Can Modern Smartphones Be Repaired and To What Extent? This Study Says It All

New research is shedding light on modern smartphone designs and their ability to be repaired.

Before modern smartphones came into existence, many manufacturers allowed owners to replace batteries by themselves. But as days go by, the designs and interfaces of smartphones are getting more complex, thanks for business monopolies and planned obsolescence.

This is why tech giants such as Apple are going out of their to explain to users that you can no longer repair your device alone at home safely. It requires experts to analyze the situation and offer replacements when a switch is needed. Other than tools, a lot of repairs need third-party tools to get the job done right.

As per one device repairing platform, iFixit, modern devices make use of specific materials like strong glue and screws. This is why tech giants Apple and Samsung rank pretty low in terms of the repairability factor. Shockingly, iFixit experts in their index gave Pixel 8 and 8 Pro scores of six out of 10.

The score comes after looking at several factors. For instance, how readily available documents are for a repair and if any parts are needed that cannot be found easily. Is the battery glued in areas that can be reached easily? Do you need an expert’s help to unscrew the device to access a certain site on the device?

There are a lot of questions to answer and based on how well a device answers them, the better their ranking on repairability indexes. You’ll be amazed to learn how the Samsung Galaxy device received just a score of four out of 10. But it was praised for using normal screws from Phillips.

When you take a look at iPhone devices, they also got a low score of just four out of 10. Still, iFixit says the latest range of iOS phones ranks high in terms of easy battery replacements. The same goes for the screen that can be replaced swiftly.

In terms of spare parts, Apple loses out. The pairing of parts is complex with iPhones as each part is paired against a digital serial number. Hence, you can’t land up at any repair shop but a specific software one to get the job done. This means repairability gets more challenging.

Repairability Ratings for Smartphones (10=highest)

