🇬🇧 Interesting links / news articles somehow related to Fairphone

Discuss The Industry
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I would guess so too. The shielding is rather all purpose than specific for certain frequencies/waves.

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Here’s a good example of outlandish repair costs - from Samsung this time. Unfortunately, it’s in French. Basically, Samsung in Belgium outsources its repairs to Dynafix in the Netherlands, who bumped up the cost of repair initially quoted by Samsung.
Problem: crack in the back of the smartphone’s case (probably glass).
Cost: Samsung sent him (a guy called Thierry) an estimate for 69e
Dynafix then sent him an estimate for 250 euro! They claim that the front screen also has to be replaced. And the battery. Et cetera.
40 euro just to send the unfixed phone back to the owner.

Thierry had followed Samsung’s recommended repair procedure. Samsung is thus ultimately responsible for the actions of Dynafix.

A third party repair shop’s advice - NEVER follow the manufacturer’s repair advice - send it to a third party repair technician instead.
Hopefully, people will get fed-up of this sort of behaviour from manufacturers.

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You might find yourself thinking: Why does my partner seem to care more about strangers halfway around the world than about me?

A philosopher would tell you that your partner may be a utilitarian or consequentialist, someone who thinks that an action is moral if it produces good consequences and that everyone equally deserves to benefit from the good, not just those closest to us. By contrast, your response suggests you’re a deontologist, someone who thinks an action is moral if it’s fulfilling a duty — and we have special duties toward special people, like our partners, so we should prioritize our partner’s needs over a stranger’s.

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I stumbled upon this project which I found very cool.

What it does it can turn your old smartphone into an off the grid (offline) password manager. It seems like a solid alternative to password manager in the the cloud, YubiKey / 2FA.

Since the FP3 got released, perhaps a project like this allows people to use their old smartphone (such as a FP2) as a dedicated (offline) device.

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Hi JeroenH,

thanks for posting Authorizer here :slight_smile:
Coincidentally, I searched yesterday for Fairphone and checked, if I could remove the mobile part (antenna, mobile modem, 
) from Fairphone to have a complete offline device. As far as I could see, this is not possible.

If someone is interested to use Authorizer, e.g. for FP2, I can help to get Auto-Type over USB working.

There are also a lot of innovative and awesome features planned for Authorizer
 just in case someone wants to contribute :wink:

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Hey, you’re 2*welcome :slight_smile:

I don’t think it is possible to completely remove all the antennas. If you want hardware kill switches, I suppose Librem 5, or just put your device in permanent airplane mode.

It seems to be possible to get rid of at least some antennas

There are some people who have trouble with LTE connectivity. You could probably put something in between the connectors on the other side of the display to at least jam that signal.

Once I got my FP3 I might start experimenting with this. Although I don’t want to damage my FP2, and my plan is to sell it after a couple of weeks.

Not sure if hardening of USB port is required. The other attack I’m aware of, is TEMPEST.

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A report by “China Labor Watch” showing the reason for Fairphone’s focus on fair working conditions:
iPhone 11 Illegally Produced in China: Apple Allows Supplier Factory Foxconn to Violate Labor Laws
And the list of violations is quite long; e.g.

  • up to 55% dispatch workers in 2018 and up to 50% in 2019 (though chinese law allows no more than 10%),
  • up to 100 overtime hours a month and
  • the chairman of the labor union is always appointed by the factory, not elected by the workers, and the chairman is always the department leader or manager.

And here ist the List of reports by China Labor Watch

EDIT:
:de: Here is a report on this in the German daily “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”
Since I already posted in the German thread three times, I am blocked there temporarily.
Und hier ein Bericht aus der deutschen FAZ.

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This story simply doesn’t end. Foxconn is in the press for several years now as there were also workers committing suicide due to bad work and living conditions. It doesn’t look like Apple meanwhile would care more and the regulation authorities seem to be looking into the wrong direction for years.

Maybe Fairphone should start an offensive to headhunt those skilled workers.
They would for sure do better under its lead than they do now. With this step it could also weaken Apples production output and ramp up the FP3 production.
Just imagine - this could bring the major shift -> WORLD DOMINATION :wink:

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For completeness’ sake:

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This is excellent investigative work by China Labour Watch. I had not known about this organisation. I had thought that it was impossible to know what went on in Foxconn factories because workers are not allowed to talk.

Here is a link to what I found is going on in Cupertino, California, next to Apple’s headquarters. It involves contract workers for Apple who work on the software for ‘Apple Maps’. : https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-02-11/apple-black-site-gives-contractors-few-perks-little-security This was news to me but it may well be common knowledge to many.

And just in case it is interesting to anyone, here is an article that discusses the problems with subcontracting. I find it quite rare to have opinion articles on computer hardware websites, and I especially appreciate this particular writer: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/27992-subcontracting-worst-kept-secret/

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Bloomberg cannot be trusted anymore.

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A while ago I got my partner to switch to a FOSS one (available in F-Droid) but she finds it confusing
 :confused:

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Truly I must say - is there anyone out there still not believing in the fact that the majority of apps share quite more data than they admit to do?

Now let’s see if anyone wakes up when it’s official that many pay & banking apps are not as secure as advertised.

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Erm, well - actually considering that this story is going on for several years already and since there were plenty of suicides in the past related to Foxconn, I’m sorry to say I cannot see the excellence of the China Labour Watch.

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I still remember the scandals from 2015 or so. That’s when I first heard about it anyway. I have tried on numerous occasions to follow up on progress specifically on factories working for Apple, but apart from one undercover video, I got nothing. There may have been a lot more going on than I knew about of course. This is the first time I have heard about China Labour Watch, but they may well have been the ones that revealed every story until now for all I know.

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4 posts were split to a new topic: Menstruation Apps

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This TEDx video takes its time to illustrate a circular economy model that would be a step further than Fairphone achievements:
Thomas Rau, Turn too, circular economy : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrb2v_f0ZYY
It gets to new stuff from 13".

If we would buy light instead of light-bulbs, the light-bulb producers (and leasers) would be directly interested in saving electricity, and making recyclable light-bulbs.

[I took the URL from a previous @JeroenH post, kept it until I forget where it came from, and finally watch it and decided it back that here was a good place to talk about
 So many thanks to @JeroenH]

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Yeah, I already linked it. It is an interesting concept however it also has some twists:

  1. You never know exactly what a second hand device has experienced throughout its life. What did the owner do to it? It has a led a unique life, compared to the dozens of new devices. I can see how this conflicts with Apple, Right To Repair movement, etc. I don’t have a simple solution at hand.

  2. This is how ISPs work. They give you a modem (read: router) and you borrow this. Do you think they’re patching it regularly? Do you think you’re getting a newer one when it is deemed out of date? No! That is why I bought my own router and WLAN AP. Just the other day I had a teambuilding day with work and we borrowed bicycles. I took one from the Dutch Railways station cause it is cheaper than Rent A Bike. After a few km I notice my back tire is half flat. We bicycled 21 km through the dunes etc. I come back to check out, tell the servicemen “I think you should take a look at the tires” he does and says “just put it back” :man_shrugging:. I feel sorry for the next person who grabs that bike and is going to drive more than a few km with it.

In short, I believe it could very well work for some devices if there is a form of accountability and written agreement on the quality.

Looking forward to what Fairphone is going to do with this idea as they’re going to rent FP3 as well IIRC.

@siltaar glad you liked it :slight_smile:

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The Guardian includes the Fairphone 3 as “the ethical alternative” in a list of “Five of the best mobile phones – whatever your budget” 


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