As we sit beside the fire on Christmas Morning, surrounded by our loved-ones, heart filled with festive joy & stomach brimming with stodgy, gleeful goodness; we take a moment to focus our attention on what really matters; presents. Don’t have any regrets this Christmas. Get your last minute shopping done with peace of mind; Free Next Day Delivery on our Quality Refurbished Phones.
Holiday Hours For those who haven’t seen & that are local to us, our Christmas Opening Times are as follows:
A look back on 2015 Whilst it feels like just yesterday we were opening up after our New Year’s break, another year does seem to have passed us by. Supposedly, the years seem to go by quicker as we grow older because each year-long period accounts for a smaller proportion of our overall life-span. That being said, 2015 seems to have flown by at an exponential rate compared with years gone by; perhaps due to the summer-winter (mostly winter) blend that we’ve experienced this year in the UK. Either way, today is the shortest day of the year, which means the days will now start getting longer & evening journeys home will start getting lighter.
In 2015 we continued to expand our empire throughout Europe, attending meetings in both the Czech Republic & Poland as well as meeting with representatives of many other countries. We have also been fortunate enough to work closely with the UK Department of Trade & Industry and their Export programme. This has opened us up to new opportunities in the domestic & foreign marketplace. In addition to this, we created a new website from scratch. The new layout is much better-suited to our current business pursuits. Nevertheless, we were sad to say goodbye to our .co.uk domain of almost 20 years, but excited to see the crisp and shiny .com at the end of our address. Lastly, Towards the back end of the year we expanded our product portfolio by way of New Products. Brand new iPhones & iPads have proven to be very popular and have supplemented our refurbished range nicely.
Technology Continues to Evolve 2015; the year of the Wood Sheep (or Goat), has seen greater than ever advances in the world of technology. The first thing that would come to mind for us would be the new smartphones that were released this year. The highlights of which were the Samsung Galaxy S6 & S6 Edge, iPhone 6S & 6S Plus, LG G4, Sony Xperia Z5 and HTC One M9.
We’ve also seen leaps forward in the Tablet market. The launch of the iPad Pro in Autumn saw Apple launch their most powerful device yet; with 4GB of Ram, an A9X processer and flawless 12.9-inch screen, Apple offer a nearly-complete alternative to using a laptop. Microsoft did continue to advance their Surface Pro range; most recently with the Surface Pro 4; which when paired with a keyboard makes for as close a substitute for your laptop as you’ll find, Boasting up to 16GB of RAM & 128GB storage. The trade-off is of course the price tag & somewhat poor battery life.
Competition has become steeper than ever, with the market somewhat saturated by tablets competing fiercely with one another. New products such as the Nexus 9, Xperia Z4 Tab and Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 each offer different benefits to the user, thus meaning Apple and Microsoft have had to, and will continue to have to, innovate and improve their tablets.
Consumer technology has also made a splash through Smart Watches/Wearable Tech, 8K TV’s and more, whilst 3D printing & flying drones have made rapid advancements in 2015. It’s only a matter of time before this tech can be utilised at a much more affordable price.
Preview of 2016 2016 will be the year of Talkback Comms. Plans have been made to visit various exhibitions and explore more export opportunities; the first of which will be a trip to Sunny Spain; Barcelona in February! We are also looking to build on 2015, by expanding our product range & continuing to sell new & used phones and tablets. We’re very excited to meet with new sponsor, Paco Castagna, at the start of the speedway season. Read about our new deal. And as always we’ll be looking to provide great products along with the best possible customer service as well as fast turnaround at the best price.
What Will 2016 Bring? 2016 will be a leap year starting on Friday. In 2016, a Trace Gas Orbiter for Mars will be launched, a transit of mercury will occur, a NASA spacecraft will land on Jupiter, a presidential election will be held in the US, the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Euro 2016 will be played in France, and the remaining American, British & Australian troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan.
Amongst self-driving cars, wearable technology & complex Star Wars merchandise, we’ll be eagerly anticipating the release of the iPhone 7, Galaxy S7, LG G5, HTC One M10, Nexus 6 and many more, all of which look set to bring better displays, faster processers and longer battery life.
