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EU Votes For Universal Phone Charger
SmartAboutThings writes "The European Union has voted in favor of a draft legislation which lists among the 'essential requirements' of electrical devices approved by the EU a compatibility with 'universal' chargers. According to a German MEP, this move will eliminate 51,000 tonnes of electronic waste. The draft law was approved by an overwhelming majority: 550 votes to 12. At the moment, according to estimates, there are around 30 different types of charger on the market, but manufacturers have two years at their disposal to get ready for the new restriction."
That's not a fix. Fox news pundits are on a whole other level from the other network news channels. A level that's reached by UKIP politicians. It's way more irrational than the average network news pundit.
When anyone tries to claim that the other news networks are just as bad as Fox News, it's always good to pull out the fact that the viewers of Fox News are the worst informed people there are. Worse informed even than people who don't watch news at all. That's either the degree to which Fox News pundits are misleading people. Or simply a comment on how ignorant you have to be to watch them.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bus...
It would be worth fixing with a fully open design.
In other words, you accept that it *IS* better, but you are prepared to put up with the currently worse open designs, because they are open. Much as the users of desktop Linux are using an inferior OS on the basis that openness trumps usability for them.
Or it could be fixed with color coding the shell around the connectors.
It would help, but it's still inferior to a design that doesn't need looking at.
At the same time, I don't see a bunch or people ripping their hair out because their house key needs a particular orientation.
Because the keyed side and the smooth side is so very clear, with or without looking. And they use their house key often enough that the up/down orientation of the key is remembered. This doesn't tend to happen with USB plugs of all types. People need to look at both plug and socket to match them up each time.
First of all - Apple's is not a 30 pin for quite some time. Its 8+ground (i think). Also it can be inserted into the phone blindly in either orientation and it os much more rugged than microusb.
Secondly - all the current chargers i know are USB at different amp level. I use the same chargers for charging my old ipad (30 pin), nook (miniusb), iphone (lightning) and headset (microusb) - its just the cables that are different.
Third of all - which people in the US might not realize - is that what the EU government institutions love to do, is regulating stuff. They do it mainly to justify their existence. For instance a couple of years ago some of them decided that home electronic devices had to have an on/off switch. This resulted in the good ole Linksys WRT54G being packaged with a small "switch adapter" that can be connected on the 12V line between tha wall plug and router. Which travelled into the trash on everey single occation. So more e-waste directly because of their regulations.