WildCharger wireless charger poised for pre-order

With MIT's recent breakthrough in wireless electricity, we've been pretty hyped up on cutting the final cord that keeps our gadgets tethered to the wall and one another, so our ears certainly perked up when we learned that WildCharge's WildCharger powerpad is set to go up for pre-order. First revealed late last year, the multi-device induction charging surface is finally poised to begin taking orders come July 7th -- or 07/07/07, if you're into the whole numerology thing. Curiously there's no word yet on how much these things will set you back, but as usual, we're willing to pay through the nose to be the hippest kids on the block.

[Alexandre Souza @ Jun 17th 2007 4:24PM]

I just can't see any benefit of wireless charging. You'll have to use an adapter in the device being charged anyways. The charge eficiency will be well below of a normal plugged one. The circuit is simple - a normal transformer feeding a coil on the "pad", another coil on the device being charged with a rectifier bridge and a cap. I see no novelty nor "incredible" use for that. What is the point I'm missing here? :oO

[Ai @ Jun 17th 2007 4:41PM]

i don't think the pad is as simple as u describe, there must be more to it since all devices have LI-ion batteries and they don't seem to charge on pure magnetic fields. otherwise everyone would have done that with their mains power by just taking off the shielding and using ur technique with caps.

[Alexandre Souza @ Jun 17th 2007 4:50PM]

This is as simple as that. I remember you that in many portable devices, the li-ion charge circuit is inside the device, or the battery itself! This is as simple as that: a magnetic coupler that sends eletricity thru magnetism! Lots of devices uses that, incluiding some (usb!!!) mice!

[mudlouse @ Jun 17th 2007 4:30PM]

too bad e-mag induction ruins hard drives, say goodbye to your ipod videos :)

[Daniel @ Jun 17th 2007 4:31PM]

You obviously appreciate cords. Many people don't take my wife for instance. For her, cords are evil.

[patsy @ Jun 17th 2007 5:59PM]

> Many people don't take my wife for instance.

Wow, this is definitely one of those instances where correct punctuation would convey the INTENDED meaning much more clearly.

[WyzAsce @ Jun 18th 2007 10:49AM]

I, however, do take your wife for instance. Often.

[Paul @ Jun 17th 2007 4:34PM]

i want one!

[Corey @ Jun 17th 2007 4:43PM]

Hmm...not bad, but my toothbrush already does this. Oh, and did I mention that researchers at MIT finally managed to harness the power of electricity wirelessly through resonance (exactly like Tesla did way back in 1899, though he hadn't finished it)? Yeah, I'll pass on this and wait it out until I can pay my bill for wireless electricity wirelessly while chilling in my wireless living room.

[Chris @ Jun 17th 2007 5:06PM]

The article says you need an adapter for it to work. Sounds to me like a break through, especially if they can stop it from destroying harddrives. :-)

[Equis @ Jun 17th 2007 5:08PM]

This will be good until someone puts a Dell laptop on it, then we'll have the media claiming that wireless power causes explosions.

[John Doe @ Jun 17th 2007 6:58PM]

Or an Apple laptop, or a Toshiba, laptops, or or or. How many times does it need to be said that the issue was Sony's shit batteries.

[Shawin @ Jun 17th 2007 5:10PM]

Soon people will start stealing wireless electricity!!!

[matt @ Jun 17th 2007 6:16PM]

apple will introduce into the new ipod range and everyone will think apple invented it and are the only ones who offer the technology

you know like they are the only company in the world to do mp3 players..

[jamma @ Jun 17th 2007 6:22PM]

yeah, and how they're soon to bee the ONLY creators of a multi-tasking mobile!!!

[Jonathan @ Jun 17th 2007 6:18PM]

"Poised for pre-order"

We used to buy things when we got around to shopping.
Then we picked it up the day it came out.
Then we pre-ordered the item to be sure we got it.
Now we're planning our ability pre-order.

Oh to be human.

[Low @ Jun 17th 2007 10:26PM]

^Microsoft's plan for Halo 3

[nuguns101 @ Jun 17th 2007 6:23PM]

hmm i see my exact phone model on this picture, so does this mean the adaptor is very small or is that just a picture?