Happy Holidays The Talkback Team would like to wish all our readers & customers a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. We hope you enjoy your break & look forward to hearing from you soon.
It more recently came to our attention that each and every one of our customers has different preferences when it comes to buying a phone. Every person values certain things differently. For this reason, we now offer more options to our customers so that they can make the purchase that’s best for them.
Product Variants We display a base price for all of our devices. This is the absolute lowest price that the product can be purchased for at that particular date. For example, see the Refurbished iPhone 5 16GB listing:
This product starts at £149. This price includes the following: - Pre-Owned iPhone 5 16GB, Unlocked, Grade C Condition, with a new battery fitted - Standard Presentation Box - Lighting USB Cable - Clear Bumper Case - 6 Months Warranty
From here, we offer additional items & add-ons. First off, Condition. A grade C device will show signs of wear, such as scratches & scuffs round the back panel, mid-frame and screen. A grade B device will show very minor signs of wear, such as light scratches on the back panel. A grade A device however, is a fully refurbished handset that has little to no signs of wear and no damage. The price of the handset increases in £20 increments (PIC)
Our standard presentation is perfect for keeping the iPhone, but we also offer full Apple boxes for an additional £20. These boxes will also contain a plug, USB Cable & generic headphones as appose to the standard box which will only contain a USB Cable. The Apple box is perfect for presenting the device as a gift.
Our 6 month warranty covers all manufacturing defects during this period. The warranty is voided if the device is physically damaged or liquid damaged. Whilst we give 6 months warranty as standard on our devices we offer a 12 month extended warranty for extra peace of mind at a cost of just £25. Perfect if you’d prefer the extra 6 months cover.
Each of our devices will be supplied with a clear bumper case to offer additional protection against damage. However, if you purchase a phone from us in-store, you can choose a case from our selection and have a tempered glass screen protector fitted to the screen for just £10. (Please note that this option is not available for our online customers)
Remember that all of our Brand New Devices are a standard price with no variants and include 12 months warranty with the manufacturer.
Choosing a Grade It may be difficult to decide on which condition to choose when buying a phone. Our grading process is based entirely on the cosmetic condition of the phone, as they are all fully tested and in full working order before being listed for sale. We clean and inspect the phone after testing in order to assess which grade to assign it. Grade C is perfect if you’re looking to make a big saving and not too concerned with condition of the phone. Grade A is suitable if you’re looking for a pristine device whilst still making a great saving against buying new. The Grade B device sits between the two in terms of both quality and price, perhaps making it the best value option for most; seeing as it is our best seller year-on-year.
Stocks & Stockings We carry all of our devices in stock, in each colour, capacity and condition throughout the year. It is possible however that certain products will not be available at certain times depending on deliveries, demand & sales. If this is the case, then we would be happy to contact you once we have that particular device in stock & reserve one for you. With New & Refurbished iPhones proving to be very popular during the lead-up to Christmas, we will not be able to fully replenish all stocks until January.
Afterword It has been a fantastic month for us so far, in which we have seen record sales on our Brand New devices in the UK, France & Spain and agreed a sponsorship deal with racer Paco Castagna which you can read about here. We thank all of our customers that have helped make this such a fantastic month so far.
As always; keep up to date on Facebook & Twitter, and we’ll see you again soon.
After a very busy start to December, we have an exciting announcement to make. A sponsorship deal has been agreed with rising Speedway star Paco Castagna.
Our History in Speedway Speedway has always been an integral part of the business. It started with premier league team, the Newport Wasps (aka that Talkback Wasps) back in the 90’s & later with the Reading Racers. Having established connections and built sponsorship deals with these teams, we were fortunate enough to begin working with riders such as Grand Prix legend Leigh Adams, Reading Captain & current Grand Prix Race Director Phil Morris and 12x Italian Champion Amando Castagna (Paco’s Dad).
