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Tim Cook is the one that claims Apple cares about the environment.
Tim Cook only cares to the extent that it greenwashes his company and products, and ultimately, can you blame the guy? We've created a system where we reward those who are the most astute marketers at any cost to the environment, our health, and sustainability and we, as consumers (collectively, not individually), have shown *we just don't care* when it actually comes down to buying behaviors.

Why are we spending all this time hating on the players of the game when we're the ones who have set the rules but suddenly are realizing we don't like the outcomes we all were told would happen?
 
Much ifixit hate..
They did praise Apple for the iPhone 14 internal redesign. There is reason for bashing Apple in this situation – ‘just recycle’ as most and Apple included in this situation suggest is not a viable solution because recycling takes energy and other resources, and it’s likely not a lot can get recycled if the unit can’t be opened without being broken. I think there’s a reason they don’t tell us how exactly their recycling works and what the yields are, otherwise they would’ve bragged about it.

I’m citing Apple:
“From the earliest stages of design through manufacturing, use, and recycling, Apple takes care to minimize the environmental impact of its activities.”

If that really was true, they wouldn’t release a product like this because it wouldn’t have passed their requirements for environmentally responsible design. Whether the current form factor allows it or not doesn’t matter - if they cared and this form factor didn’t allow repairability they wouldn’t have released these.
 
Tim Cook only cares to the extent that it greenwashes his company and products, and ultimately, can you blame the guy? We've created a system where we reward those who are the most astute marketers at any cost to the environment, our health, and sustainability and we, as consumers (collectively, not individually), have shown *we just don't care* when it actually comes down to buying behaviors.

Why are we spending all this time hating on the players of the game when we're the ones who have set the rules but suddenly are realizing we don't like the outcomes we all were told would happen?
Tim Cook’s primary priority is to increase shareholder wealth and a person can make a fair argument that lying about being motivated by altruistic goals is good PR and helps him do that. But at the same time others and I can call him out for his duplicity.
 
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How many people have the necessary skill, specialist tool kit and even the eyesight to repair something with the component size of the AirPods... of course they're not made to be user serviceable. They are green inasmuch as they are made with recycled, responsibly sourced or reclaimed materials which is as much as Joe public should expect.
 
A tiny device that lasts what two or three years is not repairable. iPods Pro weight 57g. A Tesla Model 3 weights (1,611,000g which last ~7 times as long. How much of that is unrecyclable? Taking another approach, how many tires worn out in that time? And what does that amount to. I suspect a bit more than 57g.

Unrepairable iPods may be frustrating and a bit expensive, but impact on the environment compared to everything else we do, not much.
 
If I am forced to buy disposable (non-repairable) earbuds, I will buy a $20 - $40 pair on Amazon that sound pretty good, not a $250 pair of Airpod Pros. Once enough consumers decide the same, Apple will come up with a battery replacement or upgrade program.
 
Some guy making money selling repair kits and shipping them to individual homes by plane and truck and opening things by squeezing them in a vice says it's bad for the environment to have to take your earbuds to the store for replacement and recycling. Until someone can provide a detailed comparison of two designs including an accounting for how many people will utilize the repairability, this is just opinion stated as fact.
 
Tim Cook’s primary priority is to increase shareholder wealth and a person can make a fair argument that lying about being motivated by altruistic goals is good PR and helps him do that. But at the same time others and I can call him out for his duplicity.
Make that argument all you want, but if you want to discuss culpability within the construct of our current economic & political system, the accountability for this is with the consumer, because we don't have proper truth-in-marketing laws, because what you've called "lying" is, legally, actually, not lying...despite all you want to think it is. Not saying that is right, but I am saying it is factual.
 
I would like to hear from someone who has ever had their earbuds (regardless brand) repaired... YouTubers love to call out Apple for whatever BAD reason possible, it doesn't matter if it makes sense or not, the aim is to get you click on their videos. Is the Fake News 2.0.
 
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I don’t own any wireless earbuds yet because of their short lifespan relative to their cost. Even my wired EarPods last more than a few years before the wire or connector fails. There are rechargeable tiny button cell batteries out there. If AirPods used those, they’d have my purchase in moments.
I heard the original AirPods had a short lifespan of only 2 years, but I’ve had a set of the original AirPods Pro since 2019 and I’d say I’ve lost only about 15% of their charge.

So, instead of 4.5 hours, I get 3 hours and 49 minutes of play time, which isn’t bad at all. That’s more than long enough for me, as I rarely wear them for longer than 2-3 hours at a time.

The way my AirPods Pro are wearing, I can see getting 5-6 years out of them, which is plenty. I mean, certainly Apple will release a new pair with a must have feature by then and I’ll want to upgrade organically.
 
I would like to hear from someone who has ever had their earbuds (regardless brand) repaired... YouTubers love to call out Apple for whatever BAD reason possible, it doesn't matter if it makes sense or not, the aim is to get you click on their videos. Is the Fake News 2.0.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen or even heard of anyone ever repairing any kind of headphones, ever, from when I was a kid in the 1970’s until today.

