Several months ago my company made the decision to no longer allow customers to plug their phone into our photo kiosks to print their photos, now they have to download a Kodak app which communicates via Wifi.   I certainly understand a customer being reluctant to install any app on their phone (especially an app that will constantly send them ads and so forth!) but I’m pretty sure that they would have to do the same at Walmart/Target and so on, so it’s up to them if they want to use ours.  They could of course download them to their PC at home and send them online if they choose, but if they’re in the store it’s the only way to do it.

What amazes me is how clueless a lot of people are about their phones.  The kiosk gives pretty clear instructions–download the app, open settings and connect via Wifi and it’s easy from there.  Well, to most people it’s easy.  But often I’m dealing with a customer who has a shiny new IPhone and they don’t even know how to download an app, or don’t even know their password for the Itunes store to get one!   (I’m also amazed how many people have phones with cracked screens.   Yes, it’s $100 for a new one, but either put your phone in a case or be more careful if you’re going to carry around a cracked phone forever.)   Then I have to wait for them to find “Settings” somewhere in the mess of icons they have scattered everywhere.

And if you’re going to store all of your photos on your phone for eternity, at least take some time to organize them somehow.  There’s nothing like standing around trying to help someone while they are scrolling through the 1,500 photos in their “Camera Roll” to find the 3 that they’d like to print today.

I know, I know, I’m a tech guy and am expecting too much from the general population but if you’re not going to download apps and use the full capability of the phone, why spend so much money on a good one?   Please join the 21st century with the rest of us.  That is all.