Hooray! Cell phone chargers to be standardized!

The GSM Association recently led an initiative to standardize cellphone power connectors, which will lead to - oh, joy! - universal phone chargers! This is a very good thing for everyone concerned, and users especially - once this initiative is acted on, any charger anywhere will work for your phone. If you're running low on juice at work, you'll no longer have to seek out a coworker with the same type of phone - anyone at all who has a charger can help. And since the standard will be based on Micro USB, you don't even need a power brick - just a cable to plug into your computer's USB port. "Power-boosting" products and car chargers will no longer have to be made in many flavors, and all chargers will be changed from high-price accessories to low-price commodities. And of course, this initiative is Green, too - keeping your charger from phone to phone to phone keeps old chargers out of landfills. Heck, phones will probably stop being shipped with chargers by default - less stuff, happier planet. In a shout-out to The Office, it's "win-win-win!"
[via PC World]

2 comments:

Tamlyn said...

"Heck, phones will probably stop being shipped with chargers by default."

Indeed, just like ipods, which also charge off USB, no longer come with chargers.

But why stop at phones? All electronics should charge off USB. I really don't understand why, even though every digital camera has a USB port, I've never found one that uses it for charging.

Dave Gustafson said...

Good point, Tamlyn - I never even thought about camera charging via USB, but it seems so obvious! Plug in the camera, get your photos, and juice it up all in one motion. Beautiful!