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EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

xda-developers.com

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Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#651

Post by gumby »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #395
ethbr0 wrote: post #280

From the announcement https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_... (linked in article) > Today, the Commission is proposing: > A harmonised charging port for electronic devices: USB-C will be the common port. > Harmonised fast charging technology will help prevent that different producers unjustifiably limit the charging speed and will help to ensure that charging speed is the same when using any c…

Does this mean the iPhone going powerless (EDIT: portless) would render the rule moot?

Moot for now, though they call out explicitly that if wireless charging becomes common in the EEA they reserve the right to extend the directive to that domain as well.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#652

Post by pg_1234 »

drdaeman wrote: post #639
Someone1234 wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> going powerless A device that uses no power, like a rock, is clearly beyond the scope of this law ("electronic devices").

I suppose GP meant "portless", assuming that iPhone may drop lightning port without replacement and only rely on the wireless charging.

The intention is clearly that the consumer be able to charge any phone using a generic usb-c charger. Apple's proprietary wireless charging would fail that criteria.

I imagine that if Apple made their technology an industry standard, that a) others could implement, and b) Apple were themselves governed by, then the EU would consider it in addition to usb-c.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#653

Post by [deleted] »

foepys wrote: post #274
southerntofu wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Entirely agree with your point. However, i would point out that there's many other sources of waste that can be easily avoided: - food waste and related food wrapping waste - planned obsolescence (TVs, cars, washing machines, and just about every product out there) - car-oriented architecture in the cities, where public transportation is an afterthought - energy waste due to personal infrastructure/tooling (cooking/w…

The EU is also tackling all those points you mentioned. Many single-use plastics are already banned in the EU, the EU wants smartphone manufacturers to support their hardware for at least 5 years, many EU members give out incentives to improve house insulation, EV will become the norm in a few years and energy standard get stricter every few years. It's not like the whole EU legislative body is now pushing with all t…

[deleted]

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#654

Post by gumby »

sudosysgen wrote: post #634
015a wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are all reasonable arguments, but the argument I most believe reflects Apple's internal thinking is pretty much just "everyone already has lightning at this point, switching to USBC would make headlines in a bad way, generate a ton of lightning e-waste, and Qi is so close to wide adoption that maybe we can just jump USBC for these small devices which don't need 30watt+ of power". The argument that its a physica…

Lighting still has a "tooth" (actually two) on the socket side. The choice of keeping the teeth in the connector for USB-C is intentional, the idea is for the wear to be in the connector and not the device. You also don't need a 30$ cable for 90W, any cable that is rated for 5 amps will do the job.

> wear to be in the connector and not the device.

I think this was a typo and you meant to say “cable connector (plug), not device connector (socket)”.

It’s a good design and specifically designed to avoid a USB mini A design botch in which the device side would wear out before the cable side did.

FWIW Apple is a USB member and participated in the USB-C design, including learning from lightning (which was comtemporaneously secretly under way). This is like Intel and IEEE-754

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#655

Post by gumby »

belltaco wrote: post #632
maeln wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's Apple reasoning for not abandoning Lightning for USB-C on their phones? I can think of 3 reasons: 1. A lightning port is slightly smaller than USB-c, so it enable Apple to keep their phone slimmer than the competition in theory. 2. Apple loves to be in control of everything. With lightning, they could make a switch to a "lightning 2.O" cable / port whenever they so pleased. With USB-C they would be restricte…

Can't one make similar arguments for cars for types of gasoline(beyond premium gas) and the gas pump/tank receptacle design?

They do so — for example hose pipe diameter is regulated so you can’t accidentally put regular fuel into a diesel car (sadly, not the opposite though).

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#656

Post by gumby »

sgtfrankieboy wrote: post #198
hocuspocus wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, Apple's own USB-C equipped iPads are slimmer than any of their phones.

Besides, what's the point of a thinner phone when you got a huge bump for the camera's. Rather it be a bit thicker so that there is more room for battery. I personally really wish for a flag ship phone like the Galaxy S21 Ultra that doesn't have such a huge camera array.

I use a case solely so the phone lies flat on the table. They should arrange the battery to be thick enough to be the same height as the lens array.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#657

Post by elzbardico »

rvense wrote: post #635
elzbardico wrote: post #593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Android phones made micro USB popular.

Because they were forced to use it due to EU legislation.

Absolutely no, you're making things up. USB was part of the android specification since day one as it was a natural technical choice at that time, due to the availability of chipsets, and due to the fact that google wanted standardization across android manufacturers. There's no alternate universe where google wouldn't use USB because it was not told so by some eurocrats.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#658

Post by gumby »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #141
xorcist wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I use the same USB plug everywhere, That's because of EU regulation. All the big manufacturers had their own connector before that, micro-USB started to look like a common connector among the low end manufacturers. This is the next step for that regulation and has been in the cards for some time.

>>> That's because of EU regulation. I am interested in that (because the "secret history" of many market driven change often ends up being a regulator in one influential area made a good decision - the usual example being California and car pollution standards) Edit: just to say I am not commenting either way on the EU here, or on regulators in general. I am just interested if there was a clear point in USB standard…

These regulations aren’t secret, and are usually heavily reported on — the government wants people to know it is doing things in their favor.

Before the charger regulations the biggest world wide impact of EU regulations was RoHS. That’s when the EU really started to come into its own as a global player. Did you realize all those old cables you still have lying around have lead in them to make them flexible?

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#659

Post by schleck8 »

benhurmarcel wrote: post #565
connor-brooks wrote: post #34

An average consumer probably gets a new phone every 1-2 years. That means 50-100g of junk plastic every year per person. This seems very small compared to the amount of non-recyclable plastic I get every time I go to the supermarket (Fruit and veg in plastic wrapping). Are USB cables very resource heavy to make? Is there something that makes them especially bad when compared to other waste?

> An average consumer probably gets a new phone every 1-2 years We don’t know the same “average” consumers.

I don't know a single person who gets a new phone every year. And I'm happy about that.

Re: EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

#660

Post by zxcvbn4038 »

danpalmer wrote: post #106
josefx wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Good, though in practice it's not the charger the problem, I use the same USB plug everywhere This isn't the first time the EU mentioned those plans, the current situation is basically the phone manufacturers regulating themselves to avoid an explicit regulation by the EU. > it's Apple and their cable. Of course there is always that one greedy asshole ruining it for everyone else. > What's Apple reasoning for not a…

> They probably considered Lightning to be superior but couldn't make it the industry standard without loosing their ability to charge absurd amounts of licensing fees for it. I don't think it's this. Lightning was superior to micro-USB, but it's certainly not superior to USB-C. I think the problem is that everyone remembers the transition from the 30 pin dock connector to Lightning. Apple has a huge reputation for j…

> People don't have 10 year old cables and chargers around.

Just looking in my cable drawer I have USB types A, B, mini-A, mini-B, micro-A, micro-B, and C. I also have lightening and apple dock from the original iPhone. I have some weird Chinese cable that looks like USB micro-A and micro-B but doesn't fit either. There are a few barrel connectors from my old Nokia phones. A couple of my wife's old Samsung phone cables. This is just from the stuff I've owned.

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