Standardized Laptop Charger Approved By IEC 289
Sockatume writes "The IEC, the standards body which wrote the phone charger specification used in the EU, has approved a standardised laptop charger. While the 'DC Power Supply for Portable Personal Computer' doesn't have a legal mandate behind it, the IEC is still optimistic that it will lead to a reduction in electronics waste and make it easier to find a replacement charger. Unfortunately the technical documentation does not seem to be available yet, but previous comments indicate that it will be a barrel plug of some kind." I wish they'd push a yank-resistant and positive-connecting plug along the lines of Apple's MagSafe.
There's probably patents involved (Score:5, Insightful)
On a magnetic yank resistant plug
Mag-safe or nothing (Score:1, Insightful)
Seriously, stop this antiquated shit.
I hope it works (Score:4, Insightful)
Different power requirements (Score:4, Insightful)
One problem with this is that some laptops take much more juice to run than others. So will the standard charger have to be powerful enough to feed the biggest laptop or will we get a range of, say, 3 -- which would be a good advance on what we have today if the same plug was used, so the most powerful PSU could be used with a light laptop, as long as a light PSU had a cutout to protect it from overload?
The specifications are protected from download by a password, so I can't check :-(
I doubt that the likes of Apple would adopt this.
Re:So Would Apple (Score:2, Insightful)
That sounds unlikely, because those provide power whether they're plugged in or not, and hence would be an electrocution risk (unlike apple's design, who's patented functionality is not providing power until it detects the correct magnetic field to indicate it's plugged in).
Re:I was hoping for MagSafe (Score:5, Insightful)
If it was so obvious, why haven't anyone thought about it before Apple?
Two things come to mind: 1) The bottom line. Many companies don't always do the little things because it takes time and money to do things. I'm pretty sure an engineer from another company came up with great ideas but they were cut in planning/development. Apple will spend years on a product before releasing it and they will charge enough to make this strategy work. 2) Featuritis. Many companies focus on too many features. This is related to #1. Following the history of Apple, their products never have the most features. Apple seems to focus only on a handful of them and get them right before adding new ones. Geeks here don't appreciate that as Apple will never win the bullet point count, but for the average consumer they are less impressed with numbers of features than working features.
Take for example, the original iPod that synced automatically when you plugged in the cable. I think it was at Jobs' insistence that this be a 1-step process. Now doing so isn't technically difficult, but it takes coordination between hardware and software. It also required a philosophical change away from file/directory based transfer to one based on metadata. For example, most people don't care which directory/subdirectory their favorite songs where located but what they were (songs by The Rolling Stones, blue-grass songs, etc.). Now other companies might have been focused on other features like playing every format from Ogg to WMA or an equalizer with 11 bars, etc. Apple concentrated on making the UI simpler for the average consumer.
Re:There's probably patents involved (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:There's probably patents involved (Score:2, Insightful)
Folks I know purchase the products because they work very well and require the least amount of maintenance from the user.
I think this is the most important statement in this thread. I use apple for my personal computer, and the thing I love best is how it how it respects my time. there is near zero maintenance / fiddling tasks. it seems that fiddling is a big part of Linux because its a hobbyist thing, and for windows its just a chore. with kids my own personal time is a big premium and I can put it elsewhere.
things go seriously to sh!t I just make an apt at the apple store and they help me right there.
no judgment on others who choose to allocate their personal time differently. Just saying this is my biggest win with the apple PCs.
I'm with you (Score:4, Insightful)