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EU Committee Votes To Make All Smartphone Vendors Utilize a Standard Charger
Deathspawner writes "The EU has been known to make a lot of odd decisions when it comes to tech, but one committee's latest vote is one that most people will likely agree with: Standardized smartphone chargers. If passed, this decision would cut down on never having the right charger handy, but as far as the EU is concerned, this is all about a reduction of waste. The initial vote went down on Thursday, and given its market saturation, it seems likely that micro USB would be the target standard. Now, it's a matter of waiting on the EU Parliament to make its vote."
This bill had better have an expiration date, or else it might well interfere with new technologies like (perhaps) wireless power transmission.
How will my iPhone possibly work if it has to be charged with a tool as common as a wall wart? Eeeww. It's 20% less cool than a Lightning cable!
John
Manufacturers can still keep their bottom line by making cables and connectors so bad they have to be replaced even more often than before. As a matter of fact, I think that already happened.
I agree. All the waste is really in the charger itself, not in the cable. As much as I would like Apple to switch to a standard USB connection, I have no problem with their choice. Laptop charges on the other hand are a completely different story. They should also look into standardized replaceable batteries if they are really focused on cutting waste.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I thought there was an international law against governing bodies making common sense decisions?
Someone is going to receive a very sternly written letter.
I fully support this, and a side-effect that I'm leaning on for one of my energy-efficiency projects (see @OpenTRV) is a supply of cheap efficient commodity 5V micro-USB supplies.
Rgds
Damon
http://m.earth.org.uk/
"[...]but as far as the EU is concerned, this is all about a reduction of waste"
I wonder how many times they shuffled between Strasbourg and Bruxelles while they decided that I do not need three 15 EUR chargers.
"If a boss demands loyalty, give him integrity. But if he demands integrity, give him loyalty." (John Boyd, 1927-1997)
I'd rather see all the other manufacturers switching to the solid, less breakable than USB, invertible, plug that Apple are using to be honest.
Nope. They're requiring a micro-USB connector on the phone itself. All phone chargers and their connecting wires will be required to interoperate with it.
John
No need to legislate this. Most people I know go out of their way to avoid buying products that don't charge with a USB connector if they can avoid it - at least computer-related products.
Me, the last device I bought with a special charger was a Casio Exilim camera that has unique enough features that I had no other choice. But I hate that charger each time I have to carry it with me on business trips when I already carry a USB charger that takes care of all my other devices.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Standardize on paying Apple a licensing fee for every charger sold in the EU? Nice idea. Apple loves people like you.
I thought Micro-USB was already the required charging standard for phones in the EU?
Much as I don't like to like Apple's "lock-you-in" marketing strategies, I have to agree that the Lightning connector is the best engineered small-form-factor connector of its type that I've used on any portable device. It's secure, it's invertible, and it is designed to not wear out through forceful insertions. The old "universal" connector was awful by comparison.
I find micro-USB to be annoyingly fragile, although that could be due to cheap, under-engineered connectors with weak physical board mounting hardware.
Oh, well. I live in America, so I expect Apple will continue to provide the US market with Lightning connectors, just to cheese off the EU. And they will no doubt continue to keep the Lightning connector on EU based iPads, just to remind people that they voted in a bunch of intrusive politicians.
John
Nope. They're requiring a micro-USB connector on the phone itself. All phone chargers and their connecting wires will be required to interoperate with it.
That was my understanding also. And Apple will get an exception.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
There are millions of people that have iPhones, none of them are your friends? This whole "must be chargeable with micro USB" was already mandatory in the EU, they are just changing the regulations so you don't need an adapter like the iPhone currently requires. They had to, because evidently vendors weren't having it and found ways around it, so yes, there really is a need to legislate this.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Get the USB group to ban people from bastardizing the USB spec.
There is NO REASON AT ALL for those stupid chargers. NONE. Well, besides making money.
It annoyed me on PSVita as well, the charging for it is such a pain in the dick, seriously.
