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Blog posts tagged smart phones
What to do if you drop your iPhone 6 in beer
October 14, 2014
Well, Apple's iPhone 6 has been available for a couple of weeks now, so it's a fair bet that more than one of these shiny new phones will have fallen victim to water, beer or other liquid damage.
In a thinly-veiled PR stunt, Revivaphone - which offers a kit to resuscitate liquid-damaged phones - reckons it managed to dunk the first iPhone 6 in a pitcher of beer.
You can see the results in this video (warning: there are a couple of swear words in there):
If you do suffer the misfortune of dropping your smart phone into a pint of beer, water or some other liquid, all is not lost.
There's a reasonable chance it won't be destroyed, if you act quickly. Here's what to do:
1. Get it out of the liquid
Well, ok, this is the obvious bit. The less time your smart phone spends submerged, the better.
(As you retrieve your shiny phone from the toilet bowl, this may be the point at which you learn your lesson.)
2. Keep it switched off
Often, a swift dunking will cause your phone to lose power. But if it is still powered up, turn it off immediately.
If your phone has a removable battery, do this by yanking out the battery rather than by pressing any buttons. This will reduce the likelihood of causing further damage.
Whatever you do, don't be tempted to turn the phone on to see if it still works. This could do even more damage.
3. Dry the outside
If possible, remove the battery and SIM card. Then use kitchen towel (or something similarly absorbent) to get all the liquid off the outside of the phone.
You'll want to get as much water out of the phone as possible, so give it a good shake too.
4. Dry the inside
Now you need to be patient. For your phone to have the best chance of surviving, it needs to dry out completely before you try powering it up.
It's best to use something to draw out the moisture. A low-tech but surprisingly effective technique is to dump your phone in a bowl or bag of rice. If you do this, just be careful of dust getting into the phone.
If you can get hold of it, silica gel is even better. Either way, leave the handset to dry out for at least 48 hours.
Don't use a hairdryer or other heat sources to speed up the drying process. This can damage any heat-sensitive components in your phone.
5. Reassemble and cross your fingers
Ok, here goes. If you've left it a few days and your phone seems dry, pop the SIM back in, reconnect the battery and try to switch it on.
Depending on the level of damage, your phone could work perfectly, partly or not at all.
If your phone does seem to function ok, take the opportunity to back up any important data you need. Occasionally, liquid-damaged phones fail at a later date.
Is it worth buying a kit?
In addition to the Revivaphone product, there are a number of kits available to breathe life into water-damaged phones. These include Kensington's EVAP kit and the Save-a-Phone drying device.
These may provide a more effective way to dry out your phone. But as time is of the essence with liquid damage, it might be worth keeping one or two of them in the office. Well, that or a bag of rice, at least.
The new BlackBerry aims to bring Balance to your business
February 05, 2013
It's make or break time for RIM, manufacturer of the BlackBerry.
Once dominant in the world of business smart phones, the BlackBerry's market share has been steadily eroded by Apple's iPhone and Android handsets from the likes of Samsung and HTC.
But now RIM is fighting back with the BlackBerry Z10, which looks like ... well, it looks like every other smart phone that's hit the market in recent years.
It's a black slab with a big touch screen. Original.
The BlackBerry Z10 does personal too
There are lots of reviews that'll tell you about the BlackBerry Z10's tech specs and performance. Check engadget, TechCrunch and The Telegraph. Overall, it seems like a decent handset.
But there's one feature that sets the BlackBerry Z10 apart from its competitors. It's called Balance. According to RIM, it's the 'simplest and most user-friendly way to balance your personal and work life on a single device.'
Balance means that instead of carrying two phones (one for work and one for business), the BlackBerry Z10 can do both. It keeps company data secure and separate from personal photos, games and other distractions. You switch between the two modes by swiping the screen.
Will BlackBerry Z10 work with BYOD?
Buy the BlackBerryBlackBerry Z10 is available from major mobile networks: |
While Balance sounds like a really useful feature, for your business to take advantage of it you need to have bought into the BlackBerry platform, and be using BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
And that's where the BlackBerry Z10 is going to hit problems for smaller companies. The current trend is to bring your own device (BYOD) and give staff incentives to use their own smart phones for work.
There's no point in going to the trouble of implementing Balance if only a few staff members have chosen to buy the Z10.
Does that means the BlackBerry Z10 is set to fail? Not necessarily. It's just that the strings attached to Balance make that particular feature less useful for companies that don't have the budget to buy a phone for every employee and set up a BlackBerry-based infrastructure.
What's left is still a very capable smart phone. But given the dominance of Apple and Android, is that enough?
A mobile app to boost customer loyalty
January 09, 2012
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Mobile loyalty card app Loyalli |
I have six different loyalty cards in my wallet at the moment. Cafes, restaurants, bars, shops ... they all delight in letting you collect stamps towards a free gift. But the cards are a pain to carry and it can be a struggle to find the right one when you need it.
As problems go you’re not going to lose any sleep over it. But for independent retailers looking to build repeat business, loyalty cards can be hit and miss. I’ve often wondered how many of the cards they give out ever get redeemed.
Does the internet reduce or increase loyalty?
One of the strange things about technology is that while it gives businesses new channels through which to reach customers (email, social media, smart phone apps, etc), it simultaneously places a whole world of options in front of those customers. For instance, comparing prices from different retailers on the internet is a piece of cake.
So technology doesn’t always make it easy to build customer loyalty. I’d argue that in many cases it has the opposite effect, by encouraging people to shop around for everything.
All your loyalty cards in one place
Back in the physical world, independent outlets of all kinds are struggling to weather the ongoing economic storm. In this environment it’s interesting to see the launch of a new service designed to boost customer loyalty.
In true internet company fashion, it’s called Loyalli (I guess the domain name loyally.com was unavailable) and it’s a smart phone app which lets customers collect loyalty stamps without having to carry around physical cards. Loyalli is free for customers and retailers.
The idea is that when customers buy something from your restaurant, cafe or whatever, you give them a QR code to scan using their smart phone. (QR codes are like barcodes: you photograph them with your phone, then an app decodes them. Learn more about QR codes here.)
The QR code is unique to your business, so the app knows the customer has bought something from you. When a customer scans the code, the app uses the phone’s location features to check they’re actually in your shop (apparently this is just one of several anti-fraud measures) and then puts a virtual stamp on their virtual loyalty card.
When the customer has collected enough stamps, they just scan the QR code again to claim their free coffee, drink, meal or other reward. That also resets their virtual stamp card so they can carry on collecting.
Can it replace tatty cardboard?
With around 120 UK businesses signed up to Loyalli so far, it’s still early days for the service. And a quick search online reveals a number of competitors, like OneGratis (which doesn’t appear to have as many UK businesses signed up).
However, the limited number of companies using Loyalli may not matter. After all, if you simply want to use it to give your customers another way to collect loyalty stamps, perhaps it’s irrelevant how many other companies are using the service.
Having said that, Loyalli isn’t going to replace traditional loyalty cards any time soon. For one thing, not everyone has a smart phone. And even if all your customers do, you can bet they don’t all know how QR codes work – in a recent blog post on Marketing Donut, one expert revealed only 34% of people know what QR codes are used for.
That’s not to say that Loyalli won’t be a useful tool for your business. You just have to see it as another weapon in the fight for repeat business, rather than a miracle cure that’ll keep your customers coming back over and over again.
You can learn more about Loyalli at Loyalli.com.
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