GSM Association has announced that 17 leading mobile operators and manufacturers have committed an initiative to implement a universal charger for mobile phones. The charger standard will be based on Micro-USB interface and by 2012 majority of new mobile phones will support this universal charging connector.

This comes days after European Union commissioner Günter Verheugen, in a Germany interview, vented his frustration over the many charger connectors in EU countries and wowed to take “severe measures” to force the industry to reach a solution.

It is about time the industry makes life easy for the consumers, who is able to use the same charger for other phones and there is no need to replace charger for new phone. GSM Association estimated that greenhouse gas would reduce by 13.6 metric tons as the replacement rate for chargers decreases.

Almost all big names have signed on, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, LG, AT&T, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone. Noticeably mising from the list is Apple. It is anyone’s guess if Apple will follow suit or remain committed to its proprietary dock connector which is used by all iPod and iPhone since 2003.

Read the press release from GSM Association.

Google has released a beta of Google Sync that enable you to sync your Google Calendar and Gmail Contacts to those in your iphone. This free service by Google also supports similar sync for Windows Mobile devices.

This is handy for people who rely on Google tools and require the calendar and contacts info on their iphone. Please note that Google Sync will replace all your existing contacts and calendar on your iphone, be sure to backup important data before you try out the service.

For those who uses Apple’s Calendar and Contacts on their Mac and iPhone, Apple’s $99 per year MobileMe service is the option that would enable you to access your calendar and contacts over the internet.

The setup for Google Sync is slightly more complex, it uses the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync technology on the iphone thus requires the setting up of a new Exchange ActiveSync account on your iPhone. Google provides step by step setup guide to enable Google Sync on your iphone.

Google Sync Home Page.

Google Blog announcement on Google Sync for iphone.