Powermat Ships: Charging Your iPhone Without Wires
We’ve written about all sorts of ways to charge your iPhone or iPod. Except solar devices, all chargers have one thing in common: they use wires. That might be ready to change as Powermat announces it will start shipping its wireless charger. The Powermat uses inductive coupling to transfer energy to any device placed on the mat.
There are two versions: the Powermat Home & Office (which looks something close to a skateboard without wheels) and the folding Powermat Portable. Both versions let you recharge up to three devices at least as quickly as the traditional plug-in rechargers.
The Powermat works when you place a device on the mat, and attach a receiver. (No energy is used when the mat is empty, unlike standard rechargers that will consume energy whether or not a phone is attached.) When you take the device away or unplug the receiver, the Powermat stops sending a charge.
The Powermat is available for the iPhone and iPod, as well as the BlackBerry, Nokia, Samsung and LG handsets. Nintendo DS and Sony PSP units can also be charged.
The Powermat costs $99 and additional receivers costs $39.99.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
