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lhsi writes "Members of the European Parliament have backed a regulation for all smartphone devices to use a standardized charger, a Micro USB connector being the favored type (and one that is in use already).
The regulation is still only a draft law and must be approved by Europe's council of ministers. However, that body has already given its informal backing to the law, suggesting it will win final approval.
European member states will have until 2016 to translate the regulation into national laws and manufacturers will then have 12 months to switch to the new design
The reason for this regulation is both to help consumers and to cut down on electronic waste (51,000 tonnes annually)."
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European MEPs Back Single Charger Standard
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I'm not a robot like you. I don't like having disks crammed into me... unless they're Oreos, and then only in the mouth.
-- Fry
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Saturday March 15 2014, @09:13AM
In principle, the idea of having a single, standardized connector is good. Manufacturers (Apple, I'm looking at you) have deliberately exploited incompatibility to milk their customers of a few extra euros. Stupid, short-term thinking.
However, this law will be an albatross in almost no time, as technology moves on. There are already plans for a symmetrical mini-USB connector, and in a couple of years, some other connector will make more sense.
This law will likely still be forcing manufacturers to provide USB compatibility on our quantum nuetrino telephones in 2050, drastically raising manufacturing costs. Any attempt to change it will be met by massive resistance from lobbyists of the adapter-maker-union.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by umafuckitt on Saturday March 15 2014, @01:49PM
I think we're already close to a standard. Many devices nowadays have USB A wall chargers and a cable with mini-USB, micro-USB, or some Apple connector at the other end. We're already almost at the point where we can agree on the charger unit and only need to ship products with device-specific cables. The input port at the device may change, but adaptors can solve this. Heck, even Apple even make a tiny micro-USB to Lightening adaptor. If there is widespread adoption of a future symmetrical mini-USB that is more robust than the current micro-USB, then I reckon such an adaptor could stick around for a good while.
As a side note, I bought a USB A to Nintendo 3DS cable a while ago. This way I can travel with one or two USB A wall adaptors and charge any device but my laptop.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday March 15 2014, @03:37PM
In principle, the idea of having a single, standardized connector is good. Manufacturers (Apple, I'm looking at you) have deliberately exploited incompatibility to milk their customers of a few extra euros. Stupid, short-term thinking.
Apple had one connector for 11 years across it's entire range. It moved wholesale to a far superior connector, better than anything on the market, 3 years before USB-C is likely to see the light of day. Their chargers come as a USB wart and a cable, the USB wart can be reused with any phone.
During that time, other manufacturers moved through dozens of types. Even "USB" connectors come in an assortment of almost-but-not-quite-identical connectors.
I recently moved house. One of my 2 lightning cables has gone missing (along with my slippers!), so I'm sharing it between ipad and phone. It charges from any usb outlet (even the ipad charges off my thinkpad, eventually), and I can easily walk into any shop and get a replacement cable.
My wife's charger for her Samsung POS Android phone also went missing. I found 4 different wall-warts that had some form of USB connector on the back. One of them fit, seemed to charge the phone (it lit up), for a few seconds, but left overnight didn't charge the phone enough to turn on.
I'm sorry, I'm not technically illiterate, but I really can't tell the difference between micro/mini-a/b, and some weird connector my satnav uses which looks like usb.
The Raspberry Pi uses MicroUSB, it's a horrible connector. Aside from the fact it only goes in one way, it's very unreliable (I wish the Pi took POE)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 16 2014, @03:47PM
I agree, it seems to me the EU solved the bulk of the problem a few years back when they passed a non-binding revolution officially endorsing micro-USB as the standard. Within a few years even in the US most phones settled on the standard. Sure there's still a few holdouts, but the tech damage from an extended lock-in is likely to be an issue.
On the other hand perhaps something like a limited-duration 5-year mandate would be effective: get everyone on the same page for a while so that afterwards the proprietary hacks have to break backwards compatibility in order to take things proprietary again.
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Monday March 17 2014, @10:15AM
Fortunately the EU is better at writing rules than you assume. They are not mandating any particular USB connector, just one that is part of that or any future USB standards. For practical reasons most manufacturers will use micro USB, but they could chose full size USB if they wanted to. When the next generation of USB connectors come along they will also be acceptable. The most important aspect is not the connector though, it is the charging current negotiation.
Apple devices won't charge at full rate unless they detect an Apple charger. Other manufacturers check what the charger says is available and then use voltage monitoring to determine the real maximum rate if the charger declines to give a specific number. It's a simple and if not ideal at least well established and tested system.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)