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Wireless charging's smaller players unite as the AirFuel Alliance
The wireless charging world can usually be reduced to two factions: the Qi standard... and then everyone else. However, those frequently neglected alternatives are now rallying around a common banner. Meet the AirFuel Alliance, the new name for the recent union between the Alliance for Wireless Power and the Power Matters Alliance. The name is a bit silly (fuel isn't exactly electric, folks), but it'll give Intel, Samsung and the 193 other member companies a clearer way to represent their "inclusive" approach to wire-free power.
Intel: Rezence wireless charging will be in next year's devices
As we heard from Intel at its Computex keynote, the merger between A4WP (Alliance for Wireless Power) and PMA (Power Matters Alliance) is finally a signed deal as of today, which is a big step toward delivering the next generation of wireless power -- one that can transmit farther while also covering a wider range of wattage -- to consumers. Intel's SVP Kirk Skaugen, the very same man who's been pushing for the totally wireless PC since last year's Computex (the photo sort of explains why), added that we'll be seeing this magnetic resonance technology, aka Rezence, being integrated into next year's laptops, keyboard, mice and other devices. For those who can't wait, the exec also expects to see Rezence-enabled add-ons for mobile devices during the transitional period. "This will be a journey just like Centrino: We didn't invent wireless notebooks; we just made wireless ubiquitous."
Intel's cable-free future will use WiTricity's advanced wireless charging
WiTricity will be implementing its resonance-based charging technology onto future Intel-powered devices, as according to the Rezence specification. Conveniently, WiTricity's newly appointed CEO, Alex Gruzen, is a veteran in the laptop industry.
Lenovo and Dell back effort to bring wireless charging to laptops and tablets
Wireless charging is a technology often reserved for smaller devices -- smartphones, watches and electronic toothbrushes -- but that's about to change. The Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) just updated its Rezence charging standard to support laptops, tablets and devices requiring up to 50 watts. The Alliance only just made this change official, but it's been coming for awhile: when Dell joined the group back in February, the A4WP promised to introduce a higher-power specification that would enable Ultrabooks to charge untethered.
Broadcom's new chip lets your phone use any wireless charging standard
Wonder why only a handful of mobile devices support wireless charging? It's partly because the standards are horribly fragmented: companies have to choose between technologies like PMA, Rezence and Qi, and it's not clear which of those will last. Broadcom might put the issue to bed with its new (and awkwardly titled) BCM59350 chip, though. The hardware lets gadgets charge using any existing wireless technology -- you won't have to hunt for specific charging pads. It can also handle up to 7.5W of power instead of the usual 5W, so your gear might charge faster than it would using old-fashioned wires.
Dell could incorporate wireless charging in future devices
The Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) has just added a major player to its membership roster: Dell. This marks the first time a big PC maker has come forward to support a wireless charging standard, which A4WP has branded as Rezence. As a part of this announcement, A4WP is also introducing a new high-power specification that would be able to charge devices from 20 to 50 watts, such as, of course, Ultrabooks. In fact, an A4WP spokesperson told us that ideally, a laptop charging with Rezence could also be used to give power to a smaller device, say a smartphone, simply by putting it on top of the former. While such products don't exist just yet, the alliance is hopeful for the first few consumer products with Rezence -- perhaps even a laptop or two -- to debut sometime this year.
