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- Use your personal device to connect to LinkNYC’s super fast, free Wi-Fi - Access city services, maps and directions from the tablet - Make free phone calls

by rob74 4y ago

- Use your personal device to connect to LinkNYC’s super fast, free Wi-Fi - Access city services, maps and directions from the tablet - Make free phone calls to anywhere in the U.S. using the tablet or the tactile keypad and microphone. Plug in your personal headphones for more privacy. - Use the dedicated red 911 button in the event of an emergency - Charge your device in a power-only USB port [...] Sounds cool! Wish we had terminals like these in Germany. Here, they just remove the pay phones, period.

actionablefiber 4y ago
I imagine that these could be useful to tourists who don't have a local phone plan, and the free Wi-Fi / USB charging / scrolling information bulletins are definitely useful, but I feel like this program came about 5-10 years too late for them to really shine now that a lot of people have smartphones with generous/unlimited data plans and don't necessarily need a kiosk for points 1-4. From 2010-2017 or so, unlimited data plans were some combination of rare/slow/expensive, and especially in the early 2010s smartphones had a lot less penetration. I imagine these terminals would have been life-savers back then.
itisit 4y ago
In reality, they're: - monolithic eyesores that take up precious sidewalk space - yet another bright display running advertisements 24/7 - charging stations for the homeless to use and loiter around Poor execution of a good idea. I smile whenever I walk by one that has been vandalized.
- colejohnson66 4y ago
  > monolithic eyesores that take up precious sidewalk space To be fair, so were the pay phones they replaced. NYC just doesn't have enough sidewalk space in a lot of areas.
- tentacleuno 4y ago
  > - charging stations for the homeless to use Isn't that a good thing?
bogomipz 4y ago
But this limited utility comes at a cost of being inundated by billboards. In NYC there is often 4 per single block - 2 on each side of the street. I don't believe there was a 1 for 1 replacement with the old kiosks, they seem to be far more pervasive than pay phones ever were. There's also a 5G version being introduced that is far more obtrusive than the original design. See pages 15, 16 and and 37 here: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/designcommission/downloads/pdf/10-18-2021-pres-DoITT-p-Link-5G.pdf https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/designcommission/downloads/pdf/1...

by rob74 4y ago

actionablefiber 4y ago

I imagine that these could be useful to tourists who don't have a local phone plan, and the free Wi-Fi / USB charging / scrolling information bulletins are definitely useful, but I feel like this program came about 5-10 years too late for them to really shine now that a lot of people have smartphones with generous/unlimited data plans and don't necessarily need a kiosk for points 1-4. From 2010-2017 or so, unlimited data plans were some combination of rare/slow/expensive, and especially in the early 2010s smartphones had a lot less penetration. I imagine these terminals would have been life-savers back then.

itisit 4y ago

In reality, they're: - monolithic eyesores that take up precious sidewalk space - yet another bright display running advertisements 24/7 - charging stations for the homeless to use and loiter around Poor execution of a good idea. I smile whenever I walk by one that has been vandalized.

colejohnson66 4y ago
> monolithic eyesores that take up precious sidewalk space To be fair, so were the pay phones they replaced. NYC just doesn't have enough sidewalk space in a lot of areas.
tentacleuno 4y ago
> - charging stations for the homeless to use Isn't that a good thing?

bogomipz 4y ago

But this limited utility comes at a cost of being inundated by billboards. In NYC there is often 4 per single block - 2 on each side of the street. I don't believe there was a 1 for 1 replacement with the old kiosks, they seem to be far more pervasive than pay phones ever were. There's also a 5G version being introduced that is far more obtrusive than the original design. See pages 15, 16 and and 37 here: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/designcommission/downloads/pdf/10-18-2021-pres-DoITT-p-Link-5G.pdf https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/designcommission/downloads/pdf/1...