Daily Authority: 🔋 Replaceable Phone Battery?

👋 Good morning! Paula is here, covering for Tristan while she is adventuring in unknown lands. He will return to lead next week. Also, today is April Fool’s Day!

Before heading to today’s tech events, we would like to thank OPPO for sponsoring this newsletter!

The OPPO Find X5 Pro sporting a stylish ceramic curve brings a new sense of futuristic design that is detached from the glass-and-metal tradition. MariSilicon X Imaging greatly enhances the NPU’s videographic and photographic capabilities – especially in low light conditions – and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset.

Visit OPPO to learn more about the Find X5 Pro and get this flashy new flagship in your pocket.

Replaceable battery back?

A decade ago, smartphones were offered with replaceable batteries – and other technologies. Nowadays most of our phones, tablets and other gadgets have battery sealed, which makes battery repair or replacement a challenge. There are still some phones with removable batteries, but they are usually mid-ranger at the bottom end of the price spectrum. Now new EU law, effective January 1, 2024, may make it mandatory for everything from smartphones and tablets to ebikes to have replaceable batteries.

Why isn’t the battery currently replaceable?

With the advent of slimmer, smoother phones designed to keep away dust, dirt and water, sealed batteries have been introduced.

• A sealed battery unit usually means a slimmer design.
• It is also much easier to waterproof a phone if the battery unit is sealed.
• Then there’s the fact that manufacturers can charge for repairs if you can’t easily repair / replace the battery yourself – or sell you a brand new phone when the battery runs out.

Why does this move matter?

This can mean one of two things:

• A major design change for the mobile technology industry, where manufacturers like Apple and Samsung have been forced to redesign their devices to ensure batteries are easily accessible and replaceable. This could eventually happen worldwide, not just in Europe.
• Or, perhaps, some phone brands – although it will actually be almost all smartphones – will no longer be able to sell in the European market.
• The new law states that batteries must be able to be safely removed and replaced “using basic and commonly available equipment” and “without damaging appliances or batteries”, leaving manufacturers responsible for providing documentation for batteries removal and replacement.

What is the reason for the new law?

It is, first and foremost, a step towards environmental protection and the fight against e-waste

• The new regulations are a push towards creating a more “circular economy” where we recycle almost all existing materials instead of new ones.
• The proposed targets for the collection of used portable batteries are already there: 45% by the end of 2023 and 80% by the end of 2030.
• But also, why wouldn’t we be able to access the battery in our device for repair or replacement? This means less phone trash due to faulty battery …

Will this change the way smartphones are designed worldwide, and will you be able to hold an Apple or Samsung phone with a replaceable battery in 2024? We have to wait and see.

Roundup

📱 Following only the Chinese spell, OnePlus 10 Pro launched worldwide yesterday, and our review is ongoing, also see the launch here (Android authority)

আপনার Your phone app from Microsoft has an identity crisis, rebranded with two different names across PC and Play Store (Android authority)

3 E3 2022 officially canceled: Following the cancellation of its personal event, ESA has now dropped the digital event as well, promising to return in 2023 with “a revived showcase” (Edge)

Scientists have finally mapped the entire human genome, achieving a “gapless genome sequence” that is responsible for 8% of the genetic information we didn’t know before; Can provide insights into our evolutionary journey and disease susceptibility (Gizmodo)

It’s April 1, otherwise known as April Fools’ Day, so here are some of our favorite pranks

• In 2007, Google had TiSP (Toilet Internet Service Provider), a fictitious free broadband service that uses a standard toilet and sewerage line to provide free Internet.
• In 2013, Google Nose Search had new “sessions”, or so Google believed in us.
• The 2014 prank of Pocket Lint Google Glass Solo, Glass monocle for the debonair gentleman, debuted.
• Who can forget Samsung’s ExoKinetic Charger In 2016, which promised to charge your phone by moving alone.
• A lot of work has been done on Google Tulip video in 2019, here is a lot of technical details to enjoy.
• Last year Lego SmartBrix Parents around the world have been fooled into thinking that they should never set foot on Lego bricks again.
• This year there are already some fun things to do Razor hypersensitivity Haptic suit NZXT H-AND Mobile gaming PCs, and Heardle’s rickrolling prank, and hopefully Google will return to the game this year.

Also: Here’s what many thought was April Fool’s Day joke:

• The new scientist An article has been published (April 1 in Australia) about a magnetic slim robot that can enter the human body to recover accidentally swallowed items.
• And it’s real!
• Remember, so Dyson Zone headphones, which surprised us all.

Cheers,

Paula Bitton, copy editor.