Common sense comes to the computer industry

I’d bet real money that anyone who follows me because of computer technology let out a little bit of applause over the decision in the European Union about technology. This morning, I read this article.

Say goodbye to Apple’s Lightning chargers

We all know that Apple’s Lightning chargers have become the bane of creatives’ lives. The pesky cords only work on Apple products and so it means that for a lot of us, we have to carry a bag full of wires around to make sure we never lose juice. But the EU is putting its foot down. 

I actually have a couple of bags of cables to throw in my computer bag when I go somewhere. Heaven knows that I’d hate to lost the opportunity to be connected.

One of my favourite conversations in technology was talking with David Warlick when I had engaged him to speak as a keynote speaker at the Western Regional Computer Advisory Committee’s Symposium conference in London. David is from North Carolina and he wanted to make sure that things would go seemlessly.

“What kind of electricity do you have in Canada?”

It struck me as kind of funny but when you think about it, if you want to make sure that you’re going to have few problems, you want to cover all the bases. After a bit of back and forth, we came to the mutual conclusion that he was concerned about electrical connectors and that there were going to be no problems. I still remember a good friend telling me that I should have pulled out the oven and taken a picture of that outlet!

But seriously, this is a problem that we as a society had allowed to get out of control and individual companies have done what they want. Apple has always been the worst. My Bose Sounddock, for example, won’t hold my newest iPod because it requires a Lightning connector.

I’ll bet you’re like me and have cables running all over the place and likely going into a power strip or surge protector.

I am pleased that USB-C will be the connector of choice. As I think of my technology, that would be the most common connector. It really would be nice to just have one cable and charge whatever needs to be charged with that everywhere we happen to go.

Kudos to the European Union for this decision. Hopefully, the implementation works out for this side of the Atlantic and companies don’t have different standards around the world. That would be so nice.

Now, let’s work on making charging in our cars simpler as well.