High Power USB at every wall socket.

[BobA]

How about this for the future.

Extremetech Article

[Le Chuck]

How about this for the future.

Extremetech Article

[SavannahLion]

Jesus, what a dumb idea. It's the blind leading the blind kind of thing.

I'm not going to get into vacuum cleaners or that kind of thing, I don't know what the maximum draw on standard USB connectors are capable of, and quite frankly, I don't care.

What this fails to address is the long term life span of the ubiquitous "A" socket. I fully expect wall sockets to have long lives, twenty, thirty or more years without the need for replacement. I can guarantee that USB ports do not have anywhere near this operational life expectency. I have PC's with worn USB ports and the USB consortium apparently acknowledges this with the move of the locking mechanism on the micro USB port.

A valiant idea but this just has epic FAIL written all over it unless they decide to shift to a new standard "A" plug with a much longer life span than what? 2000ish inserts? A laptop where I average about 4 insert/remove cycles a day, that works out to be about 1.4 years before it wears out. That's almost exactly when my first laptop USB port failed (1.5 years actually) before I had to repair it. Yeah, brilliant idea. Let's add one more thing to have to fix every few years in this throw away society.  

[Howard_Casto]

Agreed... I won't even get into how dangerous this could be....having a low voltage input so close to a high voltage source without any substancial kind of insulation in-between... well even though it's safe in theory I would always be scared to plug a 200+ dollar usb device into that.

I think the way apple does it is pretty nice... a simple electrical plug to usb adaptor.  It doesn't take up a lot of room and if you need multiple sockets you can either hook a usb hub up to it, or get a surge protector and plug in multiple adaptors.

[BobA]

How about this for the future.

Extremetech Article

Thanks forgot the =

[MonMotha]

The USB standard (v2.0) calls for minimum 1500 cycles at 200 cycles/hr maximum.  Honestly, this is probably comparable to the cheap 79c NEMA 5-15 outlets you get at the hardware store.  "Commercial Grade" outlets will probably exceed that by a fair margin, but higher quality USB cable assemblies are also available.

The locking mechanism on micro USB isn't because the full-size connectors wear out too quickly, it's because the connector is too small to have a very reliable friction retention mechanism.

I've never actually worn out a full size USB A or B connector, though I'm sure it's possible.  The design is actually pretty darned rugged; the only thing I can see wearing out very quickly at all is perhaps the retention clips, depending on how they're constructed (they could lose their spring).

What concerns me more is that the USB A connector is just a bad connector on several other points.  It's not capable of very high current (500mA by the original spec; battery charging spec brings it up to 2A, but many connectors are actually only specified for 1.5A.  This is only 10W (a linked article from the linked article indicates that there may be an effort to fix this, but it may just be the old USB + Power standard mentioned below - I can't tell since the link to the USB IF document is 404).  There are also no provisions for adjustable voltage, which would be handy in a real low voltage DC power spec.  It's 5V (and with pretty wide tolerance) or bust.  The connector also suffers from being rectangular but requiring a specific orientation not immediately obvious from the physical shape.  There are some guidelines for identifying the proper orientation using overmold artwork and similar, but these are regularly disregarded or ever flat out violated.

There is a "USB + Power" standard, but it never really caught on.  It actually fixed all the problems I highlighted above at the expense of adding another part to the USB connector to transfer the high power.

As for isolation between the AC line voltage and low voltage stuff, it should be doable.  If the low voltage is generated within the outlet housing itself, that's up to the manufacturer to get right (and, being a fully controlled environment, should be easy enough), and there's no problem in the box.  That just leaves the possibility of a contact event on the plugs themselves.  The linked article is probably just a concept drawing, but that would be a pretty terrible way to do it (they did at least put the connector on the neutral blade side).  Proper recesses could make a contact event quite unlikely.  It's such a shame that the US never adopted the popular Japanese practice of having the plug blades partially sheathed in plastic so that the exposed portion is insulated by the time electrical contact is internally made (like the EU Schuko plug).

[Pinball Wizard]

Separating the high power AC and the low power DC is not a problem at all. You have to know a few guidelines but it is something I deal with at work on a regular basis.

[Gray_Area]

I think the way apple does it is pretty nice... a simple electrical plug to usb adaptor.  It doesn't take up a lot of room and if you need multiple sockets you can either hook a usb hub up to it, or get a surge protector and plug in multiple adaptors.

I think all smart phones have this option, as mine came with one. So did one of my headsets. Have one at home, one in my bag. Also (because dedicated car chargers are just lame, and a stupid expense) I have a cable in the car to hook to my [aftermarket] stereo (though aren't USB ports coming standard in many vehicles, now?), which is especially cool because I don't need a dumbass Apple-like dongle-interface-standard to play from my phone.

[ark_ader]

Looking down under my desk I can count at least 12 wall warts on one bar.  I know I have about 12 more dotted around the room. 

With all the marvels of science, could we please have a daisy chain-all-in-one plug for everything?

I can see why the Mac owners like their PCs = very few cables.

How about a universal cable for anything computer related. 

[Gray_Area]

Looking down under my desk I can count at least 12 wall warts on one bar.  I know I have about 12 more dotted around the room. 

With all the marvels of science, could we please have a daisy chain-all-in-one plug for everything?

I can see why the Mac owners like their PCs = very few cables.

How about a universal cable for anything computer related. 

This is why there's more paperwork in the world, now.

[lilshawn]

Imagine if you could carry around a single cable and plug in any device to the wall, in any country.

does this guy not know that the chargers supplied with your gadgets use a SMPS power supply that can take voltages from anywhere you might plug it in. 90-260 volts? unless you need to plug into some 400v feeder line, I don't see an issue.

Gone are the wobbly, prone-to-falling-out, who-needs-an-earth?! US plugs

huh??

the only time i've seen a wobbly plug is cause of a broken socket.  

A dreamy smile spreads across my face as I imagine life with universal power sockets and cables.

uhm. kay. last i heard power plugs where all the same. (at least by region)... last I heard USB sockets where all the same. Last I heard as of 2010 all new cellphones where coming with microUSB.

sounds pretty standard to me.

You could have wall sockets with built-in power cables. Imagine: A wall socket with a retractable Micro-USB connector sticking out of it. Just pull it out, stick it into your laptop/smartphone/tablet, and off you go. Salivating yet? I am.

guess this guy never thought this through...I'm not even going to bother with how stupid THAT particular statement is.

EDITED TO ADD:

i'd be happy with maybe a 5 amp power supply with a cord that comes up on my desk or table or whatever and has a terminal of say, 15 USB sockets. that way i can just plug in whatever and charge.