Gay Gordon-Byrne

See the following -

Apple Is Fighting A Secret War To Keep You From Repairing Your Phone

Damon Beres and Andy Campbell | Huffington Post | June 9, 2016

Your shiny new iPad Pro is on the fritz. The touchscreen is cracked and isn’t working properly. You could take it to an affordable local repair shop, but mom and pop may not know how to heat up the glass ​just enough to separate the LCD from the rest of the device — it’s a complicated process that involves an acute understanding of the tablet’s insides. Once they’ve cracked open the iPad, they may not even know what to do to replace each component...

Read More »

The Fight for the "Right to Repair"

Emily Matchar | Smithsonian.com | July 13, 2016

Manufacturers have made it increasingly difficult for individuals or independent repair people to fix electronics. A growing movement is fighting back. Fifty years ago, if your television broke you could bring it to the local electronics shop to be repaired. These days, a broken TV likely means a trip to Best Buy for a new one. Electronics have become harder to fix. This is, in part, because they’ve become more complex. But some of the problem is by design...

Read More »

Tractor Owners Using Pirated Firmware To Dodge John Deere's Ham-Fisted Attempt To Monopolize Repair

Karl Bode | Tech Dirt | March 29, 2017

We've been noting for a while how numerous states have been pushing so-called "right to repair" bills, which would make it easier for consumers to repair their own products and find replacement parts and tools. Not surprisingly, many tech companies have been working overtime to kill these bills. That includes Apple, which recently proclaimed that Nebraska's right to repair bill would turn the state into a nefarious playground for hackers. Opposition also includes Sony and Microsoft, which both tend to enjoy a repair monopoly on their respective video game consoles...

Read More »