Cell Phones To Get Universal Chargers, Travel To Become Moderately Less Annoying
We aren't sure where exactly "managing multiple bulky chargers" goes on the Things That Make Vacations Suck list. But it has be fairly high, right? That goes double and triple if you're traveling with a partner or a family, where every person needs to carry and plug in a different phone charger.
Eventually there will be ubiquitous wireless charging mats in every hotel room, and the world will be at peace. In the meantime this should make things a little easier:
With every new mobile phone purchased, another old, incompatible phone charger gets tossed out. On Tuesday, the GSM Association, which represents the mobile communications industry, promised to make that wasteful practice a thing of the past. The group said 17 mobile phone operators and device makers had agreed to standardize chargers by 2012 for most mobile phones. That means no matter what brand of phone you buy, the chargers should be interchangeable, making it possible to charge a phone from any available charger even if you leave yours at home. And you could use the same charger even when you get a new phone.
The impetus seems to be as much environmental as anything else. Discarded chargers generate over 50,000 metric tons of waste a year. Plus manufacturing new ones generates massive pollution. Plus keeping multiple ones plugged into various outlets leeches that much more electricity. But mostly it's just a shitton of garbage and there's really no excuse for it. And so the industry is leaping into action and will have everything standardized in no time. Or in three and half years. Whichever comes first.
While they're getting around to that, the Practical Travel Gear blog suggests purchasing something like the iGo or the CallPod as de facto universal chargers. Those work well enough, though we tend to prefer more USB-centric charging solutions. More on that in a future post.
How do you fight the waning power in your cell phone when traveling? Let us know in comments below.
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