A couple of years ago (or so), I bought an Apple USB charger, their 1A european model (Model A1300).

Why ? Because it is the smallest charger around that is not utter crap.

The downside: The A1300 had the Apple-proprietary arrangement of resistors connected to the D+/- pins, signalling to iDevices that this is an Apple charger, and confusing the hell out of other equipment (like my Nokia N9 mobile phone). So, since the charger is impossible to disassemble (neatly), I'd have to modify USB cables, turning them into pure charging cables (sacrificing the data capability). Ugh.

Just today, I bought another Apple USB charger, and on a whim, tested it with my Nokia N9, and subsequently measured with a mutimeter ...

Yay. It seems the new Model A1400 is actually "dumb charger" compatible (having the D+/- pins shorted), so it should be useful for charging _any_ modern equipment, not just iDevices !

It was probably still overpriced.... Congrats on paying the Apple Tax

iDevices can charge via USB? that's totally new to me... Apple accepts standards now??? when did this happen?

I never thought they weren't compatible. Plug the charger into the port, stuff the USB cable into it, plug the other end of the USB into your [Universal]device.... and presto it should work.

Anyways, that's what I believed.

But I went to a local electronics store and bought a 5V 2.1A charger with USB socket. Good quality too.
I bartered with the man, picked it up for $10.

Seemed to charge the NOTE about x3 quicker. Now it doesn't work, not sure what happened.

The LED light on the charger still operates. The phone recognizes an input... but no current crosses over.
Was it too much?
Or did my tampering with the firmware?

I thought it could've been the cable so I bought a low-resistance, gold-plated 2m USB-USBmicro cable. Great stuff, affordable long-term investment.
Anyways, it still doesn't work.

So either:
-the charger is fcked.
-The phone's USB is fcked (it acts funny with both car chargers).
-needs new firmware.

Currently relying on an old charger which is 0.7A.
PS I noticed the official SGS4 charger is 2.0A.... good charger?

edit: sorry if this sounds sarcastic.

BEGIN RANT

I wish people would stop with the uninformed sarcasm ...

"I never thought they weren't compatible" well, I _know_ that older apple chargers (and apple compatible ones) are incompatible with my Nokia N9. What you _think_ doesn't matter, compared to what I _know_. I'm an electrical engineer ...

"iDevices can charge via USB?" Duh, that's _not_ what I said. The new information that I wanted to share with others, is that (at least) this one specific Apple charger can charge non-apple devices, like the Nokia N9. I seriously don't understand your sarcastic comment (seemingly, to me at least) at my expense.

Look at this forum, and the web in general, and you'll find lots of people wondering why their Apple (or compatible, as most sadly are) charger won't charge their N9. So I felt I had a valuable contribution to make. Sarcasm isn't valuable.

END RANT

I wasn't sarcastic in the least.

I had the iPhone 3G, with it the Apple usb charger. That was my one and only Apple device. I never actually tested the charger with anything besides the iPhone.

So it comes as a shock to me that they wouldn't work with other devices.
And if they don't. that just sucks (seems a fitting for Apple choices).

BEGIN RANT
Look at this forum, and the web in general, and you'll find lots of people wondering why their Apple (or compatible, as most sadly are) charger won't charge their N9. So I felt I had a valuable contribution to make. Sarcasm isn't valuable.
END RANT

I'm looking at this forum and can't find anything related to Apple chargers. No, there is NOT many people complaining about their Apple chargers (there's more important Apple stuff to complain about). I think your "contribution" is valuable. But your sarcastic and obnoxious approach to the topic isn't valuable. Don't try to suppress those willing to engage in your topic if there aren't that many to begin one with, just saiyan.

You're misunderstanding. It is not directed at you, it is the general tone of this forum when dealing with anything Apple or Android. The default is to attack.

I agree with the anti-Apple sentiments in general, but I have yet to find a better charger than the Apple one.

Which charger would you rather carry in your pocket: ?

Cheap copies of the Apple charger exist, but they're (probably) all electrically much noisier than the original, messing with capacitive touchscreens. Good quality chargers certainly exist, but they're all physically larger than the Apple charger. As far as I know, I'd like to be proven (!) wrong.

Kangal, sorry, I didn't mean to imply _you_ were being sarcastic ...

Here are some threads where people are having charger issues:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=90146
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=83519
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=86927
They may not explicitly mention Apple, but the problem people are having is that their chargers are Apple-compatible. And I did say "Apple or compatible".

I have the same A1400 (got it with an iPad mini) and it perfectly compatible with both N950 and N9

Just tried using the Apple A1299 charger that came with my 3GS with the N9:

It works just fine. Weirdly, the N9 thinks the charger's a computer

(IIRC, Apple's chargers have/had some sort of peripheral authentication - the 3GS doesn't charge with a cheap iPod charger I bought some time ago)