@ShadowJonathan this is genuinely cool :hammyeyes: there's so much planned obsolescense, especially with the batteries

@ShadowJonathan Absolute BASED

@ShadowJonathan holy shit I can't wait to actually go shopping for a phone in a store and be able to compare the important specs :D

@ShadowJonathan now companies that brag about how great their phones are 24/7 will actually have to prove it :blobhaj_heart:

@ShadowJonathan I wonder if that will hurt availability of the Lower end handsets, esp as a lot of the oems are at the mercy of if the chipset vendor can be bothered to support the soc

@ShadowJonathan I’m impressed! Now next up, the EU will mandate each phone to have a constant connection to police servers or something insane like that

@ShadowJonathan *spontaneously bursts into Beethoven's famous ninth symphony*

@ShadowJonathan could go a bit further (mostly by also requiring OEMs to provide all required resources to enable the development of 3rd party OSes for their phones, as well as users to run these 3rd party OSes), but it’s undeniably a step in the right direction

@ShadowJonathan fortunatly aliexpress still will sell us cheap phones.

@ShadowJonathan Nice. But no wonder the tech bros want to get rid of the EU.

@ShadowJonathan common EU w

@ShadowJonathan some will leave the #eu market #phone

@ShadowJonathan niiiice, I hate how my phone stopped software support after only 3y and 9 months.

@ShadowJonathan

Perhaps credit needs to also go to #Fairphone as they proved these could be done even by a tiny company with few resources. It showed that the excuses made by larger companies were untrue.

Hey @WeAreFairphone did you see this?

@ShadowJonathan

Ping @iFixit

@ShadowJonathan Too bad companies are prolly going to outplay this again by making the tools and replacement parts horribly expensive.

@ShadowJonathan Meanwhile, in the US...

Perplexity CEO says its browser will track everything users do online to sell ‘hyper personalized’ ads
https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/24/perplexity-ceo-says-its-browser-will-track-everything-users-do-online-to-sell-hyper-personalized-ads/

@ShadowJonathan There was a lot of hype for a law mandating easily replaceable batteries, but it seems that wasn't that great after all, as the law meant that it only had to be easily replaceable by professionals.

I really miss my Samsung Note 3 which wasn't thicker than modern phones but one could just pop the back of it open and change the battery in a few seconds. I hoped that we'd get closer to that experience in the future.

@ShadowJonathan Excellent idea.

@ShadowJonathan @briankrebs this looks great! Though that timeline to comply seems a little harsh 😂

@ShadowJonathan 20 June 2025
🍿

@ShadowJonathan That spare parts requirement is a bit daft. First of all: important parts, which are those? Secondly: if you are *required* to supply spare parts to any repair shop within ten days, that is no problem if the device is still manufactured. But to meet that obligation after you stop selling the phone, you need spare stock, enough to meet *projected* demand for seven years. (1/2)

@ShadowJonathan

Do I read correctly that it's *new* models of phones that need to do this?

So, e.g. the Fairphone 5, that already launched, is not in scope?

@ShadowJonathan the Union should regulate also the hardware batteries and select/create a common port for 20V batteries, another one for 18V batteries, ... And not having one Bosch battery that has the same volts than your Einhell drill but can't be used because it doesn't fit in.

@ShadowJonathan Yep, I need a new battery for my phone but doing my best not to as I might then find I can’t. I refuse to upgrade partly due to the brick size rather than hand/pocket size of all newer phones, and I don’t necessarily want to go internet free.

@ShadowJonathan
Ping @pluralistic re the above

@ShadowJonathan Ohman I wish this could be a thing here in America..........

@ShadowJonathan There needs to be extensive testing to prove that the devices themselves matches the label ratings, and not just some label slapped on there claiming to be something they're not. Thankfully there are a lot of tech reviewers these days who do these kinds of proper tests that aren't just factory controlled tests.

@ShadowJonathan
1. how many new burocrats we need for this
2. ratings will be not correct or biased (as now with food rating)
3. as always focus on the least important things is EU motto

@ShadowJonathan
Awesome thing! Hopefully they not only supply those software to reparishops.

@ShadowJonathan i wonder how the software updates requirement will be enforced, security patches? porting to latest OS version?

@ShadowJonathan as every so often, the idea is great. We will have to see how implantation and enforcement goes, but I‘m cautiosly optimistic

@ShadowJonathan fucking overdue - but nice.

Wish there was a small bit about not making children work in the mix, or a wage for all worker involved from the mining to their disposal in which dump.

@ShadowJonathan I love the EU!

