumstances, to request the repair of goods requiring it.

Under the bill, merchants must provide information on legal warranties of good working order before entering into a contract that includes an additional warranty. Consumers may resolve such a contract, at their discretion, within 10 days after the contract is entered into. The bill proposes to prohibit the business of trading in goods for which obsolescence is planned and to prohibit the use of techniques that make it more difficult for consumers to maintain or repair goods. In addition, automobile manufacturers must provide the owner or long-term lessee of a vehicle, or the repairer of the vehicle, with free access to the vehicle’s data.

With respect to long-term contracts of lease of automobiles, the bill provides that merchants must propose an inspection free of charge of the automobile before the end of the consumer’s lease and specifies the cases in which the merchant may not claim charges for the abnormal wear of goods.

The bill gives the Government the regulatory power to determine technical or manufacturing standards for goods, including standards for interoperability between goods and chargers.

The bill also allows a court to declare, on an application by the consumer, that an automobile is a “seriously defective vehicle”, in particular if the defects affecting it render it unfit for the purposes for which it was intended and several attempts have been made to repair it.

As a hobby, I like buying broken phones off the internet, fixing them up, play with it for a bit, then resell. Recently, I bought a Redmi 8A from Facebook Marketplace. The phone in question has a corrupted firmware/operating system. I've resurrected phones (mostly Samsung and older Xiaomis) with such issues before, so I thought it was an easy fix.

With my past experience with resurrecting a bricked Xiaomi phone, I would normally just disassemble the phone, short out some pads on the motherboard, flash the firmware, and off I go.... This time though, you have an extra step. Before the computer even starts flashing the firmware into the phone, it will ask for an authorized Xiaomi acccount (that has special permission to flash devices using EDL).

Older Xiaomi phones: Disassemble phone > Short out pads > Connect phone to PC > Flash firmware > Done

Newer Xiaomi phones: Disassemble phone > Short out pads > Connect phone to PC > Log-in to authorized Xiaomi account > Flash firmware > Done

It's not as simple as creating an account and then logging into it. You have to buy a special account for around $30 from some sketchy sources, and that would only allow you to flash one time. If you made a mistake, that's $30 down the drain. Another option you could do is use a special software, but requires a subscription. Which is $20-30 for three months. I went with this. At least, I can flash as much as I want.

Now the phone is question is now fully functional. Which is good, but imo, I shouldn't have to pay for anything in the first place, like I did in the past.

You might be saying, you should have just went into fastboot and flashed the firmware that way. Or even unlock the bootloader, and then reflash. Well, it's not that simple. In order to flash anything using fastboot, you have to unlock the bootloader. And in order to do so, you'll have to boot into Android, then enable OEM unlocking in the settings. Which isn't possible in my case.

I believe, most Android phones are gonna be like this if you have to unbrick it. Had this happened on a Motorola, Huawei, and on a Pixel too (with a locked bootloader).

Samsung and LG phones are easier to recover, which has a download mode, which allows for recovering/unbricking regardless of the bootloader status (just hold the volume up button, the connect to PC). Even iPhones are also easy to recover. You just have to hold down the home button, connect to the computer, and then let iTunes do the rest. All three manufacturers makes it easy, that an average Joe can do it at the comfort of their own homes. They don't even have to take the phone apart. I wish all Android manufacturers would make it that easy.

TL;DR: It used to be that Xiaomi (and most Android phones) are easy to recover/unbrick, but sometime down the road, they made it a bit difficult by requiring an special account, which you'll have to get through sketchy sources. Or use a special subscription-based software. LG, Samsung, and Apple are the exception since they make it easier.