Universal Phone Charger Approved By UN Body 220
andylim writes "Plans for a universal mobile phone charger have been approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations body. The charger has a micro-USB port at the connecting end, using technology similar to what is commonly used with digital cameras. It is not compulsory for manufacturers to adopt the new chargers, but the ITU says that some have already signed up to it. 'We are planning to launch the universal charger internationally during the first half of 2010,' Aldo Liguori, spokesperson for Sony Ericsson told the BBC."
I hope Apple adopts this (Score:3, Insightful)
Although it is funny to watch all the iPhone users I work with scrabble about sharing one cable at work between them whilst we drown in a sea of standard USB cabling!
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Of course Apple has left the firewire world, so there is no reason to keep the fancy connector except for backward compatibility and to earn licensing fees. I assume that the later will motivate them to maintain the standard, at least for while longer. I do suspe
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Not true at all.
My blackberry Tour has it. My Blackberry Storm had it, and so did my LG Dare.
Definitely not limited to Nokia.
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..and pretty much most, if not all, HTC models produced in the last 4+ years.
OP is very wrong.
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And you're wrong too.
Most HTC phones use mini USB, not micro USB. Here's a photo of both. [usb-mobile-charger.com]
Re:I hope Apple adopts this (Score:4, Informative)
Well, Nokia uses the Micro USB connector. And Sony Ericsson seems to be on board as well.
Just by market share alone [wirelessweek.com] those two make up more than 45% of the world wide market for new phones.
Get any of LG, Samsung or Motorola to sign up for this, and you're looking at more than 50% of the market for new cell phones.
But even with 45% of the market for new phones, it's still a massive incentive for the rest of the market. You could end up with a situation where new phones don't come with a charger, and you pay maybe 10 bucks for a new one if you need it. After all, with 45% of new cell phones needing this kind og charger, that's a huge opportunity for selling them separately.
I, for one, would like to see something similar happen to laptops as well, even though my 95W power brick is over sized for a netbook, it'd be nice not to have to pay a minor fortune to find the right one.
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Oh, don't get me wrong: I think it's a good thing, and I hope this will accelerate adoption. It is, after all, the new USB standard.
I'm just saying that most people don't have micro-USB cables lying around just yet.
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Ehhh, Motorola is also using them already for years. At least my KRZR (two years old) has mini-USB and I'm pretty sure the RAZR is the same.
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Completely wrong. You will find such cables with any old external drive for a laptop floppy drive, digital camera, blackberry, small external mass storage devices, Blackberry and even nerf gun/rocket launchers.
Not sure where you have been for the last 5 years...
mini USB != MICRO USB (Score:2)
You're talking about mini USB That's a different standard.
The UN standard is for micro USB. The micro USB standard was adopted in 2008. It's a different connector.
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Yes, reading the wikipedia page it seems that the micro socket is rated for many many more insertions than the older "mini" socket
On the other hand, I would prefer that my mobile phone in the future didn't have any kind of socket. I want to see induction charging where you just lay it on a charging plate (possibly with other devices at the same time) and just use Bluetooth or whatever for data connectivity.
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Get a Palm Pre with a touchstone today then. No need to wait for the future.
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Except for helping Iran with censorship. Minor details.
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I don't know the story there, but was it no worse than when Google helped China with censorship? To me that was a grey area as it was the better of the two 'evils' in my opinion.
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No, it's just that I didn't think the Google thing was as bad as some people here on /. thought, so because I didn't know much about this Nokia/Iran story, I was using that as a yardstick comparison so that I can judge whether this is as bad as some people think too.
So... in your opinion, was it worse than the Google/China deal?
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Nokia's here in the UK are almost entirely still circular jacks, mostly 3.5mm jacks with a smattering of 2mm jacks. I found a lovely charger that's a 3.5mm with a 3.5-2mm adaptor and I'm making do with it. Still, if the fragile 2mm pin breaks like my last one, I'll definitely be craving a standardised USB one.
Funny, I was under the impression they'd been moving away from the larger jacks for some years. My last Nokia also had a micro USB port but it couldn't charge from it for some odd reason.
