There’s something a little bit freaky about being able to charge a mobile device battery without actually plugging in any cables. But it’s also pretty darn cool. There are already a handful of wireless charging devices on the market, including the Touchstone charger for the Palm Pre smartphone. But now the folks at the Wireless Power Consortium have finalized the new Qi standard which can be used to develop all sorts of devices that can charge using the same technology.
In other words, imagine being able to pick up a charging base station and using it to charge any phone or other mobile device that’s designed to meet the Qi specifications.
Right now, the Qi standard is only good for devices using up to 5 Watts, which means we probably won’t see laptop chargers just yet. But smartphones, portable media players, and other mobile devices could hit the streets.
via Engadget
One of the best parts about the Touchstone from Palm is how nicely it integrates with webOS.
For example, if the Palm phone is on the Touchstone, and a call comes in, picking up the phone will pick up the call.
I’ve implemented a Touchstone in my automobile dashboard. Getting in the car, simply place the phone on the Touchstone, and it sticks and charges. I can then get turn-by-turn directions, while streaming Internet radio, and running Trapster in the background to alert me of speed traps. No cables. No adapters. No nonsense.
Touchstone truly does change the way you think about your phone. It becomes a natural and friendly experience.
Haven’t plugged a cable into my phone in over 6 months!
This is really stupid because all it is is electrical induction. Where by an electric field in a coil produces a magnetic field, then the magnetic field produces a current in another coil. It’s just like power transformers except on a smaller scale.