Hasta La Gadget!

If you are in the market for a new car at this point in time, perhaps it might be time you checked out the 2013 Toyota Avalon Limited that boasts a first in the world – it will hold the honor of being the first vehicle available in the world which comes with in-console Qi wireless charging for Qi–enabled mobile phones and devices, considering that this is part of a Technology Package, and it does not matter whether you decide to settle for the gasoline or hybrid versions, the new 2013 Toyota Avalon Limited will still rock with wireless charging capability regardless.

Apart from that, you can find other goodies such as the Dynamic Radar Cruise Control, Automatic High beams and a Pre-Collision System. Just to refresh your memory on what all the deal about Qi is, it is actually the global standard for wireless power and charging. With the implementation of Qi, devices can be juiced up without the need for a separate charger that has pesky wires, all you need to do is place them on, or near, any Qi-enabled surface, and you’re good to go. It does not matter the make or manufacturer, as any Qi-enabled device will work with just about any Qi charger. Talk about unprecedented flexibility!

The 2013 Toyota Avalon Limited’s wireless charging pad will be integrated into the bin lid that is located in vehicle’s center console. The system can be turned on using a switch beneath the lid, and charging your power hungry device is as easy as placing the handset upon the lid’s high-friction surface. Rest assured, unless you are going to do some serious drifting with the Toyota Avalon Limited, your smartphone will most probably remain there without giving two hoots about how hard you’re pushing the car.

The new dramatically-styled 2013 Avalon from Toyota is set to arrive in showrooms from the beginning of this month onwards, and it will also be the first to come with Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive that delivers a combined EPA-rating of 40 mpg. Any takers?

Press Release
[ 2013 Toyota Avalon Limited gets wireless charging capability copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Induction charging seems ready for its time in the spotlight, with the Nexus 4, Droid DNA and Lumia 920 all shipping with wireless charging based on the Qi standard built-in. Now a concept design that offers solar-powered wireless charging cleverly hidden inside a futuristic looking bonsai tree hopes to become a reality with the help of Kickstarter.

The electree+ began life as a concept by French designer Vivien Muller, which he originally unveiled in 2008. Then, three years later, Muller tried to bring the device to market, kicking off pre-orders for the device beginning at $370. She was aiming for 400 pre-sales, but the device eventually shipped to just a small group of 200 pre-order customers.

Now, the electree+ has been redesigned to maximize its solar efficiency, and to be manufactured in the USA at much larger volume, and for less money. The redesigned electree+ boasts a 14,000mAh internal battery, which when fully charged can fill an iPhone 5 up to and over nine times. It features 27 solar panels at the tips of branches, which are adjustable to capture maximum light. It requires 36 hours in sunlight to build up a full charge, but it also only needs around 4 hours to build up enough juice to fully recharge your standard smartphone.

Other features, like an optional built-in- NFC chip, mean that it can trigger an action when a smartphone is placed on its surface, in order to put it into dock mood or manage smart home connected devices, like light fixtures and curtains. It also has changeable faceplates, if you’re feeling bored by a particular color. Plus, the electree+ is environmentally friendly, since it’s just sipping sunlight to deliver charges to your devices.

The electree+ has two USB ports, including one designed for devices with lower power requirements like smartphones, and one for tablets which feature faster charging powers. As mentioned, because it uses Qi, it’ll work out of the box with the Nexus 4 and other smartphones with Qi inductive charging coils built-in, but it should also work with iPhones so long as they have a wireless charging case.

Pre-orders begin at $199, depending on what kind of options you want, and the team behind the redesigned electree+ wants to hit at least 1,000 pre-sales, or a total funding amount of $200,000 in order to go to production. It’s an ambitious project, but unlike with a lot of products on Kickstarter, this is one that’s actually been made and shipped, so hopefully the team stands a better chance than most of hitting their May 2013 target ship date.

The fruit of JBL‘s partnership with Espoo, the Power Up wireless speaker and induction charger, has just landed at AT&T and Verizon. Aside from receiving your beats over Bluetooth, the 2 x 10-watt speaker can also charge Qi-compatible devices like the Lumia 920 and the Nexus 4. It uses TI’s latest power chip for an enlarged charging area, and packs NFC for quick pairing. Unlike TDK’s more portable option, the Power Up retains its power cable, but it does come in cheaper than its rival at $250. (Or, for some reason, $300 if you buy it at AT&T.)

[Thanks, Brandon]

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals

JBL Power Up speaker and wireless charger combo now shipping, whimsically priced around $250 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 08:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  AT&T, Verizon, Nokia (full specs)  | Email this | Comments

Google likes to skate to where the puck might be next game. They were first in the U.S. with a viable NFC payments solution (that isn’t very popular) and they’ve been at the forefront of AR with Glass (which is too expensive for the average consumer) and now they’re one of the first to market with a wireless charging solution for the Nexus 4.

Wireless charging has been far too slow on the uptake, but that’s to be expected. Beyond a very few very specific situations, the technology is slow, and in the case of Google’s Qi-based solution, the device has to be statically placed at a certain position on the charging pad. The Qi standard has some ways around that particularly onerous requirement – if you have to stick it in a certain place, why not just plug in a cable – but to complain about it is to miss the point.

Every port, dock, and transformer requires resources and real estate. Apple reduced the 30-pin port not because it wanted to piss off the millions of iPod dock owners out there. In order to reduce size and footprint they had to abandon the arguably huge 30-pin solution for the arguably more elegant Lightning port.

Imagine, then, what could happen if there were no ports at all? The headphone jack could free up a few millimeters in thickness and the wireless charging solution could save an additional bit of electronics. It’s not much, but it adds up.

I find it quite odd that Google is actually backing a standard other than Qi with Starbucks but I suspect, in the Powermat case, this is more a question of branding and cash payouts than anything else. I’ve found Powermat to be surprisingly shortsighted and inelegant over the past few years and it’s obviously not Duracell’s wish to completely move away from battery sales so I’m loath to trust them to be a good partner in the wireless power world.

I, for one, am glad that Google pushes things forward with these little technical tricks. They’re usually the first to the party but showing up early only counts for so much. They need to put cash into partnerships with points of sale in the case of NFC and some sort of public charging solution for Nexus users in order to convince the rest of the world that wireless charging is actually cool. Then they’ll really be creating a brave new world built mostly in Mountain View rather than Cupertino.

Even though the companies involved have finally come together in a consortium and finalized a standard, wireless charging is still struggling to gain acceptance. But a new technology called adaptive resonance from Fulton Innovation promises to bridge the gaps between devices, and make wireless charging pads less difficult to use. More »