Summary
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The California state assembly has unanimously passed a bill that would require electronics manufacturers to sell repair tools and parts to consumers and to make repair guides available to the general public.
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The bill, known as the “Right to Repair” bill, previously passed the state Senate and now has the support of Apple, a longtime opponent of the legislation.
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If the bill is signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, it would be a victory not just for Californians but for consumers everywhere.
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California would become the third state to pass right to repair legislation for consumer electronics, after New York and Minnesota passed laws earlier this year.
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The bill is seen as a victory for consumers and environmentalists, who argue that it will allow people to repair their own devices and reduce electronic waste.
Additional Details
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The bill was supported by a coalition of consumer groups, environmentalists, and small business owners.
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The bill’s supporters argued that it would be better for the environments and save them money on repairs.
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Apple supported bills after having spent millions of dollars against it.
Apple probably figured away to make more money this way
Those tools and parts are NOT going to be cheap.
Microsoft just started selling spare parts for an xbox controller.
Fixing a drifting thumbstick is 80% the cost of a new controller in parts alone. You can fix it for $5 if you go aftermarket and are happy desoldering over 10 points to remove it.
Which, as I understand it, is kinda the point of the bills too. As in, if there is documentation and it’s reasonably easy to dis- and re-assemble, there can be a (bigger) market for spare parts.
The problem is that the thumbsticks are soldered onto the motherboard. Microsoft’s “fix” is replacing the whole motherboard, when the sticks should really be swappable.
In a Nintendo Switch, the sticks are held in by screws and connect via a ZIF connector.
OIC, makes sense.
To diagnose the fault you need a MacBook Pro Engineer Edition $10,000, Diagnostic Software $10,000 and Diagnostic Cable $10,000.
Then there’s the annual subscription to be able to buy parts , guess how much?
Don’t forget the new and improved $50 Apple I Polishing Cloth 2 Pro
They also do a non-Pro version but it can only polish at one-tenth the speed.
So far they aren’t