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Wireless Charging Company Energous Partners With Apple Supplier Dialog

Not to be a Luddite, but this just sounds very cancerous. I'm not really that interested in wireless charging. What I would consider "earth shattering" would be the phone that takes 2 seconds to charge. Sick of being about to leave for class only to see my phone's at 5%. Would be nice if charging were instantaneous. Someone needs to develop that :)
 
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Jakexb said:
Maybe something involving beamforming? Being able to detect the position of the device and focus the energy?
Click to expand...

Apple has been doing this with its airport extremes and with the recent move to nix those from its inventory, I wonder where all that technology will go
 
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BreadofWonder said:
We're already being bombarded by electromagnetic radiation. Not only do our electronics emit them (wifi, radio, cell radio, bluetooth, tv, av receiver, speakers, anything with an electric current in general, etc.) but so does anything involving combustion (your car engine, your grill, stars) and even your own body. Low energy radiation is absolutely everywhere and has been for as long life has existed on this planet. We've evolved to get along fine with it. The only real danger is if the waves are highly concentrated like in a microwave oven or a giant radio wave transmitter. They won't give you cancer but they'll cook you alive. And for the record, I highly doubt Apple, or any company for that matter, would back a technology that literally cooks its users. I'm pretty sure that would END them as a company.
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cook as in fry your brain cells? not likely...

But it will just keep continuing as no one currently wants to be chained via a cable anymore.
 
NICE! The holy grail, can't wait until it's released.
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69Mustang said:
When they increase the effective charge distance beyond 3ft it will actually be worth something. Till then, it's nothing more than potential.
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I'll take 3 feet. That's enough to charge when I sit at my desk, or in my car. I'm sure it will improve with time, but 3 feet is quite acceptable.
 
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69Mustang said:
When they increase the effective charge distance beyond 3ft it will actually be worth something. Till then, it's nothing more than potential.
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Even at three feet, I could be sitting on my bed using my phone with the charger on my desk or bedside. The current "anchors you to a pad" wireless charging is legitimately worse than using a cable. at least, with a cable, you get 1.5 to 3 feet of movement while charging.
 
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69Mustang said:
When they increase the effective charge distance beyond 3ft it will actually be worth something. Till then, it's nothing more than potential.
Click to expand...

I disagree. While longer distance wireless is ideal, the current status quo can still be improved upon.

The problem with the current wireless isn't simply range. It's how limited it is from the standpoint of buying additional chargers and integration. If they can partner with car makers like they have with CarPlay and integrate charging into the cars, that'd be a very nice selling point.

The current chargers are generally ugly too. Adding the Apple touch would likely help.

And the biggest piece is the size factor. When you're a company with the single most popular phone, it's easier to make something mainstream in a hurry. NFC-based payment systems were already in existence on Android before ApplePay, but they were very limited. Only a small number of retailers accepted them and only a small number of Android hardware devices supported it. Apple was able to change that because they have a phone that sells so well and is able to bring that change of technology to a huge chunk of phone users at once.

Yes, longer distance wireless charging is the hope, but even if they simply add the current wireless to their phones, Apple will push wireless further towards common adoption than anyone else has to this point.
 
69Mustang said:
That video has been on their website forever. To be honest, I'd rather have a Qi pad than that monstrous transmitter sitting under the TV. Hopefully with this infusion of cash Energous can do more R&D to reduce the size of transmitter and increase the effective charge range which right now sits at 3ft or less.
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First of all the video was only published since: published on Nov 16, 2016
Secondly, that transmitter will only get smaller with time and handles multiple devices.
Most of distance issues has to do with government regulation.
 
spinedoc77 said:
NICE! The holy grail, can't wait until it's released.
[doublepost=1481768656][/doublepost]

I'll take 3 feet. That's enough to charge when I sit at my desk, or in my car. I'm sure it will improve with time, but 3 feet is quite acceptable.
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Exactly. Plus you could have the chargers throughout your house in such a way that your phone was with a 3-foot zone in most locations you'd be using it. Likewise for a Starbucks, an Airport, or any other location where charging stations were offered, without the need to maintain any physical hardware. It would definitely change the game.
 
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I saw a patent from Apple a few years back where either your iMac or an AirPort Extreme would be the source of wireless charging. I'm hoping this is the next step for the AirPort.
 
