Communication Savior: The forgotten device that keeps us connected

It can bring the dead back to life.

Of all the creations man has made, perhaps none has the restorative powers of a cell phone charger. As in video games, the concept of death in our technology does not loom with the same tragic finality of our own existence. However inconsequential these deaths might seem, they don’t offer the rapture of la petite mort, and can pose a sense of pending doom as our bars turn from green to red.

The cell phone is in no danger of being overlooked for its greatness. But to extol the cell phone without acknowledging its vital life source would be akin to ignoring food, water, oxygen, and light when discussing natural life.

If cell phones became self-aware and communicated with each other, their conversations would likely be about charging, charging, and more charging. I guess if they had time, they might also plan the imminent robot uprising — but they wouldn’t read food blogs or make plans to get coffee. They wouldn’t even make small talk about the weather. After all, there’s already an app for that. Nothing is as crucial in the day to day lives of humans as charging is to cell phones.

Discussions about access to healthcare would center on their proximity to an outlet. Maybe they’d have the occasional “How’d you get that crack? Well I hope they take you to the mall to get that fixed. As far as I’m concerned, you’re irreplaceable.” But these are superficial concerns for the cell phone.

They don’t live paycheck to paycheck; they live day to day. Before the advent of the smart phone, mobile phones could hold a charge for several days. All of that changed when phones were expected to double as minicomputers and their life expectancy dropped to that of a mayfly.

A cell phone is not unique in its need to find power from an electrical outlet. But what separates cell phones from the other items that have laid claim to outlets around the house or office is its need for mobility. TVs and toasters have their set place in the house, as do the computers and copiers in the office. And while some items like laptops or E-readers are able to carry a charge, no device is expected to be powered up and constantly at our sides in the way that our phones are.

On the concourse of Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., there is a section near the left field foul pole that offers all the essentials to its 41,000 attendees. There is plenty of food, and drink, and bathrooms, and yes, a charging station, with different cell phone model plugs lined up like different blood types for the desperate and infirm. Places like professional sporting events pose challenges for cell phone reception, internet connectivity, and battery life. Tens of thousands of users competing for a signal in a dense area drains our phones of power, so it makes sense that the opportunity to recharge would be available.

And this isn’t just nice feature, it’s essential. Walk through a busy airport and you’re bound to see proud business people huddle around outlets like vultures picking at a carcass. The demand for cell power is so great that many airports feature charging stations that cost money just to plug your phone in and get you enough juice to stay on the grid.

You don’t need me to tell you how important cell phones are to daily life. They are not merely an electronic accessory, but a necessity deemed important enough by the government to be provided to some citizens free of charge.

To be without a cell phone for long periods of time is like ceasing to exist. You are cut off from communication and information. You are left out of the cultural conversation and risk becoming irrelevant. It can be a peaceful escape to be away from the noise and technology — as long as it is a choice made of one’s own volition. But to want or need working cell phone and not have it can cause deep anxiety. Being without a phone can make someone feel lost, stranded, or otherwise unsafe. Or worse: bored. Regardless of whether a cell phone is needed to make an emergency call or just to check Twitter, witnessing a phone lose its power can make one feel, well, powerless.

For individuals who use their cell phone throughout the day, charging it just overnight won’t be enough. Fortunately, some innovations offer alternatives to the cumbersome prospect of carrying both cell phone and charger everywhere. Car chargers provide what’s possibly the best way to keep a charge while travelling, but still require the user and the device to be tethered to one place (albeit a mobile one). Special protective cases can offer extended battery life even while the phone is away from a power source, but these can be expensive and bulky. And such a device relies on a battery that often requires its own charging.

If having cords holds your phone down, and makes you fret or makes you frown, there are alternatives to a standard plug in a wall (or into a computer that’s plugged into a wall). Inductive charging, which can be done without cords has been used in recent decades for surgically-implanted devices, as well as electric razors and tooth brushes. There are products on the market that serve as wireless charging pads, but they are not efficient. A cell phone can rest on a coil-containing pad and receive a charge from the electromagnet field created below. It’s cool to see it happen, unless you’re in a hurry to charge your phone, or you care about the cost of your electricity bill. These options are such a great waste of power that you’re better off just plugging the phone into a traditional charger.

If YouTube is any indication, more innovation toward charging phones is underway. A quick search reveals attempts to charge cell phones through apples, watermelons, bananas and every other imaginable fruit. Others are making use of hand cranks and other handheld devices in an effort to extend the lives of their mobile devices. In what seems to be a counter to self-preservation, we’ve begun using our food, water, and our own physical power to sustain our phones rather than ourselves.

Using cell phones might seem like a great invention to those who remember life without them. But to people who have never lived without them — and even to those who have simply become reliant on them — cell phones are as much a part of modern life as indoor plumbing or engine-powered transportation. As necessary as gas is to our cars, that’s the importance of chargers to cell phones. And luckily, no nation has ever gone to war over access to electrical currents. At least not yet.

There certainly have been contentious negotiations and broken international agreements regarding phone chargers in recent years. In 2009, the European Commission had a bright idea: Wouldn’t it be great if all phone manufacturers agreed to a universal charger?

It made a very convincing argument:

“Incompatibility of chargers for mobile phones is a major environmental problem and an inconvenience for users across the EU. Currently specific chargers are sold together with specific mobile phones. A user who wants to change his/her mobile phone must usually acquire a new charger and dispose the current one, even if this is in perfect condition. This unnecessarily generates important amounts of electronic waste.”

After all the major cell phone companies agreed to the deal in principle, and after an initiative called the Common External Power Supply (EPS) was drawn up and adopted, Apple backed out of the plan and came up with its own idea: What if, rather than cutting down electronic waste and making life easier for customers worldwide, we created yet another new charger for our iPhone 5, which would require even loyal Apple customers to purchase more of our accessories? That seems like a much more profitable plan, they reasoned.

So despite initially agreeing to the EPS, Apple made its next cell phone require the new Lightning Dock, which wasn’t compatible with any other mobile devices. The European plan would have called for all phones to use the familiar Micro USB-B connector.

Connectors, while important, are still just arteries for the device. A cell phone’s beating heart is the battery. From an electronic standpoint, chargers aren’t really chargers at all, but power adapters. You see, the power adapter converts the AC electricity found in electrical sockets and converts it to DC voltages to power the phone’s internal battery at a much lower voltage level. I’m sure it’s all very interesting to electricians, and to Edison and Tesla, and people who are just not content to remain in dumbfounded awe over the miracle of resurrecting something from the dead simply by plugging a wire into it.

I prefer to look at my phone like a modern day Lazarus — deceased, departed, dead — until a savior comes along and brings it back to life.