January/February 2017
“For Students, By Students”
After a hugely successful launch issue, here’s your next instalment of all things CCS. From technology issues to photography tips and Sports Award winners, we’ve got something for everyone. Looks like we’re here to stay…..!
SECOND
ISSUE!
Whole School celebrates
World Book Day! In other News: Photography Top Tips (what is the golden hour?!)
Samsung goes up in flames!
World Book Day
Sports Award
Winners
Editorial Page 2
Inside this issue:
2 Editorial
3 Photography Top Tips
Welcome back!
So, here’s your next issue!
Thanks for reading the first
issue, we’ve had lots of
positive feedback!
This issue features a new
regular ‘top tips’ section on
photography, so get
involved and send us your
pictures!
Remember, CCS Chronicle is for
students, by students—so we
need your input.
See you next time!
4 ‘Are Apple prices too high?
5 continued...
6 Samsung goes up in flames
7 continued...
Don’t forget, briefings are held every Monday lunchtime in C22 Email [email protected] for more details or to submit content for the next issue!
Competition Time! Deadline extended! We need a new logo for the student newspaper!
Hand in your entries to Mrs Vince The top 3 entries will be published in the next issue
and the winning design will become our logo!
8 In other news...
Photography Page 3
Reported by E. Delafield
Hello I am Eloise and my favourite hobby is photography, however it is
very difficult to get the perfect photo in the right place at the right time.
Well these tips and tricks will ensure that you will have the perfect photo!
Tips on how to get the best picture
With the golden hour :
Without the golden hour :
With this photo that I took in
the garden, I had to go outside
at the golden hour. What is the
golden hour you may ask ?
Well the golden hour is a
certain hour where the sun
hits the object, plant or thing
that you are taking a picture of
perfectly. If you don’t take the
picture at the golden hour then
the picture can sometimes
look dull and dark, like the
bottom photo.
More tips next time!
Are you keen on photography? Send us
your pictures! Try out the golden hour tip!
Are Apple prices too high? Page 4
I was recently looking through tech news and
noticed an article that caught my attention
more than any other did, most probably
because I could relate to it. The article
discussed the issue of cheap IPhone chargers.
The BBC reported that the Chartered Trading
Standards Institute (CTSI), a UK association
that represents trading standards, tested 400
substitute chargers for Apple products. Of the
400 chargers tested only three were sufficiently
insulated to protect against electric shocks, this
was a pass rate of below one percent.
I went browsing on the app store just to see
the types of accessories you cans buy and the
price ranges. I found some of the prices
ridiculously high, to say the least. There were
numerous add-on products for iPads and
Apple TVs. A Belkin stand for an Apple
pencil cost £20! In the description, it says that
its purpose is to hold the pencil and keep it at
an easy distance for use. It specifically states
that it does not even charge the Apple pencil!
For £20 and its purpose, I feel as though this
accessory is quite overpriced. Wouldn’t you
agree? Focusing on chargers specifically, a
lightening to USB cable costs £20 for a
1-metre cable (£30 for a 2-metre cable). The
USB power adaptor plug costs £20. Let’s say
someone wanted to buy a new adapter and
cable, let’s also say they would like to
purchase a 2-metre cable. Collectively both
items would cost around £50!! This is a lot of
money and it’s certainly not money everyone
has spare to spend on chargers.
Some say they use planned
obsolescence so that their products have
a limited life span and customers have to
purchase new items. There have been
notices that that as new software and
hardware come out, and updates to the
operating systems occur, the older
generation products start to fall apart and
start lagging. However even new
iPhones have this problem. They also
put new features on their products, which
mean you have to buy more add-ons.
For example with the new iPhones, you
have to buy a new adaptor since the
headphone jack ports are not on them.
In addition, the new MacBooks have
headphone jack ports and the iPhone 7
does not. This means you cannot plug
your iPhone 7 into the new MacBook
using Apple's iPhone charging cables;
you get dragged into spending
extortionate amounts on accessories to
make certain devices compatible with
each other. Some say it often feels like
Apple went backwards with their
innovations.
