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UK Environmental Committee Says Apple Contributing to 'Throwaway Culture' of 'Short-Lived Products'
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Maybe you haven’t been to Earth for a while?
Survey finds reliability is the reason workers choose Mac | AppleInsider
Jamf, a company that helps businesses manage Apple integration in businesses, has shown that Mac's reliability is a top reason employees prefer using Mac in the workplace.
Consumer Reports: Apple still tops in reliability
In its recently-released holiday buying issue, Consumer Reports says that iMac and MacBook lines still reign over PC competitors. But a close reading of the results show a mixed result for Cupertino.
www.zdnet.com
Why Apple Was Graded as the Most Reliable Computer Maker on the Market | Fortune
Samsung is a close second.
Apple computers are most reliable, according to Rescuecom repair data | AppleInsider
Apple, in addition to the highest U.S. market share among computer manufacturers, is also the most reliable brand, handily beating out a group of competitors that includes Samsung, Dell, and Lenovo.
Apple's MacBooks: Still the most reliable
It's popular to decry the "Apple tax" - the mythical premium Apple customers pay for Macs. But few look at the other side of the coins: what you get for your money. In Apple's case: the best reliability and tech support.
www.zdnet.com
You could not find Peak (whatever) ie Peak Oil Peak Phosphorus or Peak uranium?! Google searching is only as good as what you put in the search field.Sure, but much better one part than the entire phone! And if trying to replace that part could cause others to fail, well, any chance of success at all is better than automatically throwing away the whole thing.
I do think I know something of what I'm talking about, but if you have some reading for me I'd be happy to check out alternate viewpoints. You suggested I look up the concept of "Peak", but that's not a Google-able term on its own, I need some context.
As for the Fixit page...ugh. There is so many things that fall under Carl Sagan' Baloney Detection Kit that it would give Oscar Myer a run for its money.
*20% lost - This true of many things in our world not just cellphones
*17 Rare Earths - per Why rare earth recycling is rare – and what we can do about it this is a problem with all things made with rate earths and follow it up with Product Environmental Report; iPhone 11 Pro; September 10, 2019 for a dose of reality.
*1,150 Lightbulbs - this piece of nonsense could be applied to anything that has to be destroyed to be recycled. See The Benefits of Cell Phone Recycling and Getting the metals out of old phones for a dose of reality.
*0 smartphones - first off the "That’s the number of smartphones that have been made from 100% recycled materials" claim is at best out of date per Product Environmental Report; iPhone 11 Pro; September 10, 2019 and
"Apple have built 'Daisy' and 'Dave', robots that disassemble iPhones and their components, and is the first in its industry to make a smartphone using 100% recycled rare earth elements in the iPhone Taptic Engine" (the above 2019 report makes a tangental reference to this process) - Will your next phone be made from recycled materials? These 6 tech giants are working on it. The second part, "We cannot make a new phone from an old one" is also grossly out of date per Here’s How Apple Recycles Old iPhones Into New Models By Using Actual Robots
All the points on that page can be shown to be at best questionable or grossly out of date.
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I have tried that and there is a good reason for it. Generally the unsupported OS was either unstable or ran worse then the ARM Windows x86 emulator (ie like garbage)
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If that was true the market followed what Apple did then they would have dropped Windows like a hot potato and gone to the MacOS (or at least to open the source Darwin OS) ages ago.
I wonder if this actually a problem similar to what Sears supposedly had back when they did full automotive repair. Because there was a "commission" (for lack of a better name) based on the cost of the repair (always a bad idea) the mechanics would always go for the most expensive method possible.
There may be such a commission for a replacement rather then a repair with the Apple genius bars. If so it would still be an Apple problem but it wouldn't be a directive from on high but rather a badly thought out "commission" set up.
It’s not that I disagree with your actual words, or with the fact that those inventions were made there. It’s just the fact that you created a strawman fallacy with your argument. I put “engineering” in quotes because it was a quote from the article itself. I was pointing out how the UK officials are repeatedly trying to tear down and regulate companies which are based in other countries. And enforce rules for them that would affect the entire company’s world operations.
Ya, its a throw-away society, but what are ya gonna do *tosses a banana peel on the floor*
Just about everything is. But users are the ones who replace them year by year... no one is forcing them to buy new products. Just take care of them better.
The regulators are not using themselves as a head-wind for "what other countries must follow" They chose to, they don't have to.
Blame Apple for that space... Its up the country is the wanna oversee something, but Apple keeps pushing hard until they do. Almost like Apple thinks its a regulator for everyone.
Let countries do what they want, but if they fall behind, they automatically get shamed for not doing it.
So much for a happy life.
Just about everything is. But users are the ones who replace them year by year... no one is forcing them to buy new products. Just take care of them better.
The regulators are not using themselves as a head-wind for "what other countries must follow" They chose to, they don't have to.