Try to put it in hub, will not charge. EVER HEARD OF TAKING WHAT YOU ARE GIVEN? CHARGE DAMN IT, THE USB SPEC SAYS SO.
And the USB charger itself, the adapter, the bit where you plug the USB section in, it has this little plastic bit on both sides that prevent you from putting a standard USB cable in. (unless you slice it off like I did)
I now just use my PSVIta chargers adapter for everything else now, exact same damn thing anyway.
The USB group should be the ones doing this, not the EU.
All it is doing is crapping all over the spec with stupid crap that the entire spec was AGAINST in the first place!
USB was supposed to be the thing that killed all others, the one spec to rule them all, now it is going backwards with all these stupid plugs and sockets.
I am fine with companies working together to create these extensions to specs and work together to create something better, but just doing a Microsoft on it is dickish at best.
Ah, Apple. Dock Connector had its stressed parts on the connector, which means that if something breaks, it's most likely the cheap cable. MicroUSB does this too. Lightning has its stressed parts in the receptacle - so the parts that break the most are inside the expensive phone.
Great idea, huh?
Not to mention the thing where the lightning cable apparently has a chip in the cable itself to verify itself with the phone. Turning the "cheap and easily replaceable" bit into "an unnecessary expensive and wasteful thing."
The lightning cable and connector should die, and Apple should be forced to use micro USB just like everyone else.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
They won't. They'll probably be allowed to ship an adapter with the phone, though.
At first glance this is a fantastic idea, but it may not have been thought out all the way. I like micro usb chargers and even as an Apple fan was dismayed when they developed lighting instead of going micro usb. However Apple did have good reason to develop the lighting port - it's much more than a charging port. This is slashdot and we talk about Apple enough that I am sure enough of you understand what makes the lighting port leaps and and bounds more advanced the micro usb. Therein lies the problem. Technology is moving forward faster and faster and in a matter of time the obsolescence of the micro usb charger will rear its head as new technologies demand something with more advanced capabilities. It's all well and good for many reasons to have a standard port, but this cannot happen without a plan to reconvene every five years to settle on a new industry wide port with more capabilities. This of course brings us right back to the waste issue, and demanding a stop-gap generation of phones that support micro usb and whatever is next would be too costly for manufacturers. We can't live on micro usb forever and so the problem comes back full circle. In this situation adapters are not practical and are too easy to loose. If we are going to have a standard port, we need to first come up with something wicked advanced that will last as long as micro usb has and then go through a period of extreme waste with some recycling as we move over. It would be nice if Apple would just open up their lighting port for everyone to implement - but that of course will not happen. In other words: I sure as hell don't know what to do about the situation.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
Standardization of chargers has largely taken place already. You have Apple devices with Lightning connectors and the rest which pretty much use micro USB.
Personally, I prefer Lightning.
Also, I'm sure that further improvements will be made (which government-mandated standardization will make more difficult).
These comments are mine; I do not speak for my employer.
Stop swimming in the Kool-aid.
Your remark is useless unless your intent was to convince
people that you are stupid, in which case your remark is
a rousing success.
Micro USB is known to be one of the less reliable
connectors available for devices which may be moved
or bumped during operation.
I ride a motorcycle and micro USB is so unreliable for connecting a
device which needs to have constant power on the motorcycle that it is
essentially useless.
If Apple made it an open design that anyone could use, that would be a possibility, but as with most things Apple, it's about lock-in and nothing else.
At least that has debateable advantages in some cases.
Designing the phone to break before the connector has no advantages. "Smaller connector" is not an advantage beyond a certain point.
I'd rather see all the other manufacturers switching to the solid, less breakable than USB, invertible, plug that Apple are using
That's fine 19 years from now when the Lightning connector patent expires. So what do you recommend between now and then?
It does if you sell phones.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
A fine idea.
