“Don’t Judge a Book by its cover”- You must have heard it a zillion times yet you feel trapped by the appeal each book carries. No matter how much digging you want to do but deep in your mind, that compelling book cover has created a big place, which is now persuading you to give […] The post Top 10 Book Cover Design Trends For 2019 appeared first on WTD. via Tumblr Top 10 Book Cover Design Trends For 2019
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We put a lot of stock in the old adage, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime”—but we like to substitute “repair” in for “fish.” Repair has almost become a lost art—and it’s becoming increasingly extinct in a disposable society that’s partial to mainlining cheap, single-use goods. We’re on a mission to change that. Sixteen years ago, we set out to teach everyone to fix every thing—and what better place to teach than in the classroom? That’s why we’ve partnered with 80 universities across the world to teach them technical writing and the importance of repair. We launched our education program back in 2009, and it’s set up like a partnership: We provide students with a device, tools, and a dedicated staff member to support them while they go through the process of learning how to take apart, repair, and then write a repair guide for their device. They get credit for a technical writing course, and the world benefits from the repair guides they create. Once a year, we host all of the instructors in the program at our headquarters and put them through a condensed crash-course of the curriculum. The program has been a huge success, and it continues to grow every year. More than 19,000 students have completed the program—and together, they’ve created about 60% of the guides on iFixit. Today, we crossed our 50,000 guide threshold, and we absolutely could not have done that without the help of our students. In fact, if we relied solely on iFixit staff to create guides, and our staff produced one guide per day, it would have taken us 137 years to reach this point. Our student guides cover everything from snowboards to hoverboards, (robot) kitties to (robot) vacuums, and Instax cameras to Instant Pots. Thanks to our University Program, we are now the most comprehensive resource online for vacuum repair guides, too. Our students have worked directly with NGOs to provide guides that help sustainable organizations, such as OLPC, Free Wheelchair Mission, Lifewater, and Gravity Light. And we regularly have top tech companies inquire about students who have excelled in the program to recruit for their own companies. We hear a lot of wonderful feedback from students in the program, too: “I’ll admit that when I took your communication for engineers class that I didn’t take it all that seriously. When you said “you’re going to feel awesome when you see your project published!” I thought you were full of it. I just got this email from iFixit and you know what? This does feel pretty sweet.” We think it’s pretty sweet, too, For more information about our Education Program, feel free to contact our Director of Education Services, Brittany McCrigler, @ [email protected] via Tumblr How Students and Educators Helped Us Reach 50,000 Repair Guides This week, we’re publishing the 50,000th repair guide on iFixit. These guides span 13,500 devices and have helped millions find the information they need to fix their stuff. Thanks to these guides, millions of electronics have been kept out of landfills—and they’re still being typed, texted, and tinkered on by the fixers who own them. While 50,000 guides is a huge accomplishment—one we owe to our wonderful community of tinkerers—it’s what happened along the way that we’re really proud of. A huge portion of these guides, ~30,000 or so, were written by students in our education program. Through the iFixit Technical Writing Project (iTWP), we work with universities coast to coast to teach technical writing and repair. Our mission: teach students to teach the world. It sounds simple, but there are a lot of layers (just like onions and ogres). I’ve been leading our Education Program since 2012. On any given day, my team functions as educators, content curators, technical experts, and repair ambassadors. I couldn’t be prouder of them. Together, we’re coaching students to produce real-world repair documentation that will continue to be an invaluable resource for fixers everywhere for, well, forever. While the feedback we’ve received has been overwhelmingly positive, running a project of this scale hasn’t been without its challenges: finding a way to give every student the time and attention they need with a small staff, getting enough unique devices for students to work on, and ensuring the mechanics of the project work smoothly across hundreds of classes. We do our best to work within each classroom’s existing framework to help students grow a wide range of skills. The result? We’ve had 19,000 students successfully complete the program. It takes a villageThis achievement isn’t something that iFixit could have done alone—it’s something that we’ve accomplished together. Something to be proud of. And it’s a legacy that will continue to be useful for as long as fixers are willing to pick up a screwdriver. So, thank you, for being part of our community, for sharing your knowledge and your words, and for helping us to making a lasting difference. Even though we’ve come so far, there’s still a lot of work ahead. We have rights to defend. We have more guides to make. We have questions to answer. And, together, we have a world to fix—one device at a time—with our technology, our screwdrivers, and our words. That’s where you come in. There are millions of devices out there that still need repair documentation. Nobody knows how to fix everything, but everyone knows how to fix something—which is why we put together this quick video showing you just how easy it is