How Samsung 'Ruined' iFixit's Upcycling Program (arstechnica.com) 24
Last week, Kevin Purdy of iFixit published a blog post telling the story of "how Samsung announced a 'revolutionary' upcycling program in 2017, delayed it for years, and eventually gutted it before shipping a pale imitation of the original idea," reports Ars Technica. "iFixit was actually involved in the initial 2017 announcement, and the repair outfit says that after endorsing the original idea with its brand and stamp of approval, Samsung never delivered on its promises." From the report: Despite the 2017 announcement of an upcycling program, the code didn't ship until April 2021, when Samsung finally launched a beta version of "Galaxy Upcycling at Home." This program lets users turn end-of-life Samsung phones into smart home sensors that could be paired with Samsung's SmartThings ecosystem. iFixit was initially given an inside look at the project back in 2017, liking it so much that it endorsed the project and lent its name to the marketing materials. To hear iFixit tell the story, bootloader unlocking was actually the original plan. Samsung was going to let users replace the shipping Android OS with whatever they wanted, like builds of LineageOS or some other custom OS. Samsung was also going to launch an open source marketplace where users could submit ideas and software for repurposing old Galaxy devices. iFixit called the original plan "novel" and "revolutionary."
"We were so excited," iFixit writes, "that when Samsung asked us to help launch the product in the fall of 2017, we jumped at the chance. You'll see iFixit's name and logo all over Samsung's original Galaxy Upcycling materials." iFixit went to Samsung HQ in South Korea to see prototypes of the project, and after testing working software, iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens actually helped announce the project on stage at Samsung's developer conference in 2017. Despite all the pomp and circumstance, iFixit says, "The actual software was never posted. The Samsung team eventually stopped returning our emails. Friends inside the company told us that leadership wasn't excited about a project that didn't have a clear product tie-in or revenue plan."
iFixit calls the version of the program that launched in April "nearly unrecognizable" to what it originally endorsed. What used to be an ambitious plan now barely makes any sense financially. iFixit rightfully points out that if you really want something as simple as a light sensor or sound monitor, at this point you're better off selling the phone and buying a purpose-built sensor. Samsung's on-rails functionality is so simple that it can be replicated by a $30 sensor, and you're sure to get more than that from a working device on the secondary market, especially due to another limitation of the program: it only extends back to the 3-year-old Galaxy S9.
"We were so excited," iFixit writes, "that when Samsung asked us to help launch the product in the fall of 2017, we jumped at the chance. You'll see iFixit's name and logo all over Samsung's original Galaxy Upcycling materials." iFixit went to Samsung HQ in South Korea to see prototypes of the project, and after testing working software, iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens actually helped announce the project on stage at Samsung's developer conference in 2017. Despite all the pomp and circumstance, iFixit says, "The actual software was never posted. The Samsung team eventually stopped returning our emails. Friends inside the company told us that leadership wasn't excited about a project that didn't have a clear product tie-in or revenue plan."
iFixit calls the version of the program that launched in April "nearly unrecognizable" to what it originally endorsed. What used to be an ambitious plan now barely makes any sense financially. iFixit rightfully points out that if you really want something as simple as a light sensor or sound monitor, at this point you're better off selling the phone and buying a purpose-built sensor. Samsung's on-rails functionality is so simple that it can be replicated by a $30 sensor, and you're sure to get more than that from a working device on the secondary market, especially due to another limitation of the program: it only extends back to the 3-year-old Galaxy S9.
Just run Alfred Camera (Score:2)
And forget about the battery, but it works with sound and everything
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You can't forget about the battery on modern phones. If it doesn't work, neither do they. You can't just plug in any more. If the battery ain't charged then the phone will NOT run off the plug. It has to run off the battery, and if the battery is dead then it never gets past the battery charge stage of the base firmware.
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The battery just has to be present. It doesn't have to hold a charge, it just has to appear to be taking one. That is what's happening in my case anyway. I also keep the phone away from anything flammable, it gets very warm.
Kinda naive of iFixit, no? (Score:5, Interesting)
Did they REALLY think that Samsung was going to let people unlock their bootloaders and install newer Android versions on their older flagship phones?
Those phones would probably end up getting resold second hand and kill the market for their sub $200 models. I mean, that's what those phones basically are... older hardware with a newer version of Android and some cut down features.
