Hasta La Gadget!

In an effort to make Toshiba’s TransferJet more… business, the company revealed a touchscreen kiosk that allows you to buy (and immediately download) music, videos and more. Just in case that alone wasn’t enough, the kiosk, which is adorably petite, also uses NFC to pair the device and (if you have the appropriate account or software) pay for downloadable content. The kiosk even throws in Qi wireless charging for your handset as you select, buy and download that new anime episode. Of course, if you don’t have wireless charging (or TransferJet to grab the downloads in the first place), you might not get the most out of what Toshiba’s offering here, but the idea is to place the device in places like airports and convenience stores, where people are likely to have time to kill and want something to watch or listen to right away.

Darren Murph contributed to this report. %Gallery-slideshow99600%

Filed under: Cellphones

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Ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show this week, Qualcomm has come out to announce that it’ll be bringing its Halo wireless charging technology to the first-ever Formula E electric vehicle race next year. But before y’all get too excited, only the safety cars will be equipped with Halo for the first season, which goes from September 2014 to June 2015 in London, Rome, Berlin, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Los Angeles and many more places.

As with these safety cars plus trial vehicles from London taxi firm Addison Lee, the current-gen Halo requires electric vehicles to stay still on large charging pads, which isn’t ideal for racing cars. That said, Qualcomm CMO Anand Chandrasekher told us that his folks are already looking into bringing dynamic charging to racing cars starting in the second season. In other words, these battery-powered vehicles will eventually be able to recharge while still running on the race track!

Filed under: Transportation

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Smartphone wireless chargers are easier to find than ever, but built-in inductive systems for cars? Those we don’t see often. According to Bloomberg, General Motors will incorporate wireless charging systems for phones on some of its 2014 car models, joining the ranks of Toyota and Chrysler. Unlike the chargers aboard the 2013 Avalon and the Dodge Dart, however, GM’s cars will (officially) be the first ones to use Powermat. When the carmaker first announced a $5 million stake in Powermat in 2011, it said the Volt will be the first to offer the wireless charging perk. A two-year delay might have changed GM’s plans — it originally wanted to launch an in-car system in 2012 — but we won’t know for sure until the company releases official details.

Filed under: Wireless

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Via: Autoblog

Source: Bloomberg

Just before a smartphone turns up at the debutante ball, the internet comes alive with frenzied claims about what the new hardware will offer. While most of ’em turn out to be wishful thinking on behalf of whoever entered the data, we imagine that standards are a little stricter over at the Wireless Power Consortium. It’s there that a listing has popped up claiming that BlackBerry’s as-yet unannounced Z30 will support Qi wireless charging. The listing goes on to say that the smartphone will pack a medium power receiver, capable of pulling 120 watts from a charger, which should be enough to juice that (rumored) 2,800mAh battery in short order.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry

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Via: CrackBerry

Source: Wireless Power Consortium

The Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), a consortium working to establish a new wireless charging standard, hasn’t been around for terribly long — Samsung and Qualcomm joined forces to create the organization just over a year ago — but it’s planning to make waves as quickly as possible. One of the most effective ways to do exactly that, then, would be to persuade large players in the mobile industry to join along, and Intel certainly meets that qualification. The company announced this afternoon that it has officially joined the A4WP’s Board of Directors. This move doesn’t guarantee that we’ll be soon seeing Intel-powered devices with built-in wireless charging capabilities, but it’s at least a solid indication that the folks in Santa Clara are mindful of (and intrigued by) the potential that near-field magnetic resonance tech holds.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Mobile, Intel

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