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The EU is enforcing USB-C on portable devices

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Halcyon:

--- Quote from: tooki on June 09, 2022, 06:19:58 am ---
--- Quote from: JPortici on June 09, 2022, 05:58:43 am ---
--- Quote from: tooki on June 09, 2022, 05:29:35 am ---The only downside for the iPhone is that a USB-C socket is a bit bigger than a Lightning socket. 

--- End quote ---

upside: they'll have to make thicker phones that won't bend if you hold them wrong

--- End quote ---
Which was never an actual problem in real life. Please don’t regurgitate exaggerated BS you read somewhere. (Yes, you could bend an iPhone 6 if you set out to do so. But it wasn’t an issue for anyone who treated their phone with even the most minimal amount of intelligence, like not keeping it in a front pocket of skinny jeans whose pocket bends when sitting. The “problem” was fixed in all subsequent models.)

--- End quote ---

Actually I've seen this happen first-hand during what would be considered "normal use". People throw phones into bags or keep them in rear pockets all the time. Around the time of the iPhone 6, they were poorly designed, there are simply no other words for it. Not just because of the lack of structural integrity, but widespread issues with failing batteries, poor RF design and LCD's/digitisers that would just stop working over time, not to mention a bunch of them just dying and refusing to power-on because of a faulty component. Apple issued a bunch of recall notices worldwide for the 6 and 6S phones. I've personally had to rebuild/repair several of these phones because of these problems. They were just awful.

Someone:

--- Quote from: james_s on June 09, 2022, 06:45:43 am ---
--- Quote from: Someone on June 09, 2022, 01:39:01 am ---If someone cannot remember the dominat (smart) phones of the 2005 era (17 years ago), they are either very young or lived in an undeveloped area upto then, likely the poster is young and doesn't know the history of the market.

You made out like (smart)phones had USB all along, they really didnt. USB was in widespread consumer use and the phone manufacturers persisted with their proprietary connectors (even making new ones as linked above). Exactly what you and that poster say wouldn't/didn't happen. I'm not picking out some obscure minority brand here, those were the dominant players in the market and they went for profit ahead of standardization/convenience. They weren't all using 5V or USB power for charging which made 3rd party cables a minefield, that changed only with standardization to USB connectors on the phones.

--- End quote ---

That's quite an assumption. I'm in my mid 40s which certainly doesn't feel "very young" to me and I live in the northwest USA about 6 miles from Microsoft's headquarters so certainly not an undeveloped area and I've never seen a smartphone that didn't charge from a USB plug, either via an onboard connector or an included cable terminating in a USB plug with the proprietary (Apple) connector on the other end. The last phone I owned that had a proprietary charger was a flip phone and that was way back in 2007, prior to that I never had a mobile phone. Once again I'll reiterate that USB became the standard without any intervention from the government at all, the market decided that's what people wanted. There is still no requirement whatsoever on this and yet USB is everywhere.

--- End quote ---
Hang on, you're jumping forward past 2005 to 2007 when proprietary connectors on phones were still a thing...


--- Quote from: Someone on June 09, 2022, 01:13:33 am ---
--- Quote from: james_s on June 09, 2022, 12:24:49 am ---
--- Quote from: Someone on June 08, 2022, 11:32:07 pm ---
--- Quote from: eugene on June 08, 2022, 06:05:26 pm ---I'll assume it has something to do with early phones that used a variety of barrel plugs. If so, I'm not ready to give law makers any credit for increasing convenience in my life (which is all that this law is about; simple convenience.) I'm certain that makers of smart phones would have included USB ports for communication purposes anyway. And, I'm just as certain that they would have used those ports for charging. No laws required. (For the record, I am not against all laws, just pointless ones that do more harm than good.)
--- End quote ---
This shows your age very starkly. Mobile phones traditionally had obscure brand (or model) specific connectors for power and serial (or USB) so that you had to buy the accessories from them and only them. In the bad old good old dark days, you couldnt even charge over USB and as the power adapter had a captive cable it was mutually exclusive: charge or transfer data.
--- End quote ---
That doesn't say anything about his age, I remember well the days when mobile phones had proprietary connectors, but they standardized without any government intervention at all. They did it because it made sense, USB became ubiquitous enough that it was no longer sensible in most cases to use custom connectors. These days Apple is the exception, however even they include a cable that terminates with a standard USB plug so the issue is moot.
--- End quote ---
USB was widespread well before smartphones used the standard connectors directly:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_Pop-Port
one easily documented example persisted until 2007, which links to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FastPort
continuing to 2010

While USB was in use since 1996 and was ubiquitous in the early 2000's as Microsoft had USB only mice from 2001 onward?
--- End quote ---
As I already said! So your experience was that phone(s) did have proprietary connectors in 2007. Yet USB was ubiquitous in 2000/2001. The market did not move to USB quickly or see the advantages, they bodged USB in on proprietary connectors rather than using the available mini USB. It was after 2007 with the release of micro USB that movement started and even then the EU didn't like the fractured solutions and moved to speed it up.

