Duracell announces myGrid wireless charger, WildCharge feels a little KIRFed
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Aug 21st 2009 9:51AM
posted Aug 21st 2009 9:51AM
No, someone didn't just Photoshop the Duracell logo on a WildCharge pad -- this actually is the newest product from the ubiquitous battery maker. Available this October, myGrid kits (including charger and one power sleeve) will be available for Nokia, Motorola, and Blackberry handsets, as well as the many flavors of Apple's iPhone and iPod touch. No price yet, but you'll know as soon as we do.
Update: Of course, this is probably the product of some sort of licensing deal -- but you'd think someone at WildCharge or Duracell would have mentioned it, right?
[Via PhoneMag]
Update: Of course, this is probably the product of some sort of licensing deal -- but you'd think someone at WildCharge or Duracell would have mentioned it, right?
[Via PhoneMag]
You snooze you lose.
meat_juice and Paul Chapel... FIGHT!!
Can it charge my 3 iPhones?
Hahaha your low ranked!
@kaos
everything he says gets low ranked into oblivion. he's a true winner
By the by...?
There's our new resident moron meat_juice giving his famous n00b comment of the day. As always - you're a tool. Grow up.
who is this meat_juice guy...and why he so be so stupid
KIRF'd, or licensed?
I'm gonna go with licensed - it look exactly like the Wildcharge product.
Actually I would be willing to bet they buy them from WIldCharge and rebrand them.
Duracell has a name recognition that WildCharge doesn't. WildCharge would be making a very smart move to have Duracell rebrand and sell their product.
Didn't wireless phones (not cell phones, the old ones) have metal pads that make contact when you cradle them for ages? I'm not sure you can license this stuff, it must be in a million patents dating back to 1890's, and it must have been used in many devices and in many forms over time.
What happens if you accidentaly lay your sweaty arm on it?
Nothing too shocking...
You'd have a new spark in life...
Your wireless charger gets the electrolytes it loves!
Unless compatibility is built into the device, I don't find this to be all that convenient. You still have to plug something onto or into the device.
one can only assume that this is the first glimpse of things to come.
look for manufacturers to add the charging components inside the devices in the next few years
Exactly. Now if battery manufacturers could miniaturize this enough to include it right inside the battery, that would be a different story. If small enough, I don't even see why anything other than batteries should include the receiver. That way you could also lay spare batteries onto the pad to charge, without having to insert them into a device with a built-in receiver.
AHAH!!!
So instead of just plugging in one wire...
I hate to
1) plug in the charging plate
2) strap each device to a charging clip AND plug it into the device, voiding my warranty by using non OEM accessories
3) place the device on the pad
Nice way to add rediculous bulk to the item not to mention probable increasing its charge time.
Shhhh Marketing gets all wiggy when you point out that stuff.
yeah, because numbers 1 and 3 are SOOO difficult and time consuming...
and i wonder why you'd consider a half inch as "ridiculous bulk"....that's a mystery
Sometimes that extra half an inch is just too much...
*waits for the payoff from this obvious setup*
That's NOT what she said!
@BrotherTim: It's not that it's difficult, it's that it's pointless. I could plug in one wire and walk away and be done with it, or I could use this "wireless" system and spend more time to achieve the same goal.
It's more about the convience of use, after initial set up of those extra steps. So when u need to charge you just sit your phone down. It's like prepping early for something so it's easier faster and less time consuming later on.
it serves a very specific purpose. to charge many things with one set-up. it may be expensive or a hassle to set up initially, but once your phone(s), ipod/zune, and whatever else you use are set up, you can throw them all on this and not waste wall sockets, or deal with the hassle of plugging all 3 or 4 in every night.
price would be the deal breaker. if it's cheap enough for extra plugs then it would be nice, but if each clip is worth $30, then forget it.
You miss the point - you plug in ONE pad and charge up to 6 things on it - only one wall socket is taken up :)
i really don't get these things. is it that hard to plug in your phone to a usb plug? most of the time i want to sync to the computer anyway.
They should just call it the "my kitty got zapped" grid.
Well if that works, I'll take ten of them.
Meh I'll just wait a year or 2 when it becomes a standard in all new phones. That way I don't have to waste a USB port...
These and the wildcharge just seem so stupid to me. Inductive is the only way to go in my book. I'll be waiting for those. These can rot on the shelf.
Ignorance is king as usual - if inductive worked it would be everywhere by now - it has been patented for batteries for 15 years - do u think that people have not tired and failed - ask yourself why - every now and then some ignorant English major in a marketing department gets suckered by inductive - like the Palm/qualcomm - they have to realize that there can be only one Apple to sell soso hardware in a pretty box and make a killing - the rest of them have to actually make it work - show me products I can buy today and I believe it!
Inductive charging is essentially the same as an air core transformer that is split with primary on one side (charger side) and secondary on the device side. It's simple in theory. Hell its simple in implementation, look at wireless charging electric toothbrushes.
The only thing here is difference of scale. The engineering problems are relatively minor. The trouble is to induce a charge on the secondary you have to have the primary oscillate. The challenge is that with magnetic media it could trash your HDD. Hence the need for shielding. Given the shielding could be as simple as the case for your pc.
So here's your product to buy. Go buy a wireless charging electric toothbrush.
No offense but that was snarky and don't assume since I'm a commenter on a gadget site that I don't understand the goings on inside the pretty gear that comes in the box.
Until we get truly inductive chargers, I don't see the draw of these still conductive chargers. I mean, they even have inductive wii chargers that look pretty cool now. We just need the manufacturers to make batteries and battery cover options that make that possible (i.e. Pre. Short of a major hardware redo, I don't see the iPhone ever being able to handle inductive charging in it's current design state.
I imagine it would be a relatively simple matter to simply produce batteries that have inductive charging built in that fit into existing devices. How much space does a small coil and a rectifier diode take anyway? I have a feeling it could be done without much compromise of storage capacity of the battery.
Thats when it'll take off. These solutions where you plug something bulky and ugly into your phone won't catch on except to neophytes that need the newest thing instead of the best thing.
I agree 100% This is phase 1. Phase 2 is replacement batteries with the parts for true inductive charging built in. However, as I said, unless iPhone/iPod touch gets redesigned to have removeable batteries in their next hardware redesign (very very very UNlikely) Apple folks won't have this until indefinitely.
Until there's a standardized way to wirelessly charge that is built into all new devices, this is just progress. Having to attach something to your device kind of defeats the purpose, even if you can keep it attached at all times.
Probably OEM'ed, not KIRF'ed.
Still looks like a draining board!
woldn't the metal bak on an ipod cuz manie problom?
mebby but eyefone are has that teknolowgee alreddee. Touchstone or something.
question:
i know people joke on here a lot but can you really shock yourself with one of these?
i mean, really?
Well - if you an shock yourself on a laptop adapter - then you can shock yourself on anything, right? But we still use them ...
This is FAIL.
I cant have my devices having 1/4" to 1/2" thing'a'mabob stuck to the back of it.
It needs to be a true sleeve, that has the port its using to charge be available to sync.
Removing this crap to sync my iphone defeats the entire purpose of this system.
there are sleeves, dude - check this out: http://www.wildcharge.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/category.display/category_id/269/WildCharge_adapters_Apple
Thanks for the link dood!
You still can't sync though... Still fail.
Is this efficient?