It's a bummer that this idea got watered down, though. I was able to turn an old Samsung Galaxy S3 into a perfectly useful security 720p security camera with a free application that I found in the Play Store, and getting SmartThings support something like that have made my other new Samsung devices more useful.
Re:Kinda naive of iFixit, no? (Score:4, Interesting)
I can't believe how much better that is than the stock Samsung Android version.
Of course my Samsung Gear smart watch will no longer connect, because Android 10 is a step too far for Samsung apparently.
I have decided to buy no more Samsung products in the future, but at least I will get another couple of years out of what I have, and by that time the Pinephone should be ready for everyday use.
Re: Kinda naive of iFixit, no? (Score:1)
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Photo quality is comparable to the stock Samsung camera app, image quality is the same (as far as I can tell) and the interface is less cluttered. There are 900 million camera apps on the Play Store that all work. Pick one you like.
My banking app works, as does Google Pay, but I had to encrypt the phone first, and there were no prompts to tell me to do that, I had to think of it myself.
Re: Kinda naive of iFixit, no? (Score:2)
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Ultimately that's a design flaw with the android rollout; google has entrenched itself so they make money one way or another, regardless of who makes the device, while manufacturers only make the money once, so it's in their interests to keep older devices from hanging around too long. Clearly limited support and locked bootloaders are a business feature.
Unfortunately for iFixit, that was 2017, but it has been clear for a while that the phone manufacturers have promised big for a long time, and consistently
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Google does literally nothing to prevent OEMs from offering unlocking. Moto still does, for example. I run LineageOS on my Moto X4, which is still plenty of phone for me. If you buy a carrier-unlocked Moto then it's also bootloader unlockable.
I don't have much else good to say about Moto any more, but that's still great.
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There are obvious drawbacks to this model but it's a model which ODMs were willing to accept, and the model where they had to permit upgrades and so on wasn't one. Therefore we have to accept that this is the freest model which can be expected to gain acceptance at this time.
Believe me, I'd love to see phones be subjected to some [what I think are] reasonable rules about permitting upgrades, unlocking &c, but this is what we can get now.
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TFA points out that resale value is a major part of the problem, especially since the programme only applies to relatively recent models. You can get a sensor that does it all for about $30, where as the used phone is worth way more.
That wouldn't be so bad if Samsung just released an app that let older devices work with its IoT home stuff. Any old phone can do it.
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Samsung deserve no benefit of doubt, but it's hard to consider iFixit naïve on the back of an invite to participate complete with flight to head offices, mutual presentation at a conference, etc. That is a non-zero expense in the proposal and goes beyond just paying lip service to an idea.
I'm still not surprised that Samsung killed it, but calling iFixit naïve is a bit of a stretch given how much Samsung invested in the idea.
Re: Kinda naive of iFixit, no? (Score:2)
Unlock old hardware (Score:5, Interesting)
There are perfectly fine hardware lying around that is no longer supported. Of course running a ten year old power hungry computer is a waste, when all it does can be done in a $40 Raspberry PI. However:
- Phones
- Tablets
- Gaming consoles
- Wifi routers
are actually efficient little machines. For example, taking you old wifi router, and making an access point out of it will not only save the hardware, but will extend the coverage. Fortunately there are hackers that help do this thing: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide... [openwrt.org]
But unfortunately other hardware are much more locked down, and very hard to open up to homebrew / upcycling.
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Why the quotes (Score:4, Interesting)
Around 'ruined'? I mean, they literally ruined it.
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Because they are quotes, not haha-I'm-joking air-quotes, but rather the title is quoting iFixit directly who used the word "ruined" to describe what Samsung did with their proposal. That's the purpose of quotes... you know... to quote someone.
They got the greenwash headline then dumped it. (Score:4, Interesting)
They get the 'eco+green' headline and when nobody is watching the real guts of the project is dissolved. Would love to have the names leaked of the executives who had the 'non-enthusiasm' for this project.
De googled or linux phones, vpn are just absolutely necessary now. What a rick database of your life with your tax, identity, bank accounts, purchase history, movements tracked analyzed. Certainly dont want a bunch of old samsung phones floating around with programmability to bypass this.
2021 is finally the year where the products being released by apple, samsung etc are so defective by design, SSD's soldered onto motherboards, parts glued in place with glue harder than the plastic surrounding them, serialised hardware components. It the e-waste apocalypse
"Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowden
Corporate normal. (Score:2)
Bait-and-switch.
My opinion (Score:1)