ITU, the folk who should run the WWW. (Score:3, Insightful)
This folks is one of the two UN organisations (both older than the UN) who could run the WWW better than ICANN. The other being the Postal Union (UPU or IPU I think they changed their name).
So, there you go, the UN is not just the political shit. The ITU is what means that you can phone from point A to point B, they are the logical choice for control over the WWW and domain name system.
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Cough cough !!!
Since when does ICANN run the WWW ? (and what the heck is "The WWW" ? - No The internet is not *only* about HTML transiting over HTTP thank you..)
But this put aside, I don't think it is the role of the ITU to govern over anything like HTTP, HTML, the Domain Name System (which is only governed by ICANN up to the point where you pick their root servers as a hint).
ITU is about telecommunication. It describes how information gets from point A to point B - and NOT the actual payload.. For example,
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We have got to get this thing under control, people!
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obviously you haven't worked with the itu in the past. they had a whole replacement for the internet worked
out. trees worth of documnets written in languages and metalanugages where the shift was not entirely clear. all
just to describe an ananlogue of tpc/ip
despite is inherent us-centrism i think the ietf did a great job.
Re:ITU, the folk who should run the WWW. (Score:5, Interesting)
Hell, no! ITU has a known history of
a) writing unreadable standards (such as G.711, the a-law, mu-law telephony codec)
b) retarded protocols (H.323, where messages are formatted according to an hierarchy defined in 3+ different standards, and call initiation sequences have so many alternatives that it is common to have two certified H.323 endpoints refuse to talk to each other. Implementing H.323 involves thousands of lines of code. While SIP (a non-ITU protocol) uses text headers similar to email and http, can be understood from a single RFC and can be correctly implemented in a few hundred lines.)
c) favoring patented cash troll codecs such as G.729 instead of similar patent-free ones. (Meanwhile, a lot of international phone traffic is performed in roughly-uncompressed G.711, using 10x the bandwidth because the licensing fees of G.729 are outrageous)
That's ITU for you, and these people should be forbidden from publishing any standard whatsoever.
Re: SIP? a single RFC? LOL! (Score:3, Informative)
Hahahahaha !
SIP a single RFC? Can you imagine the number of SIP related RFCs and associated drafts? SIP WAS simple, it is now a mess. Even if we restrict to RFC 3261, if you can asnwer the following questions you are already a MASTER in SIP:
- what is the difference between request URI and the "To" header? Are they redundant?
- what is the difference between the "Contact" header, the "P-Asserted-Identity" header and the "From" header?
- what is the loose routign mechanism and what is the relationship with the
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Mostly agreed. Still, it is possible to write a SIP endpoint based on a couple of well delimited RFCs (SIP, authentication, RTP), while even decoding the hierarchy of an H.323 message is a mess.
As for the culture of writing in a language developers can't read, and charging for access to standards: if it depended on the ITU the Internet would not exist and sending bits across continents would be considered an expensive technological miracle, much like international phone calls 30 years ago.
Re:ITU, the folk who should run the WWW. (Score:4, Insightful)
1. ICANN doesn't run the www.
2. ITU is incredibly internet-hostile. The ITU's vision of the internet is a closed network run by national telco monopolies where everything is charged for. If they had their way you'd be paying $10,000 for copies of each IETF document.
I wish they had an international charger for all (Score:2)
voltages. You know, without lugging various plugs along and all that.
The closest to this is the humble car charger, but as far as I can tell, sadly airports and hotels I've been at don't have 12v sockets handy (maybe I didn't look hard enough and be wrong). There isn't always access to a car and in a lot of places, you don't exactly want to leave expensive electronics in one.
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The plugs are annoying, but you can literally get a set for under ten bucks. It's usually not that hard to plan ahead and carry the one or two you will need for the countries you're visiting. Practically all phone chargers run on 100-240V, anywhere fom 50-60 Hz (and probably then some!) and all you need is the plug.
Finally (Score:3, Insightful)
It's good to have a standard, pity it's 10 years late. Also, why the hell is this not mandatory?
