• SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      26 days ago

      I miss just being able to take it out and have no phone for however long I want. Didn’t drain the battery, didn’t worry about the phone.

      It does compromise the waterproofing to open and close phones, even cases. But fuck you, let me make my own mistakes, your job is to engineer things to be better and fit my needs, not just give up and charge more and strip features and invade my privacy and spy on me with psyops and try to control my life. I’m a customer, not a user.

    • Wolf@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      25 days ago

      It’s because the U.S. Government can make it seem as if your phone is powered down, but it’s actually still on and spying on you, sending data to whatever alphabet agency wants it. Removing the battery is the only defense against that attack, so they ‘encouraged’ manufacturers to stop allowing it.

      • Honytawk@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        25 days ago

        Sounds like a dumb conspiracy. Especially since Fairphone sells in the US.

        More likely is that manufacturers want to make more money so they make their phones more difficult to repair so customers have to pay them to get a battery replaced.

        I blame Apple

        • Wolf@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          25 days ago

          You can believe what you want. I didn’t hear it from a conspiracy theorist, I heard it from Edward Snowden, and this was actually old news when he mentioned it, but his revelation on national TV made it even more widely known. “Coincidentally” it was right around the time Snowden blew the whistle that Android manufacturers started switching over to non-replaceable batteries.

          Yes Apple are greedy fucks and it’s obvious that forcing iPhone users to get their phones repaired by a ‘genius’ was a part of their strategy from the beginning. But Android manufacturers who didn’t have a repair store they could force their users to use and wouldn’t benefit from that were happy to continue letting users replace their own batteries, because it was a legitimate benefit for the consumer and way to differentiate themselves from Apple.

          I’m sure that phone manufactures save a few pennies by forcing users to either buy a new phone or pay an expensive repair bill, but I’m pretty sure that isn’t the only reason it’s done.

          Edit: Even if you ignore their ability to wiretap you when your phone is ‘powered off’, the fact remains that the government can and does track you by you cell phone and removing the battery is a great way to stop that.

          Of course, it’s not the only way- If you feel like you don’t want to be tracked for any reason a Faraday bag is a decent option. It makes your phone less useful, but so would removing the battery.

          • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            25 days ago

            Non replaceable batteries benefit android manufacturers as it simplifies manufacturing. And they dont care about repairs post warranty… thats just incentive to buy another one. You dont need a grand conspiracy to explain that.

            • Wolf@lemmy.today
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              25 days ago

              Non replaceable batteries benefit android manufacturers as it simplifies manufacturing. And they dont care about repairs post warranty… thats just incentive to buy another one.

              That was true from 2006-2016 as well, but most Android manufacturers still offered user replaceable batteries. If you believe that there is no correlation- that’s fine. I don’t buy it though, the timing is just too perfect for it to be a coincidence.

              • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                3
                ·
                25 days ago

                You know its a really easy to prove against, right? Just have some basic radio spectrograph to detect any signals coming from a turned off phone.

                In reality, the correlation is phones continue to get thinner, making it near impossible to create a battery and battery connector small enough and still be resistant to a 200lb ape handling it.

                • Wolf@lemmy.today
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  4
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  25 days ago

                  You know its a really easy to prove against, right?

                  Why would I need to prove it? You didn’t read any of the articles I linked to did you? The fact that they have the ability to do this is not even a question. The government admitted that it was able to do this all the way back in 2006.

                  Just have some basic radio spectrograph to detect any signals coming from a turned off phone.

                  The claim isn’t that the FBI/NSA/CIA/ICE whoever is doing this constantly to everybody, it’s that they have the capability to do this to anybody, which again isn’t even a question. I’m not really worried about being spied on personally (yet) and even if I were I’d just leave my phone at home or put it in a Faraday bag, I’m not going to carry around a ‘basic radio spectrograph’ and whip it out every time I want to have a private conversation.

                  In reality, the correlation is phones continue to get thinner

                  Lol, that’s like saying I lost weight because I bought smaller pants. Yeah, designers are able to make phones thinner when they are able to design around non-replaceable batteries. Was anyone asking for thinner phones? They had the ability to make thinner phones by disallowing replaceable batteries for a decade and did not.

                  Were consumers demanding that phone manufactures make phones worse by removing useful features like replaceable batteries or headphone jacks- or was these anti-features foisted upon us?

                  If it had been just some manufactures that switched, or if those manufacturers that did switch had offered the option of different models, some with replaceable batteries and some without, and then consumers chose the worse phones- I might not be as convinced.

                  As it is now with 99.9% of all phones you can buy not even giving you the option, I’m not buying it.

                  It’s not like this is some crazy off the wall theory. I’m not saying the Earth is flat or we didn’t land on the moon. We know that the government is using our cell phones to track us, we know they have the capabilities to do so. The only question is did governments (I guarantee it’s not just the U.S) make deals with/ask/or put pressure on manufactures to incentivize the switch. That’s not really far fetched at all.

                  • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    2
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    25 days ago

                    Was anyone asking for thinner phones? They had the ability to make thinner phones by disallowing replaceable batteries for a decade and did not.

                    A. They did not have the ability because doing so would reduced battery capacity because the tech is battery still maturing.

                    B. Apparently people are asking because people are still buying. Just because me and you arent asking doesnt mean the greater market isnt.

                    As it is now with 99.9% of all phones you can buy not even giving you the option, I’m not buying it.

                    A. That would mean the entire world is in on the conspiracy.

                    B. I cant buy a small truck in america. Does that mean there is a grand conspiracy?