Universal Mobile Phone Chargers To Have 50pct Cut In Standby Energy

[engine]

Mobile Phone Chargers To Become Universal and Include a Cut In Standby Energy of 50pct [guardian.co.uk]

The mobile phone industry plans to introduce a universal charger as part of a drive to improve its previously patchy environmental record.

The plan from industry body the GSM Association (GSMA) is just one of a raft of "green" announcements at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Not only will it mean phone users no longer have to hunt for the right charger, but the specifications for the new device include a 50% reduction in standby energy consumption.

At last, a consensus of sensibleness!

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That's good news.

I might actually upgrade the 4 or 5 phones we have around, just to take advantage of that.

Oh wait, I guess that's counterproductive to what they're trying to do :).

As for standby, why can't they just have the unit turn off when not plugged in?

[swa66]

Wonder why the vendors need the threat of the EU intervening to come up with such an obvious solution, actually most of their users could tell them.

While at it: vendors, please stick to your case and connector designs so that we can find carkits that work with the phone of the day that you push in stores. Car makers can't keep up with the weekly fashion changes you make.

It's ridiculously difficult to find a match of *any* phone of *any* vendor that's both sold in stores and that your car has a drop-in cradle for.

Even if you have to change the fashion, fine, but make sure they fit in the old carkit, keep connectors (the new micro-usb and the antenna one and size the same so it still fits in the armrest or where ever it can get charged while driving and be out of sight of thieves).

[piatkow]

Looks more like an excuse to sell the chargers separately to me but at least:
1. I would only have needed one charger since I owned a mobile
2. I could use somebody elses charger when away