Friday, May 06, 2016

The sharing economy? There’s an app for that, whether you need it or not.

Today’s Pink Slip is a quick one. If you’re used to reading us over your coffee, today you’ll have time for something short of a full cup. Time only, perhaps, for a Danny Thomas spit take. (Google “Danny Thomas spit take” if you wanna see what I’m talking about.)

Preface out of the way, here’s today’s post-een.

There are apps for just about anything.Whether you need it or not. The latest to flash across my horizon is something called Battery Share. Here’s the description from the app store:

Get notifications when your friends are running low on power. Useful any time you don't want to lose touch with the people around you. It's good to know that you can touch base before their phone goes dead. An essential app for travelling with friends.

Essential for traveling with friends? I, personally, me-myself-and-I, have traveled with friends. And with family members, too. And I can honestly say that there has never been a New York minute when having to know whether my companion’s phone is dying has been essential. Perhaps this is just me.

Nonetheless, there now exists an app that will let you know if this is occurring.

Be assured, as scary as it sounds, you can’t just go out and invade somebody’s phone. They have to okay you’re getting in. Is it like ‘friending’ someone on FB? What’s the ask? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.

Here’s Phone Arena’s take on it.

If family and friends agree to follow your iPhone or iPad, the app also will alert them about your current battery level. This way, your friends will know if you're being a total ass by not responding to them, or if it is merely a case of a dead battery. Plenty of misunderstandings on both sides can be avoided by buying Battery Share. (Source: Phone Arena)

Ah, no more ‘can’t talk now’, no more line going dead with no warning and sitting there wondering ‘what up?’

I’ve been on plenty of dropped calls. Mostly one or the other of us walked or drove into a dead zone, or accidentally pressed a button we shouldn’t have. Then we have a bit of a back and forth. One person keeps talking while the person who realizes that the call has been dropped keeps frantically dialing. Eventually, all’s well and we reconnect. I’ve never been on the other end of a dead battery call. Would I have panicked and thought my friend or family member had run into trouble? And even if I had Battery Share, unless I’d been checking up on my friend or family member, how would I know for certain at this point that the battery was dead, and not the person I’d been talking to? How would they know if my battery – phone or full-body – had died.

There are plenty of things in life that are worth sharing. Battery Share is only $.99,but, seriously folks, is getting info on someone else’s battery life info one of them?

1 comment:

Frederick Wright said...

I think the purpose of a lot of these apps isn't necessarily to solve a pressing need or fill a vacant market niche. It is to get acquired by a large company. The bar is quite low for acquisition since large companies and VC are sitting on hordes of cash.