A Brief Overview Looking to follow in his father’s footsteps, Paco is a young speedway talent, aged 21, from Arzignano, Italy. Last year, he signed for Sheffield Tigers and had a great debut season in which he scored lots of points to help secure his team 5th place in the league. Paco is 4 times under 21 Italian champion, races in the Italian championship and has represented Italy in the prestigious Speedway World Cup.
Castagna’s Plans After a solid first season in the English Premier league, Paco was signed by the Ipswich Witches for the 2016 season. The Witches will be tough to beat in 2016 with a very strong team; including Paco’s fellow countryman Nico Covatti and British World Cup star Danny King. The hectic life of many top speedway riders is no secret; what with having to race in Britain, Sweden & Poland all in one week throughout the season. Whilst Paco doesn’t yet have to deal with Swedish & Polish Leagues, he will be very busy racing for Ipswich twice per week in locations such as Edinburgh, Plymouth & Somerset. (We’ll be attending the Somerset meetings for sure). In addition to this, he’ll be racing in the Italian individual championship, World & European qualifying rounds, International open meetings & domestic tournaments. Paco's hardworking and ambitious nature means we are expecting to see him progress far in the sport.
Playing our Part We’re looking forward to meeting up with Paco when the UK season gets underway in Spring and again in Prague where we will be attending the Czech Republic GP. So far, we have agreed to supply him with some new Mobile Phones. It’s going to be a long & challenging season and we’re looking forward to helping Paco progress.
After what was a record-breaking Black Friday Weekend, we took some time to address the most common issues that affect our customers & phone users worldwide, the most apparent of which is inadequate battery life. So that’s the first issue we’ll be tackling in this post.
How Batteries Work Lithium-Ion batteries are the rechargeable-power source of choice for mobile phones, tablets & laptops. This is because the electrodes within the battery are composed of Lithium & Carbon; meaning the battery can remain very light. In addition to this, Lithium has an extremely high energy density; 50% more so than an everyday nickel-metal hydride battery & 600% more than a lead acid battery. The Lithium-Ion battery can also be recharged at any point, whereas other battery-types may need to be discharged fully before being recharged. They can handle hundreds of charge/discharge cycles at a time & hold their charge for a much longer period than any other. Aside from this, there are some drawbacks to the Lithium-Ion battery. Firstly, they are expensive to manufacture because of the mini-computer inside that has to manage the batteries actions. In addition to this they will only last two to three years from the point of manufacture before they begin to expire. Lastly of course, as we’ve been unfortunate enough to experience ourselves, there is a very small chance that these batteries can explode into flames. Be assured that this is a very rare occurrence that is often recognised as a manufacturing defect and amended before reaching the end consumer and spontaneously combusting in a heap of flames.
How to optimise your battery life First of all, your old Nokia battery from 1997 still has 43% battery because the phone demands such little power on standby, not because the battery was so good! Believe it or not, modern smartphone batteries are much more powerful, but simply have so much more demand to cope with. With that being said, here’s some tips on making use of what you’ve got:
- Turn the screen brightness down. The stunning display on modern mobile phones consume more battery power than anything else. Using an auto-brightness tool or simply turning the screen brightness down when you’re using the phone will have a dramatic effect on battery life. Also, this may sound obvious, but lock the screen when you’re not using your phone.
- Turn off your Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Location, & Mobile Data. When you’re connecting your phone up to your car, you’ll need Bluetooth, but for the remaining 23 hours of the day, your phone will continue to search for external signals to connect to. The same principal applies to Wi-Fi, Location & Mobile Data. Most devices have a setting which enables the user to set the accuracy of their location tracking. Utilise this feature to stay on track when on a journey (high accuracy), but not drain the battery throughout the day (low accuracy). You’ll be amazed at the extra lease of life your phone gains from simply turning off what you’re not using! IOS Devices have a control panel with all these features on that can be accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. Android Devices have this at the top – and can be added to the bottom in most cases.
- Clear you app history. Applications can continue to run in the background, this puts a strain on the battery. To do this on IOS, double tap the home button and clear the applications. On Android, you’ll either hold the home button or use the multi-tasking button.
