Those pesky regulatory symbols on the back of your smartphone or tablet may soon be going digital if a new bill being presented to the US Senate gets approved. The E-Label Act is a bipartisan bill that would give electronics manufacturers the option to use digital stamps instead of branding devices with government-mandated tattoos.
The Senate Commerce Committee says that removing physical symbols from devices would reduce costs for manufacturers, which could ultimately lower prices for consumers. If approved, this act would not affect all emblems covering devices, as icons like the “CE” stamp are for gadgets sold in Europe. However, FCC branding for products sold in the US could be replaced by a digital logo viewable from a device’s screen.
(via The Hill)
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
About time! Strangely excited for this to come into play. I’m actually surprised Apple hasn’t pushed for this sooner, at least publicly.
I really doubt you see it every time you look at your phone or device.
Speaking of phony analogies, it’s more like having warnings inside the car, where the consumer can see them and they do the consumer some good. And that’s a great place to have them. And the warnings/labels inside your car do not require you to turn on your car or even have fuel in the tank!
And if your think a small icon/label on the BACk of your device is ruining it, well that’s a good example of an anal retentive fetish.
OPPOSE THIS!!
Probably because it won’t save the company, or the consumer, one red cent.
I’m kind of upset that there’s a Senate committee that’s investigating this, as opposed to other things that would be helpful, like patent reform, or balancing budgets, campaign finance reform, etc. How much is this going to save consumers in the end? .001 cent? The etching is already being done, it’s not like they’re launching into an entirely new process to etch the logos, and I never even see them anyways…
This is rubbish and another example of biased “journalism”.
Who has ever called these symbols pesky or unsightly? I’d bet most are covered up anyway by a case (which the consumer has every right to do). There goes that argument!
This would reduce the cost by how much? And how much would be passed along to consumers? There goes that argument, too.
Instead, it makes important consumer information more difficult and circumvents existing legislation by FORCING the consumer to have a charged device and hunt for the information. Currently, the consumer can access that information without having to have a device that operates.
This is like having nutrition labels inside the box underneath the food.
Taking information away from consumers never works out well for the consumer.
OPPOSE THIS!
They ARE unsightly. It’s a computer – the information can be available at the touch of a button. No one needs it defacing the outside of a product. How would you like it if all this information had to be displayed in big bold letters on the trunk of your car?
No one cares about this information. As long as a device conforms to regulations and it’s documented somewhere, that’s fine. I don’t need to see it every time I look at my phone.
BTW, the whole “FORCING the consumer to have a charged device and hunt for the information” argument is a straw man argument. I have never, nor know of anyone who has ever been asked by anyone to produce any of this information. Ever. It isn’t necessary to anyone other than an anal retentive regulation fetishist.
I really doubt you see it every time you look at your phone or device.
Speaking of phony analogies, it’s more like having warnings inside the car, where the consumer can see them and they do the consumer some good. And that’s a great place to have them. And the warnings/labels inside your car do not require you to turn on your car or even have fuel in the tank!
And if your think a small icon/label on the BACk of your device is ruining it, well that’s a good example of an anal retentive fetish.
OPPOSE THIS!!
Yep. Our politicians at work. Solving non-existant problems on your tax money.
No point in getting rid of only half the symbols, but a nice idea. I don’t know that the ‘don’t throw in trash’ icon would be useful on-screen.
Didn’t the Verizon iPhone 4 lack any of the icons? I never understood why, but it was an improvement.
Nice attitude O_o
Just to be contrarian, if Apple never had to laser etch those symbols since the iPhone 1, and it took one second to do so, then after 800,000,000 iOS devices would be 800,000,000 seconds. 13,333,333 minutes 222,222 days. 608 years of work. That doesn’t count the dozens of Macs sold since then too