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European Commission Moves Forward on Micro-USB Smartphone Charging Standard

WestonHarvey1 said:
You're embarrassed to live in a country that doesn't control every aspect of everyone's lives and businesses down to the most minute detail? Wow.

Don't worry, we'll be there soon.
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Yeah, you really should be proud to live in a country where businesses control every aspect of your lives...

It's so funny that the so-called leading democracy seems to consist of a population that does not even remotely grasp the concept of freedom or that certain rules are brought in place to protect the interests of people that ultimately have to pay for everything. As in this insignificant case where your favorite toy producer - Apple - is forced to implement a standard that is only there to protect its customers from being forced into buying expensive, proprietary equipment. But I know - most Americans really do believe that what's good for ONE company must be good for everybody...
 
You folks across the pond need to learn how to spell "Standardization".

Why? Because without our help, you wouldn't have won the war, that's why!

:cool:

Next up... switching everyone else from meters to feet. (Why? Same reason!)
:p
 
aristotle said:
So you would suggest abandoning the 30 pin connector because you personally only use it to sync and charge? That's nice. other people use it for other things like audio, control of the iPhone/iPod via car controls and video output. You can interface the dock connector to VGA and HDMI adaptors as well as component or composite video. How would you do that with USB?

The beauty of the 30 pin connector is that it can be made to work with future standards like USB 3 or something completely different whereas a USB port is pretty limited.
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Yes abandon it because there's alternatives, like streaming over bluetooth for audio. Now that they've unlocked A2DP controls I can change tracks in my car from my headunit.

And how many people are using their dock connector to display hdmi/vga? What % of the market would you say does this?
 
adding an Adaptor will be fine with Apple....they have Apple Adaptors for my monitors I use with the Mac Mini.

Seems the 30-pin connector is more useful than the Micor-USB (or so I am reading). If you want to use the 30-pin you can if you want to use the adaptor for another charger you can.

overall not a big deal.
But what about the phones that people are replacing...do they just end up in the landfill? I donate my old phones to non-profits or to groups like abused women who need phones. When I donate the phone I throw in the charger!!
most times I keep the box and package it all nicely together.
 
ftaok said:
No, the other end will still be the regular USB. The requirement for micro-USB is that the phone has a micro-USB (or compatible) port. What Apple will likely do is include a male 30-pin by female-microUSB adapter in Europe. This way, folks in Europe would be able to use a "universal" micro-USB charger. The adapter connects to the iPhone, and the universal charger would connect into the adapter.
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No, from what I gather, the requirement is for the other end of the cord, not the phone end.

In other words, you buy a device to plug your phone charge cable into and it has standard micro USB.

Well perhaps I'm wrong on this but that was my understanding of the new standard.
 
Here's what I think we'll end up with from Apple as a result of the EU charger standard.

A 30-pin dock connector to micro USB adapter and a micro USB to USB-A cable.
 
Here's my two cents.

If we're talking about chargers and charging, which is the idea of this EU regulation, then what's being proposed is a little backwards.

How about standardizing on the connection on the power plug instead of the one on the phone? The way apple does it is they include with every iPhone, a syncing cable that is 30-pin on one end and male-USB on the other. An included power plug has a female-USB on the one end and the appropriate electrical plug on the other end.

Since smartphones typically need to sync to a computer, let the phone manufacturers use whatever connection they want on the phone side, as long as the sync cable has a standard USB plug on the other end that can be used for charging.

That way, you can charge your phone(s) using the included USB-power plug, a USB-car adapter, the USB port on your computer, or a USB port on a powered hub.

At some point, stop including the USB-power plug with the phone. Just include a syncing cable.

What's the advantage of this? Well, it let's manufacturers innovate on the device side. For instance, Apple can then choose to design the iPhone as they see fit. They don't have to decide between an adapter in the box (very kludgy), vs. the extra space required to put a micro-USB port in addition to the 30-pin connector.

Doesn't this make more sense? Or am I way off on this one?

ten-oak-druid said:
No, from what I gather, the requirement is for the other end of the cord, not the phone end.

In other words, you buy a device to plug your phone charge cable into and it has standard micro USB.

Well perhaps I'm wrong on this but that was my understanding of the new standard.
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Hmmm. Perhaps your interpretation is correct. It still doesn't make sense to make the power plug be microUSB. How many computers have a microUSB port? How many have a regular USB port?

As far as I know, there's no advantage to using microUSB on the power plug, since the electric prongs are going to determine the size of the power plug anyway. Why not make it regular USB and be done with it? That way, the syncing cable (which is going to be regular USB) can be used for power/charging? Otherwise, there's gonna be two cables in the box, one for charging and one for syncing, unless you have a y-cable that has both USB plugs.

???????
 
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Winni said:
Yeah, you really should be proud to live in a country where businesses control every aspect of your lives...
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I feel bad for people that let businesses, material things and the media control every aspect of their lives. It's unfortunate that many do. Nor do I feel the government should be able to do the same by law.
 
Gemütlichkeit said:
Yes abandon it because there's alternatives, like streaming over bluetooth for audio. Now that they've unlocked A2DP controls I can change tracks in my car from my headunit.

And how many people are using their dock connector to display hdmi/vga? What % of the market would you say does this?
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Yeah, because there's NO degradation of quality when you send audio over bluetooth. Enjoy all those lossless audio tracks you put on your iPod when the bluetooth adapter compresses the hell out of them before transmission...
:rolleyes:
 
The 30-pin connector is good because its width helps docking, and also includes more than just USB data conductivity. Maybe Europe should adopt the 30-oin connector as the standard :) At least Apple can comply with just a cable change, cool!
 
Gemütlichkeit said:
Yes abandon it because there's alternatives, like streaming over bluetooth for audio. Now that they've unlocked A2DP controls I can change tracks in my car from my headunit.

And how many people are using their dock connector to display hdmi/vga? What % of the market would you say does this?
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Wow. So now you expect alarm clocks, stereos and other devices to include bluetooth, a portable device technology just to play music from an iOS device?

Anyone who travels with their iPhone or iPad and wants to either use it to present via a projector or watch their movies in their hotel room on an LCD TV will want to have either VGA or HDMI adaptor support. Why do you think Appple sells their iWorks apps for the iPad like Keynote?
 
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Why is the 30 pin connector so great? Whats better about it than micro usb? How is that the best part of the iPhone? I mean seriously. Micro usb is smaller and easier to connect too.
 
ten-oak-druid said:
No, from what I gather, the requirement is for the other end of the cord, not the phone end.

In other words, you buy a device to plug your phone charge cable into and it has standard micro USB.

Well perhaps I'm wrong on this but that was my understanding of the new standard.
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The requirement is the charger must have "A Micro-USB B-Plug attached via a cable which delivers power to the device being charged." which can be achieved using an adaptor.

The Memorandum of Understanding outlining the new regulation is linked to in the first post.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.1; en-gb; Nexus S Build/GRH78) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

The big thing I'm loving from this legislation is the fact that my Nexus S, Nexus One, the wife's Galaxy S and our spare phone (ZTE Blade) all charge using the same standard.

Its great not having to look for specific chargers for specific devices. I'm glad all the manufacturers are pushing this. I'd gladly buy phones without a charger, using my old one in future.
 
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My old Sony PDAs had a dock connector and micro USB. The micro USB just plugged into the dock connector adapter. This isn't a big deal to accomplish. Theres no reason to ditch the dock connector on any Apple device. They just add the adapter which shouldn't impact their bottom line too much and they don't have to change their manufacturing lines to a new phone design just for Europe.

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Norcalchavo said:
I just don't understand what is so wrong about having a different type of connection for different devices? They all achieve the same purpose. If you don't want to use a 30 pin connector then don't buy Apple products.
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Exactly. Apparently they have nothing better to do in Europe than to worry about how a phone charges. Stupid, but whatever. Glad i'm not in Europe.
 
Long said:
A separate, proprietary adapter seems to defeat the purpose of a standardized interface.
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Only while using the adapter for charging the iPhone.

It seems to me there's nothing magical about the 30-pin dock connector if the other end of the cable is always USB anyway.
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Oh, it's highly magical! It's an Apple-only proprietary connector which Apple can easily use to make the iDevices even more magical!

You speak heresy... as if Harry Potter's wand is only a stick! ;)
 
Caliban2u said:
Everyone gets this is a JOKE, right?
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Yeah, we know you are joking. My response was sort of serious though. "Free-thinking 1970's" Steve Jobs would have probably gave them a big FU. (Heck, maybe even a 1980's Steve Job's would have done the same).
 
European Union stepping beyond its bounds (again)

:eek: Once more this is a case where the European Union is taking a bizarrely authoritarian stance way beyond where they should. This sort of over-standardization lead to their attack on the charmingly meat-like English sausage in the past. No country that I'm aware of dictates a standard for this, so why should the EU? It's not a safety or quality issue. If it's a worthy standard, then the market will settle on it by itself. This in itself is a minor detail - but the idea that the EU should regulate technology is not. What if someone comes up with a much better connection technology, will it be disallowed because its not "standard"?
 
One for All Brothers and Sisters!

Whatever the advantages and disadvantages of 30-pin and Micro-USB, taken all the disagreements I've noticed in the comments, I think everyone would agree that one type of connector for all your devices (yours, pop, mom, sis, bro, dog, cat phone, iphone, computer, hard drive, you-name-it) keeping the functionality of the 30-pin (or others) would be the ultimate solution. Amazingly, no brains of Europe, or other high-tech companies, can figure out the solution: compact and useful in everyday life.

There goes your billion-dollar/euro patent. Then try to work it into the existing markets :p

Meanwhile, like most, I will have to keep that one big box full of cables, most of which I will never use again :D
 
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