Ready for something cool? One of our favourite booths here at MWC has been the Qi wireless charging booth, it’s small in comparison to some companies but it’s showing off a few devices that sort of define the term ‘gadget lust’. With Nokia announcing two new Lumia devices on Monday that both have wireless charging capability, the vision of “wireless charging everywhere” is becoming ever closer.
You’ll find a full titillating gallery after the break, and we’re also going to call out a few of the devices specifically that piqued our interest. That first image up top though you might recognise, it’s the Tylt Vu which we covered just over a month ago when it was up for pre-order. Coming in several striking colours (although we only saw this yellow one), this charger would not look out of place in Nokia’s accessory line up.
The next device to show off, which we really loved by the way, is the Qi ‘PowerKiss’. This compact 'O' shaped peripheral is a Qi receiver that plugs in to any micro USB device, bringing wireless charging capability to it. Now you may ask what benefit you receive if you’re carrying around an extra item in your pocket over just bringing a charging cable. Well the PowerKiss is clearly targeted as an interim device to aid the future we’re all hoping for where we see wireless power points in local establishments on tables or other surfaces. Plus, it’s compact, serves the purpose perfectly and we’re told should retail for around 15 euros.
Following on from that we saw some evolution upon in-car wireless charging from Continental, who were demonstrating an app/charger combo (although the app only worked on Android for now). The essential concept is using secure, SIM-based NFC to unlock your vehicle, step in to it to dock your device, and then press that ignition button, all whilst your device is charging. The app can then be used for some simple GPS functionality although this was clearly still in the early stages of development.
We also saw plenty of other wireless charging designs, some built in to conventional alarm clocks, others bringing flare in the form of wooden designs. Oh and of course Qi were keen to demonstrate Nokia’s commitment to the charging standard with several of their accessories on display. Wireless charging is the future folks, and now more than ever, we can see that future materialising.
