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by baroffoos 2616 days ago
One slightly worse but standard charger is a better situation than loads of incompatible chargers especially when you consider environmental impact. My main concern would be avoiding blocking progress where a new standard is built which is better but we can't move over to it because of regulation.
1 comments
wemdyjreichert 2616 days ago
That's only true of you prioritize minimization of e-waste over personal convenience, which most (including me) do not. The regulation delay is exactly the problem: had politicians standardized micro-usb, we would still be on it rather than usb-c.
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omegabravo 2616 days ago
In Australia, the laws refer to the Australian Standards (ie. AS3000 for the electrical code). These are updated as necessary with out an act of parliament.

Regulation delay is a feature here, as we don't need a new standard every couple of years.

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wemdyjreichert 2615 days ago
No one in America needs a new standard either. Literally no piece of gear I own has usb-c, except for one on my laptop which is not the primary charging port and I do not ever use (due to the traditional lineup of ports being available).

I get switching can be a pain, but most people (the people regulation is crafted to cover) do not upgrade on the schedule of many tech enthusiasts. Consumers are also keeping devices progressively longer as time goes by.

I'm still happy with micro-usb, usb-a, hdmi, etc. for now. People do not switch out devices all at once, and it seems that forcing them to do so would create waste.

Lastly, how do they enforce it? Any one can go on amazon.com and buy a non-standard charger and a plug adapter, right? I would imagine those who do want things like quick charge would just buy the stuff.

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baroffoos 2615 days ago
It seems like we are still in a transition period. Every host device I have like my laptop and phone uses usb c and every accessory like my headphones and bike lights charge on micro usb even though they are new models. I'm guessing the reason for this may be that microusb is cheaper and offers no downsides when only used for charging.
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baroffoos 2616 days ago
This is why we need regulation to enforce whats best for society over whats convenient for an individual in the short term.
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