Wireless charging stretches the friendship by 45mm

The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) has boosted the range of its Qi wireless charging standard, which can now deliver electricity to devices 35 millimetres away from a charger. Most of today's wireless chargers assume that devices will be placed quite carefully onto a charging station. Yet at Computex, your correspondent …

[Geoff Campbell]

Splendid!

That is all...

GJC

[Thecowking]

Re: Splendid!

Indeed, I can't wait for this, if one charger does multiple devices, it's going to make my bedside table a lot neater.

edit: just discovered that you can already buy multiple device chargers for qi, well it's still nice, but I can neaten it up by tomorrow if Amazon Prime actually works today.

[Shady]

Re: It's going to make my bedside table a lot neater.

Ewwww! Wirelessly rechargeable vibe rack?! (fetches dirty mac)

[Denarius]

2KW across 35mm !!

Did I read that correctly ? why not use a power cord. Safer, cheaper. Who wants that much energy sloshing around living room or kitchen unconfined. Aside from what the gear might mass at that energy level. Cloud, because thats what objects nearby may become, if not whole dwelling.

[Paul Crawford]

Re: 2KW across 35mm !!

Looks like they have re-invented the induction hob?

[brooxta]

Re: 2KW across 35mm !!

I wonder what one of those would do to a misplaced set of keys? Especially if one of those keys was a car key with a radio coil (or IC equivalent) inside.

[jake]

35 or 45mm away?

Just plug the thing in, already. Avoid transmission losses.

[Tachikoma]

I'm fed up of all this wireless charging malarky, I was promised this with my Galaxy S3 a few years ago, never happened outside of some XDA lot just doing it themselves. I was promised it on my Xperia Z2 but they withdrew it a week after announcing it, sure there's the magnetic charging port to save wear and tear on the waterproof flaps, but I just want to lob it on the bedside table and wake up to a fully charged battery.

[KjetilS]

The S3 had wireless charging. You had to replace the battery cover with one that had an induction coil, but that wasn't difficult or expensive to do, and the phone had the necessary connectors wired up from the factory.

The same thing with the S4.

I do lob mine on the bedside table and wake up to a fully charged battery. No faffing around with usb cables.

[Geoff Campbell]

Galaxy S3

My Galaxy S3 does wireless charging quite happily, with cheap off-the-shelf parts from eBay.

GJC

[Anonymous Coward]

you bought it !

Some people buy it because it is there.

Thus they will have the Nexus 7, Nexus 5, and a passed down Nexus 4.

There is no charge for my comment.

[John Tserkezis]

About bloody time.

I had to re-build an eBay 'transmitter' into a custom made flat cradle with a cavity that fits my phone to make it work.

The tolerance is that tight, that even several millimetres sideways movement is the difference between charging and nothing.

I have a Seidio case on my phone, so I lose about 3mm distance tolerance, but my charging pad basically has a sliver of plastic before you get to the coil, so it's still reasonable.

35mm tolerance would be a welcome change.

[David Kelly 2]

What are the losses?

EcoNuts are already screaming bloody murder about vampire drains, of devices plugged in drawing power but doing nothing. Yesterday the cry was over simple transformer wall-warts perpetually plugged in to the wall but intermittently connected to devices.

So now you want to add complexity, cost, and massive transmission losses with wireless charging?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What are the losses?

Yes this makes no sense. We're supposed to worry about the 0.2 watt draw of a charger that's plugged in but not charging anything and put it on a power strip or unplug it, but we're supposed to think it is a good idea to have 2000 watt appliances power wirelessly and wasting a hundred times as much as all the vampire chargers in your house?

More proof that wireless charging is a solution looking for a problem. How hard is it to plug your damn phone in?

[bigtimehustler]

When it can wirelessly charge from anywhere in the house, im in. Until then I may as well plug it in.

[Matt_payne666]

So with that view, you have a wired TV remote and a wired kettle too??

Wireless charging wont solve world hunger, but it will charge your phone without the need to plug in - so no scratches on the phone case as you scrape the plug about in the dark, no damaged sockets or cables from repeated plugging and unplugging, no more cursing as you lift the phone from the tabe to find the cable is 2" too short and no more flying/falling pens or cups of tea as taught cable catapults said items through the air...

Wireless charging = useful addition

[jonathanb]

Wired kettle, yes. Is there any other sort? It sits on a cradle and is really easy to remove it to fill up and pour out the boiling water, and anyway it is 3kW, and I'm not going to wait for ever for a 2kW model to boil when such a device does come out.

The remotes run on rechargeable AA and AAA batteries.

[Zog_but_not_the_first]

Unintended consequences

A wireless kettle?

Zog puts down ber. Beer boils. Zog not happy.