Sometimes you see a story and it surprises you. Sometimes it seems like the obvious thing, for many people. And sometimes it concerns something you'd been talking about for months, and why on earth didn't they think of this before?

The news about which I'm particularly pleased falls into the latter category. He won't remember as he has many followers, but I was exchanging notes with UK celebrity chat show host Jonathan Ross on this very subject via his Twitter feed. He'd mislaid the power lead for his e-book reader and was wondering which, if any, of the cables in front of him would bring it back to life.

And now Europe is going to insist that most mobile phone manufacturers should offer a standard power cable, as distinct from the 30 different varieties we get over here at the moment. This is seriously good news. Why not go further, though? My TV, DVD player, stereo, computer, printer all take different adapters. There's surely a case for streamlining at least the ones that take the same voltage?

The BBC's coverage is here.