wireless charging

Nokia Lumia designer hints at NFC, wireless charging

January 31, 2012 | By Surur

thumb_350x250_3076 In an interview with the Guardian Nokia’s design chief , Marko Ahtisaari, responsible for the design of the Nokia Lumia 800 and who was recently promoted to Nokia’s leadership team, reporting directly to chief executive Stephen Elop, hinted at the future direction for the Lumia line.

"If you can take away a moving part and make it [the phone] more beautiful in the placement of the components, we’ll do it, so that’s something where we can certainly keep improving," Ahtisaari said, explaining the removal of the flip up tab on the USB connector of the Nokia Lumia 800 on the Nokia Lumia 900.

"Take it to the extreme,” he continued “why are there any connectors?"

While Windows Phones can sync perfectly fine wirelessly, USB is still mainly used for charging, leading the Guardian to suggest wireless charging may be in the offing.

Nokia has also re-iterated their commitment to NFC. Nokia has many Symbian handsets with NFC, and Stephen Elop recently said "it is growing in importance, and I personally believe in it".

He also suggested that touchscreen interaction is in its very early days, comparing it to the early days of the automobile: "In the 1880s in the car industry cars had tillers – it took 15 years to agree on the steering wheel controlling the front wheels. We’re in the middle of that part of the evolution of interaction."

Read more of the interview at The Guardian here.

Thanks Manan for the tip.

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Qi wireless charging standard finalized, XDA says maybe you don’t have to wait

July 26, 2010 | By Surur

The Wireless Power Consortium, consisting of heavyweights such as Duracell, Nokia and Phillips have finalized their Qi wireless charging standard for interoperability, meaning soon you will be able to charge any Qi-certified battery on any Qi-certified charger, bringing the wireless dream that much closer.

XDA Developers member Carnivore9 however could not wait for Qi-compatible batteries for his HTC HD2 to arrive, and inspired by an HTC Evo mod he ripped apart a Palm Pixi TouchStone back and forced wireless charging on his poor HTC HD2.

Fortunately his mod is non-destructive, but I think I will wait just a bit longer for the official accessory to arrive

Read more about his mod at XDA-Developers here.

Via Pocketnow.com and Engadget.com

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Microsoft patents an informational wireless charging pad

February 22, 2010 | By Surur

Regular readers will know at WMPU we have a thing for wireless charging, and it seems finally Microsoft may be having thoughts of getting into the game also.

Their idea however comes with a twist, and makes the charging pad useful even when the device is not in use. The patent calls for a display on the charging pad and an internet connection to update the data. The pad will also contain a sensor to make sure the actual device does not cover the information displayed.

Read the abstract below:

Systems and methodologies for efficient inductive charging of electronic devices are provided herein. A charging device as described herein can utilize a sensor-integrated resonating circuit with automatic frequency control to provide low-cost inductive charging functionality for electronic devices. As further described herein, a device to be charged can be equipped with a power receiver operable to receive power from the charging device via electromagnetic induction. The power receiver can additionally be utilized for initiation of charging such that charging for a device commences upon its associated power receiver being brought within range of an inductive charging surface at the charging device. Further, a charging device as described herein can have an inductive charging surface as well as a non-charging surface for providing other services such as information display. A charging device can integrate with an external information source to obtain items to be displayed at a non-charging surface thereon.

Read the full patent at US Patent & Trademark Office.

Via Engadget.com

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MWC 10: Great Powermat wireless charger demoed

February 17, 2010 | By Surur

Powermat at MWC 2010 from pda.pl on Vimeo.

Another great video from our friends at PDA.pl. This one shows Powermat’s wireless charging solution in action. It starts slowly, but gets exciting towards the end.

After seeing the system in action, are you tempted to buy it? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: PDA.pl

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New wireless charging standard to come in 6 months

January 10, 2010 | By Surur

The Wireless Power Consortium aims to create a wireless charging standard by mid-year, allowing interoperability between the various wireless charging solution OEMs.

