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Wireless Charging On the Droid Bionic?
mahiskali writes "New documents pertaining to the ever-hyped and much-delayed Motorola Droid Bionic have surfaced on the FCC website. Perusing through the documents, I noticed a very interesting feature: an inductive charging coil (click 'Internal Photos'), built into the battery door housing. It seems Motorola may have some tricks up its sleeve yet--but will it be enough to beat out the competition (read: Samsung Galaxy S2, iPhone 5)?"
How in the world did Motorola come up with something like wireless charging that no one has ever done before and it totally innovative and unique? Wowzawowzer!!!!
It's amazing that they could incorporate something that's been used in toothbrushes for years. Did a patent just run out or something?
So it puts this thing into the same league as the Palm Pre?!?!?
As I gaze over to the Palm Touchstone inductive charger on my desk that has been there almost 2 years, meh is the best i can muster.
Good-bye
Want to be on top again? DONT CRIPPLE THE DAMN PHONE!
Make it run a clean google android, make it EASY to update with no nasty tricks to keep unauthorized OS installs off it. in fact ENCOURAGE unauthorized OS install by simply stating the warranty only covers the phone when used with a stock OS install.
In other words... stop being jerks.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
And this is why I like my Palm Pre. The Touchstone is an amazing piece of technology.
The place where a few seconds can mean the difference between making an arse of yourself... and making an even bigger arse of yourself.
There is no -1 disagree
I'm guessing that in your (clearly inadequate) haste, you also forgot to tick the "Post Anonymously" button?
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
It's a Motorola, so no.
sounds cool but i have like 10 free outlets at work for my phones, ipad and whatever i carry these days to charge. and you can use USB ports on any server in the data center if you're working away from the office.
this sounds like cool and gee whiz but not practical for a lot of people who will just say who cares and get an iphone
Could some EE closer to the inductive charge community comment on:
1) Are the chargers "smart" like if I drop my wedding ring on the charger does it heat up/melt or does the charger recognize the inductance / current draw is way outta whack and shut off? If it shuts off does an indicator of some type turn on, or does it just not charge?
2) Frequency of operation? I would really hate to hear anything below, say, 30 KHz. Even at my age, just years ago when CRTs still roamed the earth, I found horiz sync whine to be astoundingly annoying. I would really hate to hear a 60 hz inductor, any tropical fish owner / diaphragm air pump owner knows the annoying drone of 60 hz + harmonics.
3) Who can sell me an inductive receiver kit to power other stuff? I'm not talking about bolt and go, but ladyada / dangerousprototypes sort of places and products? Who makes this stuff, anyway? At a superficial glance the usual suspects in the analog power community don't seem to offer any specialized ICs for the task... unless the RX has no 2-way comm with the tx and literally is just any ole coil feeding a bridge rect and a switcher.
4) I'm sadly picturing some kind of hideous DRM where the expensive charger and expensive device need to negotiate a RSA key across bluetooth to light up the charger... Please tell me it isn't so? A generation of interoperability would be awesome.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Inductive charging suffers from efficiency problems (86% of power drawn is transmitted, as opposed to the 9x% of a DC/DC converter chip in wired chargers), but okay, it's no big deal. However, it doesn't offer practically any convenience over wired chargers: still fixed in place over the powermat, although you just have to pick it up and dash off, I'll grant them that.
Inductive charging will be a valuable asset when a room, a house, or even a city can be blanketed with the required EM field, so that my phone keeps charging all the time, and we can do away with batteries altogether or keep only a small reserve battery for 'emergency' power in shielded areas (like the inside of an elevator). Either that, or they achieve such transfer rates that I can go from 5% to 100% by holding it up to the coil for five-ten seconds at most, like they do in games (which would likely incinerate the electronics with waste heat). Until then, wireless charging will be a gimmick, albeit a marginally useful one, in all devices.
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
That word does not mean what you think it means.
The summary uses the phrase, "Perusing through the documents." First off, you don't "peruse through" a document; you simply "peruse" it. Secondly, the use of "through" implies that the author has used "peruse" as a substitute for "skim" -- because you can "skim through" documents -- and this is doubly wrong, because "peruse" has exactly the opposite meaning from "skim;" it means "to read through with thoroughness or care." You'd peruse a legal document. You probably wouldn't peruse a magazine.
It also may sound like I'm being a dirty proscriptivist here, but that's not the point. "Improper" grammar can be ok so long as it communicates unambiguously. The problem with "peruse" is that, if half the population thinks it means one thing, and the other half thinks it means exactly the opposite, then the word is useless. It's so commonly misused that I avoid it altogether; even if I use it correctly, about half my readers will misunderstand me.
Even if you limit the class to Verizon 4G Android phones, this isn't new or unique. Inductive charging is already available for the HTC Thunderbolt and LG Revolution.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Inductive Charging has become the new standard for some time on most Verizon smart phones at the very least. It is already available for the Thunderbolt, Charge, and Droid 3 and others, so yes, I am sure it will be available for the Bionic as well.
Nevermore.
Inductive charging is a good idea, but there are at least three competing standards, which is why it isn't going anywhere. If the industry would settle on a standard and get business hotels to put a charging pad in hotel rooms, this mgiht get deployed.
I have an inductive charging toothbrush and I honestly can't wait until every single device uses this technology
- The contacts will never wear out or corrode, since there are none
- You don't have to futz with jamming in a tiny micro USB cable the right way
- You can throw your phone on the charging mat in the absolute darkness
- You can charge your and your wifes phone simultaneously with one charge pad
Apple has proven that it is all about the software. They are killing with shiny but unremarkable hardware. They got killed on the desktop because of software, too. Apple ][ market perception was for games and schools but not business and the race was nearly over by the time the Mac came out, which also didn't look like a serious business machine. This time around, nobody is saying they have to have a Blackberry phone/pad because that's what they use at work.
My toothbrush can do this and has been able to for quite a few years...
I hope I can hack into my neighbor power :)
The same idiots who drool over this will be the same idiots raving about the efficiency of their Prius.
We need to find ways to conserve energy, not event new ways to introduce massive amounts of inefficiency into a system because we're too damn lazy to plug in a cord. This sort of crap is ridiculously wasteful and lest we not forget, we're ALREADY SHORT ON POWER transmission capability. We can barely get enough energy to your house to run your refrigerator, and you want to start using devices that waste more than half the power they use to save yourself less than a seconds time?
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Will this finally mean a decent (really) waterproof phone? The Motorola Defy was good, but it's not really waterproof (my brothers' needed to dry after being in the washing machine). Just fix the damn SIM cards so they do not need to be placed by customers and seal the complete phone shut. Full waterproofing, end of warranty if you open it.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.