What Does “Right to Repair” Mean, and Why Does It Matter?

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You may not think of yourself as “handy,” so the thought may not even have crossed your mind to take apart your cell phone or laptop to try and repair it. But did you know that in certain cases it might be illegal for you to even try? There is a debate raging over the “right to repair.”

The right to repair issue crosses many products. Car enthusiasts have fought to access parts and guides to repair their vehicles. Farmers are pushing for the right to fix their John Deere agricultural equipment. Now, there are people lobbying for the right to fix laptops, cell phones, and other electronics.

Manufacturers, meanwhile, maintain that doing so risks their intellectual property. There may also be safety risks.

Additionally, they make money from planned obsolescence. Many PC users know what this means already. Anyone on the widely popular Windows 7 operating system had to move to new software in 2020. Microsoft is on a ten-year cycle. It provides a software product its full attention for five years, then it begins offering new options and stops supporting the old one. At the end of the decade, the software is no longer updated or supported. That means no security patches either, which means vulnerability to cyberattack, so users must go to the next version.

Now, you’re not going to build your own operating system, but what about when something goes wrong with your smart phone or tablet? You don’t always want to have to buy a new one. Plus, trading out the old one for a new device runs counter to sustainability goals. You end up with one more piece of hardware destined for the landfill.

Right to Repair Activism

Consumers, repair pros, watchdogs, and green activists have all joined the right to repair debate. They want to be able to upgrade processing power, memory, or battery power in electronics.

But many companies refuse to release the necessary parts (e.g. Apple). Manuals and product guides aren’t made available either. This makes it almost impossible to do-it-yourself repair the company’s products. The consumer must pay the manufacturer for repairs, or they can turn to a third party vendor (affiliated with the manufacturer).

When it comes to technology, the tide may be turning. Why? We are increasingly reliant on our phones and other devices. There’s more push back against a business model that forces us to upgrade every two to four years.

Plus, we’re more aware globally of the value of recycling and up cycling. One American grassroots group notes that repairing tech could bridge the digital divide. PCs for People wants to improve access to technology by rebuilding donated devices.

What It Means for You

Laws are in the works in many places to legislate the right to repair. In the U.S., Apple and Tesla are among those lobbying against state efforts. Nevertheless, 14 states have passed laws on right to repair. The EU has a law requiring companies to provide parts to independent repair workers. The UK’s right to repair regulations come into effect this year. Australia is currently assessing its laws related to right to repair, too.

Until laws change, consumers pay whatever the manufacturer demands for products that aren’t built to last. This also has each of us contributing to global technology waste. For more on the issue, visit repair.org, the site of the Digital Right to Repair Coalition.

Meanwhile, if you have technology that needs repairing, our IT experts can help. Contact us today at (515)422-1995!

6 Uses for Your Old, Extra Computers

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When you’ve upgraded to a new computer, the old one is a bit of an albatross. You paid good money for that desktop or laptop, and you want to continue to see a return on investment. Plus, disposing of that technology feels wasteful. It’s not as if a computer is going to compost itself! To help, we’ve provided seven solid ideas for how to repurpose your old, extra computers.

#1 Turn it into a Kids’ PC

Make the computer available exclusively to your young ones. You can set the device up with parental controls software to:

  • limit the sites they can access;
  • control when and for how long they can use the computer;
  • restrict them from downloading without your approval;
  • monitor their activity.

You can also isolate the device from the family’s home network to further restrict their access and cut the risk of malware infection.

#2 Make a PC for Seniors

Or, accommodate those at the other end of the seven stages of man. Turn the computer into one geared for older family members. Optimize screen display color contrast for those with poor vision. Make the text size bigger. Set up the use of voice commands. You might even use puffy paint on the keyboard to make common keys easier to find.

#3 Convert to Storage

Storing documents, videos, photos, and music on your computer takes up a lot of room. So, turn that extra computer into a media storage device to keep your new computer in top shape. Think of it as an external storage device with much more capacity than a thumb drive.

Backing up your documents and media to the cloud is always an option. Yet, you may have more that you want to store than you want to pay the fee for storing.

#4 Share a Printer on the Network

If you have a printer that connects via a USB cable, you can generally print from that computer only. You can turn your old computer into a print server that shares the printer over the network. This way, any computer on the same network can make use of the printer.

#5 Donate

If the computer is in decent condition, donate it to a school, library, charity or other non-profit. Of course, before doing so, you’ll want to clean it up:

  • Back up and then delete all your files.
  • Consider “zero filling” your hard drive so data cannot be recovered.
  • Reinstall the operating system so it is usable by the recipient.

#6 Sell Parts

You could continue to see value from that extra computer by parting it out. This is a good idea especially when the computer is no longer working and can’t be held onto as a backup (just in case). In some cases, parts sell for more than complete computers.

When you’re looking for that new computer or coming up with ways to repurpose your old one, our IT experts can help. Contact us today at (515)422-1995.

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