Menno Treffers, a Philips executive who is chairman of the consortium said at a group of vendors at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Friday ”If it’s not ready by then, I will eat my hat,"

The consortium has 27 members including Nokia, Research In Motion, Philips, Sanyo, Samsung Electronics, Energizer and Hewlett-Packard, as well as component and wireless-power technology companies such as Texas Instruments and Fulton Innovation.

The standard is for magnetic induction, a contactless technology, and can deliver up to 5 watt. This is enough for small electronics such as smartphones, Bluetooth headsets and MP3 players. A further standard will later be developed for laptops. The coils are small enough to fit in a Bluetooth headset, and devices charge as fast as if connected directly, but with about 70% efficiency.

Compatible products will carry the "Qi" logo, pictured above.

Until it arrives, some vendors won’t release any further products. "We’re done for now until the standard is complete," said Serge Traylor, brand manager for charging and rechargeable systems with Energizer. When the standard is done, Energizer will release a mat for charging as many as two devices, for about $100, and charging sleeves for smartphones, for $30 to $40, he said.

Powermat, who already have a full range on the market, and Apple are however not on board, which may create some difficulty and confusion in the market.

"If we get the standard done, that will give [wireless power] the most market appeal," said Treffers. "Otherwise it will be something that’s nice for geeks and users with specialized needs."

WildCharge edges closer to Wire-free nirvana

April 7, 2009 | By Surur

I like wireless charging. It has always been my dream just to drop my phone on the table and pick it up all charged and synched in the morning.

With the many cloud synching services available at the moment the syncing part is now a non-issue, but charging has remained a bug-a-bear.

Wildcharge offers a charging mat solution which should be part of the answer. It does however rely on physical pins on the device which previously had to be build-in by the OEM. Since Wildcharge never achieved much traction this has never really been an option.

Wildcharge has therefore taken matters into their own hands and have provided an adaptor which fits over 150 phones and make them Wildcharge compatible.

The WildChargeT Universal Adapter for Cell Phones enables a wide range of mobile phones to charge wire-free with the WildChargerT Pad and works with a variety of different cell phones, including many from major brands such as Blackberry (RIM), HTC, Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

The adapter works by connecting mobile phones to the WildCharger Pad via a swing arm and removable tips, transferring wire-free power from the charge pad to the device’s battery. With the Universal Adapter, multiple cell phones can establish connectivity for convenient, seamless charging.

While this is one step closer to the perfect solution, the device seems too ungainly and ugly to keep attached to your phone all day, which rather defeats the purpose.

If this solution still appeals to you the WildCharge Universal Adapter for Cell Phones is available for around $39.99 and comes in three different bundles for Mini-USB, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson. The company is also offering a Universal Adapter Bundle, which includes the Universal Adapter, WildCharger Pad and wall adapter. This is available for $79.99. The WildCharge Universal Adapter is available for purchase online at www.wildcharge.com.

Wireless charging comes to Case-mate cases

April 2, 2009 | By Surur

It seems eCouple has finally found a a business plan that cant fail to succeed. They have teamed up with Case-mate to embed their technology in smartphone cases, finally solving the problem of having to remove the phone from the case to charge. This is of course particularly an issue for fully sealed cases, where either solutions were very cumbersome, or removal of the case was mandatory.

“Our partnership with case-mate is an important step in the introduction of eCoupled wireless power to the consumer electronics marketplace,” said Dave Baarman, Director of Advanced Technologies for Fulton Innovation. “By teaming with case-mate to create protective skin solutions embedded with eCoupled technology, we’re enabling consumers with existing market-influencing devices, suited for case-mate products, the ability to charge them wirelessly.”

Shashi Reddy, case-mate’s CEO and Founder, is pleased to have his company be the first to explore and adapt this kind of wireless technology as it applies to cases. He states, “I’m excited for these new products to become a core and integral part of our mainstream product line. With our introduction of wireless technology, we are aiming to further enhance the lifestyle of our customers.”

The charging solution will be build into the cases, and utilize a charging matt. A a number of devices could easily be charged from one matt, and efficiency is 98%, meaning concerns around wastage should be pretty minimal.

In the great debate over whether to use a case or go “naked”, I think the case side just scored a major point.

Read eCouple’s press release here.

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