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Besides, a lot of electronic equipment can run off DC. Why should you invert the power, then run it through a rectifier, then pump it into your laptop?

To change the voltage. Historically, it's been hard to change DC voltages in a small, efficient, compact device. It's possible nowadays, however, so one can hope that things like Green Plug take off. I'd love to see something like that be standard for house wiring.

We are glad to see such passion around universal power. Thanks to Slashdot we've received over 2,000 new votes on http://www.iwantmygreenplug.com/ in under 24 hours and hundreds of new supportive comments http://www.iwantmygreenplug.com/comments.php Many excellent points have been raised here and we hope you find these additional comments beneficial.

USB is indeed a universal standard. It does not require voltage negotiation, since the voltage level is fixed at 5V. By default, Green Plug-enabled power hubs provide power to USB-powered devices. Green Plug also enables any load (electronic product) to safely accept power from any power source. Why is it that each electronic product must include a device-specific power adapter, resulting in billions of them being discarded as eWaste? It's because they all require unique voltages and have different maximum current levels. Ideally, homes and offices would have multi-port power hubs that dynamically adjust to the needs of electronic products connected to them. This would eliminate the need for product vendors to have to produce disposable, device-specific power adapters for each product shipped.

There are several power adapters today that configure output voltage to the exact voltage needed by connected devices. Green Plug's method is unique in that the power negotiation is based upon digital communication. Not only can initial voltages be matched to connected devices, but smart power hubs can dynamically react to changing conditions. New monitoring and control applications are possible when there's two way communication between powered devices and their power sources. Green Plug's interactive communication model enables standby power shutoff and dynamic reconfiguration of output power based upon changing state of powered devices.

Someday, Green Plug's GreentalkTM protocol may become a standard. A non-profit industry consortium, the Alliance for Universal Power Supplies http://www.allianceforuniversalpower.org/ has been set up to bring manufacturers and other stakeholders together to drive, develop and promote standards for the power supply and electronics products industry. Green Plug has only just begun working with major CE device manufacturers that all recognize that the existing one-to-one power model is broken. It costs manufacturers a lot of money to include power adapters in their products; consumers hate them (who doesn't have a drawer full?); and they are normally thrown away when they are in perfect working order. That's not sustainable and there is a better way. Green Plug is making terrific progress in its discussions with the most popular vendors. Decisions that affect hundreds of millions or billions of product units are not made quickly. Our first customer demonstrated an award-winning power adapter at CES and we showcased several concept systems at CES that showed interoperable power see http://blog.greenplug.us/2009/01/green-plug-and-innergie-the-universal-power-adapter-has-arrived.html . We've begun working with influential organizations that see the potential for the new open systems power model http://www.greenplug.us/supporters.php.

Greentalk is licensed free of charge to qualified manufacturers of load devices (electronic products that consume power.) On the load device, Greentalk can run in an existing processor and in some cases can be implemented for no added cost. Even in devices that require hardware modifications to run Greentalk, the cost of implementing it in the load is a tiny fraction of the cost of an external power adapter. Even legacy devices can get power from a Green Plug-enabled power hub through a smart cable. If we could get beyond the chicken-and-egg scenario and imagine

We are glad to see such passion around universal power. Thanks to Slashdot we've received over 2,000 new votes on http://www.iwantmygreenplug.com/ in under 24 hours and hundreds of new supportive comments http://www.iwantmygreenplug.com/comments.php Many excellent points have been raised here and we hope you find these additional comments beneficial.

USB is indeed a universal standard. It does not require voltage negotiation, since the voltage level is fixed at 5V. By default, Green Plug-enabled power hubs provide power to USB-powered devices. Green Plug also enables any load (electronic product) to safely accept power from any power source. Why is it that each electronic product must include a device-specific power adapter, resulting in billions of them being discarded as eWaste? It's because they all require unique voltages and have different maximum current levels. Ideally, homes and offices would have multi-port power hubs that dynamically adjust to the needs of electronic products connected to them. This would eliminate the need for product vendors to have to produce disposable, device-specific power adapters for each product shipped.

There are several power adapters today that configure output voltage to the exact voltage needed by connected devices. Green Plug's method is unique in that the power negotiation is based upon digital communication. Not only can initial voltages be matched to connected devices, but smart power hubs can dynamically react to changing conditions. New monitoring and control applications are possible when there's two way communication between powered devices and their power sources. Green Plug's interactive communication model enables standby power shutoff and dynamic reconfiguration of output power based upon changing state of powered devices.