Re:Finally (Score:5, Insightful)
Because the UN was never given the power to mandate an electronic design. They can offer an opinion (recommendation) but that's it.
Nor should the UN make that grab for power, because once you go down that road, eventually the UN will start mandating what kind of roof you can install on your house. It's bad enough I have Congress telling me how much corn/potatoes I can or cannot grow in my own backyard. They were never granted that power under the Constitution, but since the mid-1930s they've exercised the power. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn [wikipedia.org]
Re:Finally (Score:4, Interesting)
What twisted your mind into thinking, a non-elected group, that is not even remotely connected to the constitutions of the countries in it, and is none of the 3 pillars of a government, would have any jurisdiction in those countries?
That would be totalitarian dictatorship. Plain and simple.
Additionally, where would you go, if that totalitarian global, all-encompassing dictatorship, would happen to not like your views and actions?? There would be not other country to flee to. The concept of asylum would cease to exist.
And you just talked about it, like it were something normal...
I fear for this world...
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It is really that big of deal? I have never really been bothered by a variety of Cell Phone chargers. I get a new phone every 3 or 4 years, my charger that comes with the phone usually lasts longer then the phone. The only charger I had problem with wasn't with the charger but stupid engineering by the part of Motorola where they made the connector on the phone not click in well and make it difficult to get a full charge as it will wiggle out after a few minutes. However even with standard phone chargers
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Where the hose that goes to the toilet doesn't fit the hose that goes to the sink
Did you try USB .... Universal-Sink-Bath connectors. For the toilet, better don't use mini-USB. :-)
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Whew! (Score:5, Insightful)
Because ITU members would otherwise be working on world peace?
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The ITU is a pretty decent organization going back to 1865 with establishment of international standards for telegraphy.
One proposal was to put them in charge of the root name servers. It wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen.
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It probably would be. Within a few years, you could say goodbye to any domain name connected to content that offended anyone or facilitated end-user VoIP. Domain-name registration would cost $1000 and would require thumbprints and photocopies of your passport.
Important (Score:5, Insightful)
Why this was tagged !important is beyond me. This only has plus points! It is a very important step in reducing carbon- and other needless emissions. Imagine how much this saves in copper and other materials! The price of phones and other appliances can go down a small bit because the consumer doesn't have to pay for a charger every time it buys a new one. Packages become smaller so shipping new phones costs less energy. Shops can store more phones in the same space, so the chance that the phone you want is out of stock will become smaller... I could go on and on. This is a giant leap for the environment and the consumer!
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This assumes that the phone manufacturers will stop including a charger in every phone they sell.
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The price of phones and other appliances can go down a small bit because the consumer doesn't have to pay for a charger every time it buys a new one.
This assumes that the phone manufacturers will stop including a charger in every phone they sell.
Uh, just why did you think they were doing this? Most consumers will buy the official charger even if it costs three times as much... and usually, it's at least three times as good... original chargers usually outlast phones :p
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It's not just the "something expensive in a small box", it's to prevent a customer from sneaking a small package into their pocket and walking out with it. It's a lot easier to see a bulging plastic package than something tiny that just wraps the device.
South Korea and China led the way on this (Score:4, Informative)
The Koreans carriers back in late 2005 and China a year later. It's about bloody time - the world needs less junk.
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Yeah. Let's throw away all those proprietary chargers, and buy some new USB ones! Oh, wait...
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How about this? Keep your phone instead of getting the new hotness every year or two, potentially acquiring yet another charger ( proprietary or not )
For fuck's sake people, we managed to cross the oceans, explore uncharted territory, and go to outer space without a cell phone in every pocket.
much as I really support the idea of the standard (Score:3, Insightful)
Mini USB is one of those things that *everyone* has a lead for, they come with cameras and mp3 players and the like. What's better about micro usb?
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I have had 4 digital cameras that have failed after a couple of hundred insertions using mini-USB. I know people who have gone through 3 or 4 Playstation Dualshock 3 controllers as the socket damaged in the same way. The pins usually bend downwards.
Durability (Score:5, Informative)
- Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
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Just because it has the same form factor doesn't make the chargers compatible.
Output power makes a huge difference.