for you to create a guide on iFixit yourself. via Tumblr Achievement Unlocked: 50,000 Repair Guides Now on iFixit Stephen King is acknowledged as one of the most successful writers of his generation selling over 350 million books. Not only that, he is also one of the most prolific having published almost 60 novels and over 200 short stories under his own name and his pen name of Richard Bachman. Today I want to […] The post Stephen King: Top 10 Tips for Writing Success appeared first on WTD. via Tumblr Stephen King: Top 10 Tips for Writing Success This morning Apple quietly released its 2nd-generation AirPods, which come with wireless charging capabilities and a new H1 chip that brings better battery life and support for “Hey Siri” voice control. The wireless charging case uses the standard Qi charging tech, so any Qi-compatible wireless charger should do the trick (AirPower, where are you?!). Unlike the W1 chip used in the previous AirPods, Apple says its new H1 chip is specifically designed for headphones, and allows the AirPods to get up to 50% more talk time than before, as well as “performance efficiencies” and “two times faster connect times.” Tearing apart the 1st-generation AirPods, literally. As for the design and repairability of these new buds, we’re not expecting much improvement, if any. The previous gen AirPods were a nightmare to take apart and pretty much impossible to repair, so once the battery degrades, the whole setup is done for. Plus, they’re difficult to recycle, making them an environmental nightmare. We’re still looking forward to cracking open this newer iteration to see what’s new inside and if Apple made any half-hearted attempts at repairability. The new AirPods are available for purchase now for $199, but you can grab just the wireless charging case for $79 to use with your existing AirPods—you just won’t have the capabilities of the H1 chip. Hero image from Apple.com via Tumblr New AirPods with Wireless Charging Are Here (and Probably Still Disposable) History shows that women have to go above and beyond to prove they’re capable of building and fixing things. Back in the 1940s, factories and shipyards wouldn’t have been able to supply World War II without the work of thousands of Rosie the Riveters. But the war ended, the men came back, and women were expected to return to their lives at home. The war created an opportunity for more female representation in technical fields—but fast forward to 2019, and there are still too few women represented in tech. I work on the outreach team at iFixit, which means my mission is to reach everyone and teach them how to fix everything. But to make a real impact on the growing e-waste crisis, it’s not enough to reach out to the people who are already repairing things—I need to talk to the people who aren’t fixing things and encourage them to pick up a screwdriver for the first time. At iFixit, there’s a disproportionate number of men visiting our forums and buying our parts and tools, and I’ve made it my personal mission to empower more women to fix their electronics. Highlighting the women and minorities within the repair industry is one of the best ways we can foster greater representation. We do this daily by sharing user submitted stories and photos, and for Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating the strong female repair techs who make this industry a more inclusive place. Here are six repair techs who are advocating for your consumer rights, running their own businesses, and teaching other women the art of repair—all at the same time. 1. Toni Robinson--Stilettos & Screwdrivers
2. Jessa Jones--iPad Rehab
3. Salisha Morgan--The Geek In Heels
4. Sophie Bingham--MobiTech
5. Kaitlin Osborne--Desert Wireless Repairs
6. Jessica Kirsh--Jessica Kirsh Creative
We know there are more amazing female techs out there, and we want to meet them all! Comment below to nominate your favorite female repair tech, and one lucky nominee will get a free Repair Business Toolkit. via Tumblr Six Female Techs Changing the Face of Repair The new Galaxy S10 and S10+ are now splayed out in all their glory, and before we even pried them open, we noticed an interesting new feature: pre-installed screen protectors. This was rather nice of Samsung to include because you can’t install just any screen protector on the S10 or S10+. And since it scored a measly 3 out of 10 on our repairability scorecard, you definitely need a screen protector—and probably a case—on this phone. After years of shipping phones without screen protectors, why did Samsung suddenly feel the need to install the screen protector themselves? The two new flagship Galaxies come with a fingerprint sensor built into the screen, which isn’t completely new—the OnePlus 6T and a few other phones have beaten Samsung to it. But the S10s use ultrasonic tech instead of the optical sensors used by others. Optical sensors look at your fingerprint, whereas the S10’s sensor actually listens for it—which is pretty slick. Optical fingerprint sensors can handle a broader range of screen protectors because the sensor can easily see through the clear film or glass to take a gander at your fingerprint. The ultrasonic sensor on the S10s, however, uses sound waves to read your fingerprint, which limits the type of screen protector you can use on the phone. (The S10e is exempt from this since it uses an old-school capacitive sensor within the power button). The pre-installed screen protectors will work, but they’re the cheap plastic film variety. Since plastic scratches more than glass, you’ll likely need to replace it at some point. The pre-installed ones are just as easy to remove as any other film-based screen protector, but you’ll have fewer choices when it comes to replacements. The S10 display assembly on the right shows off the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor that’s built into the screen. It doesn’t appear