The superabundance of techie gadgetry at your fingertips makes your heart sing, but the hectic search to find the right charger to fit your cell phone, PDA, or other handheld device makes you want to call it quits.
It’s a love/hate relationship. The superabundance of techie gadgetry at your fingertips makes your heart sing, but the hectic search to find the right charger to fit your cell phone, PDA, or other handheld device makes you want to call it quits.
Then we heard last year that help is on the way.Major telecom companies like Nokia and Sony Ericsson agreed to use the Micro-USB universal charging standard on “future” handsets. Although a non-binding agreement, this is a major step towards ending the frustration of finding the right charger, or having to buy a new charger every time you upgrade your phone.
On top of that, the Micro-USB connectors are smaller and more power efficient, and so will reduce power consumption and the accompanying greenhouse gases (not to mention the electronic junk in landfills).
However, there is one fly in the ointment: it isn’t clear if the Micro-USB interface will be fast enough to transfer the high-definition video on all your increasingly wicked-smart handhelds.
Speaking of fast, this year we are seeing the SuperSpeed USB, or USB 3.0, interface emerging in end-products. Although this new interface exponentially increases data-transfer speeds, it also dramatically increases the amount of current that can flow through sensitive handheld products.
This makes USB-enabled products even more vulnerable to such peccadilloes as using the wrong charger or turning on the car ignition after your phone is plugged in.
So, if and when manufacturers truly commit to a universal Micro-USB standard, will you have to choose between super-fast and super-convenient?
If so, will you pick the handheld gadget with dazzling downloading capabilities, or will you embrace products that may lack some whiz-bang features but promise to help you improve the environment, save money and, best of all, end your search for the one, right charger?
