Cutting the Power Cable: How Advantageous Is Wireless Charging? 284
Lucas123 writes "Furniture and auto makers are already ramping up production of wireless charging for mobile devices that will also allow I/O for music and data synchronization. Thanks to the widely accepted Qi standard, there shouldn't be a problem with interoperability, but how advantageous is wireless charging? Would it really offer more charging opportunities for mobile users in coffee shops who are today hamstrung by how many outlets are available? And then there's the added cost and reduced efficiency. As wireless systems are more complicated, a wireless battery charger will be more expensive and there are resistive losses on the coil, stray coupling, etc."
Not new (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It will have a certain cool factor at first (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, you can. Waterproof the port, allow the conductive to pass through the waterproofed port. Set up a second ground/power pair that is ONLY used to detect when the device is submerged in a conductive medium and use that to disable the other pins avoiding a short circuit.
The metal pins still won't be happy to be submerged in a corrosive salt-water solution but if you rinse it off right away it should be ok.