The information leaks ahead Google’s Android event next week continue to flow, with the latest thanks to support manuals on LG’s Australian and UK websites. While we’re already familiar with the phone’s hardware thanks to a detailed Belarusian review, the manuals confirm it is going to be called the Nexus 4, and that along with the 8GB version we’ve seen there will definitely be a 16GB edition available. As you can see above, it also includes an induction coil for wireless charging and excludes any microSD slots for additional storage. This all comes after twoseparate Nexus 10 leaks earlier today, as well as a report by Wired of a lost Nexus 4 recovered in a San Francisco bar (sound familiar?) last month. Hit the source link below to check out the LG E960 PDF for yourself (you may need to select the “show all” radio button), although there’s only a few diagrams and support info waiting within.
When a major competitor releases a hero product to the market that they intend to keep around for some time to come, you as a tech company have an opportunity – for Google, that opportunity exists in the absence of wireless battery charging in the iPhone 5. An image has been making the rounds today that very much appears to be approximately half of a Nexus Q – but is being called a wireless charging unit for the Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 is almost certainly going to be revealed on Monday by Google at their big Android event [we’ll be there!] as the same unit that’s been shown in a rather giant amount of leaked images over the past few weeks – with wireless charging via this pad, has Google suddenly one-upped Apple, not to mention Nokia?
It’s not as if wireless charging of smartphone batteries is a new concept – they’ve even had cases for some time now that fit around the iPhone and allow you to charge the unit with a special pad. But with the introduction of high-level wireless charging – that is, doing it with a hero phone – Nokia may have broken the floodgates. Just a few weeks ago it was that Nokia’s Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices were shown to be working with wireless charging pads right out of the box – or with a special back panel replacement.
Now this one image (at the head of this post) is making us believe that Google will be going the same route with the Nexus 4 – and perhaps the tablet Nexus they’re setting up to show as well. With this tablet, the Nexus 10, and the Nexus 4 ready for wireless charging action, will Apple be forced to act? It certainly wouldn’t be something they’d deliver soon, if anytime in the near future.
With not only the iPhone 5 but the iPad mini and 4th generation iPad just introduced in the span of the last few weeks, Apple is in a place where they’re not going to be bringing on any more mobile hardware for months and months. Apple is not in a place where they can be playing catch-up, nor are they going to be able to iPhone as a ubiquitous machine set aside from all other smartphones forever. It may eventually be that the iPhone becomes a works-with-all device, ready as much or more than Android’s massive collection of feature-packed device universe is to take on the whole accessory market.
An iPhone with the ability to work with a wireless charging pad? Not any time soon.
A fundamental shift in the way Apple positions itself with the iPhone? It’ll have to happen inside the next few years, or you may see a tipping point as major competitors – backed by Google – ramp up their own efforts to become that one “must have” brand.
One of the cool new features coming to Nokia’s latest Lumia 920 and 820 devices is wireless charging. We’ve seen it on other handsets in the past — notably Palm devices, but it’s still not that prominent yet in the mobile market. Today, Nokia announced UK pricing for its various wireless-charging accessories for the Lumia 920 and 820.
While the two devices don’t actually have wireless charging built in, the accessories themselves are what actually make it possible. You have to purchase a wireless charging “shell” (pictured below) as well as the charging base. Together, these two accessories will give you wireless charging capabilities. The shell comes in a single style, but the charging bases come in several.
The shell will cost you £19.99 after tax ($32), and you’ll have three options as far as a wireless base. There’s the “Plate” you can get for £54.99 ($88) that allows you to simply set your phone down on top of it to start charging. You can also get a stand for £69.99 ($112) that will obviously stand up your phone while it’s charging, or if you like the idea of the Plate, but want a softer cushion to set your Lumia device onto, you can buy a wireless charging “pillow” for £79.99 ($128) pictured below.
Nokia is also offering a wireless speaker made by JBL that will sell for £144.99 ($233). No release date for these accessories have been announced, but they are available now for pre-order. There’s no word when these accessories will hit the US and how much they’ll cost, but you can bet that US residents will see them at some point.
