SKOKIE, Ill., Oct. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Second Life Mac, the most experienced Apple device buyback company for schools and businesses, has struck a. Designed to Deliver. With more than 50 full-time employees in our 42,000 sq. Facility, we’re ready to take on projects at any scale. We understand that incredible customer service lies in attention to detail—especially in our own facility. Download the Windows or Mac viewer. About Second Life Viewer To explore, communicate, and connect in Second Life, you'll need to download our 3D browsing software, or what we call the SL Viewer. Download the latest version of Second Life for Mac. Start a new life online. Much more than a 3D chat, Second Life is the most significant virtual community. Firestorm is to Virtual Worlds what Firefox and Google Chrome are to the Internet. We develop and distribute an open source viewer for accessing Virtual Worlds.

SKOKIE, Ill., Oct. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Second Life Mac, the most experienced Apple device buyback company for schools and businesses, has struck a chord with schools anxious about refreshing digital learning fleets during the COVID-19 pandemic with the introduction of its Touchless Trade-in™ program. The availability of an automated, drive-through device collection program is responsible for the company winning three large contracts totally 67,000 devices. Click to tweet.

The contracts include:

• Kanawha County Schools in Charleston, W.Va., which refreshed 19,000 Apple iPads and MacBooks in May.
• Rowan-Salisbury School System in Salisbury, N.C., which refreshed 23,000 Apple iPads and MacBooks in September.
• Coachella Valley Unified School District in Thermal, Calif., which plans to refresh 25,000 Apple iPads in November.
  

“When schools were forced to close in March because of the pandemic, we knew that refreshing devices would be challenging for districts,” said Paula Currie, vice president of procurement for Second Life Mac. “We mobilized quickly to devise a safe way for digital learning devices to be collected from students and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Digital learning devices often are collected from students at the end of the school year, and every three years or so they are refreshed with new devices. Schools with Apple devices will often sell them to a buyback company to take advantage of the devices’ significant residual value.

With the pandemic, school administrators needed a safe and easy way to collect devices from students if they weren’t returning to classroom instruction, and provide them a new generation device. The logistics were difficult enough, and fears that devices or the collection process could transmit the virus complicated matters.

“For Coachella Valley USD, having a Touchless Trade-In program in the midst of a pandemic was crucial,” said Israel Oliveros, director of technology services for Coachella Valley Unified School District. “Our team evaluated many options and discovered that Second Life Mac was willing to partner with our school district to offer a solution that maintained the emphasis on keeping students and staff safe during the collection and deployment of iPads. Second Life Mac is definitely leading the way for device trade-in programs during a very challenging time in history.”

The Second Life Mac Touchless Trade-in™ process provides a way for students to return devices while maintaining social distancing and keeping device handling to a minimum. Students with school-owned devices receive a unique QR code via their iPads from Second Life Mac. On the day of the Touchless Trade-in™ event, students or parents drive up and show the QR code, which is scanned by a Second Life Mac representative wearing personal protective equipment. The QR code identifies the student and the device. The student’s name is then checked off a master list and the student places the old device on a conveyor belt, where it is received by a rep and placed in a box. New devices are handed out by another rep.

When the box of used devices is full, a representative from Second Life Mac seals it and sends it back to the company’s warehouse, where the devices are sanitized, all data is removed to Department of Defense standards, and devices are refurbished and resold via wholesale and retail channels. If a device cannot be refurbished, it is recycled with zero e-waste in landfills.

Although the Rowan-Salisbury School System didn’t use the Touchless Trade-in™ system, “it was comforting to know that Second Life Mac had a proven plan for collection if we needed it,” said David Blattner, chief technology officer at the district.

“Our goal in creating this program is to alleviate the fears that school administrators have in taking back devices that haven’t been sanitized,” said Currie. “This program eliminates the need for administrators to collect, inventory and package devices, so it reduces the risk of exposure for everyone involved.”

About Second Life Mac
Second Life Mac is disrupting the device buyback industry by coupling the best Apple lifecycle expertise with outstanding customer service, start to finish custody of devices, and the most transparent process. The used devices Second Life Mac procures from schools and businesses are refurbished, data is securely erased to Department of Defense standards, and they are resold via wholesale and retail channels. Headquartered in Skokie, Ill., the company is an Entrepreneur 360 winner, and has been awarded for its innovation by EdTech Digest and Tech & Learning. More information is available at www.secondlifemac.com or on Twitter @SecondLifeMac.

For information contact:

Linda Muskin, 847-432-7300
lmuskin@teamclarus.com

Mara Conklin, 847-816-9411
mconklin@teamclarus.com

Second Life Viewers For Mac