OEM	Device	Date	Score**
HMD	Skyline	2024	9
Fairphone	5	2023	10
Nokia	G22	2023	8
Google	Pixel 8	2023	6
Google	Pixel 8 Pro	2023	6
Apple	iPhone 15*	2023	4
Apple	iPhone 15 Plus*	2023	4
Apple	iPhone 15 Pro*	2023	4
Apple	iPhone 15 Pro Max*	2023	4
Google	Pixel 7a	2023	4
Samsung	Galaxy S23 Ultra*	2023	4
Google	Pixel Fold	2023	3
Apple	iPhone 14 Plus*	2022	7
Apple	iPhone 14 Pro*	2022	6
Apple	iPhone 14 Pro Max*	2022	6
Google	Pixel 7	2022	5
Google	Pixel 7 Pro	2022	5
Google	Pixel 6a	2022	5
Apple	iPhone 14	2022	4
Samsung	Galaxy S22	2022	3
Samsung	Galaxy S22 Ultra	2022	3
Fairphone	4	2021	10
Apple	iPhone 13 Pro	2021	6
Google	Pixel 6	2021	6
Google	Pixel 5a	2021	6
Google	Pixel 6 Pro	2021	5
Mi	11	2021	4
Apple	iPhone 12 Pro Max	2020	6
Apple	iPhone 12 mini	2020	6
Apple	iPhone 12 Pro	2020	6
Google	Pixel 5	2020	6
Google	Pixel 4a	2020	6
Apple	iPhone SE 2020	2020	6
Huawei	Mate 40 Pro	2020	4
Samsung	Galaxy A51	2020	4
Samsung	Galaxy Note 20 Ultra	2020	3
Samsung	Galaxy S20 Ultra	2020	3
Microsoft	Surface Duo	2020	2
Samsung	Galaxy Z Flip	2020	2
Motorola	razr	2020	1
Fairphone	3	2019	10
Shift	6m	2019	9
Apple	iPhone 11	2019	6
Apple	iPhone 11 Pro Max	2019	6
Google	Pixel 3a	2019	6
Google	Pixel 3a XL	2019	6
Google	Pixel 4 XL	2019	4
Huawei	Mate 20 X 5G	2019	4
Samsung	Galaxy Note10 Plus 5G	2019	3
Samsung	Galaxy S10	2019	3
Samsung	Galaxy Fold	2019	2
Nokia	8110 4G	2018	8
Apple	iPhone XR	2018	6
Apple	iPhone XS	2018	6
OnePlus	6	2018	5
Huawei	Mate 20 Pro	2018	4
Google	Pixel 3 XL	2018	4
Google	Pixel 3	2018	4
LG	G7 Thin Q	2018	4
Huawei	P20 Pro	2018	4
Samsung	Galaxy S9 Plus	2018	4
Samsung	Galaxy S9	2018	4
OnePlus	5	2017	7
Apple	iPhone X	2017	6
Google	Pixel 2 XL	2017	6
Google	Pixel 2	2017	6
Apple	iPhone 8	2017	6
Apple	iPhone 8 Plus	2017	6
LG	G6	2017	5
Huawei	Mate 10 Pro	2017	4
Samsung	Galaxy Note8	2017	4
Samsung	Galaxy Note Fan Edition	2017	4
Samsung	Galaxy S8 Plus	2017	4
Samsung	Galaxy S8	2017	4
Essential	Phone	2017	1
LG	G5	2016	8
Google	Pixel XL	2016	7
Google	Pixel	2016	7
Apple	iPhone 7	2016	7
Apple	iPhone 7 Plus	2016	7
Moto	Z	2016	7
Meizu	MX6	2016	7
Vivo	X7 Plus	2016	7
Huawei	P9	2016	7
Oppo	R9m	2016	7
Sony	Xperia X Compact	2016	6
Asus	Zenfone 3 Max	2016	6
Vivo	X7	2016	6
Xiaomi	Mi 5	2016	6
Apple	iPhone SE	2016	6
Huawei	Mate 9	2016	5
Samsung	Galaxy Note7	2016	4
Samsung	Galaxy S7	2016	3
Samsung	Galaxy S7 Edge	2016	3
Fairphone	2	2015	10
Xiaomi	Redmi Note 3	2015	8
LG	G4	2015	8
Wiko	Pulp 4G Phone	2015	7
Apple	iPhone 6s	2015	7
Apple	iPhone 6s Plus	2015	7
Nexus	5X	2015	7
OnePlus	2	2015	7
Lenovo	K5 Note	2015	6
Huawei	Mate 8	2015	6
Shift	5.1	2015	6
Samsung	Galaxy S6	2015	4
Samsung	Galaxy S6 Edge	2015	3
Nexus	6P	2015	2
HTC	One M9	2015	2
Nexus	6	2014	7
Apple	iPhone 6 Plus	2014	7
Apple	iPhone 6	2014	7
Samsung	Galaxy Alpha	2014	5
Samsung	Galaxy S5 Mini	2014	5
OnePlus	One	2014	5
Samsung	Galaxy S5	2014	5
Amazon	Fire Phone	2014	3
HTC	One M8	2014	2
Nexus	5	2013	8
Samsung	Galaxy S4	2013	8
BlackBerry	Z10	2013	8
Fairphone	1	2013	7
Motorola	Moto X 1st Generation	2013	7
Apple	iPhone 5c	2013	6
Apple	iPhone 5s	2013	6
HTC	One	2013	1
Samsung	Galaxy Note II	2012	8
Samsung	Galaxy S III	2012	8
Nexus	4	2012	7
Apple	iPhone 5	2012	7
Motorola	Droid 4	2012	4
Motorola	Droid Bionic	2011	9
Motorola	Atrix 4G	2011	9
Samsung	Galaxy Note	2011	8
Samsung	Galaxy S II	2011	8
Samsung	Galaxy Nexus	2011	7
Apple	iPhone 4S	2011	6
Motorola	Droid 3	2011	6
Samsung	Galaxy S 4G	2011	6
Apple	iPhone 4 Verizon	2011	6
Motorola	Droid RAZR	2011	4
Nokia	N8	2010	8
Nexus	S	2010	7
HTC	Surround	2010	5
Apple	iPhone 3GS	2009	7
Apple	iPhone 3G	2008	7
Apple	iPhone (1st Generation)	2007	2
* Provisional
** 10 = Best

The score factors in 10% for the service manual, 10% for replacement parts, and 80% for the ease and time required to replace the most critical components.

