That’s bad for the environment either way as you end up with two different phone chargers or two similar ones as they are always sold with cell phones. It is also bad if you need to recharge the battery of your cell phone at a friends house only to find out that the phone charger is not compatible with your cell phone.

Cell phone suppliers like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Apple, Motorola and LG have agreed to produce cell phones that are compatible with standard charging devices in Europe. First cell phones are expected next year which is expected to reduce the waste that phone chargers produce each year. About 180 million cell phones are sold in Europe each year which also means the same amount of phone chargers.

According to the New York Times only data-enabled phones (which will account for about 50% of all cell phones sold in 2010) will be compatible with the new chargers which are in the beginning sold with the cell phones. Plans are to remove the cell phone chargers later on and sell them separately. It is likely that other countries will join the initiative.

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Data Retention Laws (firmly pushed by the United Kingdom) are already in place which forces every European ISP to record communication data of their users. Apparently though that is not enough for the British Home Office who have plans to create a database of electronic information holding details of every phone call and e-mail sent in the UK according to the BBC.

All for the sake of national security, fighting terrorism and crime of course. The data will be “subject to strict safeguards to ensure the right balance between privacy and protecting the public.”

Am I the only one thinking all those laws that reduce the liberty of the individual and the population are way out of proportion ? There is zero difference between some laws in Europe and the United States and some oppressive regime in the rest of the world.

I’m sorry that it got a bit political but this is an issue that is affecting everyone living in those countries.

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“Considering that Microsoft continued to abuse its powerful market position after the Commission’s March 2004 decision requiring it to change its practices, and given the fact that it is already the third time in four years that the Commission had to impose fines or penalty payment for non-compliance with a Commission decision, and bearing in mind that the 17 September 2007 CFI judgment has the force of res judicata, does the Commission consider that Article 93 (b) and (c) of Financial Regulation, read in conjunction with article 45(2) of Directive 2004/18/EC could be applied to Microsoft in this particular case and with regard to any ongoing or future public procurement procedure? If it is the case, could we therefore consider that Microsoft does not fulfill the conditions to participate in such public
procurement procedure?”

The last two paragraphs have been directly taken from the form that was submitted to the European Commission, the pdf can be downloaded from this link. It will be very interesting to read the answer of the European Commission. My guess is that Microsoft will not be excluded from receiving EU contracts because if they would it would be like a digital revolution in Europe and a huge chance for Linux on the other hand.

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