@ShadowJonathan Nice for consumers but I gotta say: as a full-time kernel developer working on Arm device drivers, this is great for my job security lol

@ShadowJonathan Finally!

@ShadowJonathan
This is great, but I don't get what the point is of demanding hardware parts for longer than software updates - once a smartphone stops getting security updates, one shouldn't encourage using it any further.

Especially if there is no requirement to open source all required software (drivers), so the community can take over maintaining it.

@ShadowJonathan very good

@ShadowJonathan 5 years of software updates after they stop selling device in EU? What does that mean?

If they sell device for 2 years with active software support, they need to supply 5 more years of updates? I don't quite understand the wording here.

@ShadowJonathan Energy efficiency... i have no idea why they're putting that onto phones.

I fully subscribe to the rest though.

I still remember the days when you bought a TV or radio they also shipped the circuit diagrams and repair manuals with it, together with an address where you could order the spare parts.

Google, to their credit, has finally gotten to a point where this is achievable (on the software side) on Android. Project Treble, Project Mainline, Generic System Image, and Generic Kernel Image have worked together to make a device feasible to support at least 5 years in security, and up to 8 years for flagships.

Now if only they could mandate unlockable and reflashable bootloaders.

@ShadowJonathan I REALLY wonder what the bar for "software updates" is... if we're on iOS 18, but Apple backports a single fix to iOS 15 because a vuln is being exploited in the wild... does that count?

@ShadowJonathan @bitboxer this is amazing. I wish it wasn’t limited to phones. anything that has firmware and an IP should have guaranteed firmware upgrades or just be open source

@ShadowJonathan
I wonder how #nokia #HMD phones will be rated. AAAAA++++? 🤪
@linmob

@ShadowJonathan While this is a good thing, something tells me that mobile phones are gonna get a lot more expensive soon, and i should buy a new one soon.

@ShadowJonathan @catsalad I just want to know about the mushrooms and other seasonings…

@ShadowJonathan

The EU leads the way again....

@ShadowJonathan I use a #dumbphone what are software updates. Usually charge it every couple of weeks. 🤔

@ShadowJonathan God bless the EU

@IngeMH20 that is really good news!

And this is the best part:

'Energy labelling and ecodesign requirements will apply to these products from June 2025.'

As some companies already extended those services, I expect they knew this already for some time.

@ShadowJonathan

@ShadowJonathan @jt_rebelo DMN! If this is correct then there is still hope for humanity! Much needed and a good step towards how most products should be treated.

Acknowledged that my old pad was EoL because of old software, and started thinking about how this will translate to new electric cars 🤔

I have a feeling my old "stupid" fossil cars will outlive many of the ev's I see on the road today. Sadly.

@ShadowJonathan
I'm absolutely jealous of some of the regulations y'all are getting.

@ShadowJonathan WTF i want this in the US

@ShadowJonathan Very nice, I mean you *can* find most of this online but it's nice that it's in one place. It also is easier to understand for the average person.

@ShadowJonathan@tech.lgbt those are some much needed regulations. wish they put up more requirements like easily removable batteries and such, but one can only dream of that for now. ​:neofox_melt_3:​
still some amazing progress!! don’t know what to do without the EU

@ShadowJonathan Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day.

Still it's directed to the symptom and not to the core problem.

@ShadowJonathan Removable batteries was a huge miss here

@ShadowJonathan

My guess (based on a long history of experiencing corporate greed)?

Companies will manufacture two sets of phones. Those compliant with these EU guidelines in the EU, and those that <expletive> their customers everywhere else.

@ShadowJonathan That's awesome

@ShadowJonathan This is nothing short of amazing...

I never buy phones through my service providers anyway, I may have to make sure that any I do buy are packed and labeled for EU sales.

@ShadowJonathan When King Donald the I. is back in Washington DC, all the CEO’s will cry altogether "evil EU". This economic terrorism is like woke and bad for the US. Our profits will be erased. Cast your ban on the EU.

@ShadowJonathan I need a shirt with that on the back

@ShadowJonathan this is the shit i mean when i say eu and california are double handedly holding the entire world together

@ShadowJonathan Go EU! USA needs 2 do da same.

@ShadowJonathan this sounded too good to be true so I had to verify. This is really happening! Nice work EU! @EUCommission

https://energy-efficient-products.ec.europa.eu/product-list/smartphones-and-tablets_en

@kabassou

@ShadowJonathan

The EU council is doing pretty great things over the last decades. (appart from the european commission being pretty much lobbyists)

@ShadowJonathan@tech.lgbt And I imagine that if you get an A the phone will be much more expensive

@ShadowJonathan nice