Our first steps towards a wireless future?

Published by Boc Ly on September 21, 2012

Wires

One of the standout features of the new Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 smartphones is that they can be charged wirelessly.

Rather than scrambling around for a power socket and untangling any wires, you will only need to put them on a charging plate to ensure that your Lumia is always ready for action.

An exciting range of funky accessories will also do the job for you, such as the FatBoy Charging Pillow or the JBL PowerUp music speaker.

Although wireless charging is not entirely new, these new Lumia smartphones from Nokia is giving the wireless charging ecosystem and the Qi standard a real boost.

The whole process makes life just a little bit easier, more convenient and fun. Isn’t that what great technology is supposed to do?

Wireless charging with the Lumia 800

Liberation

We only need to turn to our recent history, or indeed just look around our homes, to see what a difference going wireless can make.

Here are five examples of household objects that have been improved immeasurably since they got liberated from the tyranny of wires.

Remote controls

Yes, kids, believe it or not the early remote controls for your TV or video player were operated via a wire that was plugged into the said audio/visual unit.

You may snigger, but they were considered state of the art. Before wired remote controls you actually had to get up to change the channel on your TV.

The telephone

I was debating whether to include the telephone in this list – not a mobile phone, just the humble, home telephone. It seems too obvious and feels like cheating.

However, it is a fantastic example of wireless technology making a big difference to a common household gadget, so it deserves its place.

The Internet router

A small part of me feels nostