Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
European Commission Moves Forward on Micro-USB Smartphone Charging Standard
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Apple fanboys and girls can not understand the logic in a universal standarded. Everyone sharing the same charging slot/data slot works great.
The standard saying nothing about have other ways of charging the phone as well.
Take for example blackberries. You have 2 choices when charging your phone. You can either use a micro USB port or you can using a blackberry charging dock. Only blackberry phones can use the dock but they all have a microUSB port for charing.
For my 8900 I charge it at night on the dock.
Are you sure there are plenty of cables floating around? I have a ton of USB A to miniUSB cables but not to microUSB. I have miniUSB ones from my camera, a Motorola phone, a Sony Webbie high def pocket video camera, a Canon HDV video camera, and one from an external hard drive sitting in a cup right next to my computer. All are interchangeable to connect any of these devices to a standard USB port on my computer. I don't think I have a single microUSB cable or device in my entire house.
problem with mini USB besides being bigger is it does not last threw as many cycles a micro USB.
But it is easy to find an adaptor for them at least.
Apple Fanboys and girls do understand the logic behind a universal standard...
However, since 2003 we have all standardized on Apple's 30 pin connector.
If you have a third generation iPod cable laying around you can use it.
Will microUSB be around in 7 years, doubt it. In fact I'm willing to bet that it will not be widely used in 3 years.
I personally never travel with a charger, when my iPhone is dying when I'm on the road I just plug it into my computer and 20 minutes later I'm fully charged.
Unfortunately, I doubt Apple would let other manufacturers freely use the dock connector, hence they've gone with micro USB.
limited to only apple devices and Apple already screwed over a lot of people when it stop using the firewire port on its ipods. A lot of people have some very nice equipment that is useless now because apple no longer supports the firewire cables on anything.
As for microUSB 3 years out I am willing to bet it will still be around. Most of the major players (minus Apple) already moved even their dumb phones over to it.
Only the first and second generation iPods had Firewire ports on them.
And the Firewire cable can still be used. I used mine just the other day to help a friend migrate from an old iMac to a new iMac.
As far as Apple not supporting Firewire, what exactly are you talking about?
Apple's current line of computers (except the Air and MacBook) support Firewire. Maybe you're not familiar with what a Firewire jack looks like?
For the last 18 months, several brands of portable hard drives, cameras and phones have been shipping with microUSB. So long as Apple uses an adapter like the one shown on the previous page (although likely it will be a much simpler piece of plastic and not feature a line-out port) most Apple users won't notice any difference to what they have now. Yes, it will be a pain if you forget your charger and none of the other 'standard' chargers will work as you don't have your microUSB-30pin adapter. But, as many people have commented - "The 30-pin connector is everywhere."
Getting slightly off-topic here now...
A standard charging port can only be a good thing. There's no downsides to this requirement as Apple can still have their dock connector too. Given all the bleating that Apple does about their environmental credentials, I'm sure they'll go as far as possible to ensure that universal chargers can be used to charge their devices. It's the right thing to do if they wish for their environmental standing to remain legitimate.
This topic has reminded me about something that happened a few months ago in my office. Someone forgot to charge their smartphone (I think a Blackberry) and was looking for a charger. They needed microUSB. There were plenty of folks in the office with miniUSB chargers, but very few with microUSB. I was able to pull out a microUSB charger that I had for charging a bluetooth headset, but unfortunately, it didn't provide enough power (180mA).
Anyways, my point is that if it was an iPhone, there would have been plenty of folks with a spare 30-pin sync cable. If it were miniUSB, there were several chargers and a few miniUSB-fullUSB cables that could have worked with a powered USB hub or something.
I still think mandating the connection on the device side is counterproductive. Potentially, it can limit innovation. Just standardize on using the sync cable as the charge cable and standardize on a USB-power plug. Full size USB is everywhere.
ft
Anyways, my point is that if it was an iPhone, there would have been plenty of folks with a spare 30-pin sync cable. If it were miniUSB, there were several chargers and a few miniUSB-fullUSB cables that could have worked with a powered USB hub or something.
I still think mandating the connection on the device side is counterproductive. Potentially, it can limit innovation. Just standardize on using the sync cable as the charge cable and standardize on a USB-power plug. Full size USB is everywhere.
ft
Potentially, it could give Apple an excellent way out of their aerial problem without requiring a loss of face: simply put the micro-USB socket where the offending side seam is, and the problem is solved.