If they break, you just go out and buy a new pair. That’s how it’s always been with headphones.
 
iFixit has become so biased that they are unwatchable thereby undermining their own purpose.

All this "hit piece" tells us is that Apple built the AirPods to the highest degree of performance and reliability they could and THAT is my primary concern.

I can recycle them when the life of the AirPods is over. I don't need condescending BS from them now.

I wasted 2 minutes watching that hot garbage.

PS: He damn near blew his own fingers off. What an idiot.
So Glad I wasn't the only one who felt this way. Thankfully I gave up 30 seconds in.
 
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So Glad I wasn't the only one who felt this way. Thankfully I gave up 30 seconds in.
I was hoping to learn more about the mysterious lanyard connection, but I guess it wasn't as interesting to actually look at what's inside as it was to complain about not having the tools to do it easily. That didn't look like an Apple issued guitar pick...
 
Or so Apple wants you to believe. Both the Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds and charging case are repairable and they don't meet my definition of "bulky".

gsmarena_007.jpg


https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/...flagship-earbuds-in-this-exhaustive-teardown/
My brother has those. They struck me as substantially more bulky than my AirPods Pro when I tried them a week ago.
The volume in mm^3 may be the same, but the way the Sony crams all that volume into the ear rather than allowing for a stalk outside the ear I found very unpleasant.
 
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I would like to hear from someone who has ever had their earbuds (regardless brand) repaired... YouTubers love to call out Apple for whatever BAD reason possible, it doesn't matter if it makes sense or not, the aim is to get you click on their videos. Is the Fake News 2.0.
I had the battery on my Galaxy Buds replaced last year.
Also, the people who own this brand were on the news some time ago. They figured out a way to change AirPods batteries
 
Maybe he can use the center of the spaceship for that.
At the US current rate of consumption all the trash we create for the next 1000 years will fit in 50 sq miles of landfills. Small price to pay… Texas has plenty of desert not being used for anything else.
 
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Interesting take.

I've used iFixit kits and tools to reuse several old iPhone 6 & 7s as Sonos controllers, or entry level devices for internet only use.

Should all products be user serviceable? Probably not. But it does feel like Apple marketing is talking out both sides of their mouths about environmental conscienceness and profits. But hey, this is America, right? Profits mean the most.
So I replace batteries all the time in phones. That gets another few years of use out of it…but then what?

At the end of life for a product it’s still up to the USER to dispose of it properly. Apple will recycle them on your behalf in store or mail-in.

So this dogma of “replaceable battery means better for the environment” doesn’t really mean anything if the USER doesn’t take the responsible steps at the end of life for the product.

I think people miss that with all the “but Apple says it cares about the environment” hot takes. Apple can make THE most fixable products on the planet if they wanted, but from an environmental standpoint that means jack **** if someone is still going to throw it in the trash someday rather than recycling it.
 
I’ll never understand how those of us in the teeny tiny minority that have an interest in the inner workings of electronics and knowledge of industrial design and production life cycles are so threatening to those who see Apple products as precious little jewels.

Tear it all apart. Hack what’s left. Electronics are cool.
You, or anybody else, having an interest is no threat to anyone else, surely not me. If you want to try to disassemble your stuff, feel free.

If you are going to do it and post a snarky and unprofessional video of it that is completely biased due to other reasons (green agenda perhaps) other than your stated interest above expect ridicule.

But by all means, have your interests. Don't care.
 
While I do agree that large companies (esp those with cultural influence like Apple) have some level of duty to "guide the market by the nose" into things they don't want, we've chosen (at least in the US and most of the Western world) to canonize the "market" as the arbiter of what is right and good. In this system (not saying it is good or bad, it simply is factual) the consumer has spoken.

Overwhelmingly, when it comes to putting down the cash (e.g. not what people SAY but what people actually DO), consumers actually don't care en masse about the environment, repairability, or anything but "is it new, shiny, sexy, and 'better'?". That is *all* they care about, and Apple has learned that and has gone after that successfully with a very nice greenwashed campaign about recycling/recycled materials. But is that really Apple's fault or that of the consumer?

NOTHING will change until consumers demand it with their buying behavior, and until we decide that we want to regulate companies and demand they create (by law) repairable or ecologically sound products OR we, as consumers, as willing to pay 2-10x the price for goods to be TRULY sustainable and repairable, this is what we will get. And we have only ourselves and our fellow consumer to blame.
The first two paragraphs were fine.

The third is where you went off the rails and contradict/reveal yourself.

Which is it?
  • Market to decide via spending habits?
  • Governmental overlord deciding for the market via over arching "legislation"?
Seems clear you really want to decide for everyone else via your government.
 
I understand why Apple glues everything together to get it small but for a slightly larger size it could have threads to take apart the bud or the stem to replace the battery or access earth magnets during recycling. :rolleyes:
 
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