Universal laptop chargers
If you've ever lost a laptop charger, you probably know the pain of trying to replace it in a timely manner and at a reasonable cost. Fortunately, the International Electrotechnical Commission will publish a technical specification for universal laptop chargers this year.
We don't yet know what the charger will look like, and it's possible the effort could merge with USB Power Delivery, just as it did with Micro-USB chargers for phones and tablets. Still, the technical spec is an important first step toward saving us from an endless array of proprietary power cords.