Magic Kingdom to test mobile phone charging lockers for guest use

[raymusiccity]

Gonna have to take that up with BrightBox. This gets us to the bigger question of "How Many Devices does the Average family need to charge.....?" I know your family will have four devices. This is a giant step in the right direction and goes way beyond the "Here's an outlet on the wall for you to charge your device" as seen near Rapunzel's Restroom Station. (aka Kingdom Krossing)

I'm guessing at the end there still going to need 500-1000, minimum.

There will never be enough supply of boxes to meet the demand. Since it's free, boorish guests will just leave their phones in the box for hours on end....

(Sort of like going into the laundry room, only to find wet clothes in the washers and dry clothes abandoned in the dryers; both waiting for the return of their lazy, rude and uncaring owners ).

 

[PhotoDave219]

There will never be enough supply of boxes to meet the demand. Since it's free, boorish guests will just leave their phones in the box for hours on end....

(Sort of like going into the laundry room, only to find wet clothes in the washers and dry clothes abandoned in the dryers; both waiting for the return of their lazy, rude and uncaring owners ).

So what you're telling me is that the guests will abuse and take advantage of anything that is free?

I'm not going to disagree with that sentiment…

 

[NowInc]

There will never be enough supply of boxes to meet the demand. Since it's free, boorish guests will just leave their phones in the box for hours on end....

(Sort of like going into the laundry room, only to find wet clothes in the washers and dry clothes abandoned in the dryers; both waiting for the return of their lazy, rude and uncaring owners ).

I see this as a positive. FAR too many people bump into me while im walking around the parks because their noses are buried in their phones (or worse...tablets)

 

[note2001]

Wait for football season to start and we'll find dads hanging out at the boxes watching their streaming football becuase they were dragged to the park on a game day. The charger area will develop it's own sub culture.

Edit: doesn't have to be dads... I know a couple moms who would do this too.

 

[Mouse_Trap]

Both versions of the HTC One also have an integrated battery.

It seems to becoming the norm as there are some performance advantages to the integrated design.

I wasn't aware of any performance advantages of an integrated battery, although I know if can aide a designer in achieving a thinner device.

Apple has cynically made batteries even on laptops a sealed device so that they can exploit people through charging extortionate prices for replacement batteries or replacing the entire unit. Unfortunately some other manufactures have jumped on the bandwagon. Thankfully Samsung (at least in the main) have avoided, so have Blackberry and to my knowledge Sony.

I'm of two minds. It would be helpful to me (and others) as a consumer. On the other hand, I'm not big on government regulating standards on consumer products for reasons other than safety. If everybody had to use micro-USB, we would pretty much guarantee that the next advancement beyond micro-USB would be slow in coming.

I normally hate government intervention and hate EU intervention. However, in this specific case I think its a positive move. To update on this, I just read that the EU passed this legislation by and overwhelming majority (550/570 iirc) and that there is a 2 year grace period to allow for implementation with inforcement beginning in 2017.

The amount of needless electrical waste being produced is incredible, just because chargers aren't interoperable and you get new with each new device.

The EU have been quite pushy on 'green' targets.....things like no more than 50% of household waste to landfill by 2020. Occasionally they do have their use.

I'm less concerned about stiffling inovation as USB as been around for 20 years already, and it's only Apple who feel they need to be different. We have seen USB evolve significantly in this time whilst using the same connectors. Personally I would have liked to see a more robust plug than micro USB used for charging, buy hey that connector exists in USB already and the manufactures choose to use the smaller.

 

[flynnibus]

I wasn't aware of any performance advantages of an integrated battery, although I know if can aide a designer in achieving a thinner device.

I think it has more to do with the case design... in terms of what they can achieve and eliminate, etc. Especially with Apple moving to the unibody type of construction stuff

 

[Mouse_Trap]

I think it has more to do with the case design... in terms of what they can achieve and eliminate, etc. Especially with Apple moving to the unibody type of construction stuff

Agreed...I could have mentioned that also. Though Apple have to allow for a sim card to be inserted, and essentially the battery is just a (lot) bigger version. Other less profiteering companies also allow for a SD slot so that you don't pay $000,'s for something that should only got $10-15.

What I really meant though is that I can't think of any performance related advantages to have an non-removable battery, not for a cell phone battery anyway.

 

[G00fyDad]

I see this as a positive. FAR too many people bump into me while im walking around the parks because their noses are buried in their phones (or worse...tablets)

But to be honest, these are the same people that would have walked out of a store front onto MSUSA at full speed, slammed into you, then looked at you as if you had the problem. They're stupid, and you can't fix that.

 

[stEWSS]

Can't tell you how often I wish these existed everywhere.

I don't I wish that these existist in WDW hotels only

 

[Master Yoda]

I wasn't aware of any performance advantages of an integrated battery, although I know if can aide a designer in achieving a thinner device.

Apple has cynically made batteries even on laptops a sealed device so that they can exploit people through charging extortionate prices for replacement batteries or replacing the entire unit. Unfortunately some other manufactures have jumped on the bandwagon. Thankfully Samsung (at least in the main) have avoided, so have Blackberry and to my knowledge Sony.

The advantages are minor. They can be thinner because you do not have to put any of the protection to the outside of the battery required for a person to safely handle it. We are talking fractions of a millimeter, but when you are dealing with handsets as thin a 4-5 mm, fractions can add up quick. A manufacturer can either take the space savings, up the battery size and capacity or a combination of the two.

Placement of the batter also becomes easier. When the are integrated they can be put pretty much anywhere room allows. Not so much when they are removable.

Lastly, the electrical connection of a soldered in battery is much more durable and efficient than the contacts for a recoverable battery.

There is also the fact that most people do not keep a cell phone for long. The average is around 2 years and that number shrinks a little every year. Most batteries will outlive that life span making a removable one less necessary.

 

[lunchbox1175]

Maybe they will put a time limit on how long you can use a box, they do it for the rental lockers for Kali River Rapids I believe, although I am not sure how they enforce it.

 

[biggy H]

techcrunch.com/2014/04/07/storedots-bio-organic-battery-tech-can-charge-from-flat-to-full-in-30-seconds/Why not use something like this www.duracellpowermat.com/powermat/ ? They could in theory have them implemented in tables at resturants so you ca charge whilst eating ( with a timer to stop people spending all day just charging their phones).

Its not going be a problem if thistechcrunch.com/2014/04/07/storedots-bio-organic-battery-tech-can-charge-from-flat-to-full-in-30-seconds/ takes off.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Saw one of them today in the Tomorrowland arcade. Wasnt turned on yet.

 

[peachykeen]

They're "soft opening" today.

 

[dvitali]

But to be honest, these are the same people that would have walked out of a store front onto MSUSA at full speed, slammed into you, then looked at you as if you had the problem. They stupid, and you can't fix that.

or people who stop short in the middle of a intersection or in front of a store on the wrong side of the sidewalk to talk to some one very suddenly.

 

[PhotoDave219]

They're "soft opening" today.

Yeah, I'm not heading back until there are fewer crowds.

 

[Communicore]

Saw one of them today in the Tomorrowland arcade. Wasnt turned on yet.

Am I glad that it's in that building!!

 

[PhotoDave219]

Am I glad that it's in that building!!

Here's a photo from yesterday…

 

[flynnibus]

Here's a photo from yesterday…

wow.. very different from the system at DLR

 

[MickeyPeace]

Weird. Only charges the Zune and Nokia flip phones. We all know iPhones are just a fad anyways.

What's a Zune and who's Nokia?