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Cool technology.
I predict this will become a paid service and TBH I wouldn't mind to chip in with some kind of monthly subscription.
 
This will be great if it can charge the Watch as well. Then you can set your iPhone near your bed and wear the watch.

I think this has mixed reality implications as well. People will want to be able to see the bounds of power areas.
 
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ThisBougieLife said:
Not to be a Luddite, but this just sounds very cancerous. I'm not really that interested in wireless charging. What I would consider "earth shattering" would be the phone that takes 2 seconds to charge. Sick of being about to leave for class only to see my phone's at 5%. Would be nice if charging were instantaneous. Someone needs to develop that :)
Click to expand...

Lots of things radiate, even you. Each person is roughly a 100W bulb of radiation being given off. What matters is what is being radiated and how strong. A lot of the things that are radiated do not harm us as the waves are simply not strong enough to cause damage. When radiation is strong enough to change our DNA, that is when it matters. That said, I have little interest in wireless charging, it will require tons more energy to perform the same task due to the inverse square law. I want things to be more efficient to keep energy usage down. Wireless charging is a mild convenience for a huge efficiency cost. Not worth it in my mind.
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Jakexb said:
Maybe something involving beamforming? Being able to detect the position of the device and focus the energy?
Click to expand...

Beamforming may help make it work, but it isn't going to defeat the inverse square law. The efficiency is still going to be terrible, and I don't think that trade-off is worth the mild convenience of not plugging in a cable when I go to bed every night and unplugging it in the morning.
 
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Barry Bishop said:
First of all the video was only published since: published on Nov 16, 2016
Secondly, that transmitter will only get smaller with time and handles multiple devices.
Most of distance issues has to do with government regulation.
Click to expand...
First of all that video is the same video that's been on their website. I know because that's the first place I saw it. It's old. Even the In the News section of their website is outdated. Seems they haven't done anything to the site in a while. Secondly, they've already debuted the smaller transmitter at CES 2016. The distance issue had nothing to do with government regulations, it's the laws of physics. They've already improved the distance, but it will always be a challenge because of the aforementioned physics. They've gotten the charge distance to 5ft (5.5 watts), 10ft (3.5 watts), and 15ft (1 watt). The info I posted earlier came from their website (which hasn't been updated). I didn't post it to knock the tech, only to get people to pump the brakes on the hype.
 
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keysofanxiety said:
Currently wireless charging is charging on a mat. I'd like to hope that if Apple introduce wireless charging, it will be truly wireless, rather than a gimmick.
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Honestly it isn't even wireless charging, its contact charching and it's no better than dock charging
[doublepost=1481777195][/doublepost]I remember reading about this tech (long range wireless charging) somewhere before, I'm not sure if that article had anything to do with Apple, but finally that tech surfaces!
 
You do know that there's literally no way to overcome the limitation of decreased strength over distance, right? Physics doesn't work that way. Wi-fi decreases strength over distance, my legs get tired if they have to run a distance, etc...
 
Barry Bishop said:
You should all see this:
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Yeah ... Nikola Tesla supposedly envisioned this originally, supposedly. I personally see this as TRUE wireless charging not placing a phone on a plate and calling 1.2 seconds difference between that and plugging in a MicroUSB/Lightning cable as a convenience. I'm talking about walking in your home like the videos or walking into Apple Campus 2 and throughout the building I'm charged and using wireless power: iPhone, iPad, AirPods, MacBook/MacBookPro, iMac and hopefully whatever the Mac Pro evolves into.

Then take this into corporations, boardrooms, AppleTV, Condo's, Fitness/Training Gyms, then ... maybe in 30yrs an entire city (incentive = part of our Hydro bill).

But ... to all this I say ....



WassssuppppP!!!!
 
I see a lot of people complaining that the energy will diminish by the time it covers the distance and reaches the battery.

What I understand is that this Energous technology is not meant to charge at full speed, it may even be so weak that while you use your device your battery actually goes down, albeit at a slower pace. This is ok, because when you stop using your device it will charge, in the end, the battery can just charge when you are not using the device, since it will "always" be charging when within range.

The only issue is that the lithium ion batteries could be damaged by the slow charging (idk how batteries work so I may be wrong).
 
I'll say it again. Not going to happen.

RF wireless charging isn't suitable for mobile phones yet. Something like the watch might get it.

Wait until you see some of the announcements at CES. Then I think things will become a lot clearer.
 
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