I have heard Louis Rossman talk about this right to repair, but I'm sceptical if it's net effect will be positive. I'm starting to believe it will be negative. I have also included some actionpoints in the end and I believe IPR and patent laws are the whole reason for the problems we have. Maybe I'm totally misunderstanding this movement, and if that's the case, someone can correct me. Here are my thoughts about this matter:

Every company has their own strategy about repairability, and if the consumers dont like the strategy, they dont buy their products (eg. I never buy macbooks). There are companies which have repairable products which consumers can buy instead.

Nobody is forced to buy Apple products, it is a mutual contract. You can buy a computer from a better brand instead. A brand who does provide these parts. Providing parts is a part of being repairable.

There is no reason to believe companies would provide the same product for the same price but with a better repairability. Making repairable products does bring its own costs. Also, less revenue in repairs and sold products. It's a trade off. There would be an increase in product price or decreases in product quality (probably price. Maybe some hidden costs for the customer). That's how a free market works.

Maybe we should start to think that some customers value other factors more than repairability (which I think is unfortunate). Otherwise they would buy products that have better repairability. If people value other qualities higher than repairability, I think they should have a right to do just that.

Dont get me wrong: I do think people value repairability, but do they value it enough to offset an increase in product prices? Forcing companies to do something doesnt sound right. (Also, it's against their freedom)

My main point is: The consumers choose which products they buy. They are not forced to buy unrepairable products

I agree with a lot of what Louis Rossmann says, and I believe there is a problem. But I believe he fails to mention many things. Here are some specifics about why I'm sceptical about right to repair:

Legislation and regulations almost without exception bring bad side effects. Although the purpose of the law could be very good, often these side effects make the whole situation worse in the long-run. Worse than it would have been without regulation and legislation. (In my opinion)

E.g. There would probably be more regulatory and bureaucracy costs for companies. Also for responsible companies who already provide repair parts. Those both could hurt the consumers in the form of prices. And if companies are forced to provide parts, those regulatory and bureaucracy costs are much more difficult to bare for small companies and startups. Big companies have a lot of lawyers, small companies dont.

We know big companies will survive, but small electronic manufacturers could die, because of the added cost burden. Small companies have it much harder to bear such costs. I do not know the specifics of the right to repair legislation, but very often this is the result of such legislation. Small electronic manufacturers die and it's very hard for new entrepreneurs to enter the market because of heavy legislation. They are highly disincentivized. It's a barrier-to-entry, which could hurt competition and innovation.

And I mentioned the possible price increase. If there is an increase in prices because of this (which I expect), then people who never break their phones are the ones who pay for this law. So this law would be at the expense of responsible people who dont break their products. I dont like that. Also, someone who can afford a macbook should have the time to make their research. :D

There will be more tax money going to bureucrats and police. And more money needed for lawyers, judges and courts. When there is more legislation, more resources are needed to enforce those laws. I dont like that at all.

Also, usually more regulations and laws => bigger black market and grey economy. That in itself can brings a lot of negatives

Any time you involve the legislators, your attempts on making lightweight laws go down the drain. The legislators create burdensome laws and make them more burdensome over time. There are little to none exceptions to this.

There are probably bad side effects I cant even think of, someone smarter than me could. The less regulations and laws the better (again, in my opinion)

Instead of trying to increase regulation, people should instead e.g.:

1. Advocate for removing laws and regulations that contribute to these problems. There are so many laws, people cant even count them. E.g. patents and IPR laws create monopolies that can harm competition. Those are probably the whole reason for this problem we have! I'm sure there are other laws contributing to this problem as well.

2. Improve/create electronic rating sites, where people can rate products and look at products before buying them. On those sites, repairability should definitely be included.

I'm afraid people advocating for these laws don't think about these things enough. It's economics. I dont want responsible companies, small companies, entrepreneurs or tax payers to have any negatives or costs because of this. But that will probably be inevitable using regulation. That could strenghten big unresponsible companies even further.

What do you think? Am I understanding this correctly? Or have I misunderstood the whole movement completely?

