CES 2015: Energous WattUp wireless charging
"Wireless charging" for Apple devices at this point usually consists of wrapping your iPhone or iPad in a special case or attaching a special dongle to the Lightning port and then placing the device on some sort of inductive charging pad (the Qi charging standard from the Wireless Power Consortium is a perfect example of this). How would you like to be able to have your devices charge up automatically whenever you're within range of a special wireless transmitter? That's the premise behind the Energous Corporation WattUp product demoed at CES this year.
WattUp is a Bluetooth and RF-enabled transmitter (that black device in the image at the top of this post) that uses Wi-Fi bands to deliver what the company calls "intelligent, scalable power" to devices that require 10 watts or less of power. Up to 12 receiving devices can be charged by one WattUp transmitter at any time, and the company has an app for controlling the order and preference of charges. For example, smartphones or tablets could start charging whenever you walk into your home, while keyboards and remotes might charge at night.
Energous wants to license WattUp to manufacturers of wearables, smartphones, and tablets, so we can only hope that the company has approached Apple. I, for one, would love to use a system like this for constant trickle charging of an Apple Watch.
