The CA-101 cables are not shorted that way. They are datacables. If the D+ and D- were shorted together, or if D+, or D- were shorted to ground in any way, then communication would not work.

CA-101 will charge the phone when connected to a computer that is alive, and the computer agrees to supply power to the phone.

D+ to ground is not the correct way to identify as a charger. D+ and D- should be connected together.

You can find the Battery Charging spec at usb.org, in a zip. batt_charging_1_1_FINAL.pdf

Page 7 shows the connection, “A Dedicated Charging Port is required to short the D+ and D- lines with a resistance of RDCHG_DAT”, page 29 specifies max 200 ohms across D+ and D-. Although the wording on page 7 suggests it should be exactly 200 ohms... Also on Page 29, a minimum of 2 MEGA ohms of resistance between D+ and ground or vbus. That is, not connected together at all.

Well.. i took the plunge for the N900 knowing about this going in thinkin, hey it won't be so bad.. but after 3 days of ownership i forgot my charger in a hotel room.. talk about ANNOYING! all my USB wall plugs and car chargers cannot charge this stupid brick I had a nice infrastructure of USB chargers to keep my gadgets alive, the most important gadget the N900 is the only one that won't charge

browsing brando, this showed up:
http://mobile.brando.com/brando-work...c0704d003.html

it appears that they have removed the data pins (observer the close up of the usb a side).

just noticed 2 entries on ebay that charge from usb:

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_t...All-Categories

retractable one would be handy.

Scott

I just recently bought another iPod/iPhone mains plus car charger and works perfectly with original CA-101 cable.

Just a heads up.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Maybe it's coincidence but both chargers designed for iPods/iPhones seems to work.

Kindle chargers work and are combo electrical outlet/usb chargers.

I have some Gomadic "tips" that are charge-only.
This one looks like a charge-only micro-usb tip:
TIP-0000-69

Gomadic cables definitely aren't cheap, but they are handy when you have many different devices (most of mine are mini-usb, but my wife has many different manufacturers).

I use my charge-only mini-usb tips with one of the motorola mini-micro adapters to charge my n900 with battery packs/outlets/etc.

ZAGGsparq Recalled, Owners Get A Free Replacement: http://thenokiaguide.com/2010/02/16/...e-replacement/

There seems to be a problem with the current Sparq, and a new 2.0 version should be on the way in Late March.

There may be a recall for early ZAGGsparqs, but definitely not because it cannot charge N900! With the proper cable, suited for dumb chargers (as this lengthy thread discusses) my ZAGGsparq charges my N900 just fine...

Gizmodo.com just posted a piece about a cable that has a switch that shorts the data lines. So you can have one cable for charging and data transfer.
It is available here:
sync-blocker cable