>> When it comes to smartphone, tablet and laptop designs, thin is beautiful these days. The tradeoff between style and lifetime, however, is often to the detriment of the latter, as reparability ranks low in the minds of manufacturers. >> "In the latest models, the battery and the display are often glued to the gadget's body, which also makes it waterproof. It's a low-cost compromise enabling manufacturers to focus on thin design rather than reparability. That cannot be achieved when you screw the parts together," said Dorothea Kessler, communications director at iFixit Europe. >> The Stuttgart, Germany-based nonprofit organization is spearheading a drive of more than a million technicians and hobby repairers collaborating in a global online community demanding a "right to repair" for customers.