Your smartphone does quite a bit of damage: canât that be fairer and more sustainable?
The smartphone that you carelessly let disappear into a drawer after a few years of use, comes about in rather problematic circumstances. Canât that be fairer?
And of course Fairphone is mentioned in the article:
We asked experts from the field, viewed reports from telephone brands themselves and spoke with Fairphone, a Dutch telephone brand founded in 2013 that recently released its latest model; the Fairphone 3. Precisely because of the great effort it has to make to make its devices âfairâ, this company illustrates better than anyone how deeply rooted the problems of the telephone industry are.
The item is in Dutch but that news should be linked elsewhere as well. The point is that the first Google Pixel was released on October 4 2016, and receives its last security update in December 2019. Which is 3 years and 2 months (38 months) updates. For a flagship device. Which cost 800 EUR. By one of the largest corporations in the world (Google).
I had a lengthy discussion about that on twitter once. A person there couldnât imagine how Fairphone can guarantee 5 years of support when Google only has 3. That person also didnât seem to understand that the FP2 already has longer support than 3 years. I was at the end of my explanation skillsâŠ
Also had disbelief, or laughs that is was running ancient Android 5/6/7 (whatever it was at that time). What matters is that the device is stable and secure though.
The Met Office Hadley Centre is one of the UKâs foremost climate change research centres. This is their âClimate Dashboardâ which is âTracking the Changing Climate with Earth Observationsâ. The dashboard contains clear graphs which should be convincing in a discussion, even with climate change deniers.
This is so difficult to comment on. Kinda like comparing Fairphone with a non-fair phone.
50 EUR for a mouse with 2 buttons. 80 EUR for a membrane keyboard (with ugly Windows key). I really like the wood though. In like 2003 I saw an Italian craftsman who made a full laptop housing, custom, for any current laptop. The price though⊠2000 EUR or so. Thatâs the complete case though; not half of it like these laptops. Plus, the laptop they show on the website here has VGA and seems to run Windows 8.
With mice, I donât need such for a laptop (Apple Trackpad FTW, else trackpoint). There is a mouse by Razer which can be converted from a normal mouse to a Naga (12 button) or a Hex (6 button). So you donât need a separate mouse if you play a MOBA or MMO. Razer mice are not known to be durable though, and I already got a normal and MMO mouse as it is (plus I donât have time for MMOs anymore).
Keyboard-wise, a mechanical keyboard can be made from durable plastic. Mechanical keyboards last longer than membrane, and keys can be replaced. Sure, they can be loud, but that is also a matter of preference (something like Cherry MX Red or Cherry MX Brown with o-rings should not be loud, and it is also a matter of using the keys differently).
Finally, the website seems out of date? As at the Archive the top entry is November 2015.
Looking great.
But is that preject still up to date?
The âArchivesâ-section ends 2015 and the ânewsâ are from 2013!
The shop does not offer the laptop and the specifications of the desktop computer, featuring Windows 8 and a dual core Intel ATOM D525 CPU from 2010 seem a bit outdated.
It would be a pity if such a good concept would go waste.
But unfortunately this is the first time I heard of them; so they might have not been successful enough at marketing?
Edit:
Latest tweet from September 2017.
Latest facebook post from December 2018, announcing the starting of selling USB keyboards and mice. Thatâs what the online shop mostly features; in various designs.
Maybe Fairphone could team up with them, as the concept they had for their computers was really great (including repairability of course).
I came across this on Twitter, I think it was retweeted by Mozilla. The focus is on the Amazon Echo but it could apply to any consumer electronics. The poster is great, a visual yet detailed representation of the impacts of a commodity electronic item.
Fairphone has made a start but there is a huge industry to change - letâs keep at it!
The BMW Group will source the cobalt needed as a key raw material for cell production directly from mines in Australia and Morocco and make it available to CATL and Samsung SDI.
Itâs the approach that counts here. Fairphone has started completely as a new comer and (simply) did it. And they were far from being that wealthy than BMW.
So again it doesnât look like BMW wants to do better here.