I have chargers going from 300 to 1000 milliamps, and the low powered charges don't work well in higher power draw devices.
Moto nerfed the chargers for some of it's phones by adding a resistor that allows the phone to recognize an "unauthorized" charger.
Universal? (Score:3, Funny)
Universal standard?
Somebody please tell the UN that their jurisdiction is limited to this planet only, and they can't go round telling G'ould, Klimgons, Kzinti, Minbari, Mersians and Moties what to do.
Universal? (Score:2, Insightful)
If it is not compulsory for phone manufacturers to (Score:2)
If it is not compulsory for phone manufacturers to include it, what is the point of approving it?
Why stop at cell phones? (Score:2)
Water resistant. (Score:2)
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My last two digital cameras had mini-usb ports, neither was physically the same.
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My last two digital cameras had mini-usb ports, neither was physically the same.
Then, by definition, they were not mini-usb ports.
Both Micro and MiniUSB jacks are standardized. If your two cameras didn't use a common connector, then there's a good chance that at least one of the two was using a proprietary jack for USB.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Interesting)
Now all we need is a universal standard of (in the words of Douglas Adams) 'little dongly things' for everything else:
http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/980707-03-a.html [douglasadams.com]
'The little dongly things I am concerned with (and they are by no means the only species of little dongly things with which the micro-electronics world is infested) are the external power adaptors which laptops and palmtops and external drives and cassette recorders and telephone answering machines and powered speakers and other incredibly necessary gizmos need to step down the mains AC supply from either 120 volts or 240 volts to 6 volts DC. Or 4.5 volts DC. Or 9 volts DC. Or 12 volts DC. At 500 milliamps. Or 300 milliamps. Or 1200 milliamps. They have positive tips and negative sleeves on their plugs, unless they are the type that has negative tips and positive sleeves. By the time you multiply all these different variables together you end up with a fairly major industry which exists, so far as I can tell, to fill my cupboards with little dongly things none of which I can ever positively identify without playing gizmo pelmanism. The usual method of finding a little dongly thing that actually matches a gizmo I want to use is to go and buy another one, at a price that can physically drive the air from your body...It's hard to imagine that some of the mightiest brains on the planet, fuelled by some of the finest pizza that money can buy, haven't at some point thought 'Wouldn't it be easier if we all just standardised on one type of DC power supply?'...I strongly suspect that if you stuck a hardware engineer in a locked room for a couple of days and taunted him with the smell of pepperoni, he'd probably be able to think of a way of making whatever gizmo (maybe even the new gizmo Pro, which I've heard such good things about) it is he's designing, work to a standard DC low-power supply.'
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The wall-wart contains the circuitry that converts 110vac/240vac to low voltage DC. Killing the wall wart means that same circuitry goes into the device, meaning that devices will now be larger by the size of the wall wart.
More sensible would be to simply make everything charge via USB, as USB is already a low-power DC source, and most low power (say 10W and under) devices can be made to work from it. Future versions of USB could even be made to allow higher current delivery, allowing higher draw devices to
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That way, we wouldn't have that continual problem with running out of usable power outlets because of some fucking wall-wart taking up more than its fair share of space.
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If they standardized the power supply, then you could build it into the wall in the same way we already have standardized high voltage AC power (well, standard for a particular region). In fact, there is enough room on most wall socket panels that you could add something similar to a USB connector on them.
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Informative)
Devices like modem routers though will always have a wall wart, unless you want them to be obscenely large and heavy.
I don't see any real gain from the users point of view in having that bulk and weight in an extra box.
The real reason so much stuff uses wall warts is because it makes the regulatory compliance issues much easier/cheaper to deal with.
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So your last three phones weren't Sony Ericcson models, I gather.
Good for vou!
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Do you have even the slightest idea what the ITU is?
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Well I'm not sure your comment makes a lot of sense, since you can already take your UK based charger (240v, 50Hz) to America and plug it in the nearest wall socket (110v, 60Hz) with a travel adaptor and it will work just fine! This is not a new thing, nearly all PSU's produced in the last 10-15 years have been light switch mode voltage converters rather than the older transformers which were heavy and expensive to make..