New wireless charging partnerships could mean fewer cables in your junk drawer
In 2012, Qualcomm and Samsung joined forces to start The Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), one of many organizations competing to establish a universal standard for wireless charging. A4WP envisions a wire-free future, but chances are you're still packing a series of cables to keep your gadgets juiced up. However, the group just announced a pair of partnerships that could lead to a more unified standard and less corded clutter. WiTricity, one of the major competitors in the wireless-charging space, and the Power Matters Alliance (PMA), a leader in inductive wireless charging, joined forces with A4WP today. While they each have their own wireless charging solutions, the PMA and A4WP have committed to sharing some of their specifications to create a wireless power couple of sorts. McDonald's and Starbucks stores already use the PMA's standard in their charging stations. In 2011, WiTricity announced a partnership that will see its contact-less, long-field magnetic resonance used to power up Toyotas. With the new partnership, it plans to innovate on and incorporate A4WP's Rezence specifications into its designs. Rezence, A4WP's consumer-facing brand, uses near-field resonant technology to allow users to wirelessly charge several devices with different charging specifications simultaneously. We've yet to see a real-life device sporting Rezence certification, but A4WP showed off a prototype during CES last year, and announced its first certifications last month. WiTricity joined A4WP as a sponsor, which means it gets a seat on its eight-member board of directors, alongside Broadcom, Intel, Qualcomm and Samsung. The group's main competition comes from Qi's Wireless Power Consortium, where Qualcomm also sits on the board.
Alliance for Wireless Power introduces Rezence as its consumer-friendly brand
The Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) was formed over a year ago to come up with a wireless charging solution that would allow for greater spatial freedom when charging your favorite gadgets. "A4WP" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue however, which is why the group today announced its consumer-facing brand, hereby known as Rezence. The release states that the name was derived from the words resonance and essence, which tells the tale of how the technology works -- that of non-radiative magnetic resonance -- and how it can be used to charge all kinds of devices, not just phones. Indeed, the alliance teased us that a major PC OEM has just got on board, and will reveal more about it at CES next month. The logo, which is simply the letter Z with an electricity symbol running through the middle, will be used on all devices that have gone through A4WP certification. This way, consumers will know that any surface with the logo will play nice with a Rezence-compatible item. Geoff Gordon of Qualcomm, who's also A4WP's marketing committee chair, tells us that the introduction of the Rezence brand goes hand-in-hand with the certification program it's about to roll out by year's end. Indeed, they've just completed their third and final Plugfest, which is an event where electronics makers get together to ensure interoperability of a certain standard. While we're not sure just what devices will be incorporated with the Rezence technology -- that's up to the individual member companies to decide -- it seems we'll finally be able to see the fruits of A4WP's labor sooner rather than later. To find out more about Rezence and A4WP, go on and hit the source link below.
Alliance for Wireless Power and Bluetooth SIG team on smarter charging stations
Wireless charging stations aren't currently very bright, but they're about to learn some new tricks. The Alliance for Wireless Power and the Bluetooth SIG are collaborating on an updated A4WP specification that uses Bluetooth Smart to manage wireless charging sessions. Future Bluetooth-equipped stations should optimize power delivery, prioritize charging for multiple devices and launch apps; you could order a meal by setting your phone down at a restaurant table, for instance. Just when we'll see these smart stations isn't certain, though. When the first A4WP-ready products aren't likely to reach the market until next year, it could be a long time before wireless chargers become truly multi-talented.
Qualcomm joins Wireless Power Consortium board, sparks hope for A4WP and Qi unification
Qualcomm, the founding member of Alliance for Wireless Power (or A4WP in short), made a surprise move today by joining the management board of the rival Wireless Power Consortium (or WPC), the group behind the already commercially available Qi standard. This is quite an interesting development considering how both alliances have been openly critical of each other, and yet now there's a chance of seeing just one standard getting the best of both worlds. That is, of course, dependent on Qualcomm's real intentions behind joining the WPC.
Intel joins Alliance for Wireless Power's Board of Directors
The Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), a consortium working to establish a new wireless charging standard, hasn't been around for terribly long -- Samsung and Qualcomm joined forces to create the organization just over a year ago -- but it's planning to make waves as quickly as possible. One of the most effective ways to do exactly that, then, would be to persuade large players in the mobile industry to join along, and Intel certainly meets that qualification. The company announced this afternoon that it has officially joined the A4WP's Board of Directors. This move doesn't guarantee that we'll be soon seeing Intel-powered devices with built-in wireless charging capabilities, but it's at least a solid indication that the folks in Santa Clara are mindful of (and intrigued by) the potential that near-field magnetic resonance tech holds.
