Europe calls for every phone to use the same charger | Hacker News Reader

Europe calls for every phone to use the same charger

gizmorati.com

15 pointstekplayer19 comments

That's some really shoddy reporting. Shame on you, "Ryan Burgess"! But what else can we expect from a news site that rips off the name from two better ones (Gizmodo and Technorati)?

Original sources instead of badly regurgitated crap:

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-11-75_en.htm

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/2014...

Quote:

> What was the process leading up to a solution?

> To tackle this issue the European Commission gave phone manufacturers an ultimatum in March 2009: to voluntarily adopt a common charger or be subject to mandatory EU legislation. As a result in June 2009, Europe's major mobile phone manufacturers agreed in close co-operation with the Commission services to adopt a common charger for data-enabled mobile phones sold in the EU. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) - signed by 14 manufacturers - committed the industry to provide charger compatibility. In the course of 2011, European consumers will be able to purchase a standard mobile phone charger for all data-enabled phones - including smartphones - sold in the 27 EU Member States.

So everyone except one manufacturer standardised on Micro USB back in 2009. Apple wouldn't play ball, so in order to compel them the directive finally had to be established.

My son's iPhone physically (and probably electrically) fits a USB, but the phone requires that it receive some Apple only signal from the charger, or it refuses to charge. It's one of the reasons his phone is often dead. The regulators need to kill this kind of hostile behavior.

Hopefully they will standardize on something free and open.

"It would seem the charger of choice would be the Micro-USB as of now, though who knows what the next big thing will be."

Forcing everyone to use a government-sanctioned standard is a good way to prevent the next big thing from happening and succeeding.

Yes, every electricity utility company should mandate its own electric plug, and limit you to their model of matching TV and washing machine. Don't ever think of taking your washing machine with you when you move to another state.

Honestly? MicroUSB has been the next big thing. Before, you had to toss out your charger when your phone broke; now you can keep it and don't need to shell out for an extra charger if you have a perfectly servicable one.

Of course, Apple products are special, so you're only good if you buy this: http://store.apple.com/de/product/MD820ZM/A/lightning-auf-mi... (Does this count as the next big thing?)

A lot of appliances don't even come with a cord. You can reuse the cord when replacing an existing appliance.

The main reason why Apple's solution is special is because it is intended to charge both phones and tablets.

The only real problem with it is that it is proprietary and not standard. Other than that, it is clearly superior to MicroUSB.

I feel like this comic is very appropriate: https://xkcd.com/927/

Not really. They're not creating a new standard, but forcing everyone to use the same one; whether it's the best one or not.

I'd like to add that from the perspective of the EU, and I'd say also from the perspective of most citizens, it is irrelevant which charger standard is better.

In the bigger picture, it is much more important that there be only one type of charger, standardized in form and function.

Sometimes, being less of a hassle counterbalances technical shortcomings.

If the average EU citizen is anything like me, somewhere in their living space you can find two bins: One for an assortment of non-interchangable (and in part obsolete) chargers and one for broken headphones.

I can confirm the bin thing.

Finally. I hope this law will be is US, too

Will this commoditize the charger market to the point of more knockoffs?

This won't reduce waste unless chargers are sold separately.

Micro USB isn't already a de facto standard?

Ask Apple.

Like the 30 pin before it lightning is their de facto standard. Which is nice because the cable I got with my air fits my iPhone and will fit my air 3 electric lightness too.

so cool

Finally someone really tackling the big issues of today.

With the help of the state, maybe we can stop headphones from falling out of our ears and put a stop to unopenable plastic packaging!

This seems pretty unenforceable, and Micro-USB seems to be taking over anyway.

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