Suck it micro USB, mini USB, and lightning! 🪫🔋
Please do this for things like rechargeable electric shavers and toothbrushes as well.
Those, especially the toothbrush, need to be more water resistant. Electric teethbrush should be entirely waterproof, and I don’t think USB-C can do that.
I have seen toothbrushes with USB-C, they just connect to the docking station. Which makes sense IMO, you wouldn’t want to plug and unplug your toothbrush every time you want to use it.
I wonder, would this law also cover if, say, the company manufacturing the toothbrush decided not to supply a power cord with the dock, and just stuck some proprietary cable port on it (not even a DC barrel jack or anything like that)?
If only you didn’t have to pay royalties for using USB.
You do‽ I had no idea. And it’d be great if the standard for USB-C was more than form only.
Not actually true. Probably something made up by Apple so they could continue to charge you extra for their proprietary chargers
But you do need to pay for a Vendor ID, you can’t just YOLO it?
Hell to the yeah!
Now if only we can standardize cables or at least labeling. We went from everything working wherever it would plugin to everything plugging in but who knows if it will work
Imo they should at the very least standardize some color coding and labeling. All charging-only cables are yellow, data cables are blue. Something like that.
Yeah, or since people are going to want their cute colored cables, do colored stripes on the connectors or something. Even on the metal connector itself, but not on the inside like old USB-A connectors.
Can we bring back the charging as well, and not just the USB cable… Oh, and while you’re at it, screws instead of glue, to replace batteries would be awesome.
Thx!
Just get a Fairphone, with every module screwed into place. Except the battery, you can just take that out by hand.
That’s true, but if the EU could force every phone maker to make the battery replaceable by the customer this would be a huuuuuuge step in the right direction and reduce electronic waste.
It’s already enforced. All devices sold in the EU from 2027 will need a user-replaceable battery.
We’re going to see some manufacturers come out with those devices sooner, though. I hope.
Also, the batteries need to be available at a reasonable price to the user.
Or they’ll start scheming
There’s a rule coming into effect in 2027 that enforces user replaceable batteries for devices in the EU. https://www.pcmag.com/news/eu-smartphones-must-have-user-replaceable-batteries-by-2027
Noice. I am definitely waiting until 2028ish before upgrading my phone, if not a bit longer.
while 2027 is better than nothing, I still wonder why it took them so long. Glue in smartphones has been around for probably a decade now.
Also, I think, anything that has a battery, should be user replacable… even teeny-tiny earbuds.
To allow the manufacturers to adapt and phase out?
For USB sure… it’s kinda “newish”. But, I mean, they could’ve intervened much sooner, when glue became the standard for assembling phones.
The delay on USB was to let the industry standardize on its own. The EU hinted to all manufacturers that they needed to standardize. Then it outright stated. Then because Apple was run by pricks, the EU had to legislate USB-C to force it.
Now, when something better comes along (like when mini USB gave way to micro USB, then to USB-C), there will need to be new legislation to allow that connector.
There’s always an implementation period with these things, also with the USB thing, to allow companies to build and sell phones that are already in the pipeline. Expect, just as with the USB thing, replaceable batteries to become a common sight quite soon and ubiquitous by 2027. You can already get quite decent smartphones with replaceable batteries but it’s the usual suspects Fairphone, Gigaset, and (at least one model of) Samsung, those would also exist without the regulation. The “oh shit they actually passed it we’ll need to re-engineer things” models from everyone else still aren’t on the market.
And before anyone brings it up: Yes, you can make them waterproof.
Waterproof
Strongly agree!
Looking back, I suspect this was only an argument to make them hard to repair, as always, just worded in a sense like it’d benefit the customer.
FFS, just add some rubber… We’ve used rubber in condoms for centuries (kinda) succesfully, what made them think glue’d be better… I ain’t gonna put glue on my ding-dong, if that’s what they’re after all these years.
I suspect this was only an argument to make them hard to repair, as always
They don’t mind the benefit, for sure. But as somebody who worked in manufacturing support jobs up until a couple years ago, I’m 90% confident it’s just faster and cheaper to glue them. Probably easier to automate too. Again it just comes down to money.
Just thinking of the scale of R&D for something like a flagship phone, there are a LOT of person-hours dedicated to manufacturability.
Totally agree! It’s seemingly gotten worse recently too. My phone is 5 years old and I was still able to replace the battery at home but it took special tools and a hair dryer. The newest Pixels and Galaxy phones look impossible to do with my current skillset.
Things like Fairphone and the HMD Skyline should be the norm going forward.
Based AF eu
no keep the glue please. I love that my phone’s back just came off on its own just because it was hot outside and the glue melted away. it was fun and exciting!
