Slashdot Mirror
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."
What phones don't simply use the micro or mini USB cable and 500ma? iPhone 5?
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Apple will do what they want and get away with it like usual.
"This is a backwards step because imposing a single charger stifles innovation, curbs research, and may impose extra costs on the consumer. The alternative and better action is to encourage diversity, competition and greater development..."
Seriously? How much "diversity" and "innovation" do you need in terms of a charger?
Why do they think this is a matter for governments to decide?
That is, please force everyone else to use Micro USB. 75% of my devices already use it. It's only a handful of special snowflakes that don't.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_External_Power_Supply
Cue XKCD "15 Standards".
Between their mothers and the fuckers of their mothers, these motherfuckers don't know which end is up and how to get their collective heads out of each other's collective asses.
What a bunch of useless, time wasting, circle jerking, cocksucking, cum swapping pieces of stink.
Forcing people to STOP INNOVATION, forcing people to have a particular MONOPOLISED idea of a product, PREVENTING COMPETITION, destroying choices, preventing consumers from having choices..........
So if tomorrow somebody comes up with a new type of a device and they had an idea to provide a different type of a charger that is not based on the same technology, now they cannot.
Fuck them, the corrupt pieces of shit that they are. Good intentions can go fuck themselves. People are not supposed to be slaves of these dictator rulers, as they perceive themselves. Let's just wait for the inevitable economic demise of that conglomerate.
MY OTHER COMMENTS
What the chances the likes of Apple will even comply, when they can probably just pay the fines/whatever and still make profit on their shitty special snowflake chargers?
And if they do, what are the chances they'd modify their North American models to be the same?
I'm glad we will finally come to a universal charger... now we just have to design one. We now have around 31 different types of charger on the market.
Or will consumers have to keep bowing down to *insert big software/hardware company here* ex. microsoft or google or apple, etc.
Correct me, but didn't they set USB Mini as the default years ago? Or how was that different compared to this?
Also, While they are at it they should do something on the print-ink field too.
Seemed simple at first. Everyone can just go with micro USB, right?
Then I realized that batteries are getting bigger (and able to handle faster charge rates), and it's way, way past due for cell phones to start supporting USB3.
So can they make two standards, USB2 micro and USB3 micro?
Also, here's the original EU press release: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/...
I don't see any mention of a specific standard...?
Please help metamoderate.
Most phones except for the American Company Apple uses a Micro USB.
Now the question is are these just chargers or do they do more. Would whatever standard they come up with have limitations. So say in the future it could take days to charge your phone, or force the ability for invention of a more convent, safer, or better technology from coming up due to regulation to supposedly save on garbage.
Which is rather laughable. Because almost every phone maker will give you a means to charge your phone, if give you a phone without a charger they will put themselves in the path of complaints about giving the customer a product that isn't fully functional and having to go buy something else just to keep it running.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
You still get a charger with every phone... I don't see how this will eliminate 51000 tonnes of waste. It will likely create more, seeing how quickly micro usb connectors break (fortunately very easy to replace).
For some reason I thought the current almost-everyone using microUSB cable was exactly such a requirement form Europe, but that they had for some reason let Apple out of it. And that's why new Samsungs use the microUSB instead of their previous custom connector on my old texting feature phone for example. I'm happy to see a real standard being done, at the same time as I'm surprised that this requirement is new news.
I hope you enjoy your life of buying $70 chargers that work with exactly one device and break down every 2 months.
While not a big fan of government regulation, I think this would help both consumers and businesses and the environment. I have DOZENS of chargers and almost every other new gadget I get has a different and unique charger.
I can't think of a really good reason for every device not to be using micro USB ports for charging at this time. I have seen a few tablets that wouldn't charge off a micro USB port but they are few. And I bought one of these once, and it was a great tablet but I would not have bought it knowing it wouldn't charge off the micro USB port.
Why is there a need for this proposal? Most phones can already draw power from any USB charger or a computer.
If it was up to me, they would all have to use the orginal v1 USB port size (rectangular, about 1cm wide, maybe 0.3cm tall).
