h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I just bought a new mobile today. They say when you buy a new mobile, you need to let the battery charge for a long long time. That if you only let it charge for a short time, you will never be able to charge it very well later on. That it kind of puts a roof on the charging.
Well, I've plugged it in here at work and it is charging. Can I unplug it and take it home and continue the charging at home and play around a bit with it? Or would that mean I would never get a very good charge out of it and I should leave it at work overnight charging. Or is it just all a myth?

That was the case when the majority of physically small rechargable batteries we Ni-Cad batteries. Modern mobile batteries use different technologies - NiMH and Li-Polymer - which have different charging characteristics. You should be able to take it home and finish the charging up there. There are probably circuits built into the phone that can check if the battery is charged properly and switch off the charging circuit when it's finished.

I agree - lithium ion batteries do not suffer from the memory effect.

I bought a new mobile a couple of weeks ago. In the shop, the assistant asked if I wanted her to swap my sim card into the new one. I replied that it was the office 24 hour emergency mobile so I better keep the sim card in the old one as I needed a charged up phone.

She said to me that it was standard practice these days to have new phones fully charged when they were delivered to the shop, and as they were switched off in storage, a new phone should be almost fully charged when you buy it. I don't know if this is standard practice everywhere, but it did mean that I could play with my new phone right away!

It's so tempting isn't it.

Oooh, yes! Mine has flashing lights all down the sides! I love it when people phone and it lights up like a ball at the bottom of my bag!! Very sad, but I actually look forward to having customer complaint calls on it now!!

Okay that is a bit over the top for me. The manual says nothing about the battery memory problem either.

And only now do I realize it doesn't have a USB port.

I don't think many phones have USB ports as such. In the case of Sony Ericcson's however, There should be a cable that connects to the multi-use port on the bottom of the phone. It is USB at the other end (computer end).

Yes it seems you can get a cable anyway. But I thought I could just have used the cable from my old phone. I wonder how much they will charge me for this special USB cable.

The USB cable for my Nokia cost £4.99 - but it's a £4.99 I consider well spent, as I can send texts from my PC at work using the computer keyboard rather than the phone's.

You'd be well advised to buy the cable over the internet rather than in a shop though - they'll probably charge you 3x as much in the shop. (Like they wanted to for my MMC...shop price: £45, internet price £17.99. Go figure)

RF

Dammit, what is that number that always just shows up as ? on my screen? Could you type out how much you paid for it?

"they'll probably charge you 3x as much in the shop. (Like they wanted to for my MMC...shop price: £45, internet price £17.99. Go figure)"

Many possible reasons for this. There isn't just one cable of any particular kind in existance. It may do the same thing, but if you buy a cable from, say Sony, then you will pay much more than a generic one. They've got a big brand to support and pay for. There will probably be many different suppliers in the UK alone, where a retailer can buy this cable from. All charging different amounts. Some may give the retailer the cables free as part of a 'buy something else from us, get this free' deal. That retailer can therefore charge less. Other retailers may only buy that one particular item in fairly small quantities, from the supplier, and might only pay a few pounds less for it than you do!

Also, don't get me started on that old chestnut- 'if the internet can do it so cheap, why can't the shops' There are numerous very very good reasons, but most revolve around the fact that a 12 year old in his bedroom, with £0zero overheads can sell on the internet, whilst a shop has to pay rent, wages, taxes, etc, etc etc, so just CAN'T sell as cheap, or anywhere near as cheap as the internet.

Also, many shops rely on accessories such as cables, to actually make a profit. Not so sure about phone shops- I know they make a loss on the phones, it's the contracts they make money from, but in the case of a camera shop- they literally only make a few pounds on some cameras, so rely on cards, cables etc, to actually keep them in business!

So whilst it's very tempting to buy everything on-line, unless you are happy with the prospect of a future whereby you can't handle goods before purchase and have no choice but to buy online- no shops left selling certain products (photographic shops are, for example dissapearing very fast), then it's no bad thing to support your local retailer.

Should also add, with regard to memory cards- the prices for these have, in some cases halved in a year, and are still fluctuating wildly. So it's not unexpected to find a shop that has older stock that it doesn't want to make a loss on. Ther are also many different suppliers of memory cards- some very dodgy. You might also have been comparing a MMC card with the higher quality SD cards, which look the same. (well MMC cards are slighly thinner)

Xanatic, it's not a number, it's the pound sign.

Winnoch, I bought the *exact same MMC* off the internet for almost 1/3 of the cost in the shop. They weren't selling old stock, as they didn't have any in the shop at the time, but told me that when they re-ordered it would cost £45.

And this isn't a small independent camera shop. It's a retail outlet for one of the maor mobile phone networks. Last time I looked, they weren't short of money. Maybe this is the reason why...?

RF

Went into a shop saturday, they say they want 40 euros for the USB cable.

Damn this new and smaller technology. I can't find my phone. Gonna have to get somebody to try and call it.

Deakie.... oooh, what phone do you have, sounds great!! Ok, so Im sad and the allure of brightly coloured flashing mobiles appeals to me!!

When I got my new one, I charged it and played with it at the same time but didn't charge it for the 16 hours they said... it doesn't hold charge very well at all... so maybe its not all a myth!? Maybe it's just my luck!

>> Went into a shop saturday, they say they want 40 euros for the USB cable. <<

Don't pay shop prices. Type "USB cable for " into Google.

RF

BEG, I have a Nokia 3220 - the white and blue one. When it rings, red green and yellow lights flash all down the sides in time to the tune!!! Bit sad, I know, but it's got a bit of 70's charm about it!