Kokuyo will present next week in Japan a new Wireless Charging desk prototype developed with both Murata and Intel. While there is not much more to say here, beside the basic fact that this desk will let you charge any devices you lay on it and that it will come with a Murata 25W Wireless charging module, I have to say that it’s just about time that someone does something of the sort and I can’t wait to see similar products on the market!
It’s not the first time Engadget editors have stepped foot at Nokia House — the company’s HQ in Espoo, Finland — but it’s always a treat, and our visit this week is no exception. Today we took a walk down memory lane, and spent some time with several Nokia handsets — from one of the very first mobile phones to the Lumia 920. We played with some of the more iconic models and designs, such as the 1011 (first GSM handset), 1610, 7700 / 7710 (S90), 7280 (lipstick phone), 770 / N800 tablets, N-Gage / QD, 3300, 8800, 8110 (from the Matrix movie), N93 / N93i, N91, N92, N76, N95 and finally the 7650 (the first handset running Symbian). In addition, we also got to handle some of the Lumia 820 and 920 accessories, including the Fatboy wireless charging pillow and JBL-branded Power Up speakers. Check out the gallery below then hit the break for our hands-on video. Oh, and don’t forget to tune in tomorrow for our live Q&A with Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop.
Update: That music-centric handset which uses an IBM Microdrive is the N91 (not N90) and was announced in 2005 (not 1995), and that flip-phone is the N76 (not the N75) — sorry for the slip in the video.
I’m huge fan of wireless charging for smartphones and other devices. The problem with wireless charging is that there are multiple wireless charging formats on the market and they’re not all compatible. That means you could purchase a case for your iPhone that would work on one charging base, but not the other.
Three of the most common wireless charging technologies on the market include inductive coupling, magnetic resonance, and Qi technology. Now, a company called Fulton Innovation has announced a new wireless charging breakthrough called Adaptive Resonance from their eCoupled line. This technology allows a single charging plate to support the charging of devices using any of the three methods at the same time.
The charging plate also allows the devices to maintain charging as they are moved around on the charging plate. That means you can scoot the devices around and they’ll still have power.
I like the idea of this technology, as it eliminates problems with incompatibility, and makes wireless charging just that much more practical.
It’s time to have a chat about what the iPhone 5 didn’t bring to the table this week now that the dust has settled – somewhat – after the big Apple reveal. Two features you might be wondering about – and one that you might never have heard of – for the iPhone 5 that we’ve had questions about are these: NFC, Wireless Charging, and Localized Haptic Feedback. We’ve discussed the first two extremely briefly right after the press conference was complete, while the third has still been weighing on our minds even without a lot of your questions for us on the device in the end.
One of the main objectives the designers of the iPhone 5 had in mind was the overall thinning of the device. The final product is, as the video you’re about to see will show, precise down to tiny, tiny details throughout the iPhone 5′s hardware build. The features we’re about to speak about here are not included on the iPhone 5 for their own unique reasons, but the technology being… well… fat – is one of the main reasons why they’re not included on this device.
NFC
We’d heard some weeks ago that NFC was set to be included on the iPhone 5, and even heard a rumor that said an iPhone 5 with NFC embedded was created – but the final word is this: the infrastructure surrounding NFC as a technology being used in the wild just isn’t strong enough. Even more important than the fatness of the architecture that’d be needed for the iPhone 5 to work with NFC is the idea that the technology just isn’t mature enough.
If there’s any shadow of a doubt that a feature will not be usable in a short amount of time after it’s included on an Apple product, it will not be included. One example of this is the MacBook and its inclusion of HDMI-compatible hardware. You didn’t see HDMI compatibility on Apple products until a large enough cross-section of media-makers and hardware developers adopted the technology – and no, I nor we know any specific numbers in this situation.
Wireless Charging
If you keep up with all the gadgets and gizmos that get released no matter what manufacturer makes them here with SlashGear, you know that Nokia released a couple of devices recently – the Lumia 820 and 920 – that work with wireless charging. This technology is another one that requires some bulk and weight – and of course, an added cost for production. When you weigh these simple elements against the positive factors involved in wireless charging, they simply do not add up – not for the iPhone 5, anyway.