I've been thinking about the environmental aspect of this regulation. I think the downside of mandating microUSB is too great a cost considering an alternative has virtually the same environmental impact.
The alternative is to ensure that the sync cable is also the charge cable. One end of the sync cable can be whatever manufacturers want to use (miniUSB, microUSB, 30-pin, lightpeak, whatever). The other end would be full sized USB.
The "universal" charger can then be a small plug with a full sized USB receptacle and the appropriate electrical plug. I'll call this a UPA (USB Power Adapter).
With the EU's regulation, smartphones will come with a sync cable and a separate microUSB charger.
It's the same amount of parts. Heck I surmise that you'd be able to phase out including a UPA far sooner than you could phase including a microUSB charger ... just based on the sheer number of existing standard USB ports that are capable of charging in current use.
Aside - the cynic in me would like to follow the money trail to see if USB royalties are involved here.
Problem with your example is that ONLY ones Apple products. The only part that your friend ran into is the mini USB is being phased out by makers like RIM.
I do not think any other cell manufactures really even started using the mini USB.
suggest you look more into it.
Often what are you seeing is now they are providing a syncing cable and then a plug that goes into the wall. You now to plug your sync cable into the USB port on the wall.
The best thing about universal charger is you do not have to throw away all your back up chargers or car chargers. Instead you have 1 car charger than can last threw multiple phones.
Another thing is something I did when I shared a phone with my mom is when I went home to visit I did not even bother packing a charger. I would just use my mom's.
Last edited:
actually, the guy in my story needed a microUSB. There were plenty of miniUSB chargers available, as well as a couple miniUSB cables that could have been used.
As for Apple being the only ones using a different port ... I guess that's Apple's problem. Luckily for Apple, there are many products other than iPhones that use the 30-pin connector. Sure, they all happen to be made by Apple, but that's besides the point. I'm guessing that most folks with iPhones would be able to get away with just bringing along a 30-pin syncing cable and being able to find either a USB port or someone with a UPA. Especially since (according to you - I admit, I'm not up on what other OEMs provide) most smartphones come with a UPA (USB Power Adapter).
Besides, I'm not against the "universal" aspect of the regulation. What I'm against is that microUSB can limit innovation in future smartphones.
Let's all agree that smartphone consumers want smaller, thinner, lighter, more efficient, more powerful devices in the future. If the OEMs have to put a microUSB for charging, they'll likely use it for syncing as well. Hmm, now what about getting video output ... can microUSB be used for 1080p output? What about other uses for ports that consumers don't even know they want?
The point is that valuable space is being taken up on the outside and inside by a single port that has limited use.
OK, I get this point. Heck, when my wife and I were getting new phones, I insisted we make sure that we get ones that had the same charging interface (in this case, miniUSB).
But since smartphones are all being shipped with UPAs, then all you'd have to bring is your own sync cable. It's not that big a deal.
Incidentally, has the EU stated what the intent of the regulation is for? Is it for protecting the environment? Or is it for consumer convenience?
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)
How many people charge their devices one at a time? I rarely ever do. Even if I have the same connector on all my devices, I still wouldn't be able to ditch any of my chargers. Plus, I always carry around the only charger I need: a USB to 30-pin connector and a wall charger.
At the end of the day, the heart of the issue is: How much freedom are you willing to lose before they've gone too far? Wake up europe, they won't stop here. Wether or not you agree with this legislation, you can't be so blind as to not see where your part of the world is headed.
How many people charge their devices one at a time? I rarely ever do. Even if I have the same connector on all my devices, I still wouldn't be able to ditch any of my chargers. Plus, I always carry around the only charger I need: a USB to 30-pin connector and a wall charger.
At the end of the day, the heart of the issue is: How much freedom are you willing to lose before they've gone too far? Wake up europe, they won't stop here. Wether or not you agree with this legislation, you can't be so blind as to not see where your part of the world is headed.
There are far more devices out there than there are Apple devices, so having 30 pin connectors isn't going to be a lot of use for the majority of people. The 30 pin adapter is only a standard for Apple and no one else. If you want only to use 30 pin connectors then only buy Apple.
The world does not revolve around Apple, no matter what people think on these forums. Sound harsh, maybe, but its reality.
