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Power Matt joins the Wireless Power Consortium, gains the power of Qi
Powermat's Power Matt proclaimed his cord-cutting capabilities to the people while bearing a striking resemblance to Superman. And now, just as the Kryptonian joined the Justice League, Power Matt has teamed up with the Wireless Power Consortium to benefit all mankind -- or at least get us closer to universal contactless chargers. With the pun-loving hero embracing the power of Qi, we're just a Touchstone away from induction charging nirvana... and the next great action flick, too.
Droid Charge to revive its battery via induction, completes Verizon's Qi-based trifecta
After many unexplained delays, Verizon's Droid Charge has coaxed many anxious consumers toward the edge of their seats, but we've now uncovered a tidbit that's sure to drive these folks up the wall -- an FCC document confirms this elusive Droid supports inductive charging. Just like the Thunderbolt and Revolution, the Charge uses Qi-based technology to accomplish this wizardry, which combines an optional back plate that pairs nicely with Big Red's forthcoming charging pad. As for the launch of the phone, we've stopped holding our breath. Many local Verizon resellers report the handset is in stock, however the carrier seems content in toying with the hearts of its devotees. Jump the break for a quick peek at the FCC label, which admittedly is rather bland... although it delivers the proof we all desire.
LG gets official with WCP-700 Wireless Charging Pad, fails to provide pricing
So, there's good news and bad. Naturally, we're going to start with the former. A month after we spotted this character sneaking around at Mobile World Congress, LG has finally taken the (official) wraps off of its incoming WCP-700 Wireless Charging Pad. It's a pretty familiar design -- a slim (6.29- x 3.54- x 0.39-inch) inductive charging pad with a battery of LEDs to let you know the current status of things. We're guessing this guy is designed to work initially with the Verizon-bound Revolution, but given that LG makes no mention of what phones / cases will eventually be compatible, it'll have to remain just that for now. As for the bad news? Well, aside from not knowing what exactly this unit is for (in terms of compatibility), we're also left in the dark when it comes to pricing and a ship date. But hey, at least we've got a trio of high resolution images to gawk at. Update: Fulton Innovation has just confirmed that LG is using its Qi-compliant eCoupled technology for the charging pad. %Gallery-119458%
Qi wireless power standard finalized, universal contactless chargers look closer to reality than ever
The Wireless Power Consortium took a big step forward this past week with the confirmation that its precocious Qi interoperability standard has been finalized. Composed of three documents setting out the interface, performance and compliance requirements, the new dictum has set itself the not inconsiderable challenge of making wireless charging universal, so that any Qi-approved phone can soak up juice from any Qi-verified base station, dock or omnitool. This first spec is limited to devices requiring no more than 5 Watts, an appropriately humble early goal, though cauldrons are already bubbling with ideas for laptops and the like. We just hope the impressive list of big time companies on the Consortium will succeed in taking Qi into the mainstream -- who here hasn't dreamt of their phone being compatible with the Touchstone? [Thanks, MrStringTheorist]
Case-Mate's Hug wireless iPhone charging solution shipping now for $100
Remember that wireless induction charger that we saw poking around at the CES iLounge Pavilion earlier this year? Seems that Case-Mate has finally given that little doohickey a name, a price and a ship date. The aptly-titled Hug (which consists of the Hug Case and Hug Pad) slips onto one's iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS and allows Apple's darling to get recharged by simply laying on the aforementioned platter. Of course, the case itself is distractingly bulky, and this whole thing relies on the same eCoupled technology that we've been seeing for years now -- though, the fact that this pad will charge any other case that utilizes the same standard is worth noting. Is the ability to never need your dock connecting cable for rejuvenation purposes really worth the $99.99 asking price? We're guessing not, but those that disagree can get their own shipped out this very moment.
