Micro-USB Cellphone Charger Becomes EU Standard 302
An anonymous reader writes "The European Commission has put into effect a June 2009 agreement stating that major cellphone manufacturers should standardize their charging/data connection ports to the popular Micro-USB format. CEN-CENELEC and ETSI provided the standards by which these 14 companies will abide to make cell phone recharging and data transfer easy." Apple may even bring the next-gen iPad along for the ride.
US (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:US (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:US (Score:4, Insightful)
But, but... the invisible hand of the market?!
(Yes, that was sarcasm).
Re:About damn time. (Score:4, Insightful)
This is so ridiculously obvious that lots of libertarians will scream murder. Forcing a standard down our throat, oh the arrogance! I will only buy phones with a different connector just out of spite!
Re:US (Score:5, Insightful)
Worse, they might corrupt the whole idea by supporting USB, but requiring the charger to authenticate itself, and either refusing to charge or deliberately drawing less power when you detect the wrong charger.
Re:Murtazin is not a "trusted insider" (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not hard to see what will happen there. Nothing. 3rd parties that pay $$$ will get to licence limited access to whatever APIs expose music streaming, volume control etc.
I expect by default that the change in cable will let you charge via a standard cable and preciselessly nothing else.
Re:Here we go again. (Score:3, Insightful)
Considering that they can't even make a standard mini-jack for audio without crippling to only accept their authorized accessories, I would say option 1. If they can't sway enough then option 2 obviously.
Re:And will this allow for innovation still? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sometimes the invisible hand of the market needs a little nudging from the mighty foot of the state.
Re:US (Score:4, Insightful)
Self-organized only because the EU threatened to impose it on them if they didn't do it themselves.