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SHORTLY AFTER THE IEC pushed for a universal charger for both laptops and notebook computers, mobile phones in Europe will be getting the same treatment.
Under a provisional deal on a new EU law, mobile phone and smartphone makers will have to provide a standard battery charger that can fit any device.
The move is to help simplify the use of radio equipment while reducing both cost and waste.
Lawmakers also agreed on additional means to track and monitor products which fail to comply with the new rules. Certain products are required to be registered before they can be put on the market, similar to the US.
If the outline agreement is endorsed by the European Parliament and EU members states, member states will have two years to impose the rules into their national law.
Phone manufacturers like Apple, and Samsung will have an additional year to comply, meaning the first universal chargers are expected to arrive in 2017.
The draft laws lays down common rules for placing radio equipment, including cellular telephones, and modems, on the market. The aim is to ensure that devices do not interfere with each other while respecting the necessary health and safety requirements.
It’s expected the full session of the European Parliament will sign off the law in March 2014.
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Excellent idea, that will hurt apple. 35 quid for a simple plug! Buggers!
Spot on Ben. Will also hurt Amazon, who charge approx €18 to buy a charger for the kindle.
€2 shop iPhone charger , on a spring so it winds in aswell , will fit in your pocket neatly or handbag (ladies)
It won’t be until 2018 that Apple and Samsung will have to comply. So hmm… another 5 years of extortionate prices on cables. By then lightnin connectors will be close to 10 years old, time to move to lightnin 2 so they can charge us another 35 squid for them!
Not condoning Apple prices but I I would be careful of those €2 cables. Poor components that don’t charge properly. may be a fire or electrocution risk.
Here is an article about it . Apologies that it’s from the “Daily Fail”.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2406185/Fake-Apple-Cheap-phone-chargers-burn-house.html
Samsung are already using a standard small USB cable. I can charge my nexus7 , kindle and lumina off the same charger that came with a previous Samsung phone with no problems. This legislation is gona hurt apple the most.
I am not commenting on this post but referring to the next post in line which is a Tesco add for an “indulgent Christmas Breakfast”.
I accept that the Journal depends on revenue from advertising but the photo in relation to the add conjures a picture of obesity and heart attack.
Not to clever❗️
Apple chargers are already universal as they all have a USB out connection. It’s just the cable that’s proprietary.
they’ll have to have plans to phase them out before then though, so hopefully they won’t hold on too long. it could end up hurting their bottom line if they’re seen to resist it until the lastm oment.
Kindle uses a micro USB charger. In the unlikely event you don’t have one already, they can be picked up for an awful lot less than €18.
Kindle isn’t a phone so it might not fall under this law.
“I am not commenting on this post but referring to the next post in line which is a Tesco add for an “indulgent Christmas Breakfast”.
It’s “Ad,”Antonov, not “Add,” it’s a contraction of the word ADvert, not ADDvert
There’s a reason Apple use the Lightning connector and not a micro USB.
Ever noticed how there’s hundreds of iphone docks, in car cradles, and accessories like camera connection kits etc?
Bought a new style cable in a €2 shop for iPhone 5s and it won’t let the cable charge the phone because it’s not an apple cable.
John , my kindle uses a micro USB which is easily found for a few euro.
Having a USB “out” connector is not the same as being able to charge a device a device via that connection,
I agree ian, I got what I thought was a decent charger for my iPhone and it fried the motherboard on my phone, tried it on another device and did the same thing
Its the part that plugs into the wall that’s dangerous. The leads are fine, but newer apple devices sometimes dont like them.
The €2 cables for iPhone 5 are dangerous. I got 1 and my phone started overheating straight away. You can buy cables called iWant it from PC world/currys suitable for iPhone 5′s for €14.99 and are perfect as a second cable. They have the usual USB connection on the other side so will work on any adaptor plug :)
And if you are running iOS 7 + the phone will tell you that it is an uncertified connection and eventually will stop charging
Are you not a grown adult capable of making your own decissions and choices?? Do you need to be babysitted and told what is good and not good for you and what you can and cannot do??
There’s a HTC, a Samsung, an Alcatel, a Nokia and an iPhone in our house and it’s great because we all have the same kind of charger. Except for one of us…
About time,
This will annoy Apple no end because really with the exception of Apple….HTC, Samsung etc are already using one of the small USB connections.
can they push for a universal wall socket aswell
If it’s a usb jack and has the same current you can probably use it for different things. My Samsung phone charger will charge my ipad and vice versa.
Ye I meant having the same plug and wall socket for all EU countries,
A universal socket that accepts all plug shapes please
Well be great full you weren’t born a hundred years ago. They had a different socket in most counties of the UK
The travel adapters must have been huge
It was about the size of a 110v site transformer with a heap of leads coming off it.
An standard box house, only one type or car and we should all wear the same clothes……………
Didn’t some nations try this before?
Apple will probably argue that the iPhone isn’t a mobile phone, it’s a hand held computer so exempt from the legislation. A bit like the Jaffa Cakes aren’t biscuits tax avoidance.
