It had been in the works for a while, but now it has formally been adopted. From the article:
The regulation provides that by 2027 portable batteries incorporated into appliances should be removable and replaceable by the end-user, leaving sufficient time for operators to adapt the design of their products to this requirement.
GDPR
forcing usb-c
forcing removable batteries
The EU sure is handling tech laws and tech giants a fuck of a lot better than the US is. Damn.
Jealous.
Wait until you hear about another awesome thing they’re trying to do: chat control
The real danger behind Chat Control and similar measures, is that countries won’t even have to utilize parallel construction anymore. No longer will dragnet surveillance mostly target the big guys. They’ll be able to basically automate prosecution of any crime that they desire.
Think about how many little slices have been taken out of our freedom pie over the last 10 years. How many similar dystopian laws have passed despite our outrage?
Technology is outpacing our ability to protect ourselves, and countries will keep pushing boundaries until nothing is left sacred.
Oppression never sleeps.
Technology is just a tool though. It could equally be used to stop tax evasion entirely, and all sorts of crime by tracking transactions and abolishing cash. Location monitoring for evidence, etc.
Like surveillance isn’t a bad thing when your house is burgled or you get mugged.
The real issue is that the politicians are often the ones doing the tax evasion, fraud, etc. in the first place, and they don’t care about violent crime that only affects working class areas.
Problem with legislation like this is it frequently doesn’t take into account that companies like Apple can be devious assholes. Every loop hole has to be anticipated and covered before it can be exploited.
Yeah I agree with this on principle, but as it is it basically means we will have USBC forever because nobody is going to take market risks on pushing a better standard. It works because USBC is good, but imagine if the EU did this kind of thing with the previous gen mini connector?
Same thing here. I prefer the form factor, ergonomics and long term waterproofing which comes with current trends. Yes I know it’s possible to get IP ratings with removable batteries, but those seals fail much more quickly than fully sealed designs, and they always fail at the worst time. I suspect will happen is that this will have the opposite impact, and we will generate a lot more water-damage e-waste again.
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I have seen countless videos on tiktok of people being against this move, and my question is why? why wouldn’t anyone want to be able to extend the life of their expensive devices, why wouldn’t people want easily repairable batteries that take less than 5 minutes to swap out?
the only argument ive seen against this is “OOH BUT BUT BUT THE AESTHETICS OF THE PHONE” who cares? function should always be over looks. and if anything it will end the trend of phones being glassy slabs and bring some innovation and new designs to the table. which will be interesting to see.
who cares?
I do. I still think it’s a good idea to have swappable batteries, but I indeed do care about how it looks.