What about laptop chargers too ? Every laptop I've owned has had a different charger plug. In some cases machines made by the same manufacturer have different plugs. Have a set of standard charger ratings and a standard way for the laptop to detect it.
Actually this seems to be targeting Apple almost specifically. I think Nokia stopped the proprietary connector nonsense years ago. Everyone else is already using micro USB.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Can you be a bit more specifc? What exactly is crappy about USB?
Also, do you still remember the time before USB? *shudder*
This is just making mandatory the Common External Power Supply EU standard. That's been a voluntary standard since 2009, and most cell phone vendors in Europe have been on board for years. It's simple enough - phones use a MicroUSB B connector, and chargers use a USB-A connector if they have a connector at the charger end.
China standardized on MicroUSB-B back in 2007. The GSM consortium standardized on MicroUSB-B in 2009.
Apple already got an exemption last time this issue came up in the EU.
This isn't the first time this was addressed by the EU.
The last law only affected the part that plugged into the wall, so Apple got an exemption there.
Now they are specifying BOTH ends of the connectors must meet the standard. Its about time.
Also, selling phones without a charger, for 10 bucks less would make sense as well.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Didn't everybody in Europe switch to Micro USB a couple of years ago?
I've still got a couple of devices that have Micro USB but don't seem to use it for charging. My GPS has a cradle with a proprietary connector that's fed by a Mini USB from a cigarette lighter adapter, and while it has Micro USB for a data interface, it can almost run from that but doesn't actually charge (as you might guess, I know this because the Mini USB on the back of the cradle is broken.) And I've got a Coby Android tablet that has a little ~1.5(?)mm charger which runs on 5V; it could perfectly well run off a USB wall or cigarette lighter adapter if it didn't have the proprietary cable, and it also has the "USB will keep it sort of running but not charge the battery" feature.
It doesn't matter as much for cell phones, but I wish everything could use a power cord like the Apple Mac laptop magnetic-disconnect ones. Of course, every new generation of laptop seems to want more voltage than the previous ones; I've seen them go from 12 to 14 to 16 to 19. (Sigh - if they could still use 12V we could just use simple car adapters, instead of 12V->110V->19V.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Unlike all other companies, right. Anyway, what stops team USB from adding another connector. There are already several, so what difference does another one make, especially if it has the mechanical advantages Lightning has.
Perl Programmer for hire
It's #927 in case you're wondering.
That is actually the idea. You will be able to use your existing charger with your new phone, so less landfill waste will be produced.
I have a charger with 4 USB ports, so my phone, iPod, iPad and Kindle can be charged at the same time using just one wall socket.
Can you be a bit more specifc? What exactly is crappy about USB?
Also, do you still remember the time before USB? *shudder*
USB Cables exist in 4 dimensional space. http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2388
Of the 6 different types of USB connectors, all are hard to plug in without seeing both the connector and the socket. (Type A is somewhat easier because it is large) I have to carry both an iPhone 5 and another phone with USB connector for work, and the Lightning connector is a tremendous improvement in ease of insertion over micro-USB. I can insert the plug one handed in the dark in my iPhone 5 (in my car, without taking my eyes off the road). I have never been successful at achieving the same with my micro-USB phone.
I assure you I am not an Apple Fanboy, however I believe the connector is really nice. It's unfortunate they won't push it to become a standard USB interface.
I was more thinking there could be a range of standard PSU sizes ie. 30W, 75W, 90W, 150W etc.
But all the phones use different amounts of power. I just read today that while the google nexus uses a USB mini connector for power, the to versions 2012 and 2013 use different wattages, and are somewhat incompatible.
And yes a lot of this is just BS to get more money, but smartphones are not all the same, and this is good. Their is a wide range, and their is some necessary differences in their batteries and their charging cables.
Also, I use micro USB, and it kindof sucks.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
"Do we go back to some EU overseer commission for approval again?"
Yes. That won't happen for a while though - micro-USB is as physically flat as it's possible to make a connector without it becoming as delicate as tissue paper.
