This story simply doesnāt 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 doesnāt 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
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.
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/
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, Iām sorry to say I cannot see the excellence of the China Labour Watch.
I still remember the scandals from 2015 or so. Thatās 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.
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]
Yeah, I already linked it. It is an interesting concept however it also has some twists:
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 donāt have a simple solution at hand.
This is how ISPs work. They give you a modem (read: router) and you borrow this. Do you think theyāre patching it regularly? Do you think youāre 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 āI think you should take a look at the tiresā he does and says ājust put it backā . 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 theyāre going to rent FP3 as well IIRC.
For those who need a dumbphone, I can recommend a CAT25. It is rugged, and you can remove the battery (later CAT dumbphones donāt have the latter feature and run some āsmartā OS like KaiOS or w/e it is).
I just donāt get the point of adding GSM to such. I would not put a SIM in it anyway. Iāll be buying a Pocketsprite for the family. Thatās the kind of device I would on my keychain if my kid is bored in the train
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.
You bet me to it
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 āXā model has a removable battery. The other one is glued shut. The X uses the lighter āGoā Android 9.0 with its 1GB of dynamic memory, which Iām 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 Iāll 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.