Reported by N. Ebulubu
In addition to all this, the price of getting an iPhone screen replaced and fixed by Apple could cost you up to £250 but going to a local kiosk will cost way less. However, there can also be problems with getting it fixed cheaply.
From an economic view, Yes Apple have to
make profits being a big company, however charging such prices will make people go to cheaper options and Apple could lose consume demand and hence lose some of their profit. Lowering prices and maybe selling things as a package that seem reasonable (for example, a charger plug and cable for around £15-£20) would make more people want to buy and therefore increase their profits.
Despite all that, Apple products do have many good features. To name a few, they have very high quality apps on the Appstore and offer a great user experience as they focus on the details of what they create. They have great privacy controls and an enhanced security system with the added touch ID. One of my friends has a music teacher who has said they prefer using Apple applications to edit music than any other option; Apple music provides an excellent quality of sound. With all its great features, some would argue that the prices are not too high at all.
Continued... Page 5
With all its great features, some would argue that the prices are not too high at all
Join the debate! Do you think Apple
products are worth the price?
Are you throwing your money away?!
Samsung goes up in flames…. Page 6
Reported by J. Legg
Samsung creates the world’s first Smartphone hand warmer... The aftermath of one of the biggest controversies of 2016 and the future
If you haven't heard already I am talking about
Samsung’s new handset called the
Galaxy Note 7 that caused quite a concern
when the batteries began to explode.
So why are they exploding and if you own one
how can you stop it becoming a pocket
rocket? Well the biggest factor is HEAT most
phones nowadays have Lithium ion batteries
that are highly reactive and very sensitive to
changes in heat and voltage. The phone in
particular has been exploding through these
two methods and usually modern handsets
are supposed to turn off if they get too hot and
prevent too much voltage being stored inside
the battery itself but in this case, not at all. The
best way to prevent this for any phone really is
to keep it relatively cool and don't leave it on
charge for extended amounts of time, e.g a
whole day.
Samsung achieved this feat of excellence by
using cheap suppliers that had less consistent
quality and different suppliers to meet the raw
demand and to keep buyer power. Its been a
horrible occurrence for them, the handset has
been banned in many countries for flights, its
been recalled TWICE and eventually
Samsung pulled the plug on the phone, killing
the brand along with it.
This fiasco is estimated to cost just under £14
Bn in lost reputation, lost sales and lost future
sales across all their products. But and this is
a strong but; unlike its competitors,
Samsung’s profits don't depend on a single
product. Samsung sells a lot of different things
and therefore is more resilient to this kind of
event until of course your TV explodes, then
they're really finished. A company such as
Apple would have been hit a lot harder by an
incident like this as their performance is
heavily dependent on the success of the
iPhone brand.
So What Does This Mean for the Smartphone
World?
I think personally this opens up a new avenue
for potential business, customers will now
have to concern themselves about the safety
of the devices they buy. Especially parents
who buy products for their children as gifts.
This generates a USP, so if a company like
Google was to incorporate “safer batteries”
into their brand new phone line, this would be
making the product unique against its
competition and with the current events, be
quite a powerful one.
Continued... Page 7
Customers will now be a lot more interested
in the features and components of new
handsets. Companies will have to try even
harder to squeeze new features out of a
heavily saturated market. Apple is a great
example of this as over the past 3 years they
have produced the same phone design with
very little change year on year simply
because the technology is plateauing. This
year Apple tried to woo customers over by
removing features while retaining the flagship
price a clear example that businesses will
literally try anything to retain their market
share.
As for Samsung, I don’t think many people
will be buying their phones for a while. No
amount of marketing and added value will
rejuvenate the brand for at least two years.
Although I don’t believe this would happen
again and you’d probably be safe too. It’s a
tough time ahead for Samsung and I’ll be
interested to see how this stirs up the market. Have you or someone
you know been affected by this? Let us know!
In other news...
Page 8
This year’s annual CCS Sports Awards celebrated some fantastic achievements! Here are just a few of the winners!
If you enjoy creative writing, why not send us something for the next issue? Get involved! Email contributions to: [email protected] See you next time!
Don’t forget to use your World Book Day token and enter the competition!