Gee whizz, would be a shame if the telecommunications regulator botched a technology upgrade so badly that it rendered millions of completely functional phones immediately inoperable, and attempted to bandaid fix their mistake at the last minute in a move that was somehow even worse by giving telcos the power to arbitrarily disconnect phones sold by others.
Gee whizz, would be a shame if the largest operating system manufacturer in the world were permitted to arbitrarily claim millions of computers were insufficiently advanced due to lacking specific features that they can exploit for vendor lock-in, despite the operating system being capable of running just fine without said features and the "insufficiently advanced" computers that are now by and large being consigned to the scrap heap being more then sufficient for the vast majority of use cases. Would be a further shame if anti-competition laws had been insufficiently enforced for long enough that this company had a virtual monopoly and for the majority of consumers there simply wasn't another choice.
The article treats this like a natural situation that needs to be managed at end of life, but our e-waste situation is a direct result of a continual failure of successive governments to meaningfully regulate technology industries.
12
Seagoon_ - 4w
That's not the only reason
Many people have perfectly good phones that don't work because of OS upgrades which they can't get and now they that have disabled apps
5
Salvo - 4w
My brother and I both have iPhone 12 minis. We both also have deteriorating eyesight.
Trade-in for a perfect condition iPhone 12 mini is $150. I just had my 79% battery replaced for $150 (Apple cracked the screen and replaced my “Patinated” screen at the same time).
My brother just purchased a refurb iPhone 14 and his scuffed and scratched mini will be going to eWaste.
My other devices are an Intel Mac Mini, 2nd Gen iPad Pro, Intel Gaming PC running Debian (Win11 is unsupported), MS Surface running Debian (Win11 is unsupported) and XBox One X.
Only the XBox and my IPhone are still supported with the latest vendor software, even though all devices work just as well as when they were new.
The latest version of the XBox software is terrible and iOS26 is also terrible.
1
Taleya - 4w
auyp. Planned obsolescence? quick, blame the end user!
Plastic straws all over again.
1
ikt - 4w
22KG of ewaste? is that skewed by some very heavy people dumping a lot? 22kg is like 2-3 computers or like 20 laptops
8
The_Decryptor - 4w
What, you don't buy a new laptop every time the battery dies in the current one?
2
Salvo - 4w
I have an old MacPro sitting in my garage that weighs about that much on its own. The handles are quite sharp too!
2
CagedDingo - 4w
Wow. I knew they were chunky but didnt realise they were that heavy. The latest model is 16.86kg. I feel like my gaming PC is closer to 10.
2
Tenderizer - 4w
I will get to my e-waste draw eventually. Leave me alone.
4
Seagoon_ - 4w
What a waste, those phones could have a new life as a Zombie phone in Shenzhen
sixeyo in australia
The average Australian generates about 22kg of e-waste yearly. An estimated 23 million phones sit idle in drawers
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/nov/16/how-to-recycle-old-mobile-phones-computersGee whizz, would be a shame if the telecommunications regulator botched a technology upgrade so badly that it rendered millions of completely functional phones immediately inoperable, and attempted to bandaid fix their mistake at the last minute in a move that was somehow even worse by giving telcos the power to arbitrarily disconnect phones sold by others.
Gee whizz, would be a shame if the largest operating system manufacturer in the world were permitted to arbitrarily claim millions of computers were insufficiently advanced due to lacking specific features that they can exploit for vendor lock-in, despite the operating system being capable of running just fine without said features and the "insufficiently advanced" computers that are now by and large being consigned to the scrap heap being more then sufficient for the vast majority of use cases. Would be a further shame if anti-competition laws had been insufficiently enforced for long enough that this company had a virtual monopoly and for the majority of consumers there simply wasn't another choice.
The article treats this like a natural situation that needs to be managed at end of life, but our e-waste situation is a direct result of a continual failure of successive governments to meaningfully regulate technology industries.
That's not the only reason
Many people have perfectly good phones that don't work because of OS upgrades which they can't get and now they that have disabled apps
My brother and I both have iPhone 12 minis. We both also have deteriorating eyesight.
Trade-in for a perfect condition iPhone 12 mini is $150. I just had my 79% battery replaced for $150 (Apple cracked the screen and replaced my “Patinated” screen at the same time).
My brother just purchased a refurb iPhone 14 and his scuffed and scratched mini will be going to eWaste.
My other devices are an Intel Mac Mini, 2nd Gen iPad Pro, Intel Gaming PC running Debian (Win11 is unsupported), MS Surface running Debian (Win11 is unsupported) and XBox One X.
Only the XBox and my IPhone are still supported with the latest vendor software, even though all devices work just as well as when they were new.
The latest version of the XBox software is terrible and iOS26 is also terrible.
auyp. Planned obsolescence? quick, blame the end user!
Plastic straws all over again.
22KG of ewaste? is that skewed by some very heavy people dumping a lot? 22kg is like 2-3 computers or like 20 laptops
What, you don't buy a new laptop every time the battery dies in the current one?
I have an old MacPro sitting in my garage that weighs about that much on its own. The handles are quite sharp too!
Wow. I knew they were chunky but didnt realise they were that heavy. The latest model is 16.86kg. I feel like my gaming PC is closer to 10.
I will get to my e-waste draw eventually. Leave me alone.
What a waste, those phones could have a new life as a Zombie phone in Shenzhen