Hands-on with Alliance for Wireless Power's charging pad prototypes
The Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), a group created through the joint efforts of Qualcomm and Samsung, is getting ready to tackle the growing wireless charging market by introducing its very own standard to compete against the likes of the WPC. This morning the consortium, which claims TI, Powermat and Deutsche Telekom (among several others) as members, not only went into greater detail on its plans for the future but also brought along some prototype pads and embedded furniture to show us. The A4WP's solution is a "non-radiative magnetic resonance-based wireless power transfer ecosystem" -- in short, it allows your phone, tablet or other A4WP-certified gadget (such as light bulbs, as demonstrated above) to charge from a small distance. What does this mean to you, dear consumer? In short, your device doesn't have to be directly touching the pad in order to receive a charge; instead, you could place your phone on top of a notebook or other obstruction (heck, you could even stack your phone on top of another phone or tablet) and still power up your handset. lt will also allow you to place more than one device on the same pad -- and even more than one device type, so tablets and phones can charge together in harmony despite the fact that they both have different power requirements -- and move them around anywhere on the pad without interrupting the charge. These are key differentiators that make A4WP's option a very tempting one for the general user.
Alliance for Wireless Power shows off its spec's spatial freedom
The Alliance for Wireless Power's (A4WP) board approved its spec on January 2, 2013 -- the spec itself was approved back in October -- and we're already seeing them showing off some of the capabilities we'll benefit form as consumers. One of the key differences in the A4WP spec is being touted as spatial freedom which will see greater flexibility in how the wireless power is integrated into devices and even surfaces. Multiple devices can be charged at once even if they each have different power requirements and the devices don't even need to physically touch the surface -- so feel free to stack your tablets and phones one on top of each other. We're all for convenient charging as long as our furniture still looks pretty and isn't at risk of catching on fire. PR is after the break if you're inspired to give it a read.
TI joins the Alliance for Wireless Power, tells the WPC it can still be friends
It's not quite a "Dear John" letter, but we're sure the Wireless Power Consortium is heartbroken all the same. One of its key members, TI, has just signed up for the Alliance for Wireless Power to build cable-free charging on what's effectively a competing standard. The chip designer doesn't view the move as abandoning a long-time partner, though -- it remains part of the WPC and plans to produce Qi-based wireless power chipsets alongside future A4WP components. Without any related chips to announce, there's a long wait left before we know how well TI can juggle the two charging formats without appearing to play favorites. We'd recommend that the WPC not grow too attached in the meantime.
Alliance for Wireless Power approves its specification, edges closer to truly cable-free charging
Design by committee might not be the death knell for technology after all. Over four months after the Alliance for Wireless Power was founded in earnest, the coalition has already greenlit a specification for its partners to work from. The guideline lets device makers start building devices that charge through a magnetic resonance technology more forgiving of distance and material than Qi while simplifying the process through short-range wireless formats like Bluetooth 4.0. While the A4WP group hasn't made all the details public, it's holding meetings this week to speed up the commercialization process -- it's here that we'll learn whether the corporate bureaucracy is just as quick at getting wireless charging hardware into our hands as it is handshaking on standards.
Samsung, Qualcomm start up Alliance for Wireless Power to take on Qi
Wireless power has until now been closely associated with the Wireless Power Consortium's Qi standard. There's now a second proposed common ground in the Alliance for Wireless Power, or A4WP. Samsung and Qualcomm, along with some help from Powermat, SK Telecom, Ever Win Industries, Gill Industries and Peiker Acustic, are making an alternative that allows for "spatial freedom" between your gadget and the charging source, although whether or not that's better than the 1.6-inch distance of the updated Qi spec is left to the imagination. The strategy doesn't just let your device avoid French kissing the charger: it lets you power up through a material besides a metal plate, and it reduces the cost by eliminating repeaters. A4WP should power everything from low-power headsets through to smartphones and tablets, although with partnership talk just getting started at CTIA Wireless 2012, we wouldn't hold off on buying wired-power gadgets in the near future.