One of the biggest reasons for this is simply the fact that you cannot charge your device wirelessly and hold your device while using it at the same time. At the moment, Nokia’s chargers, while awesome in an of themselves, are certainly larger than a simple USB-wired charging solution. It’s not as if this concept is new – the idea that you can hold your device while charging if it’s not wireless – but it still holds true through the iPhone 5.
Localized Haptic Feedback
If you’ll look way back to March of this year you’ll find an Apple patent outlining Localized Haptic Feedback for their iPhone line. To keep it simple: this technology connects an array of piezoelectric actuators to the device’s display, each of them able to give you vibrations localized to the point where you’re touching your screen. This is just one of several different ways you can do this, but the end result is the same.
Apple simply isn’t going to include a system like this unless it’s necessary for the device to function. More important than that, Apple won’t include a system like this because it’d simply weigh too heavily on the battery – why use up battery time for a system that shakes your finger so precisely it seems like magic? At the moment, the ends do not justify the means.
Have a peek at our Apple portal for more info on the iPhone 5 and let us know what you think of these features – especially what it means to you that they’re not included in this release. Also be sure to check out our iPhone 5 hands-on experience to get close – real close!
Now that we know much, much more about Apple’s latest iPhone, we can’t help but wonder why certain features are missing from the iPhone 5. For instance, near-field communication — standard in many iPhone competitors — is notably absent. This seems especially odd considering iOS 6’s Passbook feature, which acts like a virtual wallet for gift cards, boarding passes, and other such things, would be a perfect fit for NFC technology. “Passbook does the kinds of things customers need today,” Apple senior VP Phil Schiller told All Things D.
Schiller also explained the reason for the iPhone 5’s new “Lightning” port, which allows for faster data transfer between phone and computer, but also requires an adapter ($29) for use with Apple’s previous wire standard. Apparently Apple’s future lineup would be impossible without the new connecter, according to Schiller. He attempted to assuage concerned consumers with one hopeful promise: “This is the new connector for many years to come.”
And finally, when pressed on wireless charging — a main feature of Nokia’s flagship Windows Phone 8 device, the Lumia 920 — Schiller said such a feature offers little to consumers beyond confusion. “Having to create another device you have to plug into the wall is actually, for most situations, more complicated,” he said. As per usual, the iPhone 5 will charge via USB — using the new dock connector, of course. But surely, turning a bunch of cables into just one giant wireless charging plate aligns well with Apple’s simplicity design, right?
This week we’re taking a look at the iPhone 5 as it was revealed by Apple in all its glory alongside iOS 6 and a set of hardware innovations like the Lightning connector – but what happened to NFC and wireless charging? We’d heard several times in tips and “leaks” that an NFC sensor was in the plans for this device for some time – but inside the last few weeks of this unofficial stream of shady bits, it was all but confirmed that, given the size of the device, NFC was not physically possible. Wireless charging, on a similar note, was never officially spoken about by Apple, and though Apple’s competitors – such as Nokia, for example – are working with the technology soon, Apple has simply opted out.
If you take a peek at the new Nokia lineup – including our hands-on with wireless charging – you’ll find that the new Lumia smartphones certainly are not thin. Not nearly as thin as the iPhone 5 is, anyway. There will certainly be a massive amount of 3rd party accessory manufacturers clamoring to create so-called wireless solutions soon, of course, as the iPhones before today have been working with for some time. The iPhone 5 on its own will be relying on the new Lightning port and cord – and we’ve yet to see how much faster or more efficiently that piece of equipment works.
NFC on the other hand is a technology that Apple does not appear to want to work with at all. They’ve not included it in any iPad device thus far, nor have any of the iPods in their collection – including those today – been working with an NFC sensor. Instead Apple appears content to work with businesses not through wireless payments as such, but with scannable coupons and cards with its own Passbook. Check our pre-event software rundown for more information on Passbook and prepare yourselves for more information on the software in its final form soon!
Also have a peek at the timeline of events from earlier today below to catch up entirely on the iPhone 5 and all its many details as it heads to the market for pre-order this Friday!
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 »
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