> What exactly is crappy about USB?
Try using a USB interface with 5 pins to simultaneously output 720p60 and 1080i60 (let alone 1080p60, 3D, or 120fps) video while simultaneously charging the phone, controlling it with USB peripherals, and playing HD content from a ripped .iso image on an external flash drive.
The more aggressively you try to serialize lots of different high-speed buses into a single limited set of wires, the more expensive and complicated your external interface hardware inevitably becomes, and the more dependent you become upon explicit support for both the external hardware and your crossbar/interface by the OS itself.
Not that the EU passed a law... I get that... its just sad that they needed to do that.
The vendors should have created their own standards a long time ago to not be this obnoxious. Every phone needs a new charger even though practically all of them are just USB. But they all have a different type of USB connector which is different for no apparent reason.
Look, obviously there are times and reasons to have different types of charges. But they seem to go out of their way to confuse the situation.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
If you're going to futz around with a GPS device on a moving motorcycle, make sure you don't wear a helmet, either. And make sure you're signed up as an organ donor.
You can already charge your iPhone wirelessly - in a microwave oven!
If manufacturers are too stupid to come up with a standard on their own, then someone needs to force them to.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
My house has 300 amp service, which is a lot higher than a standard home, and I dont have TV's the explode and burn up the house.
I also plug my iphone into my Ipad charger and it did not explode.
My buddy plugged his Galaxy nexus into a standard USB cord that was a Tablet charger and it also did not explode. In fact you can not find ANY phone that will follow your fantasy world's rules and do what you claim will happen.
I'm thinking your biggest worry is about absolutely nothing.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
people survived a hundred years of traveling on the roads without a gps. get a map, learn where you're going, follow road signs. it really is not hard.
People survived thousand of years without modern stuff, so why are you using it?
Why use a cellphone, you can just go to a post office and call.
Why use a phone at all, just send a telegram. Or a letter.
GPS is convenient. I do not have to stop at every intersection, pull out the map and figure out where I need to turn (or go straight). I do not have to memorize the route to somewhere I am going for the first time (usually I can go there a second or fourth time without GPS). I can just plan the route on the GPS and maybe find a better way of going there (instead of the traditional way of following the road signs or asking someone else for directions (which I cannot remember anyway)).
Micro-USB may be better than many alternatives, but it's still a poor choice. It's tiny and polarized, so it's hard to see which way it needs to be oriented, particularly in poor lighting. That's a rather common problem. Why couldn't they get it right?
In contrast, Apple's Lightning connector works the same in either orientation.
But they need to make sure there is a clause requiring the port to be ON the device and not handled through an adapter from whatever the law ends up specifying as standard to the proprietary connector on the device. That way you dont need to carry around the adapter in order to just charge anywhere.
Oh and it needs to be extended not just to smartphone vendors but to vendors of dumbphones, MP3 players, GPS devices and tablets too. (99.9% of non-Apple MP3 players that dont use regular batteries are already using either miniusb or microusb anyway so only Apple would have to make any changes to their product I suspect)
I would submit that an adapter *is* getting an exception, *plus* Apple gets to sell an additional cable to users in Europe.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
My three year old has picked up and walked off with one of my five current micro-USB devices at least once (probably a dozen times with the tablet) while they were still plugged in. I do have a healthy supply of partially functioning cables, but I've never had to repair a port.
I thought this already happened. Isn't this why we're on MicroUSB? Outside of Apple who isn't using micro usb? even apple I think had to create an adapter to micro usb? or was it B-usb to be "complaint"
Just another second banana
Pity, since this means they'll be forced to use micro-USB, which is garbage.
Guess I'll be importing a phone with a decent connector if this passes.
Why don't you import a phone that doesn't need to be cabled to a computer.
A phone that needs a computer is like a fish that needs a bicycle.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
A cable that most EU users simply don't need, since they just use the cable that comes with the device and attach it to any number of standard USB ports.
