Part of being on YouTube is you get strange emails from people...
like the guy who wanted my help to become prime minister, or the person who thinks Skynet is real
and is being distributed as a disabled component of Windows
for later activation. Seriously. Or the person who asked me to review their art; because obviously
that's something a technology channel would do!? The thing is... when I was replying to that
last one to say "Uh... Wrong number!" I had a little look, and then I kind of wanted one!
Welcome back to The Pro Tech Show. Transparency bit first: I did not pay for this. It was sent to
me for free for the purpose of review; however this video is not sponsored. They have not paid me any
money so they have no control over what I say and they don't get to see it before you do. The piece
in question is by a studio called Xreart. What they do is they take tech that's destined for the
rubbish heap and they strip it down and arrange it with these nice little annotations in a frame.
It's a simple idea, but it works; and it's keeping dangerous e-waste out of landfill. Reuse is
always better than recycling, but there aren't many useful ways to reuse broken electronics.
Recycling rates are actually pretty abysmal, with only 17.4 percent of e-waste actually
getting properly recycled. I say "properly" because some recycling companies are just shipping the
waste to poorer countries where it's out of sight, out of mind, and no longer tracked.
Toxic chemicals and acid are used to extract tiny amounts of gold and copper and what remains just
gets dumped in landfill. I don't want to dwell on it. I'll put a link in the video description if
you want to read more, but the people exposed to these chemicals are often children; because small fingers
are handy for dealing with small components. This is a much better idea! As well as finding a use for
old electronics they donate a small portion of each purchase to environmental and conservation
causes. But environment aside, is it any good? This is obviously quite a subjective thing, but I like it.
You can currently get various iPhones, games consoles, and a few other bits and bobs like an
iPod and an Apple Watch. I get the feeling they're Apple fans but that's unsurprising for a design
house. I once knew a design-oriented company that bought Macs purely for their looks, and then proceeded
to format them and install Windows over the top because their software didn't actually
work on Macs. Kind of stupid if you ask me. I will never fully understand the mind of an artist.
Delivery to the UK took just under two weeks, and mine arrived in a nice foam-lined box.
It looks professionally enough done. There are no obvious problems that I can see. It does come
with acrylic glazing but I've removed it here in case my light reflects off it. Overall, it's a cool
idea and I think it makes a pretty nice gift for a tech enthusiast. Of course now that you've seen
the idea there's very little to stop you trying to do it yourself if you're technically inclined and
have some broken electronics to hand. In fact there are other people selling a very similar product.
I have no idea who did it first, but if you want to go the DIY route Xreart
caters for that as well. The website has DIY kits you can buy, including the frames and the templates
as well as the specific tools you'll need for each device. If you've ever tried taking a modern
smartphone apart you'll know it requires more than just a screwdriver, so that's a nice touch.
If you've already got the tools and you're happy to get the framing done locally they've even got a
bunch of the templates available as free downloads with all of the annotations, so you can just print
it off yourself. Personally, I'm too lazy. I'd rather just have someone do it for me but if you've got a
broken phone and some spare time it could be fun. I'll put a link to Xreart's store in the video
description. If you use that link and the coupon PROTECHSHOW I believe you'll currently get a
10% discount, so make the most of that. Again, in the interest of transparency that is an affiliate link;
so if you buy something I might get a commission, which helps me pay for things like this light
and the box it came in that's currently propping all of this up. That's all. I just really liked the
idea so I wanted to share it. If you like it, check out their shop. If you don't, then watch one of these
videos instead. In fact, why not do both? That's what multiple tabs were invented for, after all!