How dare you suggest Jaffa Cakes are biscuits!
:-)
Cakes go hard when stale and biscuits go soft.. or so the joint committee from NASA and CERN say.
Full moon, half moon.
Total eclipse!
… of the heart.
do do, do do de dooo
By 2018 most phones will probably have wireless charging.
The will be charged by the newly installed wind tunnels in our heads
Great idea. The amount of different chargers i have in “the charger drawer” Can never seem to part with them, “just in case” I need to charge what ever it is they belong to
It’s about time
By 2018 there will probably be no such thing as wire chargers for smartphones. Some Starbucks in Boston have started using ‘powermats’ so customers can charge their phones wirelessly. I’ve no idea how exactly it works but it’s a great idea!
It only works on specific devices, such as my lovely Nexus 5
Good news. Haven’t seen the Mail’s take on this yet. Maybe ‘NOW BRUSSELS WANTS TO CONTROL OUR MOBILES!: outrage as unelected European bureaucrats tell British public how they should charge their phones’
my kindle and samsung phone have the same mini usb charger.its a great idea less waste.
Anyone else on there 500th iPhone 5 charger this month???? Useless chargers..
No, I’m not a ham fisted troglodite.
No ur not. Ur an idiot
U’re
Nope.. I’ve had mine since January and it’s fine..
Apple crapple!
It’s great to see the EU fixing the really serious problems.
Meanwhile: In 2012, 124.5 million people, or 24.8 % the population, in the EU-28 were at risk of poverty or social exclusion http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/People_at_risk_of_poverty_or_social_exclusion
So because poverty exists the EU shouldn’t bother with anything else?
Really?
If thats the case no government would ever be dealing with any other issue because poverty will always exist in some part of the world.
Stop EVERYTHING, EU, until everyone is rich.
Everything.
You said that not me………………….
So they can all save money for food by sharing a charger
Remember when we had 3330s no matter who’s gaff you were in they had 10 of them
There are fundamental differences between a general USB connector and the lightening connector on an iPhone/iPad. The lightening connector and the 30pin connector before it allowed for functionality not possible over standard USB – USB has 4 pins for power and data while the lightening connector has 8 which are dynamic based on use case. It’s also reversible. The extra functionality includes control of iOS from other sources and is a big push for iOS in the Car. USB physically can’t perform like this. Apple, I’m sure, won’t switch and will instead provide an adapter in the box. The link below explains how the lightening connector dynamically assigns pins:
I’m impressed at this long overdue measure.
Long gone are the days of unraveling 250 random broken phone chargers in carphone warehouse on a Sunday morning inventory check.
Now you’ll be unravelling 250 broken chargers which are all the same. Result!
There is also the problem of different power chargers, when I charge my HTC with my wife’s Nokia android charger I only get a half charge and my battery dies very quickly, this should be standardised too.
Check the ampage. A good 2amp charger will giver your phone a solid charge. A measley 750mA will take years.
I still use my old HTC charger for my Samsung phone, I find it better than the one I got with the phone
About time, a great money saver, until ever phone, tablet etc in the house has to be charged at the same time
No wait that would make way to much sense to do lol
Dealz sells a cable for €1.49 that works with iOS7 – just make sure it’s the one with “iPhone 5S” on the packaging. – http://www.dealz.ie/signalex-iphone-5-sync-and-charge-cable
Well that only took 15 years. .
Apple already comply with this & have done since the introduction of lightning .
They have a lightning adapter which plugs onto a standard micro USB.
Apple DONT comply all android and blackberrys use mini usb . Bb charger works for my samsung etc. Apple need to sort their crap out along with the working conditions for the chinese workers
This is the adapter here: http://store.apple.com/ie/product/MD820ZM/A/lightning-to-micro-usb-adapter
Plugs onto the end of a standard USB. They’ve made their connection USB compatible, they comply.
“along with the working conditions for the chinese workers”
Apple don’t employ any chinese workers to manufacture their goods. They contract it to a manufacturing company that also happens to make products for HTC, Samsung, Sony, Microsoft, Amazon and many many more… Try harder Liam.
OU812, I am fairly certain you cannot get around this with adapters, that would defeat the whole purpose of the act.
Another blow to Apple and their business plan which seeks to flog overpriced products to the wealthy and gullible. It may not be as dramatic as the early nineties when Microsoft’s rise virtually wiped out the company, but slowly Apple are falling victim to their failure to embrace the masses.
Try harder? Get over yourself .
@OU812: Did you have to spend extra for the adapter or did it come with the phone? If you paid extra then you were scammed like all other Apple customers
I am sure Apple will provide the adapter for free thus complying with the new EU Regulation
Mine came in the box along with another adapter for the standard 30 pin to lightning & a standard lightning cable. All bases covered.
lol….wait for the universal uniforms for all of us……..HEIL HEIL !!!!
Not cool dude.
Great that this was so high up on the agenda when there’s so much more important things to deal with in the EU!!!!!
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