Blame Apple for that space... Its up the country is the wanna oversee something, but Apple keeps pushing hard until they do. Almost like Apple thinks its a regulator for everyone.
Let countries do what they want, but if they fall behind, they automatically get shamed for not doing it.
So much for a happy life.
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oh no apple you are definitely doing all you can to make people use their devices for as long as possible right...
thats why when the battery dies in your apple watch - a max 10$ component in retail, and a 0,8$ component for apple, the only option you have is to go to the store and have YOUR ENTIRE WATCH REPLACED. For my stainless steel Watch 4 this is a mere 400 something $. Like for real apple. its a joke. Of course everyone will just dump it and by a new watch 6 or whatever for marginally higher price. and replacing yourself isnt possible because you destroy the 3d touch sensory stuff. And a screen replacement isnt possible because you loose Apple pay. But hey atleast they were recycled components.... my wallet is happy about that every day.
Its stupid in every way and they should be rightly ashamed of themselves.
If they do stuff like that then at least give us a toggle in the setting to max the battery charge limit to 80% and not under 10% so we can get like 2000 cycles out of the batteries and not only 500-800 or whatever the qty they say now.
Yes they have the whole smart battery charge stuff to limit the time at 100% but a toggle to let user decide increases life so dramatically if used. Or just offer a 80$ to replace you battery service and still earn cash like mad.
- having said this im using a 2014 macbook pro and the battery is still going strong after 800 cycles. Hardware is still great. Im an apple fanboy for sure for 95% of the stuff, but the new repairability stuff is shameful
thats why when the battery dies in your apple watch - a max 10$ component in retail, and a 0,8$ component for apple, the only option you have is to go to the store and have YOUR ENTIRE WATCH REPLACED. For my stainless steel Watch 4 this is a mere 400 something $. Like for real apple. its a joke. Of course everyone will just dump it and by a new watch 6 or whatever for marginally higher price. and replacing yourself isnt possible because you destroy the 3d touch sensory stuff. And a screen replacement isnt possible because you loose Apple pay. But hey atleast they were recycled components.... my wallet is happy about that every day.
Its stupid in every way and they should be rightly ashamed of themselves.
If they do stuff like that then at least give us a toggle in the setting to max the battery charge limit to 80% and not under 10% so we can get like 2000 cycles out of the batteries and not only 500-800 or whatever the qty they say now.
Yes they have the whole smart battery charge stuff to limit the time at 100% but a toggle to let user decide increases life so dramatically if used. Or just offer a 80$ to replace you battery service and still earn cash like mad.
- having said this im using a 2014 macbook pro and the battery is still going strong after 800 cycles. Hardware is still great. Im an apple fanboy for sure for 95% of the stuff, but the new repairability stuff is shameful
I think you may have meant to reply to someone else, or confused my opinions for those on the post I quoted.
The British Lawmakers seem to be drinking the same questionable/out of date kool-aid Fixit is:
*20% lost - This true of many things in our world not just cellphones
*17 Rare Earths - per Why rare earth recycling is rare – and what we can do about it this is a problem with all things made with rate earths and follow it up with Product Environmental Report; iPhone 11 Pro; September 10, 2019 for a dose of reality.
*1,150 Lightbulbs - this piece of nonsense could be applied to anything that has to be destroyed to be recycled. See The Benefits of Cell Phone Recycling and Getting the metals out of old phones for a dose of reality.
*0 smartphones - first off the "That’s the number of smartphones that have been made from 100% recycled materials" claim is at best out of date per Product Environmental Report; iPhone 11 Pro; September 10, 2019 and
"Apple have built 'Daisy' and 'Dave', robots that disassemble iPhones and their components, and is the first in its industry to make a smartphone using 100% recycled rare earth elements in the iPhone Taptic Engine" (the above 2019 report makes a tangental reference to this process) - Will your next phone be made from recycled materials? These 6 tech giants are working on it. The second part, "We cannot make a new phone from an old one" is also grossly out of date per Here’s How Apple Recycles Old iPhones Into New Models By Using Actual Robots
All the points on that Fixit gives can be shown to be at best questionable or grossly out of date.
Yea, I felt so green when I had one key fail on my MBPro15 butterfly horror and found out that in order to replace that they had to replace the whole top case, battery (and of course the keyboard).
On the other hand, I had a keyboard fail on a client's HP Probook. Ordered a $35 replacement, swapped it myself and the old one went to recycling. Granted, there was so much less to recycle than with the Mac, but I don't think the amount of crap recycles makes Apple's apples any more green.
On the other hand, I had a keyboard fail on a client's HP Probook. Ordered a $35 replacement, swapped it myself and the old one went to recycling. Granted, there was so much less to recycle than with the Mac, but I don't think the amount of crap recycles makes Apple's apples any more green.