However, the adapter does exist if you really must use your micro-USB charger with your iPhone, assuming that you don;t have access to a normal USB port anywhere else.
Why don't you import a phone that doesn't need to be cabled to a computer.
A phone that needs a computer is like a fish that needs a bicycle.
What phone do I have that needs to be cabled to a computer?
iOS 5 called and wants its tired meme back.
iOS devices have been "computer free" since iOS 6.
Sorry, I didn't mean to let facts get in the way of a good Apple bashing, carry on.
So then explain why you need all those pins and special cables just to charge a phone?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
How do you feel about rules that mandate power outlets in the wall all fit certain standards? Goodbye innovation?
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
I used a soldering iron to make an easily-felt dimple in the plastic on one side of the plug, now I can finally use it in the dark.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
So then explain why you need all those pins and special cables just to charge a phone?
What pins? You mean in the 30 pin dock connector?
I'm not sure if you're being serious or just seem to have a technical blind spot when it comes to Apple. The 30 pin connector was designed as a "universal" connector. When it's in its charging guise (the most common form) with a USB plug on the other end then only the USB power and data pins are wired. Back in the early days (gen 2 iPod) it could also be wired with a firewire 400 plug on the other end, so a different set of those pins were wired.
It also had audio line out (unbalanced) on another set, for devices like speaker docks or car radios, and composite video and S-video (for docks attached to things with television screens) among other things.
The point was that not all the pins would be wired all of the time, depending on the current device or cable you were using. It was designed at a time when things like MHL wren't common. Android phones do exactly what the Dock connector does, with a variety of different cables using software and a protocol to change the output of the pins (allowing you to pass things like HDMI over a USB port, for example). The dock connector simply did this the old fashioned way.
It doesn't follow that this somehow means that the phone "needs" to be connected to a computer, and "all those pins" are certainly not needed for charging - when it's charging it needs only the USB power pins (and the data ones if it wants to negotiate with the host controller for more than 500 mA of current, beyond the USB spec).
The Lightning cable, on the other hand, takes its design cues from what Android has done with the USB port - cutting down the number of pins, and simply switching what they do depending on the cable, although they obviously aren't doing it with the same protocols (MHL etc). The big difference is that they went with a more mechanically solid connector because they felt micro-USB was too fragile (it is), and were thus also freed from some of the other limitations of USB (current and voltage specifications), allowing for high-power charging in future.
You spell politicians with a "c" in Europe? Weird.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
The goal is to prevent waste on the charging system side of things. As long as the device plugs into the wall standardises by providing a consistent interface to the other end it doesn't matter what you do from there.
Case in point my wireless charger has ... *drumroll* ... a microUSB socket for connecting to the wall. The phone sits on the charging matt and the matt has to get power from somewhere right?
Ultimately as long as some adapted method is provided to allow the use of microUSB wall chargers who cares if they standardise on that, providing phones don't go nuts and suddenly need like 10A or something which the socket can't physically handle.
++
That cable is what turned me away from Apple. Around 2007/8 I replaced my iPod and the video cables I had for my previous pod wouldn't work with the new pod because of some kind of verification chip. The old cables sold on Amazon for (literally) six cents (on sale, obvs but still) and Apple's cable cost $49.99. That's ridiculous! That iPod was my last Apple purchase which is a shame because Apple makes some great products.
Then we'll change the regulation, but all those scenarios are less likely than "Micro-USB continues to be a good choice of common charging cable and will make consumers much happier with their devices". I just wish we could get this kind of nanny stateism here in the US. We suffered with incompatible data cables for twenty years until South Korea mandated micro-USB a few years ago, and suddenly six months later the USA was all-micro-USB.
THANK YOU SOUTH KOREA! It's a beautiful illustration of how consumer needs are out of sync with the goals of corporations, so consumers get screwed until they use government to solve the problem.
