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Samsung is Setting Up Note 7 Exchange Booths at Airports Around the World (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Samsung is setting up Galaxy Note 7 exchange booths in airports around the world, hoping to stop customers taking the dangerous device onto flights at the last minute. The first of these new "customer service points" appear to have been introduced in South Korean airports, but Samsung has confirmed the booths are opening in airports across Australia, with reports of the desks appearing in the US as well. The booths are located in "high-traffic terminals" before security screening, says Samsung, and allow Note 7 owners to swap their phone for an unspecified exchange device. According to a report from ABC7News in San Francisco -- where a Samsung exchange desk has appeared at the city's international airport -- employees for the tech company are on hand to help customers transfer their data onto a new phone.
This way a lot of people will just accept the ease of quickly getting a Samsung replacement, and not wander off and buy another brand.
and how safe will the storage bin be for the old phones?
Well the airplane may not go down in flames but we can take out an full airport when the stack of old phones goes up in flames hell the phone to phone copy may just be what triggers one phone and then rest fall like dominos.
Time to stop super thin phones and fixed batteries.
What is so hard about making it so you can swap the battery out?
The problem with interchangeable batteries is that you lose some of the water-tight seal (not to mention the lock on the customers).
This may be the most moronic post I have read on Slashdot today. I know you were going for first post (and failed), but for the love of God, don't sound like an utter moron when doing so.
While not a direct statement to what Samsung is going through, I do hope that the costs of:
is enough to make them look closer at what design stupidity they tried to get away with and stop with their nonsense. The consensus on Slashdot and other tech sites I visit seems to be "Give me a phone that I'm not afraid is going to break and goes longer than 8 hours between charges", neither of which are easily done with this race to paper-thin.
Samsung, take note. People like replaceable batteries. They like slightly thicker, stronger phones that don't feel like they are going to snap in half when you take them out of your pocket. People like being able to take their phone through an entire day of whatever, without worrying about recharging in the middle. You guys have the 10nm fab going, start getting better batteries and working on energy efficient phones. I don't care if a web site takes 0.05 seconds longer to load, I'd probably blame my cell providers network anyway.
When you can create a design with a user-replaceable battery that is equal or better than a fixed battery phone for all of the following:
1. Weight
2. Thickness
3. Battery life
4. Waterproofness
5. Cover never falls off
6. Battery itself is sufficiently armored so as to be safe in an average hand bag or pocket
then patent the design & retire comfortably.
Until then, it’s hard. Stop playing armchair phone designer & materials scientist.
while most service kiosks tend to blend in with their surroundings at major airports, the Samsung kiosks are refreshingly easy to locate. Just follow the acrid white smoke, blinding light, and searing heat. if you see a cinnabon, or the local fire department, youve passed it.
Good people go to bed earlier.
What is so hard about making it so you can swap the battery out?
Let it go. User replaceable batteries aren't coming back any time soon for most smartphones. That battle is lost.
What is so hard about making it so you can swap the battery out?
Off the top of my head, it's more expensive, make quality control more difficult, it requires the handset maker to allow third party batteries possibly of dubious quality, it is more difficult to make water and dust proof, very few users actually swap their batteries, it doesn't solve problems of bad control electronics, it makes the phones thicker, it makes the phones uglier, and it it doesn't provide any performance benefit to most users.
There are advantages to user swappable batteries too of course but there are a lot of genuine problems with them too including but not limited to the ones above. I have to admit that I think that of the multiple cell phones I've owned that did have user swappable batteries I think I might have done that once over a space of 10 years. Hard to justify a feature that never gets used by most people.
There's nothing about having a user replaceable battery that makes it impossible to have a water tight seal. Every digital watch I've had for the past 30 years has been waterproof and has had a user replaceable battery. My GPS unit takes regular AA batteries and is also very waterproof.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
You just described the Samsung Galaxy S5.
Samsung, take note. People like replaceable batteries.
A few geeks like replaceable batteries. Most people don't give them a moment's thought and never swapped them even when it was an option. Furthermore there are both advantages and disadvantages to swappable batteries. It's not a simple equation and the economics of them from the handset's perspective clearly favor sealed batteries. I like swappable batteries too but they aren't something most people give a crap about and they aren't likely to come back any time soon.
People keep mentioning user swappable batteries as if that would have solved this problem. Folks, if it was as simple as sourcing a new battery it would have been fixed already. If the control electronics are defective you can destroy a phone even with a perfectly good battery. Most likely that is what is happening here.
Let's see, 1 and 2 are distractions because half the outrage about phones (on Slashdot at least) is that they are too fragile, thicker heavier construction would improve this.