What hypocrisy? Being green, environmentally friendly, etc. is not binary. Because Apple may have an incandescent light bulb in Apple Park, doesn't mean Apple isn't doing their part on the whole.
What we as a society might have to accept is that sleek design is now out the window. For example, any fully serviceable laptops with the form factor of a Macbook laptop exist?
Because they are not green. They are the main instigators of creating disposable devices. Manufacturing in China, with little to no environmental regulation and oversight. Phones, tablets and even laptops are becoming unrepairable due to their obsession for control and form over function. And then they tout recycling of them being so green, while all they do is being compliant with EU laws on electrical and electronic equipment waste:
Apple is not green. Apple is compliant. And they are marketing compliancy as eco-friendly. That is hypocrisy. If Apple was green, they would go above and beyond what is required from them by law. And if they did that, I'd have no problem with them marketing it. I would want them to, so people would use that as one of the decision factors for buying a device. But not when they are just complaint with the law in order to be able to sell product in that region. That's not being green, that's business necessity.
You're playing with words, imo. Working toward a net zero carbon footprint sounds like it's being more than compliant, it's being green. In my original post, I state that having an incandescent light bulb light something on Apple Park does not negate any effort they might be striving for, and you are "metaphorically dinging" Apple for that incandescent light bulb. To each their own I guess.
Even if you feel that what Apple does means they are being green, there still is no reason to boast about it and use your green-ness in marketing when what you do is regulatory compliance. Everybody does it, they have to, or they are not allowed to sell in the EU. If you want to boast, you better make sure you're doing significantly more than is forced upon you by law or someone will call you out on it sooner or later.
You can make your US headquarters as green as you want, but if you produce your products in countries that don't take the environment too seriously and your e-waste solution is to just comply with regulatory demands, then its all show and no substance. That's all I'm saying.
EDIT: and you should definitely not use that compliance as an excuse to make your products such that they are almost unrepairable and basically disposable.
I don't see an issue in marketing that any company is striving for less of an environmental impact.
There is a reason why Apple products seem to last a long time. For example, my iphone 4 10 years later is serving as a glorified ipod.
The engineering and longevity, imo, is the trade-off.
No and no.
Engineering is making things possible. That can very much include easy repairs. But they don't.
Longevity has to do with quality of construction, not means of construction. Case in point: your iPhone 4 that is now used as a glorified ipod (mine works just fine as well too btw) is less than 2mm thicker as the current iPhone 12, yet it can be entirely disassembled with screws and has proven to not die prematurely because of it. The iPhone 6 is also still held together by screws, and is almost a mm thinner than the current generation, so the notion that screws make things thicker is hereby debunked as well.
Look, Apple makes good stuff that generally lasts long. But that is not an excuse to not being able to repair the things they make. If somehow something happens to my phone after the warranty year is up, I don't want to bin it and buy a new one. I want to take it to whomever that can fix it for me so I can continue using it for a few more years.
Like the product, but stop defending the company's indefensible behaviors. It's a company like any other. They don't give a rats about you. They only care about money and everything they do is about that, money. They don't care about you, they don't care about the environment, and they don't care about workers conditions in their offshore factories. They do care about image, but only in that their image needs to entice you to give them more money. That is what their shareholders want and that is what they do. So again, like the product, love it even but don't defend the company like it is a buddy needing help cause they don't. They will happily stab you in the back if that were to increase their profit margins. They will make sure they will get what they want.
Well, it's complicated, right?
What is the environmental cost of stocking and shipping replacement parts to all the repair shops?
What is the value of having more people use more powerful devices? Is there any value in having more people using the latest technology? What about the kid who is about to make a Lidar App that changes the way you do _____. I think we have to put some value on the "tech" that relates to the "environment" and saving the world.
Someone could make the argument that it's better to have a forced recycling program to save the earth - I'm not kidding either, it is truly complicated.
I have been "paperless" nearly - for several years now. I guess I am saving a lot of trees. Maybe I wouldn't be paperless if I did not have such powerful computers.
You say that the longer someone keeps a device, the better - but that is just an opinion, and it is really a complicated argument. It's a big debate. I do not claim to know the truth of the matter, but I think it's a good idea to try considering every permutation of such a thought experiment in hopes of discovering what the real truth could be.
I think Apple is way ahead on this.
Ironically paper production is not a threat to trees in the US and Canada as Sustainable Forests are the rule. The major downside with "paperless" is that if one is not careful it can result in more paper than before as there is always the possibility you may need the paper backup due to a human error. I had such situation as I paid my mortgage about 3 months ahead of time but the bank changed its system and if I hadn't had my paper copies the "cushion" I had built up would have been gone.
Resource Conservation is complicated. Yes replacing something takes energy but if it is more energy efficient is it making that much a change? Is is really beneficial to be able to keep expanding an old computer and use 100 watts to power the thing or get a new computer that takes 20 watts to do the same or even more?
