Photo by JAK courtesy of Creative Commons.
Lanee Jackson-Orange/Contributing writer
The start of the fall semester is a time for buying books and electronics, all of the things a college student needs for a successful semester. The holy grail of school supplies? Some students would say their iPhone.
And students look for cheaper alternatives to their iPhones and Apple accessories as they do their textbooks. However, for those looking to buy a third party USB power adapter, think again.
Mike Analco, a junior journalism student, said that he had an official Apple charger but lost it. He bought a third party charger from a gas station.
“It’s already almost breaking on me,” said Analco.
Apple, however, is now offering $10 phone chargers through Oct. 18 — a response to the death of a Chinese woman who was electrocuted after answering her iPhone that was plugged into a faux Apple adapter.
A similar story after this incident occurred in Beijing where a man was hospitalized after using an iPhone 4 while it was charging. Both of these incidents were caused by third party chargers.
Deepti Dumpana, a management information systems graduate student, prefers Apple chargers and said they are more reliable.
Unlike Apple adapters, which, according to its website, “meet government standards around the world,” many third party adapters are made with substandard parts.
Dr. Jean H. Andrian, assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, said that when inferior parts are used, the high voltage from the outlet gets transferred directly to the cell phone.
Maylin Gonzalez, a third year psychology major, purchased a third party car charger from eBay, but said she barely used it. She said that if she had a third party USB charger she would turn it into the Apple store.
“That way I wouldn’t have wasted my money,” Maylin says.
Analco is interested in the Apple program and plans to trade in his third party charger to save on a new Apple one.
Anyone can turn in their third party USB power adapters at their local Apple store for an official Apple adapter at the cost of $10. This is almost a 50 percent savings from the original price.
This takeback program is for all iPhone, iPod and iPad third party chargers. In order to take advantage of the savings, a customer must have at least one third party USB power adapter for one of the above devices, and the device for serial number purposes.
One device per adapter is required to buy the adapter at the discounted price. All third party adapters will be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way, according to the Apple website.
– news@fiusm.com
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