The National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday all mobile phones would have to be equipped with a USB charger port in the future.
Lo Chin-hsien (羅金賢), deputy director of the commission’s technologies administration department, confirmed that the commission members met Ministry of Economic Affairs officials to discuss how to execute the policy.
The ministry promulgated the new specifications for mobile phone chargers in July.
The commission is the administrative authority charged with certifying the specifications and safety of mobile phones and must follow the ministry’s instructions.
Lo said that the issue had been discussed for a while, as many mobile phone users have complained that they have to buy new chargers whenever they buy a new phone.
The problem was highlighted again after many victims of Typhoon Morakot complained about problems recharging their phones because everyone had different chargers.
Lo said that the policy change would impact mobile phone manufacturers, who will need time to gradually phase out older phone models.
“We have been meeting with mobile phone manufacturers and will announce the details once they are settled,” Lo said.
Several leading mobile phone manufacturers, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, Research-in-Motion (RIM) and Apple, signed an agreement with the EU earlier this year that new phones would be equipped with micro-USB as the charger port and would be compatible with any charger.
NCC Commissioner Lee Ta-sung (李大嵩) said that the one-charger-fits-all rule is a future trend and that Taiwan needs to be on the same track.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s