Good news for cellphone users in the EU--an agreement between Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Apple, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung, and Texas Instruments has been reached, making micro-USB the phone charger standard. The agreement will affect phones sold in Europe by those companies, beginning next year.

"People will not have to throw away their charger whenever they buy a new phone," the EU's Industry Commissioner, Guenter Verheugen, said of the move, which has been heralded from both an economic and environmental standpoint.