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/09/301
All of what you said - electronic waste, which brings consumer convenience.
Last edited:
Again, what freedom am I losing here?
I'm gaining a market where different companies can produce a charger that works with any phone.
If you mean that we're headed to a place where companies can't get away with charging £25 for a product that others sell for £5 then I'm all for it.
You make it sound like Hitler did this in the 1930s.
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for my 30-pin dock connector
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Micro USB Connection List:
+5 V
USB Data −
USB Data +
Signal Ground
Signal Ground
Apple Dock Connection List:
Ground (-)
Audio and Video ground (-)
Line Out - R (+) (Audio output, right channel)
Line Out - L(+) (Audio output, left channel)
Line In - R (+)
Line In - L (+)
unknown
Composite video output
S-Video Chrominance output
S-Video Luminance output
Serial GND
ipod sending line, Serial TxD
ipod receiving line, Serial RxD
NC
Ground (-)
USB GND (-)
NC
3.3V Power (+) Stepped up to provide +5V DC to USB on iPod Camera Connector.
+12V Firewire Power 12V DC
+12V Firewire Power 12V DC
Accessory Indicator/Serial enable
FireWire Data TPA (-)
USB Power 5 VDC (+)
FireWire Data TPA (+)
USB Data (-)
FireWire Data TPB (-)
USB Data (+)
FireWire Data TPB (+)
FireWire Ground
FireWire Ground
If the dock connector still has Firewire Power capabilities built into it (or maybe it doesn't, but the list above implies that it does), why don't the old iPod chargers work on newer iPods and iPhones? I have quite a few of them lying around, the iPods they came with are long dead. It's such a shame the chargers can't be used as spares for new equipment.
I hate the idea of throwing them away, partly because they still work, but mostly because they'll sit in a hole in the ground (said holes are becoming few and far between) for the rest of eternity.
Looking forward to the EU to putting an end to the engineered redundancy of perfectly good equipment just because manufacturers want you to buy more of their stuff and to reduce the amount of waste we all end up generating. Nokia have been particularly bad at this- I use Nokias at work and every time I need a new handset, the charger has a slightly different sized prong.
+5 V
USB Data −
USB Data +
Signal Ground
Signal Ground
Apple Dock Connection List:
Ground (-)
Audio and Video ground (-)
Line Out - R (+) (Audio output, right channel)
Line Out - L(+) (Audio output, left channel)
Line In - R (+)
Line In - L (+)
unknown
Composite video output
S-Video Chrominance output
S-Video Luminance output
Serial GND
ipod sending line, Serial TxD
ipod receiving line, Serial RxD
NC
Ground (-)
USB GND (-)
NC
3.3V Power (+) Stepped up to provide +5V DC to USB on iPod Camera Connector.
+12V Firewire Power 12V DC
+12V Firewire Power 12V DC
Accessory Indicator/Serial enable
FireWire Data TPA (-)
USB Power 5 VDC (+)
FireWire Data TPA (+)
USB Data (-)
FireWire Data TPB (-)
USB Data (+)
FireWire Data TPB (+)
FireWire Ground
FireWire Ground
If the dock connector still has Firewire Power capabilities built into it (or maybe it doesn't, but the list above implies that it does), why don't the old iPod chargers work on newer iPods and iPhones? I have quite a few of them lying around, the iPods they came with are long dead. It's such a shame the chargers can't be used as spares for new equipment.
I hate the idea of throwing them away, partly because they still work, but mostly because they'll sit in a hole in the ground (said holes are becoming few and far between) for the rest of eternity.
Looking forward to the EU to putting an end to the engineered redundancy of perfectly good equipment just because manufacturers want you to buy more of their stuff and to reduce the amount of waste we all end up generating. Nokia have been particularly bad at this- I use Nokias at work and every time I need a new handset, the charger has a slightly different sized prong.
Nokia only has 2 charger sizes, the old chunky round charger and the new smaller round charger!
I've had 3-4 different sizes from Nokia over the years. Not a huge deal but quite annoying. Has been probably 3 years since I had to replace a Nokia...
You must be talking a lot of years as for the last 10 years at least there's only been 2 different sized Nokia chargers!
Yes, I've been using them at work for more than 10 years!
... I'd still like to know why the Firewire iPod chargers won't charge a modern iPod / iPhone...