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Surprise For Advertisers As Google Ads Mysteriously Show Up On X

Google Ads and X aren’t two terms that you’d use simultaneously. After all, who can forget the woes of advertisers when it comes to X and its owner Elon Musk.

The tech billionaire has been in charge of the platform for nearly two years now and in that short timeframe, so many big brands have ended their partnership. Obviously, this didn’t make the Tesla and SpaceX CEO happy, who vowed to take legal action against the boycott that cost it millions.

Now, new reports are speaking about Google ads mysteriously showing up on X. Media outlet Marketing Brew was the first to notice and therefore notified the brands. On that note, more information showed how Google and X have a partnership that dates back to fall 2023. This places many Google ads on the app’s main newsfeed.

This is an easy place to spot and the ads don’t usually feature the classic Like and Repost features you see with the app. Moreover, in just 10 days, it was noted how several different companies were on the list. And the ads were very prominent so you wouldn’t miss it, even if you wanted to.

Google’s advertising tools will serve ads depending on specific advertising criteria through various apps. If a certain advertiser does not wish to run the ads, they need to opt-out as per Google’s representative.

As per the search engine giant, their reports share where the ads will be placed and also provide options in terms of placement preferences. Whether the brand wants it on an app or perhaps wishes to exclude it entirely depends on the preference.

This might be big news to some advertisers. Brands like Old World Pizza Truck claim to use Google ads but the firm does not intend to market the brand through X. Another instance where the image is wrongly cropped also caused fury as the brand felt that was the least they could get right.

In another instance, ads for Mercury Jets were noted on X. Again, the CEO spoke about how he did not intend for this to happen. From what we can see here, many advertisers have been wary about posting on X since Musk took charge. Their biggest fear is brand safety.

Let’s not forget how advertisers are always faced with many challenges on X. Seeing your ads placed strategically next to controversial content was alarming for major companies. This is why they pulled out completely, making Musk upset.

There’s a new series of ads without accounts that are unblockable without a blue check. pic.twitter.com/gbd1LEzEXB

— Sean Marshall (@Sean_YYZ) July 16, 2024

Ads on X is going fine, serving Google Ads is fine, everything is fine pic.twitter.com/9qpbTSsAHj

— catboy.games (@Meowcino) July 21, 2024

Image: DIW-Aigen

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Google Extends AI Overviews In Search As Website Owners Fear More Traffic Roadblocks

While AI Overviews may have been considered a test at first, Google just confirmed that it’s extending the much-debated feature to Search.

The tech giant explained how the move will ensure users get more comprehensive overviews without visiting a website. As per experts, this might not be the best news for SEO.

The experiment was first rolled out in May and featured explainers inside Search that answered particular questions. Another leading cause of concern had to do with less referral traffic. Remember, with more details in SERP, users will be clicking even less than before and the fears are justified.

Google hopes to address these issues by adding new displays for links inside AI Overviews. As revealed in this new example, Google wants to work with links within AI Overviews and experiment with links through the desktop.

As per Google, the latest link displays did receive positive feedback during the early phase of testing. It helped to bring in more traffic by Overviews but whether or not that will be retained, and if all queries would be included is questionable.

In another update, the Android maker is expanding AI Overviews to include more destinations around the world. Before, it was limited to the US but now, six more countries will be included.

UK, India, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and Indonesia would be on the list, alongside more support for other languages. Additionally, Google will experiment with saved AI Overviews. This will ensure it returns to past questions and also provide more simplicity to understand AI explainers.

The main issue right now has to do with the effect these AI Overviews have on referral traffic. Google hopes to address the concerns with more updates in the future, it’s having some impact on the way websites function.