If they wanted to screw Apple, they could mandate a fixed-pinout version of Lightning implementing no logic in the cables, with reversible pinouts for USB 3.0 and tell Apple to get on board with their pinout with a firmware update. That'd solve at least four problems at once - Apple's ego, shitty knockoff cables, fiddly charging cables, and e-waste. Anything else is just gravy, but there's probably at least one more significant benefit.
:D
Oh, right. USB3 charging current and data-rate become the expectation.
I'd venture that we're not at that point of diminishing returns with PDMI and 30-Pin Dock, but we're approaching it with Lightning.
No so sure about that. Would Apple be willing to run two productions runs of iPhones one with Lighting and one with USB? That would require a major change to the logic board, chip, iOS, and the case. Either Apple will pay some sort of "tax" in the EU to keep the lighting connector, or the entire world will get the shitty micro-USB connector. There is a third (extremely unlikely) option: Apple opens up the Lightning connector to anyone who wants to use it royalty free. But like I said, fat chance and the fact micro-USB is ubiquitous now.
Life is not for the lazy.
I have a HD camcorder. The charger is proprietary. It dose the amazingly complex thing of supplying 8.4 VDC at 1.5 amps. The battries are proprietary too. They supply 7.4 VDC at 890mAh.
Not common (and I think I know why) but not out of the realm of cobbling up something to match. However, any aftermarket parts just don't work. Why? Because they don't have the all holy and copyright/trademarked "protection" of geniuine equipment which would "degrade" my user experience. Never mind that a simple battery for this camcorders costs retail $190USD, while the price of the parts is nearer to $12.
And while we are about tilting at windmills, let's go after ink cartridges. I wouldn't mind paying $400 for a printer, if I could get ink packs for it for less than $130 per month to print about 200 pages.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
> What exactly is crappy about USB?
Try using a USB interface with 5 pins to simultaneously output 720p60 and 1080i60 (let alone 1080p60, 3D, or 120fps) video while simultaneously charging the phone, controlling it with USB peripherals, and playing HD content from a ripped .iso image on an external flash drive.
How many people are going to be using their phone to do all of that simultaneously? Most people use the usb connector to connect their phone to a computer for charging/syncing. Trying to say that usb is crap by presenting a use case which 99% of people are not going to even know how to do, let alone want to do, is just silly at best.
IEEE UPAMD/P1823
http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/msc/upamd/&%238364;Z
But for some reason it has been completely silent since start of draft vote a year ago.
What's the deal with "easily damaged" USB connectors? In all my life, out of probably 3 dozens, I've not had a single cable - or device - break. I've had one cable (cheapest kind, ~1$ or so) that had gotten worn out, losing contact when wiggled, but for that price I won't be complaining. WTF are you people doing with your devices and cables? Or is everything you buy from the $1 shop?
Doesn't anyone else remember a similar ruling a few years back in the EU, but apple managing to skirt it that time by offering the 30-pin to MicroUSB adapter, and then subsequently releasing the same adapter for the new lightning pin connector? The thing that really needs to happen is that phone manufacturers need to be forced to utilize open source/copyright-free connectors, and prevent requirements of licensing fees. This will generate two effects: Apple and other companies that try to follow its profitability chain will lose the incentive to create and utilize proprietary connectors (since they will not see monetary gain from it), and phone manufacturers can follow suit with better adapted connectivity designs in the future. Innovation will come freely then.
Having a 30w laptop plugged into a 120w brick shouldn't damage the laptop, it just means the power brick won't be running at full power.
FTFY. (It's often the case that not running at full power allows a device to be more efficient.)
"Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
Around 2007/8 they messed with the pinouts of their dock connector devices, but I thought they only removed the firewire charging without changing anything else.
Still, by removing two pins, a very large portion of older docks does not charge newer devices. Great idea, huh? Nothing like buying an iPod car dock and an iPod only to realize an (unofficial, which means hard to find) adapter is needed for the iPod to charge.
