EU wants every smartphone and tablet to charge by micro-USB

[Frix]

I don't understand what people are on about? The Micro USB connector has been standard for years in the EU now (on voluntary basis). This is a very good thing, as it removes the need to plenty of proprietary connectors, cables and chargers. All chargers that comes with a smartphone today in the EU has a standard USB connector on it, meaning you can always use it with any brand and any unit. This is exactly what EU should focus on: Standardization of electronics.

 

Afaik USB is coming out with a new small connector that, like Apples, can be connected both ways. Hopefully that could become a new standard when it is released.

You can plug a micro usb into an iphone?

[werto165]

Is'nt this news ancient 

[LAwLz]

Is'nt this news ancient 

The thread was kind of necro'd.

[Guest]

Have no problems with micro-usb. 

[Foxxer]

Micro usb's are great... never had any problems.

[Calavera]

How is this a bad thing? Asking anyone for a charger and always having the right one, what's wrong with that?

Man up people, this is a good thing.

[DefinitelyNotAPedophile]

I wish htc one uses mini USB or an alternative micro USB sucks

[Andrew48]

my micro usb connector JUST broke inside my phone's jack. SAD SAD SAD

[TheProfosist]

Most things are already like this so no biggie i wish they would wait for USB Type C though.

[Notional]

You can plug a micro usb into an iphone?

No, that's why EU wants to make it mandatory instead of optional, like it is now. 

[SMURG]

Still can't quote so @Frix:

 

Because we pay £50 million a day for these kinds of stupid and totally unnecessary ideas. It really is not a big deal whether phones use micro-USB or not, especially seeing as mini-USB (or the next iteration of USB) would probably present a better standard for chargers anyway. The EU is neither well placed nor particularly able to introduce any such measure; the only reason they put forth micro-USB is because it's already on most devices and because they're too ill-informed to see that there are better alternatives.

[juretrn]

Well I cant quote posts for some reason, so @Mooshi and @Fetzie:

Thunderbolt relies on PCIe (which smartphones don't have), and afaik can't charge devices anyway. You also need to have a GPU that meets certain requirements for it to work, and since it's designed for large, x86 devices I highly doubt the GPUs in phones would be up to scratch. You'd also probably have to use Intel Atoms (which don't support it atm anyway) in the first place cos it's an Intel thing, so have fun with that.

The cost of the cable is insignificant in comparison to how much of a pain in the ass Thunderbolt is to leverage. Why do you think they had to solder in the GPUs on the Mac Pro? That probably wasn't a design decision, that's just necessary if u want Thunderbolt on LGA 2011, and Apple were hardly gonna release a new Mac Pro without that thing they'd been going on about for the past year and a half.

Thunderbolt on smartphones would either be flat out impossible or impractically expensive to leverage.

PCI-e is not actually an electrical, but a data transmission level standard. You only need a chip to implement it, and you don't actually have to implement it fully. Also, PCI-e has nothing to do with GPUs. They just happen to use it as it has the biggest bandwidth. For example, PCI-e can be implemented even on a small programmable circuit or on a tiny microprocessor device like an Arduino. While it's complex, it can also be scaled down as data transmission rates would be good enough for a USB replacement anyway. But the cable price is just Apple tax.

[mr moose]

I don't get why anyone would see this as bad, standardization of any technology forces manufactures to be more competitive with price, added features and quality in order to keep selling product.  This is awesome for the consumer. 

 

Remember when usb became the standard for printers, product computability is so easy to ensure that manufacturers don't even include a cable anymore and it doesn't effect sales.

[SMURG]

@juretrn

I didn't say PCIe was about GPUs, I said Thunderbolt requires a GPU that meets certain prerequisites, as well as being based on PCIe. Even if you scaled down the PCIe part (which as I said would probably be prohibitively expensive), you still have to contend with the fact that Thunderbolt is intended for x86 devices with those kinds of GPUs. Not to mention that it's an Intel-specific thing, and Intel doesn't make smartphone processors (with the dubious exception of the Atoms, which don't support Thunderbolt anyway).

[lufihengr]

Why does everyone hate micro usb? I have never had any problems with it.

Everyone hates it because Linus doesn't like it

[A/C]

You can't charge a tablet fast enough with a standard micro USB.

 

That's the only reason manufacturers use proprietary connectors.

 

Bam!

[JupiteL]

I hope my country did this. I really don't mind having the same plug wherever I go. I've never had any problem with it, so yeah.

[Bouvie_11]

I see no problem with micro usb being on every smartphone/tablet. In my opinion it is easier for everyone to be on a common standard than making proprietary nonsense, which could be hard to replace. The amount of e-waste that has piled up over the years because of obsolete chargers from proprietary interfaces is ridiculous.

Yes i agree micro usb is a fragile connector but im sure they will be better revisions in the near future which will address that issue.

[igotsnomoney]

While I'm all up for standardization, WHY MICRO USB?!?!?! it should just die in a fire. 

 

The issue I see, is not the "extreme" failure rates of micro usb. its actually quite low even though it is quite fragile.  i've only had 2 instances of micro usb breaking (my phone and my external hard drive). The issue I see, is the way it breaks. Every time, its the female end that fails, making the device inoperable.

 

Sometimes I just wish that apple would play nice and offer the lightning connector royalty free and open like what they did with minidp. its a much better designed connector, and actually has some core strength to it.

[Guest]

It's nice that they are trying to introduce a standard in, none of this proprietary crap (looking at YOU Apple and Samsung).  But I am sure we can all decide upon something better than microusb...a new revision of miniHDMI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just kidding

Samsung phones use micro usb

[Warcony]

Samsung phones use micro usb

 

They all do now.  But their first few revisions of tablets including the original Note 10.1 don't use microUSB.

[TheProfosist]

Samsung phones use micro usb

the use their own variant of USB OTG (on the go) though, which has more pins that the standard and that the standard stuff doesnt work with without and adapter.

[LAwLz]

the use their own variant of USB OTG (on the go) though, which has more pins that the standard and that the standard stuff doesnt work with without and adapter.

It's not their USB OTG that's different, it's their MHL that's different. All USB OTG cables still work just fine, but you need an 11pin MHL cable to make MHL work. They had a good reason for it though. With the regular 5 pin connector you can only do MHL or USB OTG at once, but with the 11pin one you can do both.

It's not like they did something evil Apple style and add an authentication chip in the cable or anything. All you need is a cheap passive adapter that goes from 11pin to 5pin and all your old cables will work. Not sure, but I don't think they have any licensing fee or anything like that to use it either, so other manufacturers could just switch to the superior 11 pin connector.

[TheProfosist]

It's not their USB OTG that's different, it's their MHL that's different. All USB OTG cables still work just fine, but you need an 11pin MHL cable to make MHL work. They had a good reason for it though. With the regular 5 pin connector you can only do MHL or USB OTG at once, but with the 11pin one you can do both.

It's not like they did something evil Apple style and add an authentication chip in the cable or anything. All you need is a cheap passive adapter that goes from 11pin to 5pin and all your old cables will work. Not sure, but I don't think they have any licensing fee or anything like that to use it either, so other manufacturers could just switch to the superior 11 pin connector.

Ur right I messed up mhl and otg thanks for correcting. The mhl committee or forum what ever they are called wasnt happy that they broke a standard they helped specify.

Also good reason or not they are still the only ones that use it.

[JantsoP]

This got approved couple days ago: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/127598-eu-parliament-approves-micro-usb-to-all-phones/