If you’ve recently returned from holiday lugging your own body weight in mismatched chargers for your family’s mobile phones and dreamt of a world where one size fits all, you may in luck.

Last week the Open Mobile Terminal Platform, a body that represents the mobile phone industry, quietly announced its members had agreed to work towards one standardised charger.

The move is long overdue. Recent figures from GFK, the retail analyst, indicate that more than 90% of UK adults own a mobile phone – often two. A conservative estimate suggests we have 65m handsets between us and the tangle of power cables is frightening. Each new phone comes with a new, slimmer, more futuristic but no more effective charger. And if we lose it it’ll cost £20 to replace.

But with customer frustration mounting the handset providers are finally taking note. “We are trying to make the world better for consumers – people who actually use phones,” says Tim Raby, managing director of Open Mobile. “Like anyone who goes away for a weekend, I feel the same pain.” The planned one-size-fits-all charger will use a power cable with a universal connector known as micro-USB, similar to a computer’s USB socket but smaller.

There is some resistance and it could be a couple of years before it becomes reality, but Motorola and Nokia at least sound keen.

“There are moves in this direction,” confirmed Mark Squires, UK communications director for Nokia, who said his group was also working on eco-chargers that will “nag” you to unplug them when charging is complete. What fun.

Of course, none of this tackles all the other chargers we cart around, for laptops, digital cameras, baby monitors and electric toothbrushes. A lot of these are more complicated to standardise because of the different levels of charge required. But improvements could be made. Maybe one day we’ll be able to rediscover the idea of travelling light.

Your friendly local repairman takes on the big boys

Word reaches us of a grassroots revolution brewing on the high street. Small independent computer repairers are joining forces to take on bully boy chains such as PC World and Geek Squad.

The group claims that people who rely on high street names are overlooking a wealth of local expertise, just because they don’t know what’s available or who to trust. Now more than 300 independent computer technicians across the UK are joining forces to offer a service called FixITlocal (www.fixitlocal.co.uk). This will enable customers to call one national number (0844 844 0004) to be put straight through to their local repairer, who can often be on the scene faster than competitors, it says.

All technicians will charge £50 for the first hour’s work and FixITlocal claims its technicians will surpass the repair services offered by the likes of PC World’s Tech Guys, which fared badly in a recent InGear test (tinyurl.com/2pxcy2). “A lot of our experts have been doing this day in day out for 30 years,” says John Carter, FixITlocal’s managing director. (Additional reporting: Barry Collins)

HEAVY WEAPON

Funtrak paintball panzer tank
£8,000
www.funtrak.co.uk
0870 774 0153

Paintballing, the simple pleasure of firing harmless coloured gloop at your friends in the woods, has now moved into heavy artillery. The advance into armoured vehicles has been going for a while but the panzer is a proper tracked tank claimed to be pushing the boundaries of modern paintballing warfare further.

Funtrak’s tank can be fitted with “laser cannons” for paintballing, which uses laser guns and detector vests rather than old-fashioned paint. It includes a roll cage and is powered by a Honda GX390 engine. Each vehicle takes about three months to build to order. On compatible courses, the panzer can compete with foot soldiers, and one shot from the laser cannon (or a paintball one for the traditionalists) can take out any infantry within range – much better than skulking around in the bushes.

TRANSPARENT SOUND

Ferguson Hill FH007 speaker system
£495
www.fergusonhill.co.uk
020 7284 0969

This is a scaled-down version of the British speaker maker Ferguson Hill’s £9,000 FH001 audio setup and is intended to be paired with a computer or iPod, though it works with most audio sources. There are two transparent horn-shaped speakers, plus acrylic bass units and a cubic silver amplifier. The sound quality is refined and more suited to jazz than R&B but you can add a subwoofer for £275. To connect an iPod, it is best to add a specialist dock for about £80. This also includes a remote control, which the FH007 does not.

SLIM PICKINGS

BenQ T800 camera
£tba
www.benq.com

Last week BenQ unveiled what the company claims will be the world’s thinnest 8 megapixel camera to feature a touchscreen. The T800 is a mere 15mm thick, which is only slightly fatter than a CD case. It features a Pentax lens, a 3in touchscreen and the usual features you would expect in a modern compact digital camera. However, it lacks proper optical antishake technology to counteract the effect of shaky hands and as is often the case with such headline-grabbing products you will probably pay a tasty premium for its svelte styling over photographic substance. Available in October.

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