Cellphone Charging Stations
August 21, 2007 by Jayvee Fernandez
Filed under Accessories, Cell phone, Nokia
Do you have these phone charging stations in your country? Here is an example of a cellphone charging station that’s exclusively for Nokia phones located at a Wendy’s fast food outlet. The station allows you to dock your Nokia phone (under close watch) and charge your battery as an added benefit to those who want to dine in.
Doesn’t this work against the restaurant? Fast food diners earn from the high rate of people trafficking in and out of the store. These charging docks force customers to stay in and charge, leaving no vacancies for seats.
Hey, I’ve written ’bout this a while back. And I also saw another one in a local Burger King’s.
Well, you can look at it as a value-added service. It’s something people would appreciate if there was an emergency and they needed juice badly.
But from what I’ve seen, they’re hardly used. It’s not like anyone would want to leave their cellphone in plain view of everyone, where someone can just easily snatch and run away with it.
Maybe they should put locks on these charging stations, with the key held by the cellphone owner until he has to leave?
I used the ones in a Greenbelt 3 cinema. Good thing it was there because my phone ran out of battery and I had to call my mom. 10-15 minutes of charging my phone gave me extra battery life that allowed me to call home and stuff.
I was there the entire time I was charging the phone and it’s ok with me. I don’t think locks will be sufficient a measure personally. Considering how thieves could be creative with locks, right?
We are currently proposing a project that will upgrade this existing charging station. We will use a magnetic stripe card and swiper to keep the cellphones secured while charging.