Wall warts seem to be taking over the world...

[spuorgelgoog]

Not according to

Owain

[harryagain]

They are a problem. It have a switch to turn the lot off when not needed. Leaving them turned on is foolish.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at

13:13:15 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013, [e-mail] remarked:

Ah, that's replacing the data-transfer aspect. It's possible wifi/Bluetooth has gone a long way towards that already. But there's still a need for a power-socket.

Doesn't seem to bother my printer, USB keyboard or 3G dongle. My external HDD connects by gig-ethernet.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at

22:54:41 on Wed, 2 Oct 2013, Dave Liquorice remarked:

It's a European standard, not worldwide.

Quite a lot of them do (although Nokia not always).

iPhones seem to be a big exception (despite being USA-based they did agree to comply, initially), but Apple always does want to be inconveniently different!

[polygonum]

Perhaps the Chinese mount their OWN 13A sockets that way up? After all, while far from universal, they are one of the Chinese standards. (So I have read - never actually been there!)

[charles]

Insofar as 13A was the Hong Kong standard, they are a Chinese standard.

[Nightjar]

Only if misused.

Mine are all of good manufacture, switched and protected by 5A fuses, both in the strip and in the plug feeding them. Not that much of what I have plugged in ought to be switched off at any time.

Colin Bignell

[The Other Mike]

All the sockets I've seen in HK are mounted the same way as in the UK

[fred]

In article , Roland Perry writes

Did somebody say kerchiiiing!

Cost of iPhone £450 Cost of proprietary accessories required to let it connect to the real world £180

[Jethro_uk]

Slightly OT, but why on earth can't they at least have a nice standard ISO spec physical design.

I just received a new router, courtesy of BT. ****ing power adapter has a

3" bulge *below* the mains pins. The previous one had a 2" bulge *above the pins. Of course the new one won't fit in the power socket, as the bottom fouls the floor. I would move the power strip up, but then the PSU for my VOIP phone will foul the desk.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 09:56:04 on Thu, 3 Oct

2013, Jethro_uk remarked:

That's what I was talking about earlier. What you need (sadly) is one power strip each way up...

[Andy Wade]

Parts of BS 1363, not all of it. Much of 1363 isn't relevant: fuse holder, cord attachment, temperature rise at full load, etc.

Wall warts principally come under a relevant product safety standard, such as BS EN 60065 for AV equipment, BS EN 60950 for IT equipment and

61558 for generic PSUs. These standards require the wart to comply with the dimensional requirements for the relevant mains plug (BS 1363 for the UK and Ireland). There are also requirements that are not in (or different to) BS 1363, mainly relating to mechanical strength and the strain imposed on the socket.

[John Williamson]

Cost of *making* the new iPhone 5c using Chinese labour. USD 173 plus change. They sold 9 million units on the first day they were available.

Cost of making proprietary accessories. A tenner.

I suppose they have to pay for the flashy showrooms and the adverts somehow.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Exactly.

What costs is R&D and marketing. Not what's 'inside'

But that is true of many products in the consumer/mass market area.

And indeed in many others too.

[whisky-dave]

You cut it open :-)

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 14:21:56 on Thu, 3 Oct

2013, The Natural Philosopher remarked:

I think he means "retail price".

Amortised over tens of millions of units - "not a lot".

[The Natural Philosopher]

IF the sales are achieved. AND te R&D costsd are notmassive to begin with.

Investment in large LCD plants used to produce LCD screens is only JUST beginning to be overtaken by net cashflow some 15 years later..

a billion investment in R&D that onlt results in ten million sales is still $100 per unit. plus the cost of borrowing it to start with.

And marketing..sheesh 90% of the cost of many products is in te marketing.

[harryagain]

Five amps. Good for 1500W. You think you can't start a fire with 1500watts? Smoking used to be the main source of fires. Then it was chip pans/other cooking Now it's electrical wiring/flexes

[Nightjar]

The purpose of a fuse in a plug is to protect the flex. I am using a 5A fuse to protect a 13A rated flex. It isn't going to overheat.

Colin Bignell

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 15:39:32 on Thu, 3 Oct

2013, The Natural Philosopher remarked:

Which Apple seems very good at doing.