Never before in the field of trefor.net blogging have I devoted such a large header photo to a post. According to Scott, my style guru and graphic designer the header is meant to be quite thin giving a tantalising glimpse of what lies within and tempting people to either click to see a bigger image or read the post below.
This one is almost three times the normal size!!! The subject merits the attention for on my way to an ITSPA meeting in a taxi this morning I saw a vision. In this vision Vodafone loomed large and loud and in my face. Well at my elbow actually because sat in that London taxi my eyes fell upon a mobile phone charging point compatible with multiple phone types.
Wow! Cool! So good I could envisage people asking the taxi driver to drive round the block a couple of times to give their phone more time to charge.
The taxi driver gets a few quid a month for hosting the “service”. Vodafone gets great publicity and feelgood factor. They made me think what a great bit of PR. Whoever thought of this in Vodafone’s marketing department deserves a bonus.I will seek them out
Well done Vodafone.
5 replies on “what price a taxi? – charge what you like courtesy of Vodafone”
wonder how many forget to unplug the phone when they dash off to catch the train or get into work? I know I would. But agree, great idea!
Since the charging interface in many phones is also a data interface I wonder how hard it would be to hack the phones put in there to charge…
Good point Blessing! Most of these phones will be an easy target for hacking. But correct me if I’m wrong, the Iphone (at least the 4) won’t allow you to sync if the screen is locked, so it will only be restricted to charging – which would be cool. Trouble is, people will tend to use the phone while it’s charging, thereby unlocking (and potentially) exposing it.
Still, a brilliant idea from Vodafone!
By the way, when is the univesal charger thingy kicking in?
Yes, it’s already an issue, James (see http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/08/beware-of-juice-jacking/). No reason not to have chargers in cabs though IMO. People just need to be aware – as with card-skimming devices attached to cashpoints and point-of-sale machines – what to look out for (bulging wires, makeshift-looking protruberences, etc – although some can appear very professional). Perhaps operators should display a photo of what the charge point should look like and instruct potential users not to attach their device and to call a hotline number if the charge point doesn’t look exactly like the picture. Better, this should be displayed on the LCD advertising screen now common in black cabs so the hacker couldn’t overlay the original photo with a doctored version showing the hacked equipment.
…oh, and fit the things with anti-tamper mechanisms too.