Someday, Green Plug's GreentalkTM protocol may become a standard. A non-profit industry consortium, the Alliance for Universal Power Supplies http://www.allianceforuniversalpower.org/ has been set up to bring manufacturers and other stakeholders together to drive, develop and promote standards for the power supply and electronics products industry. Green Plug has only just begun working with major CE device manufacturers that all recognize that the existing one-to-one power model is broken. It costs manufacturers a lot of money to include power adapters in their products; consumers hate them (who doesn't have a drawer full?); and they are normally thrown away when they are in perfect working order. That's not sustainable and there is a better way. Green Plug is making terrific progress in its discussions with the most popular vendors. Decisions that affect hundreds of millions or billions of product units are not made quickly. Our first customer demonstrated an award-winning power adapter at CES and we showcased several concept systems at CES that showed interoperable power see http://blog.greenplug.us/2009/01/green-plug-and-innergie-the-universal-power-adapter-has-arrived.html . We've begun working with influential organizations that see the potential for the new open systems power model http://www.greenplug.us/supporters.php.

Greentalk is licensed free of charge to qualified manufacturers of load devices (electronic products that consume power.) On the load device, Greentalk can run in an existing processor and in some cases can be implemented for no added cost. Even in devices that require hardware modifications to run Greentalk, the cost of implementing it in the load is a tiny fraction of the cost of an external power adapter. Even legacy devices can get power from a Green Plug-enabled power hub through a smart cable. If we could get beyond the chicken-and-egg scenario and imagine

We are glad to see such passion around universal power. Thanks to Slashdot we've received over 2,000 new votes on http://www.iwantmygreenplug.com/ in under 24 hours and hundreds of new supportive comments http://www.iwantmygreenplug.com/comments.php Many excellent points have been raised here and we hope you find these additional comments beneficial.

USB is indeed a universal standard. It does not require voltage negotiation, since the voltage level is fixed at 5V. By default, Green Plug-enabled power hubs provide power to USB-powered devices. Green Plug also enables any load (electronic product) to safely accept power from any power source. Why is it that each electronic product must include a device-specific power adapter, resulting in billions of them being discarded as eWaste? It's because they all require unique voltages and have different maximum current levels. Ideally, homes and offices would have multi-port power hubs that dynamically adjust to the needs of electronic products connected to them. This would eliminate the need for product vendors to have to produce disposable, device-specific power adapters for each product shipped.

There are several power adapters today that configure output voltage to the exact voltage needed by connected devices. Green Plug's method is unique in that the power negotiation is based upon digital communication. Not only can initial voltages be matched to connected devices, but smart power hubs can dynamically react to changing conditions. New monitoring and control applications are possible when there's two way communication between powered devices and their power sources. Green Plug's interactive communication model enables standby power shutoff and dynamic reconfiguration of output power based upon changing state of powered devices.

Someday, Green Plug's GreentalkTM protocol may become a standard. A non-profit industry consortium, the Alliance for Universal Power Supplies (http://www.allianceforuniversalpower.org), has been set up to bring manufacturers and other stakeholders together to drive, develop and promote standards for the power supply and electronics products industry. Green Plug has only just begun working with major CE device manufacturers that all recognize that the existing one-to-one power model is broken. It costs manufacturers a lot of money to include power adapters in their products; consumers hate them (who doesn't have a drawer full?); and they are normally thrown away when they are in perfect working order. That's not sustainable and there is a better way. Green Plug is making terrific progress in its discussions with the most popular vendors. Decisions that affect hundreds of millions or billions of product units are not made quickly. Our first customer demonstrated an award-winning power adapter at CES and we showcased several concept systems at CES that showed interoperable power see http://blog.greenplug.us/2009/01/green-plug-and-innergie-the-universal-power-adapter-has-arrived.html . We've begun working with influential organizations that see the potential for the new open systems power model http://www.greenplug.us/supporters.php.

Greentalk is licensed free of charge to qualified manufacturers of load devices (electronic products that consume power.) On the load device, Greentalk can run in an existing processor and in some cases can be implemented for no added cost. Even in devices that require hardware modifications to run Greentalk, the cost of implementing it in the load is a tiny fraction of the cost of an external power adapter. Even legacy devices can get power from a Green Plug-enabled power hub through a smart cable. If we could get beyond the chicken-and-egg scenario and imagine that smart power hubs are ubi

We are glad to see such passion around universal power. Thanks to Slashdot we've received over 2,000 new votes on http://www.iwantmygreenplug.com/ in under 24 hours and hundreds of new supportive comments http://www.iwantmygreenplug.com/comments.php Many excellent points have been raised here and we hope you find these additional comments beneficial.

USB is indeed a universal standard. It does not require voltage negotiation, since the voltage level is fixed at 5V. By default, Green Plug-enabled power hubs provide power to USB-powered devices. Green Plug also enables any load (electronic product) to safely accept power from any power source. Why is it that each electronic product must include a device-specific power adapter, resulting in billions of them being discarded as eWaste? It's because they all require unique voltages and have different maximum current levels. Ideally, homes and offices would have multi-port power hubs that dynamically adjust to the needs of electronic products connected to them. This would eliminate the need for product vendors to have to produce disposable, device-specific power adapters for each product shipped.