Phone makers took YEARS to just get the clue of usb. It will be 2025 before we see usb3 on phones as a norm.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
So plenty of BMW (Bitching, Moaning & Whining) in this thread.
But it's actualy a good idea.
Since there's absolutely nothing, repeat nothing, to stop Apple or anyone else having a micro-USB port on their device AND another connector.
Like Lightening, or whatever else they want....
Then bundling the specific cable/charger, (with better specs, high amps etc. if required) into the package.
Again, if they want, and customer is prepared to pay.
What's the marginal cost of having two connectors, especially for a product costing upwards of $500, $750?
Damn all.
How does standardizing replaceable batteries cut waste? Chargers yes because then you need fewer of them and a charger doesn't become waste just because the device fails since you can use it with other devices. But batteries never outlast devices (unless you break the device in a very special way) and if a device is still usable but the battery is worn, it's almost certain that there are original batteries - not to mention exploding third party ones - available.
I still have a 2005 cheapo phone on the go, but its battery life is now pretty weak. I have twice tried to replace it with similar cheapo phones, but both times, these phones broke, and I went back to me trusty first phone, with its battery life still steadily reducing. I will need to buy a new phone as soon as work picks up, because it just won't handle any heavy use. I'm a bit dubious of random parts off the internet....
Furthermore, standardizing batteries would reduce consumer choices since the battery size is part of the device form factor and different vendors offer different trade-offs between device size and battery life. However, standardizing the chargers really does benefit consumers (and reduces waste).
Banning leaded petrol reduced consumer choice, but we still did it, and it was the right thing to do. Besides, there are hundreds of different mobile phone batteries on the market. Standardisation only needs to reduce that to dozens in order to improve on the current situation. Look at the number of standard batteries in the average supermaket. Various button cells and stick cells. Go to a camera shop and there will also be stubby stick cells for the electronics in older film cameras. All-in-all, there's about two-dozen standard multipurpose "consumer" cells. You can get a lot of form factors in two dozen.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
And what happens when micro-USB is deprecated? Do we go back to some EU overseer commission for approval again?
Yes, and this is good, because it means that the manufacturers need to propose a new standard connector rather than introducing a new proprietary one and reopening the compatibility wars.
This is one of the least significant problems facing most societies today. No wonder EU birthrates are dropping - there must be something in the water.
By that reasoning, I must demand to know why you are here wasting time on this silly little issue rather than spending all your time eliminating illiteracy and child poverty while simultaneously developing the cures for AIDS and cancer.
It's quite practical to deal with the not-most-important-but-still-quite-important problems even bfore the big and difficult ones have been resolved.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
There's nothing to stop Apple keeping the Lightning connector and having a second plug that's only wired up for charging. They might even attempt to artifivially limit the charging speed to say "Lightning's better"....
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Still not sure why you'd trust politicians to give you the best consumer experience, but so long as you can pedantically pick my joke apart you'll rule the world.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
No, this is because of Apple. The EU said "voluntary standard or we legislate" and the device manufacturers agreed a voluntary standard that had too many loopholes, so the EU kept its promise and legislated.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
No, this is because of Apple. The EU said "voluntary standard or we legislate" and the device manufacturers agreed a voluntary standard that had too many loopholes, so the EU kept its promise and legislated.
That will be interesting. Apple has been pretty adamant about having proprietary connectors, and with their new "smart cables", seem to be trying their darndest to kill the third party market. I don't believe we'll ever see an iphone or ipod with a micro-usb data/charging port. As someone else suggested, Apple may make an adapter available, but it'll be a separate cable with a female micro-USB that plugs into the proprietary cable, at extra cost, "smart" so it can't be produced by a third party.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Still not touching the reason you'd trust politicians I see. I wouldn't go there either.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
They've already started.
A cable that most EU users simply don't need, since they just use the cable that comes with the device and attach it to any number of standard USB ports.
However, the adapter does exist if you really must use your micro-USB charger with your iPhone, assuming that you don;t have access to a normal USB port anywhere else.
