Delighted and excited to welcome our customers through the door, instead of the window 🙋♂️
For the past 13.5 months, we've been serving customers through our window. This kept everyone safe, and enabled us to continue operating as we bounced between lockdowns.
It feels good to take another step back towards normality.
We've made some changes to our store layout, and made the shop floor a bit smaller to give us some more working space behind the scenes to accommodate our growth over the past year.
We are currently cleaning, organising and getting our cabinets topped back up. Lots to do to get a shop up and running😅
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Most modern smartphones and devices support wireless charging ⚡️
It's nothing new - the first smartphone to support wireless charging was the Nokia Lumia 920; released in 2012. Samsung added wireless charging to their phones with the S6 in 2015, and Apple got involved in 2017 when they released the iPhone 8.
This is why smartphone manufacturers switched from aluminium to glass backs, as the charging signal cannot transmit through metal.
How does it work? The charging pad (base) is plugged into the mains with its own power supply. The pad has a transmitter coil, and the phone has a receiver coil. The charging pad uses inductive charging, whereby power is created by passing an electrical current through the two coils to create an electromagnetic field. This allows a magnetic field to produce electricity through oscillation, which generates an electrical current within the device. This current is then converted into direct current (DC), charges the battery.
Pros vs wired charging: - It's often more convenient to place your device on a pad than plug it in, especially in a car. - It's universal - you don't need to have the correct cable for your device, and one base can charge your phone, smartwatch and headphones. - Reduced charging port wear - a component that often degrades and is easily damaged
Cons vs wired charging: - Less energy efficient, so more power required - almost 50% more energy to charge a battery. - It's significantly slower; especially versus modern fast-charging cables. It takes 30-80% longer to fully charge a smartphone on a pad. - It's more difficult to use your phone whilst it's charging on a pad. - A pad is more expensive than a cable.
Your device will get quite warm on a pad, as it's less energy efficient, but there's no evidence that it causes any harm to the device or degrades the battery.
Wireless charging will continue to improve, and has big implications for the future of tech, especially with the continued adoption of electric vehicles. As for your phone and smartwatch, you can expect to see wireless charging everywhere soon - built into your car, in your desk, in cafes and on public transport 🔋
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See Our Blog for the latest industry news, tech tips, company updates, and anything else we feel like writing about.
We have expanded our online range of refurbished devices to include Huawei smartphones 👀
✔️ Premium quality devices at an affordable price ✔️ Carefully selected & thoroughly tested by our experienced team ✔️ 6-month warranty protection ✔️ Fast & free delivery ✔️ Over 14,000 devices sold and counting
Restrictions continue to be lifted, and people are clearly eager to get out and see people - even if it's just running errands.
That being said, demand for same-day local collection and delivery services is still high, because it's a very efficient and convenient way to check-off a task whilst supporting a local business.
It's evident that a large proportion of the workforce will continue to work from home and/or on more flexible hours. We think this is one aspect of the evolution and re-structuring of the economy that was inevitable, and simply expedited by the pandemic. This increased flexibility, coupled with a huge influx of small start-up ventures, seems to correlate with demand for flexible business services - such as same-day local delivery.
Many of our local businesses have implemented collection and delivery systems through necessity due to lockdown, but will continue to offer it because it's been so well received and appreciated by the community.
Now that the necessary systems for ordering, payment and logistics are in place, local independent business can maintain a key advantage in competing against large online retailers.
We've updated our system to operate by zones and towns, instead of distance. This keeps things a bit simpler. You can still book collection, return or both.
