Samsung’s New Phone Repair Kits Are Better Than Nothing

There is a repair kit program in the US. The parts, tools, and instructions needed to fix the phones can now be ordered by anyone who owns one of the phones.

In April, the company announced its repair program. Thanks to laws in Europe that require devices to indicate how repairable they are, similar legislation that secures consumers' rights to repair their own phones, laptops, and gadgets feels all but inevitable in the US The tone for what repairability will mean is set by companies like Apple. Now that these companies have unveiled their repair kit programs, it appears they offer less reparability than before.

Some of the products that are available for repair are the S20 and S21 phones. Out of the hundreds of gadgets still in use, seven are total. Only the screen, charging port, and back panel glass can be repaired. The battery can be replaced. When Apple introduced its repair program in April, it took a long time, but it has been a smooth process so far. The kits were expensive, unwieldy, and more bother than they were worth.

The right-to-repair advocacy group iFixit has a partnership with the two tech companies. It is a good partnership and a step in the right direction. The future is only starting to show up. Before the regulatory hammer comes down, companies will have to step up their efforts to build out a self-repair program.

The gear desk has more news.

Do you want to sweep my floor?

Say what you will about Amazon, but there is no denying that it is just a hungry bear that wants to get everything around it. iRobot is the company that makes the Roomba vacuum. Amazon will absorb the company for a cool $1.7 billion in cash, which seems like a lot of money compared to the $3.9 billion it paid for OneMedical. Amazon is also a health care provider.

Privacy implications from this acquisition include the fact that Amazon may own the map of your home's floor plan collected by the iRobot vacuums. Ring cameras in your lawn mower is one of the possibilities. There are drones that listen to your conversations. Anything can be done.

The clubhouse splits itself.

I remember the club. During the early days of the Pandemic, the audio-based social network took off, providing relief from the isolation and fatigue we were feeling. I am glad that is over. The sense of exclusiveness that came with admission to the app made it feel exciting. Silicon Valley bigwigs used to go to Clubhouse to meet each other. The appeal of the app didn't last long after it was open to the public.

The club is trying to make parts of itself exclusive again. Users will be able to keep their conversations private thanks to a new feature. The club is taking applications to create "Houses" now, but will be rolling them out on a case-by-case basis.

Clubhouse is hoping that these smaller, morecurated experiences will lure users away from the other audio chat services. The best social experiences are not open to everyone according to the CEO of the company. They are small and focused on one thing. This is what makes friends.

The NFTs are on the social media platform.

NFTs are a buzzy online trend and after a controversial move to prioritize its TikTok clone Reels in user's feeds. Adam Mosseri, the CEO of the social platform, said in May that it would enter the NFT waters. The market has cooled off since May. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, announced this week that his company is going to enable NFTs in more than 100 countries on the photo-sharing website. Users will be able to use the feature to buy and sell posts.

Non-fungible assets are something to talk about.

It will last longer if you take an Nft.

Digital is the hallmark of NFTs. Artists minting their works as NFTs create a marker on a ledger that shows if the work is an original one. The piece is as re-creatable as any online Gif. Here is a guide that explains exactly how NFTs work.

You can take digital art and put it on your wall with the help of companies like Infinite objects. Lauren and Michael discuss the weird world of NFTs and how physical frames for digital art might make the whole thing more accessible for the uninitiated.