I am sure many readers of this blog have the daily annoyance of needing to carry around multiple charging adapters and plugs (Laptop, iPod, Mobile, GPS). The lack of standards across devices (no one charger to rule them all) and having to carry around long, self knotting wires make this an exercise in minor frustration.
Because of this I have been following the research and development effort on wireless device charging for some time now. There seems to be a few players out there with slightly differing technologies, but recently PowerMat has announced it is about to release a product which uses magnetic induction to distribute power. Key features include charging multiple devices simultaneously and the same or faster recharge speeds (not sure how that works?).
What's the catch? Well currently it seems to be aimed at small devices (phones but not laptops) and product support is, as is to be expected, limited. Currently there seems to be two options – product specific back panel receivers (which are slightly bulky) or a receiver with USB and other adapters. If popular, I hope product manufacturers will adopt.
I wonder if this is a ‘green’ solution or is always drawing power from the mains and distributing into the Ether.
0 comments:
Post a Comment