Tired of all these different [censored] mini-USB shapes, and the minis are all too fragile!
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
Apple can still keep there existing connector for charging. Only at the pack end keep it as a micro usb or what ever just provide a change over lead not f:;($ difficult to implement at all.
The fact that you must use a universal charger in no way prevents you from providing another separate charging method. Yes, it might drive up costs, but every design innovation does. If something comes along that is that much better for charging, it will be worth trading off other features.
This is what the European Union really does - they set standards so stuff works all over Europe, across borders and across vendors. Like GSM phones. In the past, over 20 years they moved the 220V and 240V countries to 230V. That was completed in 2003. Trying to get the whole EU to use the same AC power plug, though, was not successful.
Ooh, talking points! Let me try! Wait. OK, I've got it!
Every one of the world's mysteries can be explained by proper understanding of the Elvis Factor.
Man, there's a lot of unexplained phenomenon
out there in the world.
Lot of things people say
What the heck's going on?
Let me tell ya!
Who built the pyramids?
ELVIS!
Who built Stonehenge?
ELVIS!
Yeah, man you see guys
walking down the street
pushing shopping carts
and you think they're talking to Allah,
they're talking to themself.
Man, no they're talking to ELVIS!
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You know whats going on in that Bermuda Triangle?
Down in the Bermuda Traingle
Elvis needs boats.
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Now that would be a reliable connector, more power than piddly USB, and it would lead to widespread adoption of power-over-ethernet. win-win-win.
You are not familiar with the clowns on MSNBC and CNN...
are perfect angels that can run society.
It is voluntary. Most manufacturers chose to participate, others have not.
he has the choice. looks like soon he will not.
Shut up, roman_mir. I've never met a religious man as fanatical as you. Even when you have a good idea about something, you express yourself so badly that you embarrass all those who might agree with you.
(And factually wrong, as usual. This mandates availability of a particular charging standard, not exclusivity.)
I misunderstood your post. I meant that charger with USB cable was voluntary. Apple "worked around" the micro usb port on the phone requirement with an adapter...
Over the last decade, everyone has already standardized on USB as the default. Everything I need to charge can be charged off a USB port, and I only need 2 different cables, one for my wife's iPod, and a micro USB for everything else.
The reason this is a terrible idea, is that when someone does come up with a better connector (for example, Apple's Lightning connector), they may not be able to produce/sell it because the standard has already been set. As usual, the EU is late to the party and trying to solve a problem that's already been solved, while potentially causing problems for the future.
I hate having to try one way to plug in the cable, then flip it over, then flip it over again before finally getting it right. (It's more challenging than it sounds with a baby in one arm). That's one thing Apple got right.
I think its quite good decision in short run, since it will kill all those weird connectors with no merit to them aside from being unique and driving charger sales for manufacturer. On the other hand in the long run its bad, since it actually hampers ("why bother if we have to put usb anyway") or even completely blocks some possible innovation (eg wirelessly charged waterproof phone with no external connections at all).
IMO the best course would be to keep this legislation for a several years (5-10) to get everyone to standardize and then repeal it. Given its EU though, I expect we are stuck with those connectors long after it will become completely obsolete...
I have a cell phone which is neither dumb nor smart but inbetween, and I can't get the pictures out of it (it has a webcam) or music into it. The memory card is proprietary micro "memory stick" (ha!), I don't have a bluetooth module on my PC, the one thing I can plug it in is the mains charger : power only, not data transfer.
Such a pain in the ass! (sending or configuring MMS doesn't seem to work)
I'm stuck with a useless webcam, sure I could order a bluetooth module or a special cable but it's an extra expense and hassle. Yes the phone is a bit old but looks about five year old.
If the EU mandates USB, and if the phone has a webcam, it would be nice that I can get these damn pictures out of a phone and onto my PC so I can look at them or send them by e-mail. i.e. mandate USB storage access (or SD card at least) if the cell phone has a webcam.
Why do they think this is a matter for governments to decide?
