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Standard Cellphone Chargers For Europeans

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the those-lucky-bastards dept.

k33l0r writes "The European Commission is confident that all major cellphone companies have reached an agreement on a standard cellphone charger for consumers within the EU. 'People will not have to throw away their charger whenever they buy a new phone,' said EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Apple, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung and Texas Instruments have all signed the agreement."

6 of 257 comments (clear)

  1. Micro by pete-classic · · Score: 4, Informative

    The story is incorrectly tagged miniusb. It's actually micro USB (which is an inferior connector, in my opinion) which is slightly smaller and lacks the "ears" of mini USB, which is what the Blackberry uses.

    -Peter

    1. Re:Micro by AlecC · · Score: 5, Informative

      The micro-USB is superior to the mini-USB in that the springs which provide the retaining force are on the cable side and not on the phone side. If the spring breaks, you throw away the cable/charger, not the phone.

      --
      Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
  2. Re:So what's it gonna be? by furby076 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Maybe instead of just trying to get a first post in you read the damn article.

    The Commission said the agreement would involve the creation of an EU norm, and that the new generation of mobile phones would use a standard micro-USB socket to ensure compatibility.

    4th paragraph

    --

    I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
  3. Re:So what's it gonna be? by Forge · · Score: 4, Informative

    RTFA
    It will be Mini-USB. However there are 2 issues still to clarify.

    1. Will the phone be required to charge at the standard voltages delivered by a PC USB port? I would hate to see that BS achieved by Motorola, where you can only charge on a PC if the Motorola Charger is installed. I would prefer if everyone else has to change to match Blackberry. If my Blackberry runs low in the data center I can just plug into any exposed USB port on a powered up server. . A Dell waiting at the BIOS screen or a SUN in full production.

    2. Will this be coordinated with the Chinese standard? If both the EU and China agree on a standard, India and Japan can be convinced to adopt it. Leaving America to figure out which direction it wants to go.

    --
    --= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
  4. Micro is superior for this use... by nweaver · · Score: 4, Informative

    MiniUSB is rated for 1000 connect/disconnect cycles

    MicroUSB is rated for 10,000 connect/disconnect cycles, and is also thinner by about 1.5mm (critical on modern thin devices).

    Given the power consumption on some smartphones, having the more durable connector is IMO, essential.

    --
    Test your net with Netalyzr
  5. Part of the USB Spec by pavon · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is part of the USB spec. Originally USB hosts were only required to provide a certain amount of current to devices. Later they decided to increase this, but to provide backwards compatibility the device has to ask if the host is capable of sourcing that much current before it starts drawing it.