Slashdot Mirror


Wireless Charging Nears Unification As Powermat Cedes To Qi (engadget.com)

Powermat, the only contender to the dominant format Qi, has joined the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) and now backs its rival. "Qi has become the dominant wireless charging standard on the market and the recently launched Apple iPhone lineup is evidence of this success," Powermat said in a statement. "[We] will share technology innovation to further unlock wireless charging potential, and will expedite the growth of the wireless charging infrastructure." Engadget reports: Powermat was barely hanging on as a standard, but as it mentioned, Apple's favoring of Qi for its upcoming chargers pretty much sealed its fate. The company was forced to upgrade its chargers to support Qi at Starbucks locations, for instance, so that Apple's Qi-supported iPhone X- and 8-owning clients could juice up. Until a few years ago, there were essentially three standards, the Alliance for Wireless Power, the Power Matters Alliance (no joking), and Qi, which was already the dominant player. The first two merged to form the Airfuel alliance in 2015, of which Powermat was the main player.

6 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. It also plays Blu-rays! by jfdavis668 · · Score: 2

    We need one standard that supports all use cases.

  2. Palm Pre by MrLint · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It remains in a certain way unfathomable that we still are dickering on this back when in 2009 I had a charging touchstone for my Palm Pre. And it was a matter of changing the snap on back cover.

    Easy simple perfect.

  3. Re:How does it compare? by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 2

    Sure wireless charging might be convenient but less inefficient, but in a few phone generations it will become the only way to charge as they will remove the usb charging jack. Finally there will be no pesky physical holes left in the device, just pure vendor lock in. Maybe they will add a full size screen to the back too (wait, please ignore that while I go file for a patent).

  4. Re:How does it compare? by lucm · · Score: 2

    your dad shoving his 3” twizzler dick in your mom’s loose fuckhole.

    Don't be rude. The appropriate way to phrase that is: "dipping a baby carrot in an oversized salsa bowl"

    --
    lucm, indeed.
  5. Then Apple Shows Courage... by Templer421 · · Score: 2

    And drops wireless charging.

    That or makes only Genuine © Apple Mat Apple compatible.

  6. Re:How does it compare? by jellomizer · · Score: 2

    It will not wear out your connectors.
    You do not strane your wires causing you to get new ones.
    You can move your device without getting the jerk when you reach your end.
    When not I. Use you don’t have bare connectors floating around getting dust, dirt or corrosion.
    Having the cable not plug in just right.
    It can allow some devices to become more sealed.
    Being that qi is now standard that allows many makes and models to charge freely without different connectors (This seems to be mostly on Apple in 2018)

    In my experience with phones over the last 20 years is that the main problem that I experience forcing an upgrade is the connector wears out on the device. And I often get damaged cable plugs I need to replace.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.