3 is inevitable because even if initial battery life is only 90% that of a fixed battery, replacement batteries result in such a device still having 80-90% of a theoretical fixed battery solution when the actual fixed battery device has been worn to a 40% charge capacity.
4 is a fairly new development in phones, but if you can make a waterproof charging cable port, you can make a waterproof battery slot. The challenges are barely different.
5 has been solved in cameras, laptops, personal portable recreational devices, and even old phones.
6 is not that hard, it just increases bulk slightly, which when we look back at how things are already too thin and frail, that will be a net improvement again.
A phone with a stuck stylus and no SD, and and now a burning one.
Just whip up a new phone throw it over the fence with no QA testing. Are they going to be surprised when Huawei takes it away from them?
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
... and that's how you convince phone makers to give you the phone you want. You buy the one that you like, not the new shiny object.
Don't worry - they'll store it with all the caution and security that is afforded to liquid filled bottles of greater than 3 oz which could be high explosives at the airport.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
This way Samsung might be able to mitigate a large amount of liability if one of their phones sets an airplane on fire, by saying the consumer walked right past an upgrade station.
You just described the iPhone 7.
Encourage users to bring explosive phones to airports and commit a federal crime!
Please hand your Samsung Note 7 to the technician at the counter.
Have gnu, will travel.
The only even remotely challenging item there is thickness.
If 1mm of thickness is worth owning a device more or less guaranteed to fail after 3-4 years, you've got some issues my friend.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
So passengers should bring their explosive cell phones directly to the airport? I feel safer already.
Keep popping up.
Quite happy with my Galaxy Note 3 as well, though I really wish they would at least update the OS to Marshmallow, so I can tell the Facebook/Messenger Apps where they can shove their request for my location.
People keep saying that the iPhone 7 is the competition to the Galaxy Note 7... I think people don't understand what the "Note" part of the name refers to. Here's a hint, something none of the iPhones do.
Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon what's the difference? All steal money from devs and control with walled gardens.
Let's take a moment and look at a company that is really doing right. I've been incredibly impressed with the way that Samsung has handled this situation, given the amount it will cost them. The vast majority of companies (e.g., Toyota brake systems, Apple iPhone batteries, XBox power issues) would continully deny the existence of a problem right up until the recall and then do the absolute minimum necessary. The fact that Samsung is going above and beyond what it would take to limit their liability should be lauded.
Fast Federal Court and I.T.C. updates
I don't believe it for a second. fads come and go. when people hunger for more talk-time and less 'omg, gotta go charge my phone!' they will be voting with their dollars and any vendor making swappable battery phones will get their business.
The handset makers could easily double or more the battery life by making the battery in the phone bigger. They also can sell you a USB external battery pack that serves exactly the same purpose as swapping the battery. Why would any of the big handset makers bother with the numerous problems of swappable batteries when they can simply put a better or bigger battery into the phone or get you to buy an external battery pack that accomplishes exactly the same goal? Swappable batteries will not come in to the picture in the near future if ever.
Your notion that there will be widespread consumer demand for user swappable batteries is belied by the fact that most people didn't do it even when it was an option. The phone makers have literally decades of data about how people used their phones and they have a very clear idea of what people use and what they care about. YOU may want to be able to change batteries but most people very clearly don't give a damn and frankly who the hell wants to lug around a lot of extra batteries all the time? You can get external battery cases, charge packs, and power outlets are damn near everywhere. Being able to pull the battery out of the back of the phone only helps in some rather uncommon corner cases.
Speaking for myself I'd rather carry an external battery pack and a charge cable. Solves pretty much every circumstance where swapping the battery might be helpful AND I don't need to shut the phone down to use either one. Plus since both the cable and battery pack have standard interfaces I can use them for multiple purposes rather than carrying a battery that only fits in one device. Maybe I want to charge my tablet or a bluetooth speaker or a smartwatch. Can't do that with a swappable battery but I can do it with an external battery pack and a charge cable.
the swappable battery will be back.
Possible but unlikely. Like I said it won't be anytime soon and especially not any time soon in mass market phones.
A few geeks like replaceable batteries. ... I like swappable batteries too but they aren't something most people give a crap about and they aren't likely to come back any time soon.
For some they are a necessity. My wife brought along a single extra battery when hiking the Appalachian Trail, stopping at a hostel every 4-5 days for a shower and battery charge. This sufficed when the phone was on airplane mode most of the time - indeed most of the time the backup battery was not deployed between stops, but the security of knowing you always had battery life available was a big deal. (No, the plug-in battery rechargers would not work - they weigh 9-14 oz vs 1 oz for a replacement battery: weight is a very big deal for a 110 lb woman who is going to carry it 2100 miles...)