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posted by janrinok on Friday June 26 2015, @06:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the charge! dept.

The Economist has a free article titled Coiled and ready to Strike which provides a summary of the state of wireless charging technologies.

From simple, but inefficient induction, to resonant induction, to lasers, many different avenues are being developed for charging different devices. There are efficiency problems with all of these.

Phones are the obvious target, with companies like McDonald's and Starbucks planning wireless charging stations in their restaurant tables. But other targets include electric cars, and buses, roadways, not to mention drones.

The story makes a good read to bring you up to speed without digging too deeply into the technical aspects of each method. Standardization seems the big problem, and even in the electronic device market there are competing non-inter-operable standards, being pushed. Oddly, the automotive industry may be closer to a standard than many.


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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday June 26 2015, @09:57PM

    by frojack (1554) on Friday June 26 2015, @09:57PM (#201815) Journal

    The problem, as I see it, is that until it arrives out of the box with your new device, the hassle of plugging in said device is NEVER going to approach the level needed to get people to add after-market solutions.

    Plugging in is just not that big of a problem.

    I also don't know enough about the specifics involved to know how much power is wasted when no device is present to be charged.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by TheGratefulNet on Friday June 26 2015, @10:02PM

    by TheGratefulNet (659) on Friday June 26 2015, @10:02PM (#201818)

    while microusb is more robust than miniusb, it still wears out and the connector does come undone from the pc board due to the cost involved (or, rather, the slim margins that devices have these days). some phone users had to throw their phones out when their usb ports broke.

    so, its one less wear item. and if you pick up and put down the device (like a remote or a phone) it makes sense to avoid having to cable it up just to keep it charged.

    if you are in a hurry, wired power is still unbeatable but if you are ok trickle charging or letting it charge overnight, wireless power is very useful.

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  • (Score: 2) by forkazoo on Friday June 26 2015, @11:19PM

    by forkazoo (2561) on Friday June 26 2015, @11:19PM (#201866)

    At this point, a lot of phones actually do already support it out of the box. They just don't ship with a Qi charging pad by default so nobody uses it, and most of them have no idea it's an option. IMO, Google should start selling the next Nexus devices with Qi chargers so there is a user baser of people who have the things, and you'll start to see more support for it. It'd be better if Apple did it in terms of mindshare, but I can't see them going openly open-standards. The watch for example is Qi compatible, but Apple doesn't acknowledge it publicly.

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday June 27 2015, @12:44AM

      by frojack (1554) on Saturday June 27 2015, @12:44AM (#201913) Journal

      Is there a list of phones supporting QI?
      For all I know I may have it and not know it. 8-0

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @04:56PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @04:56PM (#202124)

        Many phones have two recessed gold plated contacts inside the battery compartment to make contact with a receiver. There is no list of compatible phones, but just look for "qi receiver 'your phone model'" on Ebay. If you don't find anything, it can't be retrofitted easily. Most phones with replaceable batteries have enough room under the back cover to fit a receiver, but if there aren't contacts where the receiver can deliver the current to the phone, then your only options are wiring the receiver to the external micro USB port or disassembling the phone and finding a way to connect the receiver to the USB power traces.