that the pre-installed screen protectors on the S10 are any different than other film-based screen protectors you can buy elsewhere (Tech Armor already sells its own, as well as a ton of other brands), but tempered glass options are more difficult to come by right now. That’s because your garden variety glass protector won’t work with the S10’s ultrasonic fingerprint sensor—they’re too thick. There are already a couple of S10-compatible tempered glass protectors on the market so far, though, including one from Belkin that’s “engineered to be so thin to maintain compatibility with Samsung Galaxy S10’s in-screen sensor and unlock it with just a touch.” That extra thinness might come at a cost whenever you drop your phone, but you’ll at least be safe from the inevitable scratches from keys and other objects. There’s also a solution from Whitestone Dome, but it’s not really ideal—instead of installing the screen protector the traditional way, the company uses a liquid adhesive to completely fill that gap between the screen and the protector, which allows the ultrasonic sensor to work properly. But this makes the whole installation process a bit more involved. In the package, you get the protector, the adhesive, an alignment tray, and a UV light. You’ll have to apply the adhesive separately from the protector, then use the UV light to cure the adhesive. It’s a neat process, but it seems like there would be plenty of ways that one could screw it up—after all, even basic screen protectors can be tricky to install without all these extra steps. Plus, the amount of disposable plastic and electronics that come in the kit is enough to keep us away purely on an environmental basis. Furthermore, we can’t imagine the screen protector being easy to remove when it comes time to replace it, since the process appears to be fairly similar to what most manufacturers use to bond the display panel to the screen glass. In other words, that sucker probably isn’t coming off easily. If you absolutely want to play it safe, the easiest and safest way to go is to buy Samsung’s own replacement screen protectors that are guaranteed to work with the S10. These are available at carrier stores and retail locations that carry Samsung products, priced at $29.99. That’s more expensive than third-party options, but knowing that it’s an OEM product that will work with your S10 without worry can be valuable, especially given the mixed reviews of some of the third-party options this early in the game. We imagine the market will eventually fill with more quality, S10-compatible screen protectors as time goes on, but for now, keep in mind that your options are a bit more limited if you want to use that in-screen fingerprint sensor. via Tumblr The Galaxy S10 Makes Screen Protectors…Complicated Right to Repair is knocking on Silicon Valley’s door again. California just introduced Right to Repair legislation, making it the 20th state to propose legislation in 2019 and the second year in a row Right to Repair has been considered in California. Assemblymember Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) introduced Assembly Bill 1163 to revitalize California’s repair economy. Last year’s bill called for manufacturers to release the parts, tools, and repair diagnostics needed to fix their products, but lobbyists led by Apple were able to block the bill. “The Right to Repair will provide consumers with the freedom to have their electronic products and appliances fixed by a repair shop or service provider of their choice, creating a competitive market that will be cheaper for consumers and reduce the number of devices thrown in the trash,” Eggman says. Volunteers help their community in an annual repair cafe. Last year’s bill was proposed to California law at large, while this year’s bill is an amendment to California’s effective Lemon Law, a.k.a. the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act. Unique to the state of California, this law requires companies to provide a repair option. It’s been effective at making sure that you can get your six-year-old MacBook Pro fixed by Apple in California—a service that Apple refuses to perform across the border in Arizona. But manufacturers found a loophole in the law allowing them to monopolize repair rather than providing parts to the repair provider of the consumer’s choice. This bill closes that loophole. California joins 19 other battlegrounds where legislators are fighting for our freedom to tinker this year: Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. This marks the greatest number of states to consider legislation ever—19 states supported Right to Repair in 2018. And not only are we up by one this year, but this month Minnesota became the first state in Right to Repair history to pass legislation through two state committees. Consumers should have the right to choose their repair provider. Increasing independent repair options will encourage people to fix the electronics and appliances they already own, rather than toss their broken belongings and buy new ones. Independent and self-repair also help people save money, create local jobs, and prevent e-waste—which is now the fastest growing waste stream in the world. If you live in California, call or write your representative to let them know you demand your freedom to tinker. All it takes is two minutes to stand up for Right to Repair: Simply enter your zip code at california.repair.org, and you will be directed to your local representative. You can learn more about Right to Repair at Repair.org, and listen to Repair Radio to get the latest updates on this year’s legislation. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Kay-Kay Clapp at [email protected]. via Tumblr California Becomes 20th State to Introduce Right to Repair This Year There’s no doubt that the Galaxy S10 is a sexy phone, and while the new hole-punched display has everyone talking, the in-display fingerprint sensor is also something to marvel at. While all fingerprint sensors have one goal in common—to read the ridges and valleys on your fingerprint—each type attains that goal in vastly different ways. Unlike other in-display fingerprint sensors (like on the OnePlus 6T and Vivo X21, which use optical sensors), the Galaxy S10 and S10+ use a better, more reliable ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. But before we dive deep into how this interesting technology works, let’s first take a look at some common fingerprint sensing technology that you’re already used to and see how they compare. Capacitive and Optical Fingerprint SensorsOn most modern phones, you’ll either find a capacitive sensor or an optical camera sensor. The former is way more common because it’s much more difficult to fool than an optical sensor—pretty much every fingerprint sensor that isn’t built into the screen is a capacitive sensor. Capacitive sensors use electrical current to read a fingerprint using an array of extremely tiny capacitors (hence the name) that each store a very small electrical charge. Think of this array like squares on a checkerboard, only on a minuscule level where each capacitor is smaller than the width of a fingerprint ridge. Each capacitor includes two conductor plates. Wherever the ridges of your fingerprint rest on the sensor, the two conductor plates are connected, changing the amount of charge that that particular capacitor has. And wherever there’s a valley in your fingerprint, the charge in that specific capacitor remains unchanged. From there, the sensor can get an overall view of what your fingerprint looks like based on which capacitors have a specific amount of charge and which ones don’t. It’s nearly identical to how touchscreens work, but on a much more detailed level. Optical fingerprint sensors use a simpler method that’s a bit easier to understand—they take a picture of your fingerprint. The sensor first shines a small LED light onto your fingerprint, and then a camera takes a quick snapshot capturing the light and dark areas which denote the ridges and valleys in your fingerprint, respectively. While optical sensors are less secure than capacitive ones (since a simple photo can trick the sensor) they can be integrated behind a smartphone’s display, allowing for a bezel-less experience where the screen can take up the whole surface area of the phone. The Latest Fingerprint Tech: Ultrasonic SensorsThe problems with optical sensors spurred Samsung and their technology partner Qualcomm in a new direction. After a lot of challenging R&D, Samsung thinks it’s found a way to make the experience better using ultrasonic technology. Bats navigate quickly and precisely by timing how long their high-pitched sound waves take to return after bouncing off an object to figure out how far away it is. Ultrasonic technology mimicking this “feature” has been common in medical sonograms and underwater navigation for decades. The Galaxy S10 and S10+’s ultrasonic fingerprint sensor works in a similar fashion: it emits a high-pitched noise undetectable by human ears, bouncing sound waves off your finger and back into the sensor. The sensor measures how long the sound waves take to return from various locations—they’ll take longer to return if they bounce off a valley than a ridge in your fingerprint. From there, the sensor creates a 3D topographic map of your fingerprint and use that to match it against the 3D fingerprint map that the phone has on file. If it’s a match, the phone unlocks. While Apple has officially deemed fingerprint sensors old news, they’re still very much alive and well on Android devices, and Samsung wants to take it to the next level. While in-display fingerprint sensors—as a whole—seem to be fussier than capacitive sensors, in-display sensors may very well take over in the future, and ultrasonic technology could lead the way. via Tumblr How Ultrasonic Fingerprint Sensors Work Fixing whatever you own shouldn’t be an ordeal, but alas, companies don’t seem to want you repairing their products. The FTC has decided they have something to say about that and they want to hear from passionate minds like yours. The Federal Trade Commission will be hosting a July 16th workshop called “Nixing the Fix: A Workshop on Repair Restrictions” with a goal to “focus on how manufacturers may limit repairs by consumers and repair shops and whether those limitations affect consumer protection, including consumers’ rights under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.” The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which goes way back to 1975, forbids companies from voiding warranties on their products just because the owner modified or repaired said product themselves. Many companies attempt to scare their customers by plastering “warranty void if removed” stickers all over their devices. But these stickers are unenforceable. More importantly, they’re illegal. The FTC finally cracked down on the use of these stickers last year by sending warning letters to a handful of large corporations, like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Microsoft is facing a lawsuit over the practice in California. Some of these stickers are still out there, but it’s nice to see the FTC cracking the whip, and they’re not done yet. The upcoming workshop will address some of the problems caused when manufacturers make it difficult for users or independent repair shops to fix devices, and the Commission wants people to submit any empirical data or research that may prove useful for the upcoming workshop. The deadline for this is April 30th. Better yet, the FTC is also accepting comments from the public regarding Right to Repair, so you can send in your thoughts to the Commission until September 16th. via Tumblr Passionate About Right to Repair? The FTC Wants to Hear from You |
Marianne HughesTech Writer. |