Wireless power takes another baby step at CES 2010 with Qi standard
It's our third year visiting with Fulton Innovation and the eCoupled wireless power booth at CES, and once again there's significant progress to be seen -- this time in the form of actual shipping products like the Case-mate Hug and the Dell Latitude Z. Fulton's really pushing the industry standard angle with eCoupled -- it's a founding member of the Wireless Power Consortium, which is just a few months away from finalizing a standard based on eCoupled called Qi. Qi's going to be backed by some pretty big names: Motorola, Nokia, RIM, Energizer, Duracell, Samsung, and Philips are all members of the WPC, along with several others, and the goal is for all this stuff to seamlessly play together. Fulton had some pretty hot demos to show off of the standard in action, including a Toyota Avalon interior with functional spots for two phones, a GPS, a Bluetooth headset, and a netbook, a slick first-class airline seat with a charging table, and a hotel room with several power points -- including a slick motorized dock built into the desk for the Dell. Our favorite demo, however, was a wall sconce: an eCoupled point in the wall was used to power a light fixture, which was then swapped for a digital photo frame. Nifty stuff, indeed. Still, the big challenge for Fulton and the WPC is going to be actually shipping a bunch of these products this year -- standards are nice, but without gear in hand they're meaningless, and the rival PowerMat crew has been making a pretty big push of its own. We'll see what happens in the next few months -- and how much has changed at CES 2011. Check a couple videos after the break! %Gallery-82951%
Fulton Innovation shows off mid-range eCoupled wireless power
Fulton Innovation has made some fairly impressive demonstrations of its eCoupled wireless power technology (along with a few less than impressive ones), but most of those have left little space between the power source and the device being powered. As you can see above, however, that's now changed in pretty a big way, with Fulton taking to YouTube to show off a new mid-range inductive power system. While it's obviously not quite ready for home use, this slightly unnerving contraption does indeed appear to work as promised, with it able to power a 12 watt lamp at a distance of 35 inches, or light up an LED at various points in between. Head on past the break to check it out this bit of black magic for yourself. [Thanks, Brandon]
Wireless power standard almost here, named Qi (of all things)
We're not sure whether to chalk this up to the fact that every good brand name is already taken, or to some folks' delight in torturing us with obscure pronunciation -- but whatever the case may be, it looks like the Wireless Power Consortium have finally come up with a spec for Wireless Power, and for it they're using a name (and logo) probably dreamt up after repeat viewings of Big Trouble in Little China: Qi. Pronounced Ch'i (you know, as in "prana" or "life force"), the first universal wireless standard has achieved 0.95 for interoperability testing a mere seven months after setting their eyes on the goal, paving the way for an "accelerated" acceptance of 1.0, according to a company spokesperson. The Qi standard applies to devices 5 watts and below, and members of the consortium include Duracell, National Semiconductor, Olympus, Philips, Samsung, Sanyo, ST-Ericsson, and Shenzhen Sangfei Consumer Communications. At any rate, it's nice to hear about something happening ahead of schedule for once. [Via SlashGear]
Fulton Innovation has a wireless power coming out party at CES
It was just a short year ago that we went to Fulton Innovation's tiny booth at CES and failed to get a working wireless power demo, but a lot's happened since then -- the company is at CES 2009 in force, with a much larger, swanker booth, partners like Energizer and Motorola demoing working products, and tons of working real-world examples of the tech in action. We were particularly taken with the modded Dish DVR that automatically turned itself on and off when the remote was placed on top of it to charge up -- oh, and the remote featured super-capacitors instead of batteries that charge fully in 10 seconds. There were also a ton of cell phones (including a modded iPhone, of course), new cooking demos featuring a blender, and a super cool Leggett & Pratt power tool charging workbench. Extremely impressive, all in all -- we're starting to think that 2009 could be the year that wireless power could really take off. Gallery below, video after the break!P.S.- We asked if Fulton had anything to do with the Palm Pre's sexy Touchstone wireless charger, but the guys in the booth didn't know. We'll let you know if we find anything out.%Gallery-41237%
