Just a few days ago, I replaced my old cell phone with a new cell phone.
The good news: It was a free upgrade! (I'm saying that tongue-in-cheek, since cell phone upgrades are typically subsidized by outrageously high monthly service fees. I'm looking at you, Verizon Wireless!)
The bad news: I locked myself into two more years of slavery. Oops, I mean, I signed another two year contract.
Every time I've ever upgraded my cell phone, I get a new cell phone charger, and they're always different. Why don't cell phone manufacturers settle on a standard interface for cell phone chargers? Probably because they make more money when they're all incompatible. Why sell people just a cell phone when you can sell them a cell phone and a charger every single time they upgrade?
To be fair, you can buy universal cell phone chargers that claim to fit most cell phones. Be prepared to pay $20 to $30 for one, though. And remember, there's no guarantee your universal cell phone charger will fit your next cell phone.
It gets even worse when you're talking about car cell phone chargers, the kind that plug into the cigarette lighter jack in your car. New cell phones almost always come with a regular charger (which plug into standard house power receptacles), but they never seem to come with a car cell phone charger. Open your wallet and prepare to pay another $20 to $30 for the privilege of being able to charge your cell phone in your car.
Enough is enough! This time, I'm saying "NO!" to the man! I'm not going to pay $20 to $30 for a car cell phone charger that required maybe $4 to $5 worth of parts! Power to the people! Ahem...excuse me.
This time, I've decided to buy an inverter. For those of you that don't know what an inverter is: It's a circuit for converting direct current (which is the kind of current the cigarette lighter jack in your car provides) to alternating current (which is the kind of current the power receptacles in your house provide). That way, I won't need a car cell phone charger: I can plug my regular cell phone charger into the inverter.
Inverters run about $30 to $50, which is certainly more than a $20 to $30 car cell phone charger, but they also give you a lot more utility, since they can power lots of different devices depending on your need at the time. For example, they can power:
- Cell phone charger
- Laptop computer
- An extra light
- Video camera
- Portable DVD player
- Television set
- Hand-held games
- Rechargeable battery chargers
Of course, the list goes on.
Inverters are also bulkier, but if you're careful to buy an inverter with a long enough cord, you can easily stash it under your car seat and mostly forget about it. Also, most inverters can power more than one device at a time.
If you upgrade your cell phone regularly, and each time, buy another car cell phone charger, you should consider an inverter. Do a bit of research and get a quality inverter, and it should be a long, long time before you ever need to worry about buying a car cell phone charger again. And, as I've already mentioned, the extra utility provided by an inverter can be quite valuable.
7 comments:
so this is different from the adapters for other electronics, how?
It's not. Adapters for electronics have had the same problem for years. However it's a bigger issue with mobile phones because the average lifespan of a phone in this country is about 6 months -- which is much shorter than any other electronic device that might have a power adapter.
Ah, I guess I just don't see it since I don't have a cell phone and the last one my wife had lasted years (I am not sure how old her current one is). Perhaps the thrust here should be against disposable technology our disposable culture rather than cell phone design.
That's a great point, Adam. The "disposable-ness" of our electronics is something we should really work on. All these disposable devices are a huge waste of resources not to mention the pollution of the environment due to the number of circuit boards that are not properly disposed of (or recycled).
Disposable electronics are a problem in our society, but in this case, the cell phone upgrade was worth it for two reasons:
First, my cell phone was somewhat broken. It was a clamshell design, and only worked if you held the phone open at a certain, exact, and awkward angle. Probably my fault for dropping it too many times.
Second, my cell phone didn't have the E911 feature. Depending on your level of paranoia, that feature alone may be worth the upgrade.
The E911 feature became mandatory on new cell phone sales a year or two ago. Cell phones that support the E911 feature contain a GPS chip that'll tell the 911 dispatcher your exact location. I think it's a good idea to have it.
This is my third cell phone in roughly 10 years. That means each one has lasted roughly 3 1/2 years each.
"This is my third cell phone in roughly 10 years. That means each one has lasted roughly 3 1/2 years each."
Then what are you bitching about? even if the adapters were universal, in 3 years they would be outdated.
New cell phones always ship with chargers that plug into standard electrical outlets. They never ship with chargers that plug into the 12V power receptacle in your car. If you buy a cell phone charger that plugs into the 12V power receptacle in your car, it likely won't work for your next cell phone.
My solution is to buy an inverter. It plugs into the 12V power receptacle in your car, and makes available one or two standard electrical outlets. That way, you don't need to purchase an overpriced cell phone charger at all, much less buying another in 3 years, and another in 3 years, and another in 3 years.
Does that make sense?
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