Same reason each country has a standard railroad track, a standard power outlet, etc. Letting industries decide on mutually incompatible standards largely serves to lock in consumers and also creates great inefficiencies in the economy due to incompatbility. Standardization would allow business like cafes & airports to offer charging solutions that fit all their customers, and it would produce less physical waste.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Is it not the case that the connector on the device is irrelevant?
If device suppliers provide device > charger cable according to what they need the device to support then all that needs to be standardised is the output from the wall transformer ... Which funny enough on most device chargers happens to be a USB socket... Another case of the EU mandating change when it's not required.
What they should be saying when you purchase a device is "do you need a wall adaptor or not?" and make it £20 cheaper without one.
While I like the idea of easy to swap chargers, I don't really like the idea of the government mandating it.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
every 9 years or so.
I have used iPods with the dock-connector, the original iPhone and every iPhone and iPad up to the iPhone 5s now. I collected a pile of chargers and cables and they all are used, still. I'm sure that the charger of my very first iPhone is used everyday. There is no better investment into cables and chargers I have made within the last decade. Similar, but not as good, with the Powerbooks. Most of the chargers have had a very long life, and my very first Magsafe-Charger is still in use, daily. I have no use for the original Powerbook Charger anymore, though.
I own an assorted set of non-Appe tablets (currently Thinkpad T2, Nexus 7) and from daily use (they are fine devices for some uses) I'm very confident to have gathered enough datapoints to say:
"mini/micro-USB2/3 for a mobile phone or tablet on the device-side sucks. It's stupid and clumsy and everybody arguing that Apple should go USB (on the phone) is stupid, too, and most likely does not own such a device but just want's cover up a pychological deficite. Micro-USB-3 is just a really pathetic joke."
Don't force my to use the shit that you consider sufficient and I promise to keep quiet and use my chargers for years over years.
And now please have a look at
Apple vs. Samsung: A Decade Of Proprietary Connectors
http://www.cultofmac.com/19077...
The UBA (Universal Business Adapter).
I read it as:
EU Votes For Universal Phone Charger
The draft law was approved by an overwhelming majority: 550 volts to 12.
Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated up.
I wish DIN would make a standard specification for cordless power tool battery attachment. It'd be nice to be able to interchange brands with batteries and tools.
This is socialism, we don't want socialism, the EU is a bunch of communists. We aren't free here in Europe, the government regulates everything in sight, we should follow the American model or emigrate en masse to the US. -- Absinthia Stacy
You are high and I claim my 5 bitcoins.
By the time this gets implemented, every mobile device will be using a universal inductive charger.
In C++, your friends can see your privates.
I don't understand why greedy companies like Apple and Microsoft resist this. It means they can sell a phone/tablet etc. without a charger and cable, which lowers production (less material used to manufacture), storage (smaller box) and shipping (lower weight) costs.
If every device you buy includes a cable as a standard accessory then this legislation will do nothing to reduce waste. People will still end up with excess cables after they've discarded their old devices despite the fact that their new device could work with their old cable. Unless they are willing to also legislate the end of new cables being included with each new purchase nothing will change.
I think part of the problem has to do with charging standards. There is a standard for USB charging. The problem is Apple doesn't follow it and has their own standard. I can't count the number of adapters I have bought where my phone won't charge properly because they follow the Apple "standard" rather than the USB standard. I have had a hell of a time finding a car charger that follows the USB standard. Almost all of them follow the Apple standard. My phone has actually gone dead plugged in to these chargers. I have to open them up and modify them to follow the USB standard. This basically involves shorting the two data pins together and removing a couple resistors. About the only thing Apple has in common with USB charging is the connector since they do not follow the USB charging standard.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
who voted against. Who are they? Why?
So, goodbye to electric vehicles in the EU, unless they can be charged with your phone charger? Even at the smaller scale I'm not sure this is thought out, the articles mention '10" phablet' so presumably from now on I have to pay more for my phone charger than a lower end phone itself. Rather than one charger to rule them all, I'd expected there to be at least different amperage levels provided. And what about wireless chargers? It'll be interesting to see how devices get around this...
