Hasta La Gadget!

Bosch recently released an $450 charging solution for EVs, but if you want to go wireless, it’s going to cost you a lot more. The company has formed an exclusive partnership with Evatran for the distribution and installation of its wireless chargers for the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt. Each Plugless Level 2 Electric Vehicle Charging System (now that’s a tongue-twister) costs $2,998 for the Volt and $3,098 for the Leaf, not including taxes and installation fees. It’s comprised of a wall-mounted control panel that provides electricity to the parking pad, which transmits power to your vehicle. You’ve got to admit it’s convenient when all you have to do to juice up is park on top of the pad, but would you actually shell out that much cash in the name of convenience when plugging a (cheaper) charger in is no Herculean task?

Filed under: Misc, Wireless

Comments

Via: Plugin Cars, Autoblog

Source: Bosch

Gigabyte said that we’d have at least a few BRIX mini PCs to choose from. At Computex, however, it’s showing four new prototypes that could lead to a much larger catalog. Two of them are run-of-the-mill designs with AMD Kabini and Intel Haswell processors — nice enough, but more evolution than revolution. The other two are decidedly more exotic, though. One includes a wireless charging pad to charge a smartphone in a pinch, while the other carries a pico projector for on-the-spot presentations. Although Gigabyte hasn’t mentioned whether or not these BRIX models will reach production, we’d wager that the conservative systems are more likely to reach our desks.

Filed under: Desktops, AMD, Intel

Comments

Source: Engadget Chinese (translated)

The Power Matters Alliance (PMA) just scored another major boost. AT&T has announced that it will integrate wireless charging within select smartphones by 2014. Those TBA handsets may be manufactured by BlackBerry, ZTE, or any of the organization’s latest members: HTC, Huawei, LG and Samsung. Notably absent is Apple, so don’t expect PMA-compatible devices to make their way out of Cupertino anytime soon, but with chipset makers like Broadcom and Texas Instruments on board, we could very well be seeing quite a few handsets pop up by early next year. Integration may be implemented directly within the chipset, or it could be delivered through an add-on device, such as the Wireless Charging Card (WiCC) in the image above.

A PMA membership doesn’t necessarily represent a commitment from manufacturers to release products that support the technology — joining the alliance requires just “a few thousand dollars” in dues, but Duracell Powermat President Daniel Schreiber seems confident that all of the smartphone makers now on board will have releases of their own in the near future. The next step, of course, would be a widespread rollout of PMA-compatible charging stations, such as those manufactured by Powermat and installed in Boston Starbucks stores and Madison Square Garden in NYC. PowerKiss, which has begun similar trials in Europe, also joined the PMA recently, and may have compatible devices in place in several McDonald’s restaurants and train stations throughout the continent by the second half of this year.

Filed under: Cellphones, Household, Mobile, Samsung, HTC, AT&T, LG

Comments

Oh ZTE you cheeky monkey. Towards the end of day one at IDF in Beijing, we stumbled upon this awkwardly titled Android Jelly Bean phone that is the Geek at ZTE’s booth. Needless to say, this is yet another phone powered by an Intel processor — a 2GHz Clover Trail+ Atom to be exact, which is what Lenovo’s K900 also has. The rest of the device isn’t too shabby, either: you get a nice 5-inch 720p display with Gorilla Glass, along with an 8-megapixel main camera, a 1-megapixel front-facing camera, 8GB of storage space, 1GB of RAM, 2,300mAh battery and wireless charging. Radio-wise we see UMTS 900/2100 courtesy of Intel’s XMM 6260 chip, and there’s also the usual lot of 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE and GPS.

Design-wise the Geek takes a huge step away from the Grand X IN and shares a similarly clean look with the Grand S, but without the black eye around the main camera. This particular unit had a glossy white finish as well, but we’d prefer a matte finish for a more premium feel. Since ZTE admitted that it had to rush this prototype for exhibition at IDF, we’ll come back to the build quality once we see a final retail unit. Until then, check out our hands-on video and the press release after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Comments

No phone launch is complete without a few accessories added to the mix. Samsung had a whole bunch to announce alongside its Galaxy S 4, but only a few were on hand to check out up close and personal. We did, however, find a nice surprise hiding under those glossy white table covers — a wireless charging pad. Yes, it turns out the the GS 4 does in fact have Qi wireless charging capabilities. Provided its available in your region and your carrier chooses to support it. The charging pad itself has a glossy plastic base that matches the phone, but there’s a nice rubbery gray top that keeps the handset from sliding around too much while it’s juicing up.

We also got to check out the companion wireless scale that looks quite a bit like the Fitbit Aria. Though, with a square LCD and a healthy-sized Samsung logo on it. The scale is just one part of the larger S Health equation which also includes a Jawbone Up-like monitor (S Band), which was sadly nowhere to be found in the demo pit. The scale of course sync with the baked in S Health app over Bluetooth, which makes it quite a bit easier to track how that diet of yours is going. In addition to simply tracking your total poundage, there will be bands for tracking heart rate and the S 4’s various sensor can help judge the comfort level of your environment. The requisite glut of photos can be found below in the gallery.

Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.

Check out our event hub for all the action from Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 event.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

Comments