<story><title>Why Apple and other tech companies are fighting to keep devices hard to repair</title><url>https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/3/16087628/apple-e-waste-environmental-standards-ieee-right-to-repair</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>krylon</author><text>I am reminded of that company from the Hitchhiker&amp;#x27;s Guide to the Galaxy whose products were built so they could not possibly fail - and then it turned out they were impossible to repair when they did.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a shame companies do this, not just to phones. Laptops and small-form-factor desktops have the same problem.&lt;p&gt;A few years back, a coworker had a problem with a laptop, Lenovo R500, I think, that required replacing something inside the laptop (I forgot what part exactly). I found this maintenance manual, and it was exemplary, with lots of diagrams and drawings that made taking this machine apart and putting it back together a cakewalk even for somebody as clumsy as me (meaning, I successfully performed the &amp;quot;operation&amp;quot;, with hardly a clue what I was doing guided solely by the excellent manual, and it ____ing worked!)&lt;p&gt;That is the standard, vendors should aspire to. And I think, Douglas Adams was on to something - if you design something with repairability (is that a word?) as a goal, I would not bet surprised if the result was also more reliable.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>peckrob</author><text>&amp;gt; It&amp;#x27;s a shame companies do this, not just to phones. Laptops and small-form-factor desktops have the same problem.&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;#x27;t unique to technology either. Making a simple repair to most modern cars is an exercise in frustration even if you have all the necessary documentation.&lt;p&gt;I just recently replaced the headlight assemblies on my Toyota Tacoma. I had to disassemble the entire front of the truck to get them out. The grill, bumper cover, and wheel well liners all had to come off just to get the headlight assembly out. I had a bucket full of screws - many of them those garbage plastic ones - a garage full of parts, and a bloody hand by the time I even got to the meat of the project. It literally took me about &lt;i&gt;four hours&lt;/i&gt; and 14 pages of directions start to finish.&lt;p&gt;Twenty years ago I did this same thing on a Dodge Spirit. Three easily reachable bolts and the headlights came right out. New one popped right in, and tighten three easily reachable bolts. Took like 15 minutes.&lt;p&gt;It seems like everything is becoming more complex and difficult to repair.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why Apple and other tech companies are fighting to keep devices hard to repair</title><url>https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/3/16087628/apple-e-waste-environmental-standards-ieee-right-to-repair</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>krylon</author><text>I am reminded of that company from the Hitchhiker&amp;#x27;s Guide to the Galaxy whose products were built so they could not possibly fail - and then it turned out they were impossible to repair when they did.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a shame companies do this, not just to phones. Laptops and small-form-factor desktops have the same problem.&lt;p&gt;A few years back, a coworker had a problem with a laptop, Lenovo R500, I think, that required replacing something inside the laptop (I forgot what part exactly). I found this maintenance manual, and it was exemplary, with lots of diagrams and drawings that made taking this machine apart and putting it back together a cakewalk even for somebody as clumsy as me (meaning, I successfully performed the &amp;quot;operation&amp;quot;, with hardly a clue what I was doing guided solely by the excellent manual, and it ____ing worked!)&lt;p&gt;That is the standard, vendors should aspire to. And I think, Douglas Adams was on to something - if you design something with repairability (is that a word?) as a goal, I would not bet surprised if the result was also more reliable.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jeena</author><text>&amp;quot;Thinkpads are the easiest machines to dissolve into atoms and back.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I did that too with my ThinkPad, a couple of times, and I got at least two more years out of it! &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jeena.net&amp;#x2F;repairing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jeena.net&amp;#x2F;repairing&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jeena.net&amp;#x2F;thinkpad-t410-speakers-fix&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jeena.net&amp;#x2F;thinkpad-t410-speakers-fix&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>