For manufacturing side this makes things interesting; true there are no Nokia's or Apple's of the charger world and even up until now chargers may have had little difference beyond the plugs on either end of the thing, but this seems to remove the option for at least that much differentiation and segmentation. With old chargers no longer becoming junk it's clear the market it cut down into fraction of what it used to be too, so perhaps we'll see only one or two charger manufactuers.
The last thing I want is some politician locking me in to some similar BS desgn.
Got it, loud and clear.
So who, other than a politician, do you want locking you into a similar BS design, because you're going to get a BS design, whether you want one or not.
"We have established what you are, madam. We are now merely haggling over the price." -- G.B. Shaw
I think manufacturers might willingly omit cables from their products, like we see with printers. One effect of standardizing chargers is that everyone will just buy cheap generic chargers from China. (as opposed to expensive brand name chargers from China)
Regular USB will do 10 watts, 5 volts 2 amps. My Samsung phone uses just such a charger. Need more? The USB Power Delivery standard, which needs different cables, will handle up to 100 watts, that being 20v 5a.
USB PD was standardized in July 2012 so it has been around for awhile.
You can get 10 watts over it, no issue. All the new high end Samsung phones come with a 5v 2a charger that is nothing special. 10 watts is more than plenty for phone devices. That is enough to run the device at full bore and to still have power left over to charge. You wouldn't want a cellphone that could draw more than that, it would have next to no battery life.
I'd be fine with a connector that is better, if someone wants to work up and introduce a standard, meaning an open standard the whole industry can use (like USB). But I'm not buying the bullshit of needing proprietary connectors because of power requirements. No, not for handheld devices. USB is fine. Use it, or introduce a better standard.
So expect Apple to provide a power-only micro-usb charger port on their devices, and it will be a slow charge... But still requiring their proprietary port for data / sync, which happens to also allow fast charging.
Which one would the apple sucker use? The proprietary port, of course.
in other news Europe discovers the usb port.
I have never received a lightning to usb adaptor with any Apple product in the last three years - you can BUY one but that's not the same.
You just know that Apple will continue to use a proprietary connector. I also wouldn't be surprised if they concoct some bullshit reason to put a chip into the cable that hobbles charging unless you happen to use an Apple authorised charger.
Transformer infinity tablet draws enough power that its needs more juice. They do it by putting in a double voltage charger. The tablet detects its plugged into its own charger and enables the double-voltage mode. On a regular USB charger it will slowly discharge unless its turned off to charge. Likewise the charger puts out regular USB voltages normally unless it receives the command from the Infinity tablet.
So if this directive is limited to ONLY phones and we never need another charger that's great, but what if some new technology comes along that needs a different charger? For example a super capacity comes along that takes 10 seconds to charge but needs a heavy duty charger?
You've legislated away innovation.
Why should we have a one size fits all charger? Why should a power efficient phone that needs 50ma to charge, come with a charger that delivers an amp!!
We're talking legislation here. Not only legislation, but legislation governing the largest single market in the world: one fifth of the global economy measured by GWP. There's no question of the EU "having to show" anything, if it chooses to ignore the inevitable Apple lobbying. The result may be good or bad (legally or technically) - but it will still be law. Apple can choose to comply, or to stop selling in the EU. Guess which they'll do.
Yes.
But that was since 2009 the same parliament made a threat to pass such a ruling. Back then, all phone manufactures "voluntarily" agreed on using USB as standard charging plug until 2013. So this is just the next step, but manufacturers now have a chance to agree on some other standard (if neccessary)
So without this story, phones today would not have USB connections for charging.
bickerdyke
In the future, we're going to invent some fancy new charger, and it won't comply with the EU, and that small company will go under.
Idiots who support this: Why is cable clutter, aka a minor annoyance, worth killing innovation in this field?
now go back in time and tell the USB kids to use 12v instead of 5v.
You put it in, and it doesn't fit, so you turn it over.
You put it in again, it doesn't fit, so you turn it back over.
Now it fits.
That's because USB connectors have a quantum spin of 1/2!
Oh, and http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id...
But i think apple and other companies already followed that technology a while back.
Amy
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