Wireless Charging Nears Unification As Powermat Cedes To Qi (engadget.com) 37
Powermat, the only contender to the dominant format Qi, has joined the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) and now backs its rival. "Qi has become the dominant wireless charging standard on the market and the recently launched Apple iPhone lineup is evidence of this success," Powermat said in a statement. "[We] will share technology innovation to further unlock wireless charging potential, and will expedite the growth of the wireless charging infrastructure." Engadget reports: Powermat was barely hanging on as a standard, but as it mentioned, Apple's favoring of Qi for its upcoming chargers pretty much sealed its fate. The company was forced to upgrade its chargers to support Qi at Starbucks locations, for instance, so that Apple's Qi-supported iPhone X- and 8-owning clients could juice up. Until a few years ago, there were essentially three standards, the Alliance for Wireless Power, the Power Matters Alliance (no joking), and Qi, which was already the dominant player. The first two merged to form the Airfuel alliance in 2015, of which Powermat was the main player.
It also plays Blu-rays! (Score:3)
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We need one standard that supports all use cases.
May I recommend Emacs?
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Before Emacs has finished loading . . . the battery will be empty.
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Dangit here we go again. My mobile BetaMax only charges via Powermat.
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you both share similar
-1 double redundant
Palm Pre (Score:4, Interesting)
It remains in a certain way unfathomable that we still are dickering on this back when in 2009 I had a charging touchstone for my Palm Pre. And it was a matter of changing the snap on back cover.
Easy simple perfect.
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your dad shoving his 3” twizzler dick in your mom’s loose fuckhole.
Don't be rude. The appropriate way to phrase that is: "dipping a baby carrot in an oversized salsa bowl"
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The point of it is that you can set the phone on the charger without plugging it in and then pick it up again if there's an important tweet.
It's mostly useful for young people that don't know that you don't have to check just because the phone makes a sound and old people that keep forgetting to charge their phones.
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It's more than that though. It means you can make any spot you'd set your phone down into a charger. The console in your car. Your nightstand. The table at mcdonalds (we have this at a few places in NYC).
Oh, and you DON'T NEED A WIRE of whatever random connector type. One less thing to carry or have around. It's typically the first thing to wear out or break. Public chargers are horrible for either having broken/crap cables or totally worn out USB jacks for plugging into. A flat, sealed area you can
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It will not wear out your connectors.
You do not strane your wires causing you to get new ones.
You can move your device without getting the jerk when you reach your end.
When not I. Use you don’t have bare connectors floating around getting dust, dirt or corrosion.
Having the cable not plug in just right.
It can allow some devices to become more sealed.
Being that qi is now standard that allows many makes and models to charge freely without different connectors (This seems to be mostly on Apple in 2018)
In
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The range is small, you have to put your phone on a slab, like a night stand or dedicated pocket in a car.
Best of all, you can STILL use wired charging!
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Is wireless charging any faster than wired? How much less efficient is it?
It might be as fast but it is less efficient.
What's the range? Do I still need to put my phone on a dedicated slab, or can it charge from across the hallway?
Contact range.
Then Apple Shows Courage... (Score:3)
And drops wireless charging.
That or makes only Genuine © Apple Mat Apple compatible.
But why? (Score:2)
Can someone explain why I'm supposed to care about wireless charging? I spend less than 10 seconds a day plugging my phone in to charge and unplugging it again. How does this make my life better?
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One less wire for my Toddler (or pet) to shove in his mouth is good. Charging pads (short-field charging) don't get me there.
There are, however, the mid-field and long-field wireless charging options in the pipeline that seem more compelling - Energous just received FCC approval for their version which lets you charge anywhere within three feet, with a more powerful version in development that can hit 15 feet. Those are more interesting.