EU taking another look at phone chargers because they’re still not standardized | Hacker News Reader

EU taking another look at phone chargers because they’re still not standardized

arstechnica.com

20 pointsLinuxBender8 comments

As much as lightening is annoying, one can argue that Apple's connectors have pushed the industry forward. From introducing connectors that can be plugged in any way, to creating consumer expectation that one wire can do video, audio, power, and data.

Would USB-3 be as good (and/or confusing) as it is if it wasn't for the history of Apple iPhone connectors?

How pedantic would it to argue a difference between standards like USB and mandates in discussions like these?

I've seen a worrying conflation between the two in online discussions about this topic for the past day or so. Negative takes towards this are met with at least one "without standards we would have a thousand different chargers, remember what it was like in 2000?"?

Am I off base here? This will come across as a concern troll but I'm genuinely curious about other views on this.

Without standards we would still have a thousand different chargers. There is no incentive for manufacturers to standardise on any charging standard. That includes USB. Before the mandate on phone chargers I owned a phone that would allow file transfer over USB but not charging. Charging using a proprietary charger with a proprietary connector.

This is not a problem worthy of legislation. It is a minor inconvenience. We have both Android and iOS devices, it just requires a few extra cables, which is already becoming less of an issue since most of our devices are wireless charging compatible.

It's annoying that the apple charger is different, but at least it really is a superior connector in every way except compatibility.

Is the Apple charger superior to USB-C? That's the main standard the article discusses.

> This is not a problem worthy of legislation.

Yes it is. Don't you remember the state of things before the EU decided to make law on phone chargers? Literally every model of phone had a unique charging plug, you could pretty much never borrow someones charger.

I don't borrow anyone's charger now. But even if I did, not worthy of legislation. Not a real problem.

Maybe not to you, but please don't dismiss people for who it is a problem worth solving.

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