But it’s not all bad news in terms of SEO. Google explained how AI Overviews continue to bring in more traffic to several pages online. People visit more websites to get help with tricky queries.

After clicking on search result pages, users are spending more time on every website visited. To keep it simple, fewer clicks means more quality traffic as per Google. Still, experts are weary of what Google is claiming.

They feel it could serve as traffic roadblocks that negatively affect a website visit. Still, the thought of adding more links to include traffic might curb the negativity. AI is always risky as it might end up gobbling a huge chunk of revenue that normally comes with search ads.

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Do AI Models Hallucinate? The Answer In This New Study Might Surprise You

The launch of AI models keeps increasing with each passing day. From Google’s Gemini to OpenAI’s GPT-4o, the list is on the rise.

However, a new study is sharing some interesting findings that put to end a debate about AI models hallucinating. The conclusive answer is yes, and they’re all guilty of doing so. Some are involved so much that the end result is hilarious while in other cases, it’s a huge issue.

Not every model will make up false narratives at the same pace as the next but they’re all involved. The type of misinformation spouted depends on the kind of source involved and what it’s exposed to.

The research study from Cornell spoke about universities benchmarking the degree of hallucination with assistance from fact-checkers. As per the report, no model did great, no matter what topic was involved. Strikingly, all the models hallucinated and those that did the least answered little to no questions. Their fear of getting things wrong was so real.

As per the authors, the biggest take-home message is that AI models cannot be trusted. Even those deemed to be the best produce text that’s free from hallucinations, just 35% of the entire time.

To make the study more interesting and raise the standard of benchmarks, the authors used topics that even Wikipedia failed to have references for. More than one dozen different models were studied, and most of them were new releases.

From Meta and Google to Mistral and OpenAI, the list included them all. And as per the study, no model is hallucinating any less than before, including the biggest names in the industry.

For instance, GPT-4o didn’t perform any better in terms of fewer hallucinations than its much older counterpart GPT-3.5. Still, the AI giant had the least amount of hallucinations calculated in general, followed by Mixtral and Perplexity Sonar.

In terms of which topics proved to be the most difficult here, it was finance and the world of entertainment/celebrities. Interestingly, models found IT and geography the easiest to respond to. The logic behind this could be more training done in these domains. Where Wikipedia answers or references couldn’t be found, the models struggled a lot. This shows how most of them were trained using Wikipedia the most.

Those models who are capable of searching the web also struggled with non-Wiki queries. Did model size matter? Not really as small designs offered the same type or levels as their bigger-sized counterparts.

It’s a clear message to the world that vendors aren’t delivering what they’re claiming. The models fall short in terms of promises made or perhaps they were exaggerated too much. Whatever the case may be, it’s safe to conclude as per the authors that hallucinations and AI are in synchronizing and won’t be going away anytime soon.

What’s the solution? More policies and greater regulation seem to be the only way out, as per the researchers.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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Eric Schmidt's Controversial Video on Google’s Work-Life Balance Disappears

A video posted by Google’s former CEO speaking negatively about the Android maker’s remote work practices has mysteriously disappeared.

Eric Schmidt did raise eyebrows when he spoke negatively about the company to students at Standford. As per Schmidt, Google could care less about winning and more about ensuring its employees had the perfect work-life balance. Even if that cost the company millions, it could care less.

The video was published across several social media platforms before but now has disappeared. Even on YouTube, its settings were changed from public to private. As expected, the matter remains a mystery in terms of why the sudden change.

The hot views were not for the masses to benefit from. Schmidt probably realized this a little too late and hence now felt it needs to be restricted. He simply expressed regret for the decisions he was making.

Many news outlets already published this with eye-grabbing headlines. Schmidt is trying hard to rectify his mistake by issuing a public apology for how his words may misrepresent the reality of Google and its working hours.

For a clip to get millions of views in such a short period and then be deleted must be a serious concern. And this is what’s happening right now.

In another part of the clip, the ex-Google CEO requests audience members to stay hush about what he’s telling them. But when someone highlights the presence of cameras, he remains startled.