- Don’t use non-genuine plugs or car chargers. The use of non-genuine & inappropriate plugs that are not optimised to charge your phones battery are not only dangerous, but damage your battery in the long term. Whilst in theory, modern smartphones should simply take in what they need, we’ve seen for ourselves that this isn’t the case, for whatever reason. If you need to charge your phone when you’re out and about, the use of a car charger is fine, but most car chargers continue to try & pump the battery full of power long-after reaching 100%, which cooks the battery. So use it as and when to top up the battery.
- The optimum charging cycle for your phone would be from 40%-80%, though this is by no means essential.
Don’t forget that a lot of phones have a built-in battery management that lets you see how your device is using your precious battery power.
Future Technology Mobile Phone manufacturers & large technology companies such as Dyson are constantly investing millions of dollars in the form of Research & Development into developing better, longer-lasting batteries. The latest breakthrough in the battery world is the use of Graphene. Graphene is a very effective conductor that’s extremely strong, thin & flexible. However, it is very expensive to produce, but researchers are now making progress in producing graphene more easily with the use of copper foils. It seems that the technology is readily available (or at least on its way), and it’s just a case of manufacturing it on a large scale at a price that’s viable to the end consumer. New technologies such as the Lumopack, which can charge a phone in just 6 minutes, will also be of convenience to smartphone users in the very near future.
Battery Replacements Most mobile phones’ batteries will start to diminish after two to three years. Because of this, all of our Refurbished Phones have new batteries fitted before being sent out, so check out our Used & Refurbished iPhones so that you can make a great saving without losing out on battery life. We also replace batteries. Remember that we’re an iTechnican approved repair centre that replace phone batteries every day. For example, we’ll fit a genuine battery to your iPhone within the hour for just £29.99. See our mobile phone repairs here.
Take care of your battery, and thanks for reading, Talkback Team
What with just one week until Black Friday and just over a month until Christmas, we expect to see shops slashing prices and goods flying out the doors as usual, and none more so than in the technology industry where savings of £50+ will be made on tablets, TV’s & more. Its estimated that last year, The Black Friday & Cyber Monday periods saw household & technology sales quadruple; yes literally four times as many household & technology products than usual were sold on these days.
Whilst we probably most associate Black Friday with the idea of hundreds of people crawling up and down aisle after aisle of large department stores, it appears that more and more people are taking advantage of online shopping to satisfy their bargain-hunting temperament; with over a quarter of total spending during this period occurring online.
Why this Friday in particular? Black Friday is typically an American ‘holiday’, as it occurs the day after thanksgiving, where most people will consequently take the following day off; seemingly to go shopping. The massive footfall during this period led to businesses fiercely competing for sales by slashing prices, opening at 4AM and so on. This whole occasion got its official title back in 1961 in Philadelphia, USA. This day not surprisingly ties in with many peoples pre-Christmas pay cheques, & suggests that a majority of the population uses this period to do their Christmas shopping, which perhaps helps explain why this trend now occurs worldwide where thanksgiving does not exist. Cyber Monday did not come into existence until 2005, and was merely a marketing term used to encourage consumers to shop online. This of course worked, as online businesses promoted their products & cut their prices, leading to what is now the single biggest day of the year for online shopping in terms of number of sales and total money spent.
So where to be next Friday… Well of course you can expect to see some great deals on our New, Used & Refurbished iPhones, iPads, & Mobile Phones. Expect to see £100 savings on our Refurbished iPhones in great condition versus buying new. You can keep up to date with most of our prices on our website, in particular when you’re looking to buy a premium quality, used & refurbished iPhone or iPad at the lowest possible price. The perfect gift for Christmas. Browse our Pre-Owned Apple devices here: http://talkbackcomms.com/collections/buy-a-phone. And remember, as always that if you do go out and inevitably drop your phone during the stampede of keen shoppers, that you can visit us or send us your device for repair. See our repairs here: http://talkbackcomms.com/pages/repairs-services
However you decide to spend the coming weekend, we wish you the best, thanks for reading, Talkback Team
