I agree with you about manufacturers just being greedy meanies. We all know that they could do so if they wanted to.
So instead, maybe 2 classes:
power only
power and data
I'm getting the idea from my digital camera's cradle, it appears to be just a mini-USB plug but it does both data transfer and charging (independent of each other.) Perhaps devices that do the data transfer thing could all support this kind of adapter. I'm sure my camera's mini-USB is the 1.1 spec, but our adapter should be the 2.0 spec especially if it can power the bigger gadget batteries like the iPod's and such.
For the other adapter, I really favor the Powerbook's power plug. Maybe that's small enough for other manufacturers to incorporate. Especially if it's not subject to licensing and royalty fees.
In my mind, everything works just perfectly. In real life, however, I'm afraid that we should just resign ourselves (including me) to our current jumble of adapters and cords and whatever.
POL9A
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