Micro-USB Cellphone Charger Becomes EU Standard

An anonymous reader writes "The European Commission has put into effect a June 2009 agreement stating that major cellphone manufacturers should standardize their charging/data connection ports to the popular Micro-USB format. CEN-CENELEC and ETSI provided the standards by which these 14 companies will abide to make cell phone recharging and data transfer easy." Apple may even bring the next-gen iPad along for the ride.

Comments

Murtazin is not a "trusted insider"

[shutdown -p now]

The claim that iPad 2 will have Micro-USB port in TFA hinges on this:

The most recent rumor, courtesy of the Mobile Review blog editor-in-chief Eldar Murtazin, says the iPad 2 will include a USB port. ...
AppleInsider reports that Murtazin is a trusted insider with good sources

That's as incorrect as it goes. He's an "editor-in-chief" of an organization that consists of precisely one person, namely him; and he is well known in Russian Internet community specifically for making wild and unsubstantiated predictions, often also claiming "insider info". The majority don't come true. So if that's the only source of that information, I would be wary about its correctness.

That said, if EU mandates micro-USB, it would seem that Apple won't get much choice there for iPhone, and then it would make sense for them to align the rest of the line-up with it, even if the law doesn't apply there. So it doesn't take an insider to make an educated guess here.

Re:Murtazin is not a "trusted insider"

[TheRaven64]

What can Apple's connector do that micro USB can't?

A great many things. The dock connector has pins for:

• RS-232 serial (great for very simple peripherals - there was a separate RS-232 port as well on older iPods, but I think it's gone now).
• Composite analogue video output.
• YUV analogue video output.
• Stereo audio output.
• FireWire data.
• USB data.
• Power (3.3V, 5V and 12V DC, up to 45W).

In contrast, micro USB has pins for:

• USB data.
• Power (5V DC, up to 7.5W).

You can, for example, use an iPod dock to directly drive a TV (useful for presentations - Keynote will export for the iPod so you can give presentations without needing to take anything bigger than an iPod with you). The second audio output in the dock means that you don't need to unplug the headphones when you drop the device in the dock. I don't think the FireWire pins are connected anymore, which is a shame because that allowed simple device-to-device connectivity (and, for example, plugging in an external hard drive directly to the device without needing a computer - iPod Linux let you do this and so did some other third-party firmware).

Re:Micro-USB is not popular

[romiz]

Micro-USB is stronger one, rather than Mini-USB, or at least is supposed to. And it is designed so that it's the cable that breaks first, instead of the device.

Re:Rated for more insertions?

[quenda]

That's not the fault of the actual connector. Nokia just failed to attach it to the circuit-board properly.
It is only surface-mounted in the N900, no solder-through pins or resin.

Re:Purely out of curiosity...

[Anne Thwacks]

if phone from Vendor A draws 800mA and your PSU is rated at 500mA - well, if it's been designed without any sort of protection and it is CE marked

Someone is gouing to have to spend some time in cell block number 9.

Of course, in the USA, consumers have no rioghts, because APPL has bought them all.

Re:Samsung Captivate

[donatzsky]

It's called ExtUSB.
From Wikipedia:

HTC manufactures Windows Mobile and Android-based Communicators which have a proprietary connector called HTC ExtUSB (Ext[ended] USB) which is present on the Touch Pro2. ExtUSB combines mini-USB (with which it is backwards-compatible) with audio/video input and output in an 11-pin connector.

USB Battery Charging specification

[tepples]

and either refusing to charge or deliberately drawing less power when you detect the wrong charger.

One could argue based on the power management portions of the USB specification that drawing less power meets the spec, but refusing to charge does not. A device MUST NOT* draw more than one unit of current (100 mA in USB 2.0) until it successfully associates to the host controller. After a device is configured, it MAY request up to five units (500 mA) but MUST NOT draw more than the host says is available. The recent Battery Charging v1.2 spec specifies a protocol on the data lines that devices can use to detect dumb chargers and chargers that can provide more power, so that devices know when they MAY deliberately draw more power. You SHOULD support manufacturers of phones and other devices that support USB Battery Charging.

* RFC 2119 modal adverbs != shouting.

Re:And will this allow for innovation still?

[kimvette]

Camera manufacturers have been making weather-resistant DSLRs for years now (there have been well known instances where entire EOS 1Ds and EOS 7D Canon DSLR+Lenses combinations have been dunked into 3' of sea water and continued working without any problem), and they have a lot more connectors to contend with as well as a couple of microphones and speakers. It should not be difficult at all for phone manufacturers to start offering water-resistant smartphones.