Charge-up at a new kiosk
Written by Angie Hatch @ BYU
Angie Hatch is a reporter for The Daily Universe.
Held tightly in the hand or up to the ear of nearly every student is an essential item, a cell phone. But with days becoming increasingly more busy, it’s easy to forget to do the one essential thing to keep that phone going: charge it.
The BYU Bookstore is providing a new service for students to keep their phones charged and ready to go with a free cell phone charging station at the Northeast entrance to the Bookstore. Kiosk users can also download music content from a selection of close to 12 million songs. The kiosk is run by Softland International, an audio and video distributor.
Tony Nugent, a consultant to Softland in their digitial media kiosk program, said the kiosk is capable of charging 12 devices simultaneously and works with a variety of devices.
“The kiosk can charge 90 to 95 percent of the mobile devices currently on the market as well as several ‘legacy’ phones for those who take pride in holding onto their older models,” Nugent said in an email.
Nugent said BYU is the first university location Softland has placed their kiosks and they are excited to work with BYU in this unique endeavor. They believe it will be a great convenience for students.
“The kiosk gives students the opportunity to charge their devices for free while managing their busy schedules,” Nugent said. “I think we can all relate to when we’ve run out of battery power or forgotten our power cords at the worst possible time.”
Nugent said many students were excited about the new kiosk as they set it up on Thursday.
“Students were very curious about the kiosk,” Nugent said. “Some of the reactions from those who walked past were nods of approval, ‘Great idea,’ and ‘That’s really cool.’”
Frank Tovar, of the BYU Bookstore marketing department, said students can plug their phones in to one of the chargers then step to the side while it charges for however long they need it to.
“We just want to show off what bookstores can do as far as supporting students and providing for services that students need,” Tovar said.
In addition to charging phones and downloading music the kiosk also allows for visual signage and will be a spot for advertising and announcements.
Casey Woolley, video specialist in the creative services department, said the kiosk will also be used for advertising and announcements within the bookstore.
“It seems like a really nice idea,” Woolley said. “I’ve seen them in airports where they charge you to use it, so it’s nice that they have a free one. I’m a fan of it.”