1st cordless kettle 1986
We should be so proud of how quick we have advanced.....Icon-Kettle-Steam
The Wireless Power Consortium is promising to demonstrate more than 60 new products next week, heralding a new wave of battery charging for people too stoned to plug in their phones. That's according to the makers of one of the products to be shown, the eponymous GetPowerPad, who recently announced it was in the last stages of …
As great as it is for my Pre, if the phone doesn't seat right it can get a little warm. no Big deal for phone, (and it has a tone that tells you its seated, if its on too crooked it wont charge, but tone and screen make it easy to see)
But you get a blender or toaster, and have it not lined up well and you could really melt some plastic or burn your hand.
ill be happy when they make a mousemat that charges my wireless mouse as i use it - those buggers eat batteries
other than that im really not bothered until they can keep devices charged WHEREVER you are (a la teslas wireless energy ideas) or better yet keep electric bikes and cars running nationwide without the need for enormous battery packs and 13 hour stop offs to recharge every 100 or so miles.
that would be a proper technological advancement - but remember the priorities, wireless mouse = first pls.
The wire-less-ness of the mouse is to keep the wire from getting in the way. Because the pad is fairly stationary most of the time, there is no need to worry about it as a limiting factor. Even so, taking it off the pad wouldn't cause the mouse to stop working, just to stop charging... AFAICT (who knows for sure? maybe I sleep-surf!) every night my mouse sits stationary on the pad.
Only reason palm did not sell more of their phones was not promoting the hell out of this neat feature.
I love just dropping my phone its stand and having it grab in place and charge, super easy, no more finding a plug, fiddling with plastic covers (or having dirt/lint in your open port) just drop/grab and go
This was a great device! and if Palm/HP had been smart, they would have made sure that EVERY store selling these had their devices resting on these pads for display - they would have sold millions more, especially since it was the one physically visible feature that set this phone apart. Once they got people to take a look, they would have seen it did everything the iphone did and more. Instead Verizon, Sprint etc all had the phones attached to their same lame bolted on displays, with the power cord hanging out. You had to go over in the corner to the accessory shelf, and ask the uniformed staff what the heck it was. I bought two Pre and two chargers for less than $100, and have loved it since.
How much power are we losing just so we don't have to sacrifice a few seconds every day plugging things in?
Also, I quite like being able to plug my phone in and still use it to make calls, thanks to the magical properties of old-fashioned wires!
Finally - I'm not sure how much I trust all this wireless power stuff. I consider myself a rational believer in science and evidence - but even still, there's something about the whole thing I don't like. I'd struggle to sleep with one a few inches away from my head. Yes, this is completely irrational - no two ways about it!
Since the mains is 240V Ac (or possible 120V depending on your location) you would still need a transformer *somewhere* to provide the correct DC output at the wall. I don't know whether having one single large transformer humming away permanently would be more efficient than a cluster of 'now and then' smaller units but I suspect not.
Oh Lord. people here are up in arms over the introduction of smart electric meters for fear that the radio waves that emanate from the devices will scramble their chromosomes or cause brain tumours or something.
Now you want to put magic electric charging pads into their furniture and cars!!
Considering that there are campaigns everywhere to save energy by doing "small" things like unplugging the cell phone charger when not in use, how come no one is screaming like crazy for this?
The waste of energy in this wireless devices is obscene.
What i mean is: FU environmental charlatans ... u don't know jack.
> What i mean is: FU environmental charlatans ... u don't know jack.
That's a bit of a generalisation. If you've got nothing on a charging mat, then you're obviously not pumping energy into whatever it is you're not charging. Then you're down to no-load losses. Maybe 1%, or a few hundred mW, at a guess.