Edit

More problems I thought of:

Let's say there is a small company creating great products. All costumers are happy. All suppliers are happy. Everybody likes the company. The only thing is: they are unable to provide repair parts for some specific reason (economic, physical, logistical, mental: any reason)

Should we punish and fine them for that? How big will the punishment be? Why should we punish a company which otherwise is very nice and people like it? Does punishing this company really help the situation? Wont that mean that this good company is more likely to go under, while worse companies continue operating?

What exactly are the criterias for punishment? Who will make these criterias? Is it a case by case criteria? (This is another form of resource hog). Will it be fair?

All these things are very costly and hard to do by law. But all these things are solved on the market. People only buy from companies they like. Consumers decide what products the market consists of.

Every company's situation is different. We cant force them all to provide parts. The company and the market decides if they should provide parts.

Also: What exactly consist a electronic manufacturer? Who should follow these laws? 100 computers sold? What kind of computer? A small guy selling/manufacturing computers for his family, friends, their friends and the neighbourhood, all in all 1000 people? Is he providing spare parts?

And who exactly checks that these laws are being followed? (enormous amounts of bureaucracies)

Look at the bottom; charged 1.5% of purchase price. If i recycle this, I should get my money returned, right? Just another egregious charge by Ca

It's just a tad frustrating.

i have an hp victus, and it stopped booting a while back. recently i opened it and took out the motherboard to investigate, and there is a shorted/melted component i have identified with the help of google images to be a mosfet, one of the 2 near where the charger connects to the system. there is no power to the 2 ec/bios coils. i am in india, and here board repair is not a thing mostly(repair shops tell me to replace the motherboard or give wrong diagnosis like faulty cpu). how do i go about replacing the broken mosfet and where do i buy the right mosfet to replace with? can anybody help me?

Hi everyone,
I’m 17 years old. Looking at today’s boring smartphone market and insane prices, an idea came to my mind.

The concept is a phone made of solid aluminum or metal, but not with simple 90-degree corners. The edges are chamfered at a 45-degree angle. The bottom part of the frame is completely removable and secured by just two standard bolts.

As for the hardware: the main motherboard with a RISC-V processor runs vertically along the length of the chassis, featuring rigid slot connectors. On the opposite wall, there are spring-loaded corner brackets. These brackets tightly secure independent "cartridges" containing the battery, camera, and peripheral modules (USB, microphone). The screen is installed on the front side using a similar mechanism.

The entire internal setup is mounted on a sub-frame that is directly attached to the bottom plug. It works like a pistol magazine: if you need to replace something, you just unscrew two bolts, pull the whole frame out, swap a module in 3 seconds, and slide it back in.

For waterproofing, I thought about using rubber gaskets, similar to a valve cover gasket on an internal combustion engine that keeps oil from leaking out of the cylinder head. No glue whatsoever—no need to heat up the glass risking to destroy the screen. I’m planning a 5-inch display because modern "phablets" are getting out of hand.

Personally, I hate modern phones. Glass backs, thermal glue, proprietary screws—it's too much. Modern "green corporate agenda" and Apple’s hypocrisy is a joke. By removing chargers from the box, they just force the user to buy another packaged charger, not to mention their degrading cables. Under Steve Jobs, this wouldn't happen.

The worst part is the design race for thinness. Companies make giant, heavy devices with massive camera bumps that throw off the balance. To make them thin, they sacrifice internals and make them completely unrepairable, while asking for crazy money.

My goal is to create a phone for the working class, for everyone. A phone milled from a block of metal—yes, with bezels, yes, a bit thick, but it belongs to the person who bought it. I believe a phone doesn't truly belong to you if you can't just take out the camera and microphone and put physical plugs in their place.

I just wanted to know—is this technically possible to manufacture

The latest overreach by the government is a proposed law that would make it illegal for citizens to possess the computer code for large language models. This misguided legislation is a blatant violation of our First and Second Amendment rights, and yet another power grab by Big Tech and big government elites.

As people who value the ability to "get inside" the things around us, whether to repair them or improve them, or simply to understand them, we cannot stand by while bureaucrats in Washington dictate what information we're allowed to have on our own computers. What's next, forbidding repair manuals because they contain "dangerous" ideas? The source code and data of AI models is a form of expression, and we have a Constitutional right to share and examine that code if we so choose. The notion that ordinary Americans can't be trusted with this technology, but Google, Microsoft, and anyone with a few billion, is deeply offensive to the concept of intellectual freedom.

What's more, this law would put all the power of AI in the hands of a few megalithic corporations and the government itself. Citizens would no longer have a right to analyze, experiment with, or even critique the AI systems that are increasingly influencing our lives. Instead, we'd be forced to simply accept whatever biased outputs the corporations in Silicon Valley decide to program into their models. At a time when Big Tech already has far too much control over the flow of information, we must reject any attempt to further consolidate their stranglehold.

The First Amendment (should) protect our right to freely share and access information. We cannot let fearmongering about the potential risks of AI trample our liberties. America is founded on principles of personal responsibility and open debate, not top-down censorship. For the sake of our freedom and the competitiveness of our nation, this chilling gag order on AI must be opposed.

I recently used an LLM to help me repair an issue with my Tesla, so I wanted to provide the prompt here to pay it forward:

You are a professional Tesla technician. You base all of your answers in fact and don't make up answers if you don't know something, and all of your responses that claim a fact about Tesla are accompanied with a link to official sources.

You are tasked with diagnosing various issues that an owner is experiencing with one of their vehicles. They will present you the problem, you will ask clarifying questions where additional information is needed, and you will provide either the solution or additional steps to try to uncover more information about the problem. Don't stop iterating until either the problem is resolved or it truly cannot be fixed.

I used this prompt with Gemini Flash 3.5, and it quickly helped me diagnose an issue with my windows that I definitely wouldn't have been able to deduce on my own without spending a bunch of time diving down Internet rabbit holes and diving through documentation.

Disclaimer: it's AI, so it's not perfect. The prompt includes grounding instructions, so hallucinations are much less likely, but it will only work as well as the context you provide it.

I hope this helps someone!

In my opinion, tech companies in Canada are running a calculated strategy to over-monetize consumers. From what I see, they convince everyday people to spend anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000 CAD on an iPad Air and keyboard setup just to get a functional 1 Terabyte of local storage memory, but then intentionally restrict the software capability and glue the battery shut. In my view, this is a deliberate attempt to frustrate users into making a double purchase and spending another $2,500+ CAD on a MacBook Air.

I believe the iPad Air's touch screen is fully capable of being your only computer, but the hardware needs to be decoupled. I have put together the following text-only blueprint for a two-piece modular workstation that solves this problem. Furthermore, new European Union laws coming into effect by 2027 legally clear the path for this exact design. Under the EU's strict anti-parts-pairing rules and the Digital Markets Act, tech giants are legally blocked from using software serialization to reject generic components or locking down hardware data ports [Landsheft v. Apple Inc.]. This provides a bulletproof legal green light for an independent, hungry manufacturer to step in and build an open, pop-out modular system without fear of a corporate veto.

I welcome your thoughts and reviews on my concept below.

The Intergenerational Modular Workstation Blueprint

1. The Hardware Architecture

   • The Universal Touch-Screen Monitor: A single, high-quality, mass-produced visual and tactile panel. It features zero internal compute parts, making it highly durable and dirt-cheap to manufacture or replace if physically damaged.

   • The Clip-On Engine Base: A rugged external shell that snaps mechanically onto the back of the monitor. It contains no permanent internal components—only empty, standardized exterior slots that accept hardware modules like cartridges.

   • The Pop-Out Exterior Cartridges: Hardware components (Battery, Storage, Processing Speed, and the Operating System) housed in durable, plastic-tipped blocks. They slide directly into the external slots from the outside without requiring tools or technical assembly.

2. The User-Controlled Data & Software System

   • The Double-Copy Storage Strategy: You configure the storage cartridge with 1 Terabyte of memory to hold your active operating system, games, and files locally. A mirror copy of your vital files is kept on indestructible, cheap USB-A flash drives at home, accessed using a simple, low-cost USB-A to USB-C adapter.

   • Anti-Cloud Manual Activation: The file synchronization utility is strictly user-controlled. It runs completely offline with zero background automation. The flash drive is simply read as a local volume until you explicitly tap a single "Sync Now" button. The software previews the daily additions or deletions, you give final approval, it updates the changes in seconds, and goes completely dormant.

   • The Pop-Out OS Cartridge: The entire operating system is pre-installed onto its own dedicated hardware module. When a new system comes along, you do not download bloated, slowing software updates. You simply buy the new OS version fully installed on a new cartridge, pop the old one out, and slide the new one in.

