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Cell Phones to Get Universal Chargers

by Tom Conlon on September 24, 2007 at 09:09 AM

Cell Phones to Get Universal ChargersWhen you lose your phone charger or accidentally leave it behind while traveling, your options are limited to either buying a new one or finding a friend who happens to have a phone made by the same manufacturer – even then, it sometimes needs to be the same exact model.

Thankfully, those days are drawing to a close now that the world's major phone manufacturers including Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and LG have agreed on a universal standard for chargers. That standard is micro-USB, the little brother to the mini-USB jack that many phone makers are already using thanks to its ability to charge from an outlet, charge from a PC and sync with a PC. Micro-USB boasts the same versatility, but in a much smaller for factor, which should be helpful going forward as our phones shrink to 'Zoolander'-like proportions.

While consumers will obviously benefit from the interoperability of phone cables, another winner is Ma Nature. Telecom analysts believe this will open the door to manufacturers offering an option to buy phones without the charging cables included, assuming you already own one. Not only would this cut down on the number of unused cables being sent to the dump, but it would also reduce the size of the packaging your new phone comes in.

If only our cell phone service providers were as easily swappable ...

From Engadget

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Tags: battery, breaking+news, cell phone, CellPhone, charger, top, universal

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