My understanding of TFA is to mandate a micro-usb port on the device itself, so that you don't have to have a proprietary cable in order to charge. The idea is to be able to charge any device with a standard usb to micro usb cable, or a standard micro usb plug-in charger. (If I'm wrong, please correct me, but please include a reference.) Apple has resisted this hugely in the past, and I expect them to work on some kind of exception this time, which will probably take the form of a female micro-usb to whatever-port-apple-uses adapter cable. With smart circuitry, to shut out third party providers.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Why would you need to have a cable to "move data about".
It isn't 1987 anymore. I've been moving data back and forth from my phone
to my Windows and Linux computers without a cable ever since I dumped the iPhone.
Now who is looking like the "thick" one?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Yes, this is a new development. It's not Apple's first rodeo on this topic - the original ruling called for optional compliance, and didn't specify that the port had to be on the device itself, and that you could comply with it by making an adapter. This is exactly what Apple did.
It seems that Brussels felt that forcing micro-USB on the device was preferable to consumer choice. Such is life.
You already can charge an iPhone using one of these adapters *today* by using the converter that Apple makes (the iPhone is not fussy about what power charger it uses typically - I charge mine off a Kindle charger, for example).
This ruling is merely designed to say "that's not enough, we're going to force micro-USB onto the device".
Yeah I fucked up the phrasing. The joke is obvious and wouldn't be funny at this point, if it was ever funny. The real joke is politicians thinking that they can pick a technology as a "winner". Another good joke is an economic union without a common electrical standard dictating a common cell phone charger. So you'll be able to bring a cell phone anywhere in the EU to charge it, but you won't necessarily be able to plug in anything else you own without an adapter. Makes sense.
I'm not pro-corporation. I actually consider corporations to be an extension of government, and worthy of exactly the same scorn and ridicule. That said, they do serve a purpose, and unless there is an anti-trust issue I don't see the reason to intervene here. Unless we are talking about reform of the corporation in general, in which I'm all for it. But somehow I doubt that this particular government regulation will bring about reform. If the government really must get involved, they should snatch the Apple patent and use that as the standard.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Wellll, they're trying to force a common connector across all devices. The micro-usb is the logical choice.
I fully admit that this is entirely an emotional observation, but I'd kinda like to see Apple dragged kicking and screaming towards compliance with a common standard, just for a change. But again, that's just me.
It's not "customer choice" if the customer is forced to use a proprietary connector if they want to use the product. My immediate family owns four ipods (no iphones, for reasons I won't enumerate here) and I'd be just tickled to see Apple forced to use a standard port in future products. They're, like, the last holdout on this nonsense of proprietary connectors.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
As I said somewhere else, I am not opposed to compliance regulation like this (nor government regulation in general - I'm a socialist), just that I feel that standardising on micro-USB would be a mistake, not to mention that this adds a layer of red tape to something that is likely to evolve more quickly than the EU can react to it (the USB spec is already becoming problematic in the area of high speed charging of ever bigger batteries, for example).
By all means, force a standard port, just not *that* one. Picking it just because it's the most common is "windows-itis" all over again, except this time mandated by law rather than just market force.
My preference would be for the EU, assuming you want a smack down, to mandate a modified Lightning connector (add an extra pin to make it electrically compatible with USB3 to make it a drop in replacement on Android devices) that is royalty free. That I could get behind.
I understand. One of the problems with socialism is that the customer doesn't get to choose. The government could convince themselves that IEEE 1284 was the right choice, perhaps because certain members made money off same, and you'll have to live with that. Actually, that would be very entertaining.
I tend towards libertarian, but I freely admit that Apple's attitude annoys me, and in this one case I'm looking forward to them having to deal with draconian government regulation. Although, I still think they'll grease the right hands and slip the requirement at the last moment. The interesting thing about overriding government control over everything is that government is just made of people, after all, and people can be corrupted.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.