There is another part in the clip where Schmidt informs some shocking claims about AI. The technology can steal IP addresses and once that’s done, their owners could hire top lawyers to clean up the mess afterwards so nothing really goes noticed as the goal is a successful product.

Who knew that his words would come back to haunt him like they are right now? Clearly, it’s a foot-in-the-mouth situation and one that Google might not forgive and forget for a long time. It was online for so long and now that it’s gone, the matter is looked upon as suspicious.

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Meta Shuts Down Fact-Checking Tool CrowdTangle Just Three Months Before US Elections

We are getting closer to the US elections, and that means social media apps are stepping up to the plate to curb the spread of misinformation. However, Meta is leaving many surprised with its recent decision.

Facebook’s parent firm just announced it’s getting rid of its CrowdTangle tool which not a lot of people have heard about in the past. It’s mostly used for investigating violence and false narratives in politics across its apps.

The news raised eyebrows because some felt it was a great tool for monitoring and reporting hate speech. After this, the company was bombarded with requests to rethink the call and put an end to the plans or perhaps wait until the elections were over.

So many regulators also spoke about the risks this decision brings because it’s so helpful for researchers looking for security threats and misinformation during this period.

The tool in question gave experts more insights into the company’s algorithms. People were shown details about how the data went viral. But as time went on, the tool became more and more limited in usage and accepting new users.

For now, Meta’s reps are refusing to comment on the subject. However, some reports spoke about another tool dubbed Meta Content Library. It was described as more detailed and useful that depicted the real picture better.

In that context, Nick Clegg who heads the company’s global affairs mentioned that this new tool was launched to assist people. Hence, users must use it with good intentions so everyone can benefit.

To use it, the company requires researchers with specific backgrounds to apply so it’s less hands-on in terms of access. From now on, we’re hearing more about how hundreds are already claiming it to be non-sufficient. Some do welcome it but to fill in the footsteps of CrowdTangle is going to be a challenge for many.

After the launch, Meta offered its CrowdTangle to all leading global publishers. It was interesting to see Facebook give it for free so that media partners could benefit. Clearly, it was the first time a leading social media network wished to give the public a tool for monitoring.

Many called it the most useful offering that not only identified real from fake but could also track false content. So many conspiracies were debunked including those linked to COVID, Russian operations, and the QAnon conspiracies.

Over so many years, many used it to get more insights about controversial topics. The usage was varied and so diverse. As published by some media outlets, seeing it go is going to be hard for many people.

Researchers, academicians, regulators, and beyond are mourning its loss as they fear nothing can compare to the usefulness that this provided.

Some refer to the shuttering as a huge blow to Meta and its goal to offer transparency through its apps.

Image: DIW-aigen

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A New Research Shows that Usage of Tablets Among Children can Develop Anger Issues in Them

According to new research, giving a tablet to a child to watch videos can result in anger issues later on in his life. This is because mobile and tablets are creating problems in children’s development and are shaping them according to what they watch online. Census Bureau reported that 80% of the children own tablets in US households. The research published in JAMA Pediatrics shows that tablet use at 3.5 years old can turn into anger and frustration after a year.

4.5 years old children using tablets showed signs of outbursts and frustrations when they turned 5.5 years old and this cycle continued to upcoming years. It indicates that usage of tablets can make it harder for children to manage their emotions during their daily lives. The research didn't mention why use of tablets can make children react that way but there are two ways a child learns emotions when he is little. One is through his parents and the other is through observation.

When there is a tablet in a child’s hand he wouldn't be able to learn emotions and how to express them, which results in poor development and growth of children. It also depends on how a tablet is being used. If it is being used to read or if it is being used for watching videos, and how much parents interact with their children while they are using tablets.

The researchers also added that tablets can help children respond to emotions and behavioral cues better if a parent is interacting with the child when he's using the tablet. The research also shed some light on how usage of mobiles and tablets at such early ages can have serious negative effects on children so parents should be extra cautious of their child’s screen time.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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