Mobee Magic Bar offers wireless charging for Magic Trackpad, Apple keyboard
If you've ever laid eyes on a Palm Pre smartphone, you know that one of the features that makes its owners excited is how the phone is charged; it's simply put on top of a charger called a TouchStone, and the battery is topped off via inductive charging. There's no need to plug a charging cable into the device itself.
Mobee Technology's Magic Bar is designed to perform a similar inductive charging task, except not with a phone. Instead, it's designed to keep your Magic Trackpad and Apple Wireless Keyboard topped off with power.
The US$59.99 Magic Bar won't be available until late June, and it works by replacing the batteries in the wireless keyboard or trackpad with a rechargeable battery cylinder. When your Mac begins squawking about your keyboard or trackpad needing new batteries, you slide the interface device into a dock that looks similar to the TwelveSouth MagicWand. Through induction, the battery cylinder is recharged, after which time you can pull the trackpad or keyboard out of the dock.
The Magic Bar is powered through a standard USB connection, so it doesn't require a separate power brick. I'm frankly perplexed by the product, since it adds yet another USB cable to the back of a Mac and would take up space on a desktop. It's also twice the price of the $29 Apple Battery Charger, which takes the minimalist approach to "green power" by providing six rechargeable batteries and a tiny plug-in recharger.
Still, the Magic Bar will likely get the attention of those who are impressed with the concept of inductive charging. Pre-orders begin on May 15, 2011.
[via 9 to 5 Mac]
