Wholeheartedly agree, best we can do is do business with local shops where possible.

We had these where I worked, what a lot of people miss is these don’t actually record until the person wearing it presses a button, it doesn’t have the battery life to record, encode, then broadcast video for 8+ hours. No doubt when that becomes feasible they’ll give it a go though.

In the UK we have to announce to everyone it’s recording. The gangs and thieves know this and don’t care. They were happy to attack and rob us when we already had store wide CCTV.

The only deterrent that worked was a security guard we had for a short while, but the company withdrew them because we weren’t losing over 5% of our daily take to theft, ignoring that we got the guard because two people had been sent to hospital after being attacked by a gang of youths.

Got a 10 year old laptop that couldn’t do anything whike running Windows 10. Couldn’t install Windows 11 because no TPM chip. Was about to replace it when I thought screw it and gave Linux a go.

It now runs as smoothly as the day I got it, and am now a Linux convert.

1. Yes, at least in my experience.

2. I’ve used my Fairphone 4 since I got it in Febuary 2022, although I ordered it November 2021, replacing the Oneplus 3 I’d bought at release. Main reason for the upgrade was because of the relockable bootloader, which meant it would get CalyxOS support.

3. Repair is trivially easy. Like, you have to be an idiot to make a mess of it easy. Only thing I’ve replaced so far is the plastic back (for reasons explained in answer 4) which took literal seconds. I also bought a spare battery that can, again, be swapped in seconds. It’s come in clutch several times. I’ve disassembled and reasessembled this phone to satisfy the same impulse I get when taking apart a pen.

4. I’m very clumsy, for reference repairing my old OP3 cost me double what I initially paid for it. The FP4 has so far landed face down on the pavement about as many times my OP3 did, and the only damage it’s recieved is to the plastic back, which takes alot of the impact energy with it when it pops off. Eventually the back had so many chips in the sides it had to be replaced but everything else has remained fully functional despite such mistreatment. It’s also thicker than most phones, it feels comfortably sturdy to hold. There was also a massive camera upgrade recently thanks to a software update, although being on CalyxOS I can’t offer first hand impressions.