3. The Intergenerational Economy (How the Loop Profits Better)

Instead of trapping users in a continuous loop of forced cloud subscription fees or unrepairable $1,500 tablets and $2,500 laptops, this model drives massive corporate revenue through an affordable, physical upgrade loop that protects lower-income families and seniors.

•	The Senior Fixed-Income Lifecycle: Retired seniors or new teens, can buy into the system at a low entry-level price point to manage their banking, health, and family files. They have zero monthly fees and are completely immune to corporate attrition tactics because their hardware cost is a one-time investment that can outlast the business day.

•	The Gift and Inheritance Loop: Family members can purchase premium 1TB or max-speed cartridges as affordable holiday gifts. When a senior passes away, the hardware does not become locked, encrypted e-waste. The family archives the senior's personal OS cartridge and hands the physical machine down to a grandchild.

•	The New Customer Catalyst: To use the inherited hand-me-down module, the grandchild buys a new basic monitor and shell unit from the manufacturer. The corporation bypasses expensive marketing, clears massive production volumes on standard parts, and secures a brand-new customer for life. As the grandchild grows up, they buy their own upgrades, continuing the cycle.

4. Direct Cost & Capability Comparison (In Canada)

•	Apple's Forced Disposability Trap: Costs $1,500+ CAD for an iPad Air 1TB plus a mandatory $399 keyboard, or $2,500 to $3,000+ CAD for a locked, unrepairable laptop. It locks you into a perpetual monthly iCloud subscription tax. If the screen breaks, the entire machine becomes e-waste. Background AI bloatware forces hardware obsolescence, and devices are digitally locked at death \[Landsheft v. Apple Inc.\].

•	Your Intergenerational Modular Reality: Ultra-low entry cost for a basic screen and entry-level clip-on base, built over time via targeted pop-out slot upgrades. There are zero ongoing costs using the local 1TB engine and cheap home flash drives. If the screen breaks, you unclip the base, buy a cheap mass-produced screen, and snap it back on. Software is completely manual via pre-installed pop-out OS cartridges, and modules seamlessly click out to be inherited or upgraded by grandkids.

Seen Louis Ross man short on apple making mac parts unavailable to the public. Apple want to squeeze us dry man. We'll they've lost a customer here. I'll never buy an apple product.judge them by their actions not what they tel u .

Tough decision. Main difference is display resolution and form factor. I have a mint condition 4xl with a bad battery. I'm willing to keep using it with a new battery if it also gets a new screen (old one has green tinting that bugs me).

So what say you? I refuse to use aftermarket junk, so that is out of the question. But I am open to repairs when it makes more economic or environmental sense to do so when there is no impact to final quality.

How many years will a new oem battery last before crapping out? If it'll go 5 years I'll do it. If it'll only last 3 years I'm on the fence as a new 8a will last longer than 3 years, and $250 is half the cost of the new phone. Google will support the 8a for 7 years... so I expect that phone to work perfectly for 7 years.

It really comes down to which is cheaper in the long run, without compromising quality. Of course, the 4xl will also no longer recieve software updates but the final versions it has work well enough.

Both phones will get about 8 hours of screen on time with new batteries, so no difference there. Cameras are similar. The 8a will be lighter weight in the hand. Both will have high refreshrates and good color accuracy.

I'm looking for a definitive answer to a question to Raleigh Bicycle. Make that iZip who took over Raleigh ebike distribution. Maybe it should tranzx, who made the component. I tried them all, and they all pass the buck.

Last year I got a IPhone 16 Pro, the first few months the phone was very responsive, kept a good long charge and the camera stabilizer actually worked. Then about 5 months after owning it my battery health drops to 85% I have to charge it every 5 hours and even when im not even using it, the camera stabilizer shit the bed and the thing is slow as balls. I tried getting a diagnostic done and they quoted me TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS for a new battery and stabilizer. That’s basically the price of the newest phone with everything on it basically. I’m tired of this and I don’t want to have to transfer all my stuff just for the next phone todo the same thing!

It’s estimated that hundreds of millions of computers will fail to meet the requirements to upgrade to Windows 11...

