Let’s start with the end of this story first: John Deere sucks. That is the most important part to know because, like others, they have fought tooth and nail to stop people from repairing the stuff they buy from Deere. In a society that’s moving more toward renting everything, being locked out of fixing your farm equipment is nearly the definition of absurd. So what’s the deal? P.j. Huffstutter from Reuters has news about an agreement between these two groups. Equipment makers such as Deere have generally required customers to use their parts and service divisions for repairs and until…
Tag: right to repair
Apple has made some big announcements about providing the parts, tools, and manuals to repair their products. This has been due to pressure from governments and Right To Repair making progress on bills in the works. But, Apple never said they had to be nice about it. In a lengthy write-up for The Verge, Sean Hollister goes over the insane process Apple puts a person through in order to repair their iPhone. I expected Apple would send me a small box of screwdrivers, spudgers, and pliers; I own a mini iPhone, after all. Instead, I found two giant Pelican cases…
As mentioned in the previous issue of The Stream, there is a lot of positivity and momentum when it comes to Right to Repair. And sure enough, this past week both Samsung and Google have come aboard. Both companies have partnered with iFixIt, which sells parts and tools for people to perform DIY repairs. Even more important are the walkthroughs they post to their site on HOW to actually do those jobs. The great thing about the guides is you can see in full detail what it takes to do the job before buying anything. They rank the difficulty and…
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Let Me Fix It
The Right To Repair movement is gaining steam, but it’s been a longstanding problem to overcome. The idea that if you buy something, you should be able to repair it seems simple. Of course, Apple and many other companies don’t want you to do that. This CBC investigation from 2018 explains exactly why it’s vital to allow someone to be able to fix their stuff. Louis Rossman and the people at iFixIt feature prominently in this investigation. It’s intriguing to watch this and see where things were and where they stand now. As someone who’s cracked open a few MacBooks…
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It’s a Subscription… For Your Toyota
Year after year we are being pushed into a culture of renting. We don’t own things like purchased movies, digital video games, Kindle books, and lots of software. Car manufacturers, smelling blood in the water, are looking to cash in with subscription services too. Enter Toyota who includes a remote start feature on many cars since 2018. If you’re one of those lucky owners, Toyota can require a subscription after a trial to continue using this part of your car. If you don’t, it gets disabled. A Toyota spokesperson confirmed to The Drive that if a 2018 or later Toyota is equipped…
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SONOS to Ditch Glue
SONOS makes really good speakers. They hook into a number of music services, come in a few different configurations, and (to me) sound great. They’ve had their ups and downs, especially after a short-lived policy of bricking perfectly-good speakers when customers were upgrading. They’ve now announced that speakers coming in 2023 will be more repairable and use less energy. They call it their “Design for Disassembly” program. This includes changes like swapping out adhesives for fasteners, which can make it easier for consumers to take apart Sonos products for repair. But the program is intended to “make it easier to repair,…
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Apple’s DIY Repair Cave In
Sometimes an announcement out of Apple’s Cupertino newsroom comes from left field. Cue a press release that went out this morning informing of a “Self Service Repair” program. Apple today announced Self Service Repair, which will allow customers who are comfortable with completing their own repairs access to Apple genuine parts and tools. Available first for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups, and soon to be followed by Mac computers featuring M1 chips, Self Service Repair will be available early next year in the US and expand to additional countries throughout 2022. Apple Press Release Apple has been, rightly,…