Re:Great! (Score:4, Informative)
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Frankly, after reading stories on slashdot, I wouldn't recommend you take a laptop to America anyway but if you did, how were you proposing to charge it without a travel adaptor? Its a different country and there is always going to be some expense
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Uh ?
And how in the world are you going to recharge your laptop if you don't have an adapter ?
Btw.. power socket adapters cost like .99€ a piece (just don't buy them at the airport where they'll probably charge you 20€ for a crappy universal travel adapter).
If you're planning on traveling aboard, I suggest you look a bit ahead and buy a handful of those before you leave. And you don't have top throw them away.. you can use them the next time you go back.. 5€ investment for a lifetime of travel
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(just don't buy them at the airport where they'll probably charge you 20€ for a crappy universal travel adapter).
Don't worry. Someone will find the way to make a terrorist threat out of socket adapters and they'll be forbidden to travel with unless bought sealed at the airport.
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Even better: don't buy the travel adapter for your laptop, but after arriving just ask your host if he has a local power cord lying around (and steal that from him for your next trip :-). Alternatively go to the local electronics store (or dollar store) and buy one, they're two to five bucks.
Which would be the same if you would travel from the UK to let's say Germany or France, all with different wall outlets.
I live in Canada and over the years I've built up a small collection of European power cords. My la
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I have a stinkpad that has three round connectors
You mean a Micky-Mouse :-) plug. Yep, I've got some of those too. Toshiba is using them as well for their (some?) netbooks.
Friend of mine came over from Europe with her netbook and I still could borrow her the right powercord. This time I didn't let her steal it, because I don't have that many.
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You're lucky, not all power supplies have the same input socket.
There are three common ones afaict
the figure eight connector (2 pin 2.5A, seen on laptop PSUs and quite a bit of AV gear)
the "IEC" connector (3 pin 10A, seen on most desktop PCs, monitors, HDTVs etc)
the cloverleaf connector (3 pin 2.5A, seen on laptop PSUs)
In my experiance most stuff that has a detatchable mains lead uses one of the above three connectors
The figure eight and the IEC are very common and I'd think you'd have very little trouble b
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Or... you could just carry a USB-to-microUSB adapter cable, and plug it into the laptop you brought with you, or your American friends' PCs.
Re:Great! (Score:5, Insightful)
Not all phones will recharge this way without extra work. A co-worker and I just had a look at his new Blackberry, which refused to charge from his laptop unless proprietary software was also installed, and it refused to work with a discharged battery until at least 10 minutes after he first reconnected power and it had recharged the battery somewhat. Every other phone or portable device I've worked with worked _immediately_ after providing external power.
Standards are helpful, and I'd love to see a drop in the number of stupid adapters on the shelves of hardware stores and Staples, but amazingly stupid behavior like that Blackberry's can still be layered on top of good standards.
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This is also true for my Palm Centro, I think it does not send the proper amount of juice until the driver is installed...
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Oh, I'm sure the USB device _sends_ the juice: USB specs are well known and maximum voltages and currents cannot be normally exceeded with just software. No, the device is not _accepting_ the juice, probably as part of its need for quick-charge controller cleverness.
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>>>A co-worker and I just had a look at his new Blackberry, which refused to charge from his laptop unless proprietary software was also installed,
>>>
That's frakked up. The whole idea of the Universal (keyword) Serial Buss is to provde a non-proprietary interface and allow devices to retrieve power while connected. It might only be a trickle but it's enough to fill the battery on my iPod, my camcorder, my FM radio, my MP4 player, my external drive, and so on. I'm amazed your phone refus
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Paenblack wrote:
> >Then stop plugging your brand-new Blackberry into a USB v1.1 port.
Nice try. As the confirmation of several other posters shows, it's a problem for several other devices. And no, it's not restricted to a problem with USB 1.1 ports.
Re:Micro-USB? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's just what the current USB standard says a port must provide.
But it doesn't stop a wall charger from providing as much as the cable can bear, which has got to be quite a bit more.
