Universal mobile charger cheers us up

More phone news, folks. Wait, come back! This is good news. The phone industry has comitted to a universal mobile charger. It will be based on the microUSB connection being adopted as an industry standard.

It's good to see some progress on this, which will cut down on waste as we no longer have to chuck out proprietary chargers when we change phones, and should also see an end to those battery-dying-just-when-you-realise-you're-going-to-be-late panics. We foresee a brighter world in which there's a universal charger in every home, office, pub and sweet shop.Yes, we're dreamers.

Industry body the GSMA reckons we'll get the first charger this year, and has committed to see the majority of phones using the universal charger by 2012. No manufacturers have named a date as yet.

Hardware makers LG, Motorola, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung and Sony Ericsson have all signed up. Operators on board include 3, AT&T, Orange, Telefónica, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

See? We told you it was good news. Unless you're an iPhone user, of course, in which case you're too cool to go with the crowd.

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