[boomhauer @ Jun 17th 2007 6:36PM]

Daniel - "Many people don't take my wife for instance".

Excellent point, I dont think I've ever taken her...

[ryan V @ Jun 19th 2007 6:45PM]

you are beyond late with that comment buddy.

[John Doe @ Jun 17th 2007 7:23PM]

Pointless. OK so you are moving from several cables to one. Fine. Great. Its all good. However its still tethered to the pad.
It would be one thing if you walked into the room and it starts charging. But as long as it has to stay on a pad it may as well be plugged in.

[t-bone @ Jun 17th 2007 8:43PM]

I agree. I would take cords over this. At least I would have limited mobility. Can you imagine how silly you would look if you just started charging your phone and had to take a call? With cords, I can still hold the phone to my ear and it will still charge. With this, I would have to set my head on the phone while it rests on the table!

[phipple @ Jun 17th 2007 8:15PM]

Has anyone called into question the impact this technology will have on our health in the future? I haven't researched its impact on human anatomy. the effect of cell phones on our brain activity is still being studied, and at best is "inconclusive" if it creates a negative effect on our health. It just seems like this new technology is going increase cancer rates, if anything. Thoughts?

[Corey @ Jun 18th 2007 12:54PM]

Well, with wireless electricity there's absolutely nothing in it to harm you, unless, of course, you resonate at the same frequencies (about 20hz) as the sound waves being pumped out. It's really more of wireless energy, or you could even say it's a new way of generating electricity. If you set up a field of the devices to resonate at different frequencies, then played some music, you might actually generate electricity. They don't know how well this works at higher frequencies, though...

[t-bone @ Jun 17th 2007 8:58PM]

If you are worried about radiation, lobby to shut down radio and broadcast TV. I've heard that cell phone towers broadcast in the watts range but I know for a fact that at least one of the local TV stations broadcasts at 100,000 watts. I can pick up an AM station that broadcasts at 50,000 watts from well over 200 miles away. The human body absorbs some radio waves, converting them to heat, but the amount completely insignificant.

As far as I'm concerned, EM waves are basically harmless except in certain uncommon circumstances and the one common circumstance that comes to mind, the sun.

[phipple @ Jun 17th 2007 9:25PM]

EM waves are harmless? Interesting. I had heard EM waves were linked to cancer.

[t-bone @ Jun 17th 2007 9:37PM]

I hope you got a kick out of twisting my words around. Yes, certain EM waves are linked to cancer, but the vast majority of them are not.

[quick_dry @ Jun 17th 2007 10:15PM]

regarding the worry about EM fields and induction charging, I didn't think that WildCharge uses induction charging (I'm sure something like this was on Slashdot yonks ago).

IIRC the modules in the laptop/phone/pda have a couple of contacts and a bit of smarts that can tell the charge pad what voltage to send to it. So you put the device on the pad, it senses the circuit formed by the contacts in the device, queries for the power requirements and then powers _only_those_contacts_ - when not in use, each contact point switches off.

Thats why you need to place it on the pad, I wouldn't call it 'wireless' - but you don't need to plug the devices in.

[Ooh_Gravy @ Jun 18th 2007 5:23AM]

It's funny how short sighted people can be about this sort of technology. Getting rid of wires is the way of the future. Why the heck is everyone developing different wireless standards for connecting equipment!?! Your power source is just the last piece of the puzzle.

As for its usage scenario's, what's the first thing you do when you get home or to the office? Personnaly, I take my mobile out of my pocket and throw it on the side. Now, if I happened to throw it down on a pad that automatically charged it, how much easier is that. And what about people with laptops? Can you not see how useful it would be to be able to plonk your laptop on your desk on top of a pad and have it charge without worrying about wires? Easy.

These guys aren't the only people doing this sort of tech. Take a look at Splash Power too.

P.S. And who cares about iPod's with HDDs...the future is flash.

[spil @ Jun 18th 2007 1:35PM]

That laptop dock idea is pretty good. That would be cool if the pad would also connect usb peripherals (sp?).