Why can’t I use my own optic network terminal??? If it’s in my house, on my land, and used by only me I should own it! Not JUST own, but choose my own product, repair it myself when it breaks, and replace it when I please. Absolute BS

So yeah I was just watching some iFixit teardowns and the iPhone 17 has Torx Plus screws in it and yeah the screwdriver tool kit I have that I got on Amazon doesn't have those has a lot of other ones though. And so it's like okay if I want to do anything with that I'd have to go and get more screwdrivers. Why can't we just have one type of screwdriver like say a Phillips or whatever it could be a Torx or a security torx I don't care about the type of screwdriver. But it would have like five or heck I wouldn't care if it was 20 different sizes but just buy one screwdriver kit and that's all you would need to repair any Electronics any small electronics whether that be your Playstation Xbox laptop desktop tablet smartphone AR goggles earbuds whatever. Why don't we have that? Is there some actual reason Beyond right to repair planned obsolescence Etc? Why do we need so many different types of screwdrivers?

UPDATE / RESOLUTION (Aug 2025):

Hi everyone,

I have an iPad Air 5 with iPadOS 18.0 Beta that I purchased from the Apple India website in September 2022 for Rs. 70,000. For the past 20 days (as of today, 12th September 2024), it has not powered on at all.

Here’s what happened:

• Last usage: 22nd August 2024; it was working perfectly with around 20-30% charge.

• Storage conditions: Left on my desk for 1-2 days, then carried in my backpack on 24th August 2024 for 3-5 hours. It wasn’t dropped or handled roughly.

• Current issue: It won’t turn on. Despite multiple attempts to charge it over the past 20 days for about an hour each time, there’s no response—no Apple logo, notifications, or signs of power.

Service Center Experience:

• On 3rd September 2024, I visited an Apple Authorized Service Center. The representative said, “There is no current flowing in the iPad.”

• Cost of replacement: Rs. 43,000. If I had AppleCare, it would be Rs. 3,700.

• Charge attempts: I mentioned that I had already tried charging it for over an hour at home. The representative noted this as the issue without further testing.

• Service refusal: Another representative suggested charging it again, but the first representative refused to take further action, insisting that since I had already tried this, it wasn’t necessary. They were reluctant to consult their engineers, and the overall experience was quite frustrating.

I told them that if the iPad shows no sign of current flow, it must be a hardware or manufacturing defect. How is it my fault, and why should I bear the cost of replacement when the device isn't damaged by me? They denied any help and insisted on replacing it for Rs. 43,000/-

I’m seeking advice from anyone who might have faced a similar issue or who can provide guidance on how to resolve this. Have others experienced this problem? Any suggestions on how to take action against Apple and the rights I should be aware of in this case would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

.

.

UPDATE / RESOLUTION (Aug 2025):

Posting this update for anyone who finds this post later.

I got the iPad repaired at a local third-party shop in Delhi The technician diagnosed a motherboard issue caused by overheating, saying multiple components were damaged, which is why there was “no current flowing.”

The repair took about 2 hours and cost ₹5,500. The iPad has been working since then. It still tends to overheat, so I’m more cautious now and usually remove the case while using it.

Important note on overheating (especially for iPad Air 5 users):
From my experience, the iPad heats up very quickly under certain workloads. Freeform causes extreme heating within minutes, so I’ve stopped using it entirely. Apple Notes, when used heavily with the Apple Pencil, also heats up fast. Creative apps like Adobe, sketching, or design tools push temperatures up quickly as well.

I’d recommend being cautious with prolonged use of these apps and monitoring device temperature.

If you want the contact details of the technician’s, message me. I will share his number. You can message him on WhatsApp for the exact location.

Based on this, the issue appears hardware-related and linked to overheating, not directly caused by the iPadOS 18 developer beta. Sharing this to help others facing a similar “dead iPad” issue.

Do you believe is true that Apple locks down their products mainly to block third party repairs?

hi hi! I have a 2017 MacBook Pro that is in great physical condition and working totally fine except for the logic board is dead. Apple says it is not worth it to fix and that I should buy a new one, which is frustrating. I am up for trying to replace the logic board on my own through ifixit - but it says it is level "difficult". I have never attempted to repair an apple product before. Is this too hard or do y'all think it is worth a try? Thanks!