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Obsoleted Apple products are not unlocked and become e-waste. You can't repurpose an iPad 1 , as far as I know. How much of their scoring takes into account th

Obsoleted Apple products are not unlocked and become e-waste. You can't repurpose an iPad 1 , as far as I know. How much of their scoring takes into account the generation of e-waste?

jjtheblunt 4y ago
Citation for those claims?
harikb 4y ago
Keep in mind some of this behavior is because of carriers / telephone companies. They are they ones that force the phone to be locked in the first place.
- ganoushoreilly 4y ago
  Carrier locking isn't the same as firmware locking that I believe OP was alluding to. You can unlock via carriers and various means, you cannot by default install any applications or third party software packages (sans jailbreaks).
Clent 4y ago
I would be interested in this number as well. A quick search of the report shows they are tracking it: "With the help of customer and employee participation across recycling programs, we directed more than 38,000 metric tons of e-waste to recycling globally in fiscal year 2021."
eropple 4y ago
I don't think Apple is claiming they were always good about this, though for quite a long time they've at least been making some movements towards more sustainable products--as an example, they were an early adopter of minimal-plastics packaging in tech, and to "feel more premium" the market chased them. In terms of software, iPadOS 16 works on devices as far back as the iPad Air 3 and the iPad 5, though, which is pretty deep into the "usable life" of these electronics. Beyond that, this definition of "repurposing" seems...slanted. You probably aren't repurposing an iPad 1 anyway because it's a very slow single-core processor, but I still have multiple 30-pin-connector iPads around my house (including at least one iPad 2) being used as dedicated kiosks/control surfaces for stuff. I wouldn't expose them to the internet, but I also don't really see a reason why I would anyway--they'd be too slow to use to browse the web. (I do the same with a couple of old Nexus tablets, too.) And that I repurpose them is a particularly exceptional use case. It is for any stuff that old. This mythical idea of "oh, well, if they had unlocked bootloaders, people would still be using iPhones and iPads long into the future!" is just...pretty clearly untrue. Android devices with unlocked bootloaders end up in the bin at no less of a rate than iOS devices, even though one could go install an AOSP flavor on them and keep them ticking. There aren't enough people interested in doing so to soak up all of those; why would adding more devices move the needle?
- heavyset_go 4y ago
  > Beyond that, this definition of "repurposing" seems...slanted. You probably aren't repurposing an iPad 1 anyway because it's a very slow single-core processor I have 10+ year old Macs that make excellent Linux machines, and I can connect them to the internet, too, because they're capable of running modern software. Allowing iPads to run non-Apple approved software opens the door to a world of opportunities for iPad owners, even if you personally can't think of what you'd do with that freedom.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

Obsoleted Apple products are not unlocked and become e-waste. You can't repurpose an iPad 1 , as far as I know. How much of their scoring takes into account the generation of e-waste?

jjtheblunt 4y ago

Citation for those claims?

harikb 4y ago

Keep in mind some of this behavior is because of carriers / telephone companies. They are they ones that force the phone to be locked in the first place.

ganoushoreilly 4y ago
Carrier locking isn't the same as firmware locking that I believe OP was alluding to. You can unlock via carriers and various means, you cannot by default install any applications or third party software packages (sans jailbreaks).

Clent 4y ago

I would be interested in this number as well. A quick search of the report shows they are tracking it: "With the help of customer and employee participation across recycling programs, we directed more than 38,000 metric tons of e-waste to recycling globally in fiscal year 2021."

eropple 4y ago

I don't think Apple is claiming they were always good about this, though for quite a long time they've at least been making some movements towards more sustainable products--as an example, they were an early adopter of minimal-plastics packaging in tech, and to "feel more premium" the market chased them. In terms of software, iPadOS 16 works on devices as far back as the iPad Air 3 and the iPad 5, though, which is pretty deep into the "usable life" of these electronics. Beyond that, this definition of "repurposing" seems...slanted. You probably aren't repurposing an iPad 1 anyway because it's a very slow single-core processor, but I still have multiple 30-pin-connector iPads around my house (including at least one iPad 2) being used as dedicated kiosks/control surfaces for stuff. I wouldn't expose them to the internet, but I also don't really see a reason why I would anyway--they'd be too slow to use to browse the web. (I do the same with a couple of old Nexus tablets, too.) And that I repurpose them is a particularly exceptional use case. It is for any stuff that old. This mythical idea of "oh, well, if they had unlocked bootloaders, people would still be using iPhones and iPads long into the future!" is just...pretty clearly untrue. Android devices with unlocked bootloaders end up in the bin at no less of a rate than iOS devices, even though one could go install an AOSP flavor on them and keep them ticking. There aren't enough people interested in doing so to soak up all of those; why would adding more devices move the needle?

heavyset_go 4y ago
> Beyond that, this definition of "repurposing" seems...slanted. You probably aren't repurposing an iPad 1 anyway because it's a very slow single-core processor I have 10+ year old Macs that make excellent Linux machines, and I can connect them to the internet, too, because they're capable of running modern software. Allowing iPads to run non-Apple approved software opens the door to a world of opportunities for iPad owners, even if you personally can't think of what you'd do with that freedom.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]