Technologies

Refurbished Tech Is Always an Option for You, and It Could Be a ‘Joyful’ One Too

Joining the «joyful revolution» happening in the refurbished tech space is good for the planet and for dodging tariffs.

I’ve been writing about the right-to-repair movement and finding more sustainable ways to buy tech for years, but it wasn’t until earlier this year on a routine Tube journey across London that I heard of Back Market, a refurbished tech marketplace originating in France.

While avoiding any possible eye contact with strangers, as is good Tube etiquette, my gaze drifted up to a Back Market advert above the window pane. «Sorry, cats. Tech now has multiple lives too,» it said. It was amusing and immediately made me want to know more.

It turned out that I was late to the party, and this was just one of many cheeky ads that Back Market has run on the London Underground network and beyond. The company’s campaigns aim to normalize buying refurbished tech by making it fun, Back Market’s CEO Thibaud Hug de Larauze said at SXSW London on Tuesday.

«Don’t make people feel guilty, like you’re a bad person because you’re buying new,» he said. «It’s not going to work. It’s not going to change people’s behavior.»

Extending the lifespan of our phones, laptops and other tech products, whether through repair, responsible trade-ins that prioritize recycling or buying refurbished devices, is critical to ensure we’re not wasting precious minerals and exerting pressure on the natural world in ways that contribute to the climate crisis. It’s serious stuff, but Back Market’s lighthearted approach is about sparking «a joyful revolution» in the world of refurbished tech, Hug de Larauze said.

Buying into this revolution is good for the planet and protecting the well-being of the people in developing countries, whose health is impacted by mining for minerals or recovering them from discarded e-waste. It’s also good for another reason – avoiding price rises on new tech sparked by tariffs.

The repair and refurbish movement

Back Market isn’t the only marketplace willing to pay for your old tech and sell you a refurbished device, but it’s one part of a more widespread movement for change. Earlier this year, the company partnered with iFixit, which equips people around the world with the tools they need to repair their own tech while advocating for right-to-repair legislation.

«We want to enable people to repair by default, if they want and if they can,» Hug de Larauze said. «If they cannot, let’s trade in easily and adopt a refurbished one.»

Together, the companies encourage people to increase the time they hold onto their phones to five years, rather than the current average of two and a half years. They’re also applying pressure to phone manufacturers to increase software support to 10 years.

But Hug de Larauze has an even bigger request for tech companies, which he describes as «the next fight we need to push for.»

When tech manufacturers cease to provide ongoing support for devices, he wants them to unleash the hardware they’ve made so that it can be fully divorced from the operating system. The idea is that an old iPhone, for example, could get a new lease on life as something like a baby monitor or security camera if combined with different software.

This feels like a big ask for tech companies, with the main argument against the proposal likely to center on security concerns. Still, the world of refurbished tech is changing quickly. Over a million refurbished devices were purchased through Back Market last year alone and, according to Hug de Larauze, there are already signs that people are holding onto their smartphones for longer and trading in more often.

«For me, it’s about building a global ecosystem of service for everybody to basically access to repair by default,» he said. «Obviously, keep the device longer, but if for some reason you cannot, then easily trade it in and access refurbished devices instead.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, June 7

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for June 7.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword could be tricky. 1-Down and 5-Down stumped me for a while, but the other letters filled it in for me. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Yoga class need
Answer: MAT

4A clue: Umlaut, rotated 90°
Answer: COLON

6A clue: «That is shocking!»
Answer: OHMYGOD

8A clue: «___ You the One?» (reality TV show)
Answer: ARE

9A clue: Egg cells
Answer: OVA

10A clue: One of two «royal» sleeping options
Answer: KINGBED

12A clue: Bar seating
Answer: STOOL

13A clue: Favorite team of the «Chicago Pope,» for short
Answer: SOX

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Slices of life
Answer: MOMENTS

2D clue: Olympic gymnast Raisman
Answer: ALY

3D clue: Request at the end of a restaurant meal
Answer: TOGOBOX

4D clue: Hayes of MSNBC
Answer: CHRIS

5D clue: Medium for Melville or McCarthy
Answer: NOVEL

6D clue: Wood used for wine barrels
Answer: OAK

7D clue: June honoree
Answer: DAD

11D clue: Sticky stuff
Answer: GOO

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

Technologies

Despite War of Words, Trump May Funnel Billions to Musk’s Starlink With BEAD Changes

Technologies

Square Enix’s Next Game Blends Among Us-Like Murder Mystery With Bloody Carnage

Unveiled at Summer Game Fest, Killer Inn is an upcoming multiplayer murder mystery pitting players against each other in the search for the true killers.

Bet you didn’t have this one on your bingo list. Developed by Tactic Studios in partnership with Square Enix, the game was unveiled during the Summer Game Fest livestream, and it’s far from the famed RPG maker’s bread and butter. Killer Inn, as it’s called, is a multiplayer murder mystery that takes Among Us-like gameplay and ratchets it up by handing players knives, guns and many other weapons to kill or be killed while they search for the original killer.

Killer Inn might be one of those games that is best understood after playing a few matches, but even from the reveal trailer, there’s a lot going on. In each match, 24 players enter a sprawling castle-turned-hotel to determine who the real killers are as they’re picked off one by one. There’s deduction and mayhem aplenty.

Killer Inn’s play phases are patterned after detective-style games, from Among Us to Ultimate Werewolf to Mafia. A match begins with most players as cooperative participants («lambs,» in Killer Inn’s parlance) mixed with a few secret killers («wolves»). Players complete tasks to earn tokens redeemable for items and weapons, while the killers quietly go about their business — until someone discovers a body. On the corpse are clues left by the killer, so the lambs can try deducing the true culprit (or culprits).

Then it’s all about collecting clues and identifying the wolves — but unlike Among Us, there’s no group discussion to present evidence or vote them out. Killer Inn skips the parlor scene and dives straight into action: If you’re sure someone’s the killer, take them out. Use those token-bought guns and blades to put down the villain. Unless you accidentally murder one of your innocent teammates — in which case, you’re turned to stone for the rest of the match. Bummer.

Lambs have another win condition: assembling four keys to escape on the ship that brought them to the murder island. There are other mechanics, too, like finding relative safety in rooms with hotel staff, who will identify any wolves that kill lambs in their line of sight.

Players can choose between 25 premade characters that each have their own unique appearances and abilities, the latter of which improve as the match goes on, often reflecting the nefarious dark sides of the participants. For example, Winston is a surgeon who kills more efficiently with knives and, when leveled up, deals extra damage while covered in blood. The Otaku, by contrast, gains 25 HP from finding clues and eventually builds resistance to status effects. Levels don’t carry over between matches — everyone starts fresh at level one.

Killer Inn doesn’t have a release date, but the game will kick off a closed beta test over Steam in the near future.