Wireless Power Consortium to create universal wireless charging standard, insist that it's like magic
Although we've seen some interesting demos, wireless power systems have mostly been a novelty -- apart from a couple gaming accessories, the most notable thing a wireless company has done so far is declare bankruptcy. That's hopefully about to change, however: a new group called the Wireless Power Consortium plans to introduce a series of charging standards aimed at making sure all this magical tech plays nice with each other. The eight-company group includes Logitech, Philips, Sanyo (and now Panasonic, we'd suppose), TI, National Semiconductor, ConvenientPower, and Fulton Innovation -- which demoed that wireless hamburger for us, you'll recall. The group plans to first release a five-watt standard targeted at mobile phones, after which it'll take aim at laptops and other more power-hungry devices. Based on the flood of wireless-related PR we've been getting as CES gets closer, we're expecting some big things to happen in this space -- it sounds like Energizer is also going to get involved, which could be interesting. We'll see how it plays out -- hopefully this is the year we finally cut that power cord.Read - PC World articleRead - WIreless Power Consortium website
Video: eCoupled fires up its wireless Foreman grill and cooks us a burger
You might remember how excited we were to send Veronica Belmont over to eCoupled's booth at CES for a demo of the company's wireless Foreman grill, only to be bitterly disappointed when the reps claimed to have "power problems" and didn't really demo anything at all. Well, as it turns out, there was an eCoupled engineer on our flight home from Vegas, and after showing us his wirelessly-charging laptop, he promised us a video of the Foreman in action. And... it's a video of a dude cooking a burger. Sure, the grill is wireless -- but come on, where's the showmanship? Let's at least put a hula hoop around it, people. That said, we can see a lot of potential for the tech if it gets ubiquitous -- let's just hope the sales team has a little more of the ol' vaudeville spirit in 'em, eh? Check the video after the break.
Video: eCoupled not demoing its wireless power system
We were totally stoked to see eCoupled's "Intelligent Wireless Power" system in action -- the rep even said they'd try and cook us a burger on their wireless Foreman grill -- but when Veronica got there, "power fluctuations" kept them from demoing anything more than a Zune that lit up when placed directly on a charging pad. VB was way too nice to call them out on video, but come on -- you don't run around promising wireless burgers and then barely compete with a WildCharger. Check out Veronica's barely-concealed boredom after the break.
Herman Miller planning "desk of the future"
High-end furniture maker Herman Miller looks to be doing its best to cut down on the ever-increasing nuisance of gadget clutter, with Reuters reporting that the company has licensed Fulton Innovation's eCoupled technology to let you recharge various electronic devices simply plopping them down on your (presumably pricey) desk. The technology (shown here in decidedly Herman Miller-form) works by transferring power through a magnetic field that'll charge anything that comes in contact with it; we assume it also involves some sort of adapter for your respective devices. Of course, cordless charging isn't an entirely new concept, with HP recently showing off some of its own ideas for juiced-up furniture, and Splashpower talking up its charge-on-contact system for a few years now. We guess we'll just have to wait and see if this new power-happy desk becomes the same status symbol for the Web 2.0 crowd that Herman Miller's Aeron chair was back in Web 1.0 days -- assuming we haven't moved on to Web 3.0 by the time the desk actually comes out, that is.[Via textually.org]
eCoupled Intelligent Wireless Power debuting at CES next month
Looks like Fulton Innovation is getting ready to introduce a new system called "eCoupled" at CES next month that uses inductive coupling to wirelessly charge gadgets. We've been hearing about wireless charging solutions for gadgets for, well, years now (remember Splashpower?), so we wouldn't be surprised to see 2007 come and go with us charging all of our damn gadgets the old fashioned way, but Fulton has lined up some serious partners, including Visteon, Motorola, Mobility Electronics, and Herman Miller (they make office furniture). Their press release today is a little light on specifics, like when we'll actually be able to buy eCoupled-enabled gadgets, but presumably they're saving all that for CES.
