Uncanny Valley | WIRED

Preserving Your Right to Repair Your Gadgets


Listen Later

What happens when your drop your phone and shatter the screen? Or when its battery starts to grow noticeably weaker? These common technological woes are things that you should be able to remedy yourself—just buy some parts, get some tools, and fix your device. But it’s not that simple. Gadget manufacturers have been increasingly restricting access to the parts, tools, and knowledge required for regular consumers to fix their broken tech. Instead, consumers have to turn to authorized repair technicians, and often pay a lot more, to get something fixed.

Our guest this week, Nathan Proctor, is the national director of the Right to Repair Campaign for US PIRG. Proctor and his team advocate for state and federal legislation that secures consumer access to hardware repairs and software updates so they can handle these repairs themselves.

Also this week, Peter Rubin tells us about what to expect from the new PlayStation console Sony plans to release next year, and we discuss the problems with early review units of the Samsung Galaxy Fold smartphone.

Show notes: Read Peter Rubin on the next PlayStation. Aarian Marshall outlines the problems with Lyft’s e-bikes. Nathan Proctor recently wrote about the Right to Repair movement in WIRED.

Arielle Pardes can be found at @pardesoteric. Lauren Goode is @laurengoode. Michael Calore can be found at @snackfight. Our guests: Nathan Proctor is @nProctor and Peter Rubin is @provenself. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. Our theme song is by Solar Keys.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Uncanny Valley | WIREDBy WIRED

  • 4.1
  • 4.1
  • 4.1
  • 4.1
  • 4.1

4.1

458 ratings


More shows like Uncanny Valley | WIRED

View all
The Political Scene | The New Yorker by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

3,994 Listeners

Pivot by New York Magazine

Pivot

9,497 Listeners

WSJ Tech News Briefing by The Wall Street Journal

WSJ Tech News Briefing

1,636 Listeners

The Vergecast by The Verge

The Vergecast

3,701 Listeners

Decoder with Nilay Patel by The Verge

Decoder with Nilay Patel

3,150 Listeners

Channels with Peter Kafka by Vox Media Podcast Network

Channels with Peter Kafka

559 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

112,597 Listeners

What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future by Slate Podcasts

What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future

244 Listeners

WIRED Politics Lab by WIRED

WIRED Politics Lab

235 Listeners

Big Technology Podcast by Alex Kantrowitz

Big Technology Podcast

476 Listeners

MIT Technology Review Narrated by MIT Technology Review

MIT Technology Review Narrated

258 Listeners

Hard Fork by The New York Times

Hard Fork

5,470 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

16,097 Listeners

Possible by Reid Hoffman

Possible

122 Listeners

Foresight with Greg Williams by WIRED UK

Foresight with Greg Williams

4 Listeners

The WIRED Podcast by WIRED UK

The WIRED Podcast

3 Listeners

The 404 Media Podcast by 404 Media

The 404 Media Podcast

315 Listeners

Elon, Inc. by Bloomberg

Elon, Inc.

147 Listeners

Have A Nice Future | WIRED by WIRED

Have A Nice Future | WIRED

4 Listeners

The Big Interview by WIRED

The Big Interview

2 Listeners