[Ooh_Gravy @ Jun 18th 2007 2:10PM]

Tethered USB peripherals? Surely you'd be using WirelessUSB or whatever other UWB solution is current. ;-)

[Proteus @ Jun 20th 2007 3:22PM]

I also had a toothbrush charger like that...
Now I`d like to see how energy efficient this is...
datasheets anyone?

[Proteus @ Jun 17th 2007 6:03PM]

Well would you look at that:
http://www.wildcharge.com/images/wc_faqs.pdf

they say it doesn`t use EM induction ... So it`s either a HOAX or some resonant technology that would be very inefficient (right other EEngineers out there that didn't go Digital)?

[Proteus @ Jun 17th 2007 6:39PM]

Ok , I`ve been trying to post this... over and over, but I seem to get blocked...

RUN A WHOIS on their site...
They`re using a "proxy" domain registering service
Why?
Is WildCharge Inc even real?

[Proteus @ Jun 17th 2007 6:50PM]

Whois @ http://www.wildcharge.com/ returned something weird...
I just don't get why an honest company would use such services as this:
http://www.domainsbyproxy.com/
I mean... if you`re an individual... thats usefu... but a REAL company wouldn't use it right?

[Z @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:52AM]

I like the idea of a charging pad, but I like docking stations too much - I like to see my devices standing up at an angle so I can see their screens while they're charging.

I may buy one of these anyway and try it out.

[Traveler @ Jun 30th 2007 6:06PM]

How does this work? Can the pad be rolled? It seems IonHub Universal Charger is a more practical solution for travelers.

[smilgy @ Jul 6th 2007 3:57PM]

i imagine this being use with cars powered by batteries, imagine going along the road and ur car being always charged, although u would hav to pay a monthly fee or soemthin,. or how much electricity u used and then pay at the end of the month or something

[Big @ Jun 17th 2007 5:10PM]

THAT would never be a reality.

Even if cars could be designed to charge from contact with the road

#1 The ampherage and voltage required to charge a car battery in a reasonable amount of time would be a lethal hazard for animals and pedestrians.

#2 The car would need some sort of hanging metal contact (pickup shoes) like a typical slot car
which most likely would continue to get damaged.

[Tommy @ Jun 17th 2007 6:20PM]

@ Big

You have no vision for the future. Just because you can't imagine this ever happening why are you trying to kill the idea? You obviously have imagination because you were able to think of a faulty design. Now think of one that works.

[Mike @ Jun 18th 2007 8:38AM]

Although I don't see this happening on highways very soon (just to much highway to convert). I could see this being implemented in parking spaces very easily. Roll into the rest stop for a soda and burger. While you eat your car's battery is being topped up. The gas station associated with the reststop would probably run the operation. You'd probably pay for it with a system similar to Fast-Toll or some other RFID tag connected to your account.

Ofcourse there would be a home version as well. Some sort of rollout mat to charge at night. Could even charge your electric lawn mower, your kid's toys etc.

[William F Neal @ Jul 7th 2007 9:08PM]

ya wtf happened? im waiting to preorder... the day is almost gone now.. wow great hype!

[William F Neal @ Jul 8th 2007 4:24AM]

ya.. not so cool i guess. but then again.. you can even pre order! arg that pisses me off. fuck that bs.

[Iain @ Jul 17th 2007 12:18PM]

I think a lot of you are dismissing this technology out-of-hand.
Ok, yes, you still need a pad but it you can create a device that both charges and transfers data wirelessly, you can remove the need for any kind of a port on the device itself. Once you do that, the scope for, say, water-proofing become much greater - without the need for wired access to a device, more focus can be put on protecting them.

The scope, in the long run, for this is huge.
And, if it's anything like the small article I read about 4 or 5 years back when they were starting this project, I believe it's definitely not EM-based and that the main reason it's taken so long to reach a marketable position is that they've been intensively testing it to ensure it's not the slightest bit dangerous to people.

Personally, I look forward to never having to bother with cables again, though that'll be quite a while yet...