...just a micro-USB port, isn't it. And many phone power ports are already just that.

Once half the world are charging their phones from their desktop PCs with a cable adapter anyway, using any other kind of power plug is perverse. Although using USB as the standard phone power port is also rather perverse: it wasn't designed for that (I suppose). But it's there and it keeps the component and port count low and you -can- connect it to your PC and you may want to do that for data anyway...

As for negative comments about PC standard power supply: I think most of us are just saying that it isn't going to be "And they all lived happily ever after" starting next month. It isn't as straightforward as that.

It would be really nice if laptops could run on 12 volts again - I'd be able to charge the thing in my car with a relatively dumb cable (instead of my current inverter-to-120V and power brick), or from car-compatible solar panels if I'm off the grid, and take advantage of other 12V tech that's widely available. It should certainly be plenty for netbooks; not sure about the bigger laptops out there.

I think this is basically making the connector standard. Most of the Laptop chargers have an output voltage in the range of 18 to 20V. The batteries usually have 11V to 14V So there is no problem there. You can standardize on one voltage. Just recently I forgot to take the adaptor of my Dell Laptop. I was not able to use any other Laptop Charger or a General Purpose one either. The connector did not match - even though the Voltages matched. I had to buy a Dell at almost $70 just for the charger. I think this is the move in the right direction

have any kind of knowledge in electrical engineering...
many, if not all the "problems" you've posted are soooo easy to solve
do you even know what a DC/DC converter is or how they work? guess not...

i totally agree with Anonymous Coward though

But what about the voltage? Typically, the batteries should be the about 2 volts lower than the plug-in voltage.

Also, laptops and chargers should be robustly tolerant with insufficient ac power: Underclock cpu & gpu, dim screen, use partial battery power.

I cant believe this! For once there is actually some *good* news - and everybody starts dissing it!

The consensus of the comments so far seems to be "we should never try to improve anything, because it takes too long and might not work".

And I suppose life is just what happens before you die? Well screw that.

This is a laudible attempt to create a better world in however small a way, and all kudos to them for trying.

how many years ago ALL the cell phone makers agreed to a universal charger... and still not in the market.

we will be running chips without silice before ALL agreed and REACH the market.

maybe in the next decade (by the time all manufacters will be in board) the netbooks and notebooks will not exist at all

And an adapter to connect it to your current PC.

Otherwise however... I should think that power supplies can still come in small and large, like USB ports. And the PC will operate accordingly. You could charge your laptop overnight on a pocket-size transformer or in an hour withia big one. And if the power supply isn't enough to run the graphics card, it'll just disable graphics and stagger on without.

Yes: It would be nice to just grab any old PSU and not have to read labels and check plugs.
No: Do I really want to carry round a huge brick capable of supplying 130 watts which weighs more than my netbook when the netbook only needs 30?

Like Steve has said above, this isn't going to work very well.

How will a desktop replacement laptop cope if it has to be powered by the same small PSU as a netbook?

I suppose they could come up with categories for each laptop size, e.g. tablet, netbook, thin 'n' lite, regular, DTR. But there's bound to be someone who wants to innovate and finds all of the above sizes impractical.

There's also the question of patents. Apple won't want to stop using mag-safe or let their competitors use it. So they're not going to sign up to something that forces them to supply an anonymous black brick like everyone else.

I don't think they've thought this through...

Yes: It would be nice to just grab any old PSU and not have to read labels and check plugs.
No: Do I really want to carry round a huge brick capable of supplying 130 watts which weighs more than my netbook when the netbook only needs 30?

robust enough to not snap the connector if looked at the wrong way (you know we're talking about you Dell!), well designed enough to drop off should someone trip over a cable (about the only well designed part of an Apple power supply). Smart enough to shut itself off if there is no power draw, as well as smart enough to only charge a battery if it is below a certain charge level.

Can only hope the standard involves a connector that isn't easily snapped or broken.

Of course laptop manufacturers want this. They can cut the cost of the laptop by £10 and then sell you a power adapter for £50.

You pretty much need a power adaptor for each laptop, it's just a cynical ploy to charge more money and get gullible people to actually support that,

The positive environmental impact of this could be huge. The amount of old Laptop adapeters I have is crazy and in the future it would be nice to be able to put the ones I hord to use replacing dead ones without having to buy a spare. It would also hopefully mean that manufacturers build them to a better quality as some of the devices may have lower tollerances to poor voltage regulation than others. We can all live in hope. Doubt we would see Dell and Apple joining this though!