šŸ‡¬šŸ‡§ Interesting links / news articles somehow related to Fairphone

This story simply doesnā€™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 doesnā€™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:

3 Likes

For completenessā€™ sake:

2 Likes

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 Appleā€™s headquarters. It involves contract workers for Apple who work on the software for ā€˜Apple Mapsā€™. : 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/

2 Likes

Bloomberg cannot be trusted anymore.

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

2 Likes

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 letā€™s see if anyone wakes up when itā€™s official that many pay & banking apps are not as secure as advertised.

3 Likes

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, Iā€™m sorry to say I cannot see the excellence of the China Labour Watch.

I still remember the scandals from 2015 or so. Thatā€™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.

1 Like

4 posts were split to a new topic: Menstruation Apps

2 Likes

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 aboutā€¦ So many thanks to @JeroenH]

2 Likes

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 donā€™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 theyā€™re patching it regularly? Do you think youā€™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 ā€œI think you should take a look at the tiresā€ he does and says ā€œjust put it backā€ :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 theyā€™re going to rent FP3 as well IIRC.

@siltaar glad you liked it :slight_smile:

3 Likes

The Guardian includes the Fairphone 3 as ā€œthe ethical alternativeā€ in a list of ā€œFive of the best mobile phones ā€“ whatever your budgetā€ ā€¦

6 Likes

Yet another modular ā€œphoneā€ :

1 Like

For those who need a dumbphone, I can recommend a CAT25. It is rugged, and you can remove the battery (later CAT dumbphones donā€™t have the latter feature and run some ā€œsmartā€ OS like KaiOS or w/e it is).

I just donā€™t get the point of adding GSM to such. I would not put a SIM in it anyway. Iā€™ll be buying a Pocketsprite for the family. Thatā€™s the kind of device I would on my keychain if my kid is bored in the train :slight_smile:

1 Like

European Commission produces new rules to make household appliances more sustainable:

3 Likes

The article claims:
The Fairphone 3 has been launched. That is no more than a step in the right direction, because smartphones are almost impossible to make sustainable.

2 Likes

Local though not fair.

6 Likes

You bet me to it :slight_smile:
I first learned about it on notebookcheck.net. The company website is very slow and glitchy, but the product specifications are very thorough. If only some other manufacturers were this open about their products. The only information missing is input/output ports. I can see from pictures that it uses a single micro USB port though, which is probably a good choice for compatibility with other chargers in Rwanda. Only the cheaper ā€˜Xā€™ model has a removable battery. The other one is glued shut. The X uses the lighter ā€˜Goā€™ Android 9.0 with its 1GB of dynamic memory, which Iā€™m sure would work just fine.

True. Rwanda is a nice country though. I can not say that work practices there are fairer than in China, but Iā€™ll wager that they are. I want to learn more about Rwanda now.

Correction: How wrong I was! Rwanda is still most certainly not a nice country. A simple look on Wikipedia about the leader, Paul Kagame was sufficient.

2 Likes