There are several power adapters today that configure output voltage to the exact voltage needed by connected devices. Green Plug's method is unique in that the power negotiation is based upon digital communication. Not only can initial voltages be matched to connected devices, but smart power hubs can dynamically react to changing conditions. New monitoring and control applications are possible when there's two way communication between powered devices and their power sources. Green Plug's interactive communication model enables standby power shutoff and dynamic reconfiguration of output power based upon changing state of powered devices.

Someday, Green Plug's GreentalkTM protocol may become a standard. A non-profit industry consortium, the Alliance for Universal Power Supplies (http://www.allianceforuniversalpower.org), has been set up to bring manufacturers and other stakeholders together to drive, develop and promote standards for the power supply and electronics products industry. Green Plug has only just begun working with major CE device manufacturers that all recognize that the existing one-to-one power model is broken. It costs manufacturers a lot of money to include power adapters in their products; consumers hate them (who doesn't have a drawer full?); and they are normally thrown away when they are in perfect working order. That's not sustainable and there is a better way. Green Plug is making terrific progress in its discussions with the most popular vendors. Decisions that affect hundreds of millions or billions of product units are not made quickly. Our first customer demonstrated an award-winning power adapter at CES and we showcased several concept systems at CES that showed interoperable power see http://blog.greenplug.us/2009/01/green-plug-and-innergie-the-universal-power-adapter-has-arrived.html . We've begun working with influential organizations that see the potential for the new open systems power model http://www.greenplug.us/supporters.php.

Greentalk is licensed free of charge to qualified manufacturers of load devices (electronic products that consume power.) On the load device, Greentalk can run in an existing processor and in some cases can be implemented for no added cost. Even in devices that require hardware modifications to run Greentalk, the cost of implementing it in the load is a tiny fraction of the cost of an external power adapter. Even legacy devices can get power from a Green Plug-enabled power hub through a smart cable. If we could get beyond the chicken-and-egg scenario and imagine that smart power hubs are ubi

That's part of it (the standard wall-wart), but they're also claiming that it's "smart" - as the home page says:

With Green Plug, however, intelligent power supplies communicate with electronic devices and agree upon device power requirements for all devices connected to them. All cables and connectors are uniform; so, they work with any device! Being intelligent power sources, they eliminate wasted âoephantom powerâ (power that is wasted when chargers are plugged in and either connected to devices that are fully charged or have no devices connected to them) and improve power utilization and efficiency.

We've had a 12V standard connectors for 80 years, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigar_lighter_receptacle#History and apart from recreational vehicles, it isn't happening.

The only DC power standard connector that has a chance is the USB's 5 Volts, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Power .
It's not much power (successive spec revisions seem to have pushed it up to ~ 7 Watts), which in a way is nice because it forces people to make more efficient gizmos (including humping dog flash drives, and tiny lights, etc. from http://usb.brando.com.hk/ ).

http://www.greenplug.us/ has a protocol to boost power delivery high enough to power TVs and such, based around USB.

The tipping point is when devices stop shipping with power adapters, and you just plug them in to the nearest USB hub. They say it's happened in China. Then you start migrating your USB hubs to solar power, your home treadmill, etc. and the power company isn't involved as it's all DC.

http://www.greenplug.us/

Green Plug has been mentioned before on /. and has been adopted by Westinghouse (http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/15/0136223)

If it is adopted widely, the problem of multiple chargers will largely disappear.

And Intel is trying to remove the wire completely:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/technology/21intel.html?th&emc=th

/Ed

http://www.greenplug.us/

http://www.greenplug.us/ Green Plug has been mentioned before on /. and has been adopted by Westinghouse (http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/15/0136223) If it is adopted widely, the problem of multiple chargers will largely disappear.

First: yes, you will have just as many power supplies as items to be powered and/or recharged. Nothing new there. (Oh, that's not counting their power supply hub. But we'll ignore that for the moment.) Yes, these supplies will cost more initially than the present ones. But like any investment, it's supposed to save you money in the long run.

On the other hand, when your cell phone dies, or your electric razor, or your battery charger, you can buy a new one without buying a new power supply -- because the power supply is universal, see? Less waste in the landfill, less use of resources (one less supply to build), less money to buy the new item.

And if you dash off on a trip and forget your cell phone charger, but remember your electric razor charger -- hey, no problem! They'll just have to take turns. Or you can charge them both at night because you're not using your laptop.

In fact, any decent hotel will have a charger installed right in the wall. Just in case.

Or you're staying at a friend's house; you can borrow his.

As for the supply being bulky, they've already got a supply that can adjust to any voltage in its range.

Since the supply actually talks to the device, it will know when the device is charged, and turn itself off. Unlike the current average wall wart, it will stop using power (or only use a miniscule trickle) if the device doesn't need power.

So: Initial expense will be higher, but you'll be able to save on later purchases (because you can re-use the old supply), you'll save on power (because of lower vampiric power draw), and all the power supplies will be interchangeable.

Greenplug's web site