The Daring Dufas wrote:
SMS wrote:
The Daring Dufas wrote:
Rick Brandt wrote:
On Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:54:16 -0500, The Daring Dufas wrote:
Believe it or not, the manufacturers have actually gotten together to
set a standard for chargers before the government does it for them,
that
is everyone except Apple. It looks like it will be the micro USB. It's
something that needed to be done years ago.

I have had one case though where the plugs from two chargers were
the same (they would both fit my phone), but only one would actually
charge it. The other caused the display to read "unrecognized
charger" or something to that affect.

My son had a similar experience with a Garmin gps unit. He was
telling us he couldn't use it while the charger was plugged in (the
charger did charge the battery properly). My wife and I both told
him that it sounded nuts to us that they would design it to work
like that. Turned out he was using a cell-phone charger with the
same plug. When he switched to the charger that came with the unit
everything was fine.

So "compatible plug" != "compatible charger"


Of course it's compatible chargers. What I'd like to see
is the ability of any phone to charge of any USB port on
any equipment.

And with a standard cable, no proprietary cables. You already can
pretty much charge any phone off of a USB port with a non-standard
cable sold by after-market accessory manufacturers. All phones use
single cell li-ion batteries of around 3.7V, and are able to charge at
500mA or less (the official USB spec on how much current a standard
USB port must be able to supply even though most can supply more).

I have several USB chargers that will plug into the cigarette
lighter in a vehicle. I wonder what will become of the lighter
when everyone quits smoking? *snicker*

TDD

They will put labels that state "accessory power" on them and fit them
with a tethered or hinged cap instead of a lighter. Many vehicles are
already made that way.