We provide card receipts. We also provide hand sanitiser. We encourage people to take both. But not at the same time.
Receipts use thermal paper, which is coated with BPA or BPS, which enables heat-activated printing. These are industrial chemical compounds, often used in plastics manufacturing.
Research has shown that exposure to these chemicals can disrupt the endocrine system. This is linked to an increased risk of cancers, cardiovascular disease, thyroid issues, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, impaired liver and kidney function, inflammation and more.
Recent studies demonstrate a clear link between exposure to these chemicals and reproductive issues, including infertility; which is increasing rapidly. This is because it imitates estrogen in the body, which throws off our natural hormone production. Babies are especially sensitive to long-term hormonal disruption.
It's a serious issue.
To an extent, we cannot avoid exposure to BPA. It's in water bottles, food containers and tinned food.
Some better news: Generally, we are resilient to small amounts of BPA. Most of us instinctively know to avoid drinking out of plastic bottles every day, and not to microwave plastic. Using plastic products sensibly shouldn't have a measurable impact on our health.
Here's the important bit: Thermal paper is used for receipts, movie and travel tickets, labels etc. Touching these receipts is safe. We (hopefully) know not to put them in our mouths. The problem is when we touch them shortly before or after applying hand sanitiser.
Skin products such as hand sanitiser, sun cream and moisturisers contain chemicals called “dermal penetration enhancers” that break down the skin’s protective barrier to enhance delivery of the products’ active ingredients.
By breaking this barrier whilst touching a receipt, we expose ourselves to 185 times more BPA, which is an extremely toxic dose. This has been proven in a scientific experiment.
Unfortunately, many of us are now in the habit of using hand sanitiser when we are shopping - a habit that you should cease or pay more attention to. Regular exposure at this level could be making you very ill.
Recent legislation means that most receipt paper in the UK and EU is now BPA-free, but instead contains BPS, which has a similar effect.
If you know someone that works in retail or handles lots of receipts, share this with them. And if you work in McDonalds, please keep your black-smudged receipt off of my fries.
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Apple have released their Self Service Repair program in the US, starting with the iPhone 12 & 13 (because it's the new models that really need repairs right). We've found the repair manuals.
Here's some of our highlights:
> Sand is the new rice, apparently. We are really looking forward to cleaning sand out of iPhones. The sand is included in the toolkit in order to contain a "battery thermal event", i.e. if you pierce your battery and it explodes. Be advised that this Sand may not be compatible with future updates.
> You have to rent a hefty 36kg toolkit! This costs $49, and is delivered by Tony Stark himself.
> We're kind of jealous of the screen removal machine. This would make removing 12 & 13 screens a lot easier. There's also a display press for resealing.
> One advantage they do have over us is system configuration, which allows the user access to software that will calibrate replacement components to avoid "Non-genuine parts detected" notifications, and incompatibilities that disable Face ID.
> Never reinstall a screw. Learn something new every day.
We're not sure how popular this program will be. The parts are original, meaning they'll be perfect in terms of quality and reliability, and the tools provided look really good. Still, for someone that wants to repair their own phone, there's a lot of hoops to jump through, and despite saving on labour costs, it's not much cheaper than going to Apple or a third-party for repair.
The goal of the program is to appease Right to Repair. Apple need to be seen to be complying with consumer laws that are putting increasing pressure on tech companies to be sustainable. They don't actually want you to repair their products. They want you to buy another one. Well played Apple 👏
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Setting up a Fairphone 4 for one of our customers.
Fairphone use a combination of recycled and sustainably sourced materials. Like other tech companies, they manufacture in China, but they pay their workers a fair wage and provide good working conditions. They also design their devices to be easily repairable.
No, the devices aren't amazing - but they're getting better! The Fairphone 4 runs on Android, has 5G connectivity, and is available with 256GB storage and 8GB of RAM. It has a 3905 mAh battery, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G processor.
And get this - a 5 five year warranty!
Unlike other manufacturers (especially Apple), who purposely make their devices as difficult to repair as possible, Fairphone make repair super easy! The back pops off, and the battery is removable. Underneath, it's just a few Phillips screws and plug-in components. They sell all the parts and provide manuals, so anyone can repair their own device easily!
Fairphone is one of many organisations pushing us towards a circular economy - a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible.
At Talkback, we are playing our small part in this movement by repairing, refurbishing and re-selling electronics, in order to extend the product life-cycle.
This philosophy needs to adopted by more businesses, and become more deeply ingrained in our culture in order to reduce wastage and save materials, resources and money.
Unfortunately, it's not the best model for high-speed innovation or profit maximisation. Any company that takes even a moment to consider the implications of progress will almost certainly get left behind. In our race to make chips smaller and faster, our environmental impact gets bigger.
Nevertheless, sustainability is becoming increasingly important to consumers. According to recent studies, 85% of consumers have become ‘greener’ in their purchasing in recent years, and more than a third of global consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable options as demand grows for environmentally-friendly alternatives.
Now are you going to swap out you iPhone for a Fairphone? Absolutely not. But just understand that this little Dutch company are pushing sustainable and ethical tech in the right direction; far better than Apple or Samsung ever could.
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Lots of modern smartphones use a dual layer printed circuit board (PCB) like this. In the industry, we call it a sandwich board. The board has essentially been cut in half and stacked. This saves on space, so manufacturers can fit a larger battery into a more compact device. Typically, you get around 30% greater total surface area with the two layers combined, compacted into a 30% smaller footprint.
Unfortunately for you, and fortunately for us, these boards are prone to failure. This is because the two boards connect and communicate with each other via those little silver pads all around the edge. Lots of connections, easily severed by a hard drop.
You can see all the various chips - used for power, processing and storage. Parts like the screen, cameras, battery, charging port, and antennas plug in on the other side.
This is a sandwich board that we have split in order to fix an issue with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection. They then have to be literally melted back together, which is a long, delicate and satisfying process.
Voilà - Un Apple Sandwiché 🥪 Bon Appétit 👌
Mobile phone, tablet, computer, laptop and console repair centre, Portishead, Bristol; express turnaround, with warranty.
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This is a "heat sink" on a Microsoft Surface Pro. Laptops, games consoles, and high-spec tablets all have one of these.
A heat sink is an object that disperses heat from another object. The goal here is to transfer thermal energy from a processor (CPU and/or GPU), to a lower temperature medium - usually air, but you could use water.
This heat sink is made out of copper. Aluminium alloys are also very common.
The CPU in your computer gets so hot, so quickly, that without cooling, it would likely reach temperatures of 100°C; frying itself within seconds.
By connecting to a heat sink, we increase the surface area for the heat to spread, keeping temperatures below 75°C. A larger surface area will increase the cooling ability.
The heat sink is connected to a fan, which spins to move air across the heat sink in order to keep it cool. This is what you can hear spinning as your device works harder and gets hotter.
We want the heat sink to make direct contact with the CPU, so we apply thermal paste to fill in tiny air gaps, which makes for better heat transfer. This paste is typically comprised of metal oxide and silicone, which results in a delicious grey oily grease.
There's two common issues that will cause your device to overheat and underperform:
> A blocked fan. Computers fill up with dust over time, which mostly aggregates around the fan and impedes airflow. We take great pleasure in cleaning off all the dust inside a computer with an air blower. This has to be done carefully to avoid damaging the fan.
> Degraded thermal paste. The material breaks down and becomes less efficient over time - typically after 5 years. More commonly, people disturb the paste by removing the heat sink to complete other repairs, but do not then apply fresh paste. We enjoy thoroughly cleaning off all the old gunk, and applying shiny new paste to the CPU; like fresh butter on hot toast.
