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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: 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)