You must have been in death valley or something because the glue doesn’t melt into like 80° C
the phone heats with use as well. but yeah Samsung is known for its high build quality. it’s not like they made devices that explode or anything.
The benefit is that by being standardized, there will be less proprietary cords and adapters. And the capability of USB-C should be adequate for sometime with the power and data transfer.
One issue, is that not all USBC cords are of the same quality. I found this recently when trying to find a cord that can be used for an external SSD, and video for a monitor. Some cords worked, the rest did not. All the cords could be used for charging, but after that, all bets are off.
USB C cables have been all over the shop since the beginning, and chargers. I remember even 5 years back the problems they had. Part of that is the cables and chargers are “active” in the sense they negotiate charge rates and other functionality between either end and if one end is dumb or doesn’t respond properly you get the 5V 2A default. On the other hand if you have a USB C 4.0 lightning cable and two compliant devices then potentially you could be powering 2 monitors, keyboard, mouse, wifi, a graphics card even AND charging through one cable. It’s actually incredible when it works properly.
cables and chargers are “active” in the sense they negotiate charge rates and other functionality
Just so you know “active cable” already has a separate meaning: They repeat the USB signals somewhere in the middle for a longer transmission distance.
I think the better idea is to pick up the terminology from the USB-IF, they speak of electronical marking, or e-markers in the cables. It’s usually a small chip integrated in one of the plug assemblies.
I bought a really nice, high quality, very fast charging and data transfer cable, and there’s one device I own that it will not charge at all. My assumption is that it probably doesn’t have a charging control chip or something else required to work with that cable. It doesn’t work with any other USB-C to C cables I own either. It has to be charged with the USB-A to C cables included in the box
The problem is that USB-C is a plug not a standard even in charging some cables won’t do as much power as others (though at least they communicate that to the power source).
I do however fully support the total USB-C rollout. In my everyday carry there’s now only one plug (2 USB-C one USB-A) and some cables that I can charge everything with, my laptop, my phone my Powerbank and even those few devices that are still USB-B micro (I just carry one USB-A to micro cable).
Does this law allow for any standards progression or is it USB-c forever?
will ti 84 calculators have to follow this?
I haven’t read the legislation, but I get the thrust of it. They want to standardize cellular devices and also cut down on electronic waste. If it’s specifically for cellular devices, then no it won’t affect TI products. If it’s more generally to cut back on electronic waste, then yes it will affect them.
1.1. handheld mobile phones; 1.2. tablets; 1.3. digital cameras; 1.4. headphones; 1.5. headsets; 1.6. handheld videogame consoles; 1.7. portable speakers; 1.8. e-readers; 1.9. keyboards; 1.10. mice; 1.11. portable navigation systems; 1.12. earbuds; 1.13. laptops.Seems no, but I may be wrong.
“Starting today, all new mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones, speakers, keyboards and many other electronics sold in the EU will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C charging port,” the EU Parliament wrote on social media X.
seems like probably yes!
yay
Only suck it lightning. It still allows standard chargers like micro USB and mini USB
Are you sure? The EU parliament explicitly mentions USB C as the new mandatory standard.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX%3A32022L2380
USB C is mentioned in annex Ia and as an example in articles 11 and 12. As I understand previous articles, it is possible to use other standards that satisfy citeria from article 9.
Open standard W
Good 👍 I just hope nothing replaces USB-C anytime soon
It’ll probably happen by the time, most of my devices will be USB-C.
USB-CDE
USB-CDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Sometimes Y not usually though
USB-C Gen. 2.4 rev. A²*
USB-C Gen 2.4 Strive is where it’s at. Pretty limited when it first came out, but it’s really great after all the updates, and apparently it’s getting a switch port next year.
Definitely didn’t expect them to add Lucy from Edge runners as a crossover though.
It’s like micro-USB-AB, but USB-CDE
Don’t celebrate until the next version of USB comes out. Will this force everyone to adopt the newest version always or cling to the oldest?
We transitioned from USB Micro B to USB-C.
that was before this law, so quite irrelevant to the question.
It’s very unlikely that the C-type port is changing anytime soon. Most devices will stay on whatever underlying USB version that the manufacturer deems adequate for that device.
Why are you bringing this up like it hasn’t been discussed thousands of times? Like it hasn’t been stated (and cleared) in this very post?
As long as it uses the physical type c port it’s all good. Not that I care. USB got faster and faster and I use it less and less over the years.
The chargers l have work just fine. Why do I need to change them?
You don’t. But all your new devices from now on will have USB C charging.
about time
USA checking in.
Just bought a new USB-C charging beard trimmer on clearance.
Feels good, man.
Thamks if EU helped.
With the iPhone 14 no longer being sold the specs of the rumored SE 2025 make a lot more sense.
