This page is a work-in-progress, collecting useful and inspiring resources to prevent e-waste. Feel free to suggest additional resources to be included

For consumers

Electronics Failure Rates from SquareTrade
SquareTrade, a major electronics warranty provider, has published a number of research reports concerning the failure rates and reliability of popular Consumer Electronics items.

Electronics TakeBack Coalition
The Electronics TakeBack Coalition (ETBC) promotes green design and responsible recycling in the electronics industry, including a series of tools for purchasers

Friends of the Earth “Make it Better” campaign
A campaign to improve production of consumer goods, starting with smartphones.

Give Your Computer a Long, Healthy Life
From Wired Wikis, the basics of how to maintain and use computers longer.

GoodGuide
GoodGuide provides the world’s largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental, and social impacts of consumer products, including mobile phones.

Greenpeace – Guide to Greener Electronics
The guide ranks the 18 top manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TVs and games consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change.

How to Speed up a Slow Computer
This article is part of the 10:10 campaign and it explains how to get your computer running like new again in a few steps

LinLap – The Linux Laptop Wiki
A large database with real user experiences running Linux on many models of laptops.

whited00r
An alternative firmware for your iPhone 2G/3G and iPod Touch 1G/2G, powerful, optimised and fast.

For repairers

Camera Repair Flickr Pool 
A pool on Flickr with photos of camera designs, including digital cameras.

Electronics Repair
Tips and guides by Jestine Yong to repair load of electronics products

FixYa
This site is building a crowdsourced database of help queries and personalised answers.

Future proof: Tim’s laptop service manuals
Professional, official documents published by the various laptop makers, either for their own technicians or for the use of the general public

iFixit
iFixit makes it easy to fix things with online step-by-step repair guides, troubleshooting tips, and a thriving community of repair technicians who want to help

Powerbook Medic
An online library of repair videos mostly of Apple products.

Reddit’s Computer Technicians
This space is for people who are repair professionals or aspire to be. “End users” encouraged to use /r/techsupport

Repairs Universe video library
A growing library of videos of smartphone and tablet repairs and teardowns.

sci.electronics.repair FAQ
A comprehensive historical archive of tips and guides on repairing many kinds of consumer electronics

Raising the dead: Can a regular person repair a damaged hard drive?
Very interesting article, debunking some of the myths on repairing hard drives. Also check the comments streams on this article on Slashdot

References

Fetishism of Digital Commodities and Hidden Exploitation: the cases of Amazon and Apple
An essay connecting the consumption of gadgets electronics with the human rights violation behind their production and distribution.

Global Information Society Report on ICT & Sustainability
GISWatch 2010 includes seven thematic reports, dealing with the global ICT footprint, emerging research agendas, sustainability, e waste, smart technologies, green grassroots technologies, and building advocacy networks, as well as an institutional overview and a consideration of green indicators.

KTH Royal Institute of Technology research on social life cycle assessment
The study evaluated impacts on human well-being throughout the lifecycle of a generic laptop from cradle to grave. The product system included material extraction, processing of raw materials, production and assembly, marketing and sales, use and disposal. A specific aim of the study was to identify social “hotspots”. These hotspots allow for a better understanding of where and when negative social impacts in the product systems of a laptop occur.

The Lightbulb Conspiracy
A thought-provoking film about the history and rise of “planned obsolescence”.

MIT’s “Backtalk”
MIT turned laptops and other electronic devices into independent reporters that document their ‘second life’ in Ghana, India and Nepal, sending images and GPS coordinates from remote places. The information they report back offers first-hand perspectives – glimpses into e-waste recycling villages, local thrift stores, public schools and libraries.

Video: The Story of Electronics
The Story of Electronics employs the Story of Stuff style to explore the high-tech revolution’s collateral damage—25 million tons of e-waste and counting, poisoned workers and a public left holding the bill.

Research: Timely replacement of a notebook under consideration of environmental aspects
This study commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment explains that the lifecycle of laptops should be increased, because 56% of all its power consumption is used during production, and that gains in energy efficiency when operating a laptop can not compensate the high production energetic costs. This implies that: the greenest laptop you can have is the one you already own!

Manifesto for the New Materialism
A crucial 6-step manifesto to rethink the way we relate to material things. Read it, and never forget about it!

Alternatives

The Bloom Laptop
A prototype for a computer easy to disassemble and recycle

Fairphone
Bringing a fair smartphone to the market – one made of parts produced and utilised without harming individuals or the environment.

MIT Media Lab DIY Mobile Kit
Wood-based mobile prototype would eventually ship with a circuit board, control pad, a fairly beefy antenna and a monochrome LCD. Fully functional and SIM-ready.

My BFF phone
Concept for a phone that helps “forge a deep emotional relationship with our gadgets, deep enough to hang on to them for quite some time”

Open IDEO’s E-waste Design Challenge
We participated in this Challenge – which generated a number of great ideas.