By 
When we last heard from Texas Instruments they had been hard at work absorbing business rivals, but today they showed off what they do best. Technology.
The most recent fruits of their labor is a little something called the bq51013. Its a wireless induction charging chip that’s close to 80% smaller than technology we’re using now. If you’re unfamiliar with wireless charging its the same tech found inside your Sonicare toothbrush or the Palm Pre’s Touch Stone.
I’ve never been a fan of wireless charging. With my busy lifestyle I, at most, have only have a few precious moments to find wall socket to plug in. I quickly realized wireless charging was much too slow at powering up my energy thirsty Evo. Thankfully, TI is promising a 93% efficieny rate when compared to AC charging.
It may come in handy if we start seeing this technology become heavily adopted by cell phone manufacturers. Who knows, in the future we may only have to lay our phone down at a restaurant table to find it fully charged by the time we received the check.
[Via Electronista]
This is the future!!!
This is the past.
tesla?
Reading about TI tech always leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, I understand as most tech companys are like them, but the whole “lets make a calculator so good that we never ever have to redisign it so we can make a ton of money off of ancient hardware” kind of bothers me. Why do we pay $110 for old tech? Because we still need it. No matter how cheap it comes to them…
Contrary to popular belief, Ti isn’t a calculator company…they are a chip company.
Funny…I guess this whole generic chip is what computers are based on…wonder where we’d be without it.
Jack Kilby and Texas Instruments received U.S. patent # 3,643,138 for miniaturized electronic circuits.
http://inventors.about.com/od/computersandinternet/a/microchip.htm
Excluding overnight charging, I’m usually using my phone while it’s plugged in. This doesn’t work for induction charging, It comes off the base, it stops charging. If it became a standard option on a bunch of devices, I could see a use (multicharging off of one outlet). But until my PSP, DS, phone, and camera all induction charge simulteneously (and without spending $100+ to make it happen), I won’t be adopting this.
this was the present
I miss the future :-(
The future isn’t what it used to be.
This is it!
I would love to see this tech catch on but it has to work farther away maybe so all you do is go in a room an it starts charging putting something in a cradle or on a charg stone just isnt practical if you wanna be able to use it as it charges
When I hear wireless, I expect to have a degree of freedom and flexibility. Having to put the phone on a mat is hardly any better than a cable, arguably worse as YamiYaiba says, you can’t really use it while charging.
Something with a range of a few metres would be something to get excited about. Like this:
http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/archives/month/2010/20100913-02.html
Do people not understand if this could be a breakthrough everywhere when being used everywhere people go on a daily basis. Just lay your phone down and it being always juiced up when you pick it up and move on with your lives? Sure it may not beat a wire while your at home but on the go eating or working? That could be extrememely helpful. And wireless charging at a distance isnt even practicle at all. your gonna go walk thorugh a wireless stream of current aimed at your device? This could be brilliant but way way way down the road.
Yeah, I don’t think I would use it in replacement OF wired charging – but in addition to would be kinda cool =)
Just when we was running out of ways to get cancer, this comes along
lol!!!!
Well, cigarette use is way down, so something had to fill the void.
Remember, nature abhors a vacuum.
rofl
im confused…so its just a more efficient touchstone-esque technology?
what happened to the one that you plugged into the wall and it transmitted to your phone within a room’s range (or so)…that’s what i want to get…
That’s another 7% in the wrong direction nowdays. What needs to be improved is battery life. Here’s a much cooler way to get cancer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_battery
Using the word “wireless” is the first problem here since for 100 years now this term has been used to refer to RF transmission NOT simple induction. This charging method is nothing but an “air-cored” transformer, which is why the range is necessarily very limited. Most people agree it is simply a waste of time, especially as there are only one or two devices which can use the system. The height of ridiculous accessories is the wired adapter which is an induction-coil on a cord which then plugs into your phone/music player in order to use the induction-charger.
Helloooo, does anybody see how stupid this is???