WhitsonGordon

Nope, they stopped lobbying, congratulated us on defeating them in a battle of political wills, and baked us a cake. It was delicious!

Just kidding. The short answer is "yes, I absolutely think Apple is still actively lobbying against right to repair." The longer answer is that I think their latest concessions are actually part of their strategy. They've introduced the Independent Repair Provider Program, allowing independent shops to buy genuine OEM parts they previously didn't have access to. And that's good! But it's just a small step, and many of us suspect this is an attempt of them to say "hey look, we're supporting repair, we don't need laws on the books"--because we want the laws to go much further than what they've provided. So them offering this program does, in a weird way, serve their anti-right-to-repair agenda in the grand scheme of things.

As far as I know, they've never asked us to take down a repair guide. Parts availability is usually the bigger barrier to repair, and how difficult they make the device to actually open and fix. (Despite the heat they get on repair, Apple's phones are some of the easiest to repair these days. They're not amazing, but Samsung/other brands are just so difficult that iPhones tend to be easier to repair than their competitors.)

1) What are your personal thoughts on game emulation? You guys don't talk about it on Kotaku a lot, with legit reasoning--but just curious what your personal views are. Do you think there's a time and place for it?

I've recently been playing Ocarina of Time--a game I own on N64, but am emulating with high-res textures and an Xbox controller--and I am having a really fun time with it, particularly because it feels a little "updated." Some of those old N64 games look like crap on an HDTV, and I feel like emulation has helped me rekindle my love for some of these old games.

2) Where do you find the bravery to go into Reddit, the lion's den, and do an AMA? (just kidding :-) People have asked me to do a Lifehacker-related AMA and I always chose not to for fear it'd be a bloodbath of general hate).

The collaboration is going well! We're psyched that Motorola was the first to jump on board, and we're hoping other manufacturers will follow suit. It's a really exciting collab, and we are planning on supporting their future phones for sure. Any specific future Moto phones that you're interested in?

The Fairphone is interesting to me because I think it's more of a symbol. Will the Fairphone ever sell enough to compete with big-name manufacturers like Apple, Samsung, or even Motorola? I'd love to see that happen, but I don't have my hopes up quite that high. That said, the Fairphone proves that a 10/10 repairable phone is possible, and that's huge. My hope is that if they show us what can be done, and we publicly praise a device like that, it may push manufacturers a bit further in that direction. Maybe one day, we'll see fewer 2/10 and 3/10 phones and more 7/10 phones because Fairphone drove some conversation. So even if the Fairphone isn't itself financially successful, it's successful in its goal of pushing the market toward more repairable, eco-friendly devices.

I suppose. I don't really feel that temptation because I don't play older games that much anymore (I'm only playing Ocarina of Time because I never finished it as a kid and my little brother's making fun of me for that fact). I think you're right--if I played more of that stuff, I probably WOULD pick up a 3DS and see what else is out there. But these days, I'm pretty much one of those asshole PC gamers you hear about :-) I haven't owned a console, portable or otherwise, since the original Xbox.

Pentalobe, because it makes me feel like a staaaaaaaar! 🌠🌠🌠