Quote:
Originally Posted by nholling
I think this is completely stupid. I don't understand why it can't just charge through USB. I don't understand the need for another type of power connector on the device. Just plain stupid design.
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It's not really stupid, it's standards compliant. USB interfaces don't all provide an infinite amount of 5V power. Sure, the USB port in your desktop computer has a 500W power supply, but don't think that connector could take 100A.
The real reason is that small, battery powered computers, like the laptops Sony also makes, don't want to run their battery down recharging your reader. Thus the standards for USB only allow low current operation until the computer has recognized the device. Folks like the engineers at Sony put this in the rule book, so of course they are going to follow the standard.
Sure, lots of USB gizmos ignore this. Sure, I wish the Sony eReader was one of them. But, it's been that way since the 500. That was the reason they put in the round charger port, and we all bought round connector to USB cables. I don't have a new snazzy touch-screen reader, maybe it was fixed when they took out the round port. Whatever, it's not stupid, you just don't agree with the reason.