Berni:

--- Quote from: tooki on June 09, 2022, 07:11:42 am ---FWIW, Switzerland has a really elegant system: standard outlets are 10A, but 16A versions exist, and there are also 3-phase sockets in both current capacities. All of the higher-power ones are downwards-compatible. So a standard 10A plug will fit in any of the 4 socket types. It’s not uncommon for things like stoves or old 3-phase clothes dryers or washers to be hard-wired, but they’re often plugged in.

Anyhow, the Swiss system means you don’t need chunky 16A plugs on ordinary appliances, but you can still install an outlet that can supply 16A 3-phase power without creating inconvenience.

--- End quote ---

The swiss plugs are admittedly very well designed. Tho one of the few countries in Europe where a 16A Schuko plug does not fit. Still the low power non earthed 2.5A "Europlug" does fit, and most things one would travel with do use that plug. It is the most widely compatible plug, since it not only works in all of Europe (except England) but it also works in most of Asia, most of Africa and about half of South America.

In terms of circuits i suppose we are lazy here since we typically put multiple 16A Schuko outlets on a single 16A breaker (10A or 5A are typically just lights). It never seams to be a problem in practice because very few devices pull the full 16A, and even then the breakers do have a fair bit of headroom. A typical house has a lot of circuits anyway. Only commonly seen breakers trip on really heavy loads like old welders or things with hefty big motors.

3 phase plugs are a bit of mess over Europe. So for this reason EU standardized on those big chunky round red colored plugs. Here the old Yugoslavian style 3 phase plug was deprecated in favor of the standard EU plug, most other countries using it did the same. These high power EU plugs are mostly seen in industry, but it is a good step towards agreeing on a standard.

JohanH:

--- Quote from: james_s on June 09, 2022, 06:55:26 am ---
I guess maybe someone that had always lived under a government that controls so many aspects of their life wouldn't understand, I don't know. Even my own government feels rather oppressive and mired in rules and regulations these days that I almost wish there was somewhere else to go and get away from it. I understand the need for some rules for things like protecting the environment, rules are a necessary evil but they ARE evil and I hate them.

--- End quote ---

I live in a country where the government consists of ordinary people and where the majority of the people in the country actually trust the government and feel that the people representing them are making decisions that we would do ourselves. This is also the case in many other countries in the EU. It's not perfect, but it works good enough and all statistics show that people living in the Nordic countries in EU are the happiest, most equal and free people in the world with least corruption etc. And EU is the largest peace project ever that has worked pretty much fine for 70+ years. I'm sorry for people living in oppressive and authoritarian countries. This knee-jerk opposition to government is totally strange to us, where the government actually helps people and makes our lives better. Of course there are some criticism all the time, but this belongs and is encouraged in a democracy. I have followed some of US politics and I can see where your views come from. My personal opinion is that you will never have equal human rights, less poverty and criminality unless you change some of your ways. Now this goes into politics, but it seems it has also much impact on technology. Very interesting how your government swayed forth and back e.g. about net neutrality.

Halcyon:

--- Quote from: JohanH on June 09, 2022, 09:17:01 am ---
--- Quote from: james_s on June 09, 2022, 06:55:26 am ---
I guess maybe someone that had always lived under a government that controls so many aspects of their life wouldn't understand, I don't know. Even my own government feels rather oppressive and mired in rules and regulations these days that I almost wish there was somewhere else to go and get away from it. I understand the need for some rules for things like protecting the environment, rules are a necessary evil but they ARE evil and I hate them.

--- End quote ---

I live in a country where the government consists of ordinary people and where the majority of the people in the country actually trust the government and feel that the people representing them are making decisions that we would do ourselves. This is also the case in many other countries in the EU. It's not perfect, but it works good enough and all statistics show that people living in the Nordic countries in EU are the happiest, most equal and free people in the world with least corruption etc. And EU is the largest peace project ever that has worked pretty much fine for 70+ years. I'm sorry for people living in oppressive and authoritarian countries. This knee-jerk opposition to government is totally strange to us, where the government actually helps people and makes our lives better. Of course there are some criticism all the time, but this belongs and is encouraged in a democracy. I have followed some of US politics and I can see where your views come from. My personal opinion is that you will never have equal human rights, less poverty and criminality unless you change some of your ways. Now this goes into politics, but it seems it has also much impact on technology. Very interesting how your government swayed forth and back e.g. about net neutrality.

--- End quote ---

What you describe is essentially Australia (albeit it's much colder there and you have better internet).

Both Finland and Australia are in the top 10 countries having the highest human freedoms.

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