5 ms·

If EU wants to save on e-waste, it should dictate that phone should be sold without chargers or cables. If one wants a new cable or a charger, the person should

If EU wants to save on e-waste, it should dictate that phone should be sold without chargers or cables. If one wants a new cable or a charger, the person should pay for it extra.

xg15 8y ago
And if the chargers weren't standardized, you'd have to buy that extra cable if you actually want your device to turn on.
- fpoling 8y ago
  That automatically puts pressure on manufacturers to standardize things and made them think twice before introducing incompatible charger/cable.
  - xg15 8y ago
    Why would that be the case?
    - fpoling 8y ago
      This makes the price of the charger explicit and unrelated to phone purchase. If I have a previous version of a device and I replace it with newer one why should I pay for the new charger as well?
      - xg15 8y ago
        Because the vendor introduced a new, incompatible plug for the new version of the device.
sschueller 8y ago
The issue is that not all charges are the same especially with new phone that have quick charging. Ideally the industry would have a standard for charges and how much power they provide. So for example you buy a new phone and it says you need a charger type 5 and if you don't have that you can buy it. Trying to figure out how many watts you have and what you need is too complicated for the average person. Make it super simple.
- fpoling 8y ago
  The point is to make people to pay for what they wanted. In my case if a fast charger were optional, I would skip it. Each day I need to sleep for >=7 hours and fast charger does not change that.
gaff33 8y ago
That doesn't really solve the problem since I already have USB chargers lying around but not <insert format here>. A better solution might be to apply a charge per nonstandard charger given out to customers. At this stage it would practically be an Apple tax.
- dingaling 8y ago
  It surprises me that non-USB DC power supply plugs haven't been standardised. I have a big box of old chargers and even when if I find a matching voltage with sufficient current, the plug usually doesn't fit or has the wrong polarity. A huge opportunity for reducing e-waste.
- icebraining 8y ago
  Isn't Apple's charger already standard USB?
  - phoe-krk 8y ago
    Of course it's not. Apple devices don't have USB ports - they have Lightning ports. Have you read this article at all?
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - seanmcdirmid 8y ago
      Apple chargers are USB on the block, just not on the phone. You can plug a micro USB cable into an Apple charger to charge your USB devices, and then switch to a lightning cable (whose other end is full sized male USB) to charge your iDevices. You could also use a non Apple USB charger with your lightning cable to charge your iDevice, though how effective that is depends on the voltage of the block.
    - dasmoth 8y ago

If EU wants to save on e-waste, it should dictate that phone should be sold without chargers or cables. If one wants a new cable or a charger, the person should pay for it extra.

xg15 8y ago

And if the chargers weren't standardized, you'd have to buy that extra cable if you actually want your device to turn on.

fpoling 8y ago
That automatically puts pressure on manufacturers to standardize things and made them think twice before introducing incompatible charger/cable.
- xg15 8y ago
  Why would that be the case?
  - fpoling 8y ago
    This makes the price of the charger explicit and unrelated to phone purchase. If I have a previous version of a device and I replace it with newer one why should I pay for the new charger as well?
    - xg15 8y ago
      Because the vendor introduced a new, incompatible plug for the new version of the device.

sschueller 8y ago

The issue is that not all charges are the same especially with new phone that have quick charging. Ideally the industry would have a standard for charges and how much power they provide. So for example you buy a new phone and it says you need a charger type 5 and if you don't have that you can buy it. Trying to figure out how many watts you have and what you need is too complicated for the average person. Make it super simple.

fpoling 8y ago
The point is to make people to pay for what they wanted. In my case if a fast charger were optional, I would skip it. Each day I need to sleep for >=7 hours and fast charger does not change that.

gaff33 8y ago

That doesn't really solve the problem since I already have USB chargers lying around but not <insert format here>. A better solution might be to apply a charge per nonstandard charger given out to customers. At this stage it would practically be an Apple tax.

dingaling 8y ago
It surprises me that non-USB DC power supply plugs haven't been standardised. I have a big box of old chargers and even when if I find a matching voltage with sufficient current, the plug usually doesn't fit or has the wrong polarity. A huge opportunity for reducing e-waste.
icebraining 8y ago
Isn't Apple's charger already standard USB?
- phoe-krk 8y ago
  Of course it's not. Apple devices don't have USB ports - they have Lightning ports. Have you read this article at all?
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - seanmcdirmid 8y ago
    Apple chargers are USB on the block, just not on the phone. You can plug a micro USB cable into an Apple charger to charge your USB devices, and then switch to a lightning cable (whose other end is full sized male USB) to charge your iDevices. You could also use a non Apple USB charger with your lightning cable to charge your iDevice, though how effective that is depends on the voltage of the block.
  - dasmoth 8y ago