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With Qi wireless charging, you'll soon be able to charge your device from a short distance
It's becoming more and more common to find mobile devices with wireless charging capability, either as a built-in feature or integrated into third-party cases. Progress has been somewhat hampered, however, by the fact that no universally adopted standard is available. Of the three major groups trying to corner the market, Qi -- a standard created by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) -- has arguably been the most successful at courting manufacturers and carriers (over 200 have signed up so far). The problem is, its abilities have been limited because it only uses a method called inductive charging; in other words, you can power up your smartphone as long as it's sitting on a charging pad. Wireless, sure, but it's still only marginally more convenient than simply plugging the handset in. Fortunately, Qi's adding some crucial functionality later this year that will allow you to charge your device from nearly two inches away.
Intel, IDT to make resonance charging a reality, see reference chipset coming in first half of 2013
Intel has been talking up wireless charging for years, to the point where we thought its implementation would forever remain a concept for the lab. Not so: Intel is having Integrated Device Technology (IDT) build a real-world chipset to support resonance charging in our gadgets. The lofty goal is to have a ready-made platform for charging up a mobile device or peripheral just by keeping it close to another device with a charger built-in, such as an Ultrabook; there's none of the unseemly contact plates used with inductive wireless power. Intel's commitment is still very much early and won't put a full, two-way resonance chipset into the hands of hardware makers until sometime during the first half of 2013, let alone into a shipping product. We'll take it all the same, as it just might be the first step toward embracing wireless power on a truly large scale.
Toyota and WiTricity team up for OTA car charging
Some day you'll charge everything wirelessly -- phones, cars, graphing calculators, all using the same basic technology. That's the sort of utopian vision Toyota had in mind when it formed the Wireless Battery-charging Alliance with WiTricity. The young Massachusetts-based company is pushing "resonance" technology, which charges electronics without contact and is supposedly more efficient than induction-based charging -- a category that includes the popular Qi standard. This new partnership ups the ante, adding electric vehicles to the list of chargeable devices, a vision of the future where Prius batteries can be filled wirelessly, while sitting in driveways and parking garages. Exxon's engineers are no doubt working to perfect the hose-free gasoline transfer as we speak. PR after the break. [Thanks, Paul]