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But if it's a USB connector on the end, it will have to abide by that standard, since the spec says "maximum 5V, 500mA" and this universal connector can then be hooked up to your other device, that is not expecting a non standard voltage across those pins and dies when you plug it in.
The whole point about it being standard is that you can absolutely rely on the specification when you make a product that fits with it - wether that be the width of a rack mount unit, the voltage across 2 pins in a connector, o
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The reason for that requirement is to specify that an USB device can demand at most 500mA of current from the port. So any normal USB device must work with that much, unless external power is provided.
It also makes life much ea
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As long as it is only 5V - continuing the rack mount analogy, greater current from the port is fine, that's like building the rack from a stronger material, but making the rack 19.5" wide so you can fit custom shock absorbers or some other reason breaks the spec irrevocably, requiring spacers for all standard 19" equipment now, or a potential divider between your PSU and device expecting 5V.
Re:Micro-USB? (Score:5, Insightful)
By using micro USB, they did paint themselves in a corner for the 5 volts. However, the current provided has to be a minimum of 500mA according to the USB specs.
Having a power adapter able to supply more than 500mA won't blow up anything since the device should also work within spec and work with a minimum of 500mA.
Chargers being able to supply 5 volts at 2A won't blow up anything and recharge devices four times faster, if required/supported by the device. If not, the device will only take 500mA and the charger just won't be working at its full capacity of 2A.
I wonder if the new phone charger standard mentions a "from 500mA up to X amps" specification or not.
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My original post should have mentioned that only the voltage is a fixed requirement, as long as the minimum current is 500mA per port.
The USB spec defines that minimum current, just as defines a fixed 5V. The problem with such a small voltage is that you really extract a lot of energy, you have to ramp the current up if you want to power more thirsty devices.
It shouldn't affect mobile phones, but a laptop needs a little more juice - 5V at 2 amps isn't really going to cut it, 5 V at 5 amps might, but then yo
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This requires the phone to figure out how much current it can draw. USB has a mechanism for this, but I don't know if it works above 500 mA.
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If you design a phone to be charged at 5V@2,000mA, and plug it into an adapter or USB port which can only provide 5V@500mA, your adapter (or USB port) will soon catch fire, or burn out.
The device has no way to know what current the power supply can provide, and only high-end power supplies have any form of current regulation/overload protection built-in.
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But *voltage* is important. I know that a device will only draw as much current as it needs, even if the PSU can deliver more, but if the device is expecting 5V across the pins and in reality it is 9V or 12V, then it has the potential to damage the device.
I don't think you understand electronics, you MUPPET, current is irrelevant (as long as the PSU can satisfy the demand of the device, ie available I > load I), if the voltage is wrong.
Try putting 48V into a system designed for 12V and see what happens,
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Is there a problem with using USB3 instead?
Re:Finally (Score:5, Informative)
Apple have already signed an agreement and stated they will be using a standard micro-usb socket on the iPhones in the future. I believe Apple will introduce this socket in 2010.
Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE55S1XZ20090629 [reuters.com]
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I wouldn't complain if they did just switch to micro-USB, though. Essentially they trade one socket for which cheap cables are available for another with more ubiquitous cheap cables.
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3.5mm jack?
bluetooth?
They picked the wrong connector? (Score:2)
Oh well, this just means we'll see overpriced micro-mini adapters from Monster Cable with oxygen free dual overhead cam gold plated contacts in every phone store.
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My wife's new phone has a micro-USB port for the charger, but the only way to add data is via a micro-SD card.
My Motorola RAZR V3r is mini-usb, as well as my chi-pod and the digital camera that I use at work. One charger to rule them all, one charger to bind them.
With the seem editor and file manager in moto4lin I can tweak the RAZR as much as I want, as a result of which I have avoided getting a new phone for several years. Motorola doesn't make RAZR anymore, afaik.
Mini-USB is convenient and I wouldn't min
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.and what does this have to do with universal phone chargers?
The linked story was full of popups.
Firefox and Adblock Plus. 'nuff said.
Just remember they're pulling this shit when they start crowing about how many hits they're getting on Bing. They way they're doing it, people don't even have to click on anything to count as a hit.