Apple UK Starts Selling £8 Micro-USB Adapter
Apple has started selling an adapter to add micro-USB support its iOS devices.
Yesterday was all about iOS, the iPod and the brand new iPhone 4S, however, Apple also launched another product, which is set to go on sale in the United Kingdom on 14 October.
You might remember a couple of years ago when major phone manufacturers agreed to standardise European mobile phone chargers and go with micro-USB as a universal charger for the continent.
"People will not have to throw away their charger whenever they buy a new phone," EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said at the time, going on to blame unwanted phone accessories for thousands of tons of waste in Europe each year.
Well, this month, Apple is doing its part to cut down on electronic waste by bringing the micro-USB standard to the iPhone. Engadget reports that this £8 adapter yesterday crept into the UK Apple store unnoticed amid all the iPhone 4S hoopla. Given its ship date of 14 October, it's not clear if this will be bundled with new iPhone 4S orders (a device also launching 14 October) and that £8 price-tag only applies to customers who want the adapter for their old handset, or if everyone will be expected to pay £8 to be a part of the new EU standard.
I suppose we'll find out next week.
- Apple Confirms UK Price for the iPhone 4S
- TDK Develops Tech to "More Than Double" HDD Capacity
- Microsoft Board Gives ''Underpaid'' Ballmer a 2% Raise
- AMD Sees Little Future in Ultrabooks
- Evercool Announces Transformer S CPU Cooler
- VIDEO: Aliens Colonial Marines E3 Demo Walkthrough
- Dell Announces Sandy Bridge Vostro AiO PC
- RAGE Suffering on PC; AMD Releases Optimized Driver
- Epic's UE3 Runs Within Adobe's New Flash 11
- Why the Windows 7 Start Menu is Going Out of Fashion
- HP CEO Will Decide PC Division's Fate This Month
- R.I.P. Steve Jobs, 1955-2011
- Bethesda Blaming RAGE PC Issues on Drivers
- Dell XPS 14z Ultra-Thin Laptop Rolls Out in China
- Diablo 3 Closed Beta Hands-On: Part 4
- Apple Uses Intel's Nehalem Die Shot in A5 CPU Slide
- Asus: Ultrabooks Won't Threaten Tablet Market
- These Micro-ATX Cases Support Long Cards
Jane, this is getting ridiculous. Almost every other story is now an Apple story, this is not an Apple oriented site but you are pushing it that way.
If you lead Tom's down this road people will take a step back before trusting your reviews when anything Apple is remotely involved (such as other "Tech" sites that fawn over anything Apple).
Don't go down that road, and become one site in the sea of Apple brown-nosing sites.
Once again Apple have revolutionised another product, the mini-usb adapter.
All hail the great iAdaptor and it's contribution to reducing waste(?).
Why apple are allowed to get away with their bullshit proprietary connector i do not know. They should be forced to use the standard.
Why apple are allowed to get away with their bullshit proprietary connector i do not know. They should be forced to use the standard.
Money is one thing, Apple probably paid under the table to be allowed to keep the proprietary connector and use a silly converter instead.
To be fair, most articles on Tom's have nothing to do with Apple, it's just that the Apple oriented articles pick up the most attention.
As for this item.. I'm not sure why anybody should have the need for a USB adapter? It's suppose to be UNIVERSAL. Does the new Iphone have micro-USB built in? It should.
I can't see any good in this game & neither could any one else. That's why they went into Administration.
Wut.