I love living in the United States, but for a technology buff and gadget head, it can be frustrating at times. Korea gets the most fantastic cell phones, and Japan has mobile television on everything, and Europe is about to have a unified cell phone charging standard. I am absolutely jealous. My kids share a Nokia phone, and it has its own charger; it is different than our last Nokia Charger. My wife upgraded her BlackBerry to an iPhone, and we have all of those chargers sitting around as well. Have you ever stopped by a Wal Mart and checked out the charger section? I did, and I counted 18 different charger types and tips. It is insane!

But next year in Europe, there will be one charger to rule them all. Thanks to a multi-company agreement which includes Nokia and Sony Ericsson, and the European Union. According to EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen,

"People will not have to throw away their charger whenever they buy a new phone."

That is something that we could use here in the states desperately. Think of all the industrial waste that we could keep out of landfills if we did he same thing. Companies could also shave millions in costs by adopting a standardized plug because they would not need to ship one with every new phone.

I am thinking that once the Californians catch wind of this news, they will jump on board and start pushing for similar legislation in the US. I, for one, would love to see the same standard. Now if I could simply figure out if there is some way to reuse the adapters I have.

Via Reuters UK