Hasta La Gadget!

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We’d all love to go entirely wireless, right? One thing tends to stand in our way, however–from time to time, we need to plug our gadgets in to recharge their batteries. There’s been a lot of talk about the inductive charging in devices like the Powermat, sure, but a new concept from Intel takes things a step further: wireless charging at distances up to three feet.

Intel was showing off the technology at an event today in midtown Manhattan. According to the Intel rep, the demo was actually meant to charge up a PC, but, unfortunately, thanks to some shipping problems, we had to settle for a lightbulb. The display is based on concepts developed by MIT physicists. It uses magnetic wave with an efficiency rate of around 80-percent.

According to the rep, in the future scenario, the large coil would live in the wall of, say, your home, and the other would sit inside the device that needs charging. The technology is said to be harmless (he demonstrated this by waving his hands between the two coils), but apparently Intel is researching it further, you know, just in case.

Check out a video of the coils in action, after the jump.

Those AA alkaline- and lithium-powered phone chargers are a totally handy (and relatively inexpensive) thing to throw into a bag and carry around in the event — the incredibly likely event — that you end up running your set dry at one time or another, but there’s a small problem: those AAs don’t go very far. Generally speaking, you’ll get a couple charges out of a set of batteries, which makes them environmentally dubious at best and less convenient than you’d like them to be. That’s where KFE Japan’s new solution comes in: same concept, but the batteries are zinc-air instead of alkaline or lithium — the same tried and true chemistry used by hearing aid batteries — whereby you pop a lid open on the charger to expose the batteries to air, which starts the juice flowing. The advantage is that you’re looking at about 20 charges before the thing’s depleted, and when you’re there, you’ll be able to send it back into KFE to be recharged. The chargers will run 3,000 yen (about $31) when they launch in March. [Warning: subscription required]

Filed under: Cellphones

KFE’s new phone charger powered by zinc-air batteries, science originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Freeplay‘s ZipCharge has already made its debut, but it’s showing itself once more at Mobile World Congress now that it has a definitive ship date and price. For those out of the loop, this here power stick can charge up in just ten minutes, and the supplied cable provides all sorts of tips to juice up whatever random gadget you have laying around (Palm’s Foleo notwithstanding). The device is expected to splash down on store shelves this April for around £60 ($85), and you can peek a few more hands-on shots in the read link below.

Filed under: Peripherals

Freeplay’s ZipCharge spotted, priced and dated originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 05:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are plenty of terrible portable chargers out there, but the “Wrist Band Portable Battery” sure isn’t one of them. The name pretty much tells the whole tale — it’s a wrist band packed with a lithium-ion battery (that supposedly gets about five hours of juicing time) for charging numberless portable devices. It comes with 7 different adapters, and the totally awesomely-styled band itself has a set of LEDs which indicate the battery life remaining. It’ll cost you about $25 to get one of your own and prove once and for all that no, punk is not dead. Check out a few more pics after the break.

Continue reading Wrist Band Portable Battery charges your phone, electrifies your look

Filed under: Wearables

Wrist Band Portable Battery charges your phone, electrifies your look originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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