I’m a total technology nerd, but I also hate wires. Power cables, ethernet cables, coaxial cables, and whatnot make me grind my teeth in a bad way. It’s old, outdated tech in my opinion. I use wireless whenever I can and I’ve gone almost entirely portable (smartphone, tablet, laptop) so I can deal with wiring only when I have to plug something in at night to get a charge. Luckily for me, the Wireless Power Consortium feels the same way I do about this.
That takes me to Qi. It’s a low power wireless model that was standardized this year. Energizer is rocking their own inductive charging pad, and it’s pretty sexy. Available for Blackberry and iPhone at this time, it looks like the standard inductive charger tech we’ve all been looking askance at for a year or more. I know I’ve looked them over carefully, but I never bought one; it was untried tech. No friend of a friend had one and loved it and no standards board had approved it. That is, until now.
The roster of WPC members (RIM, Verizon, HTC, Samsung, Sanyo and Panasonic to name a few) behind inductive charging seems to indicate lasting support of the technology. Energizer is an associate member and appears to be providing the case the iPhone and Blackberry will sit in to charge on the Energizer brand Qi.
One of the exciting things about standardization of this technology is that as of right now you can’t put 2 brands of inductive charging technology together and expect them to play nice. That’ll change, and now we should also see qi technology built right into up and coming smartphones. It’s a win for everyone. Who wants to find their charger cable and go through the bother of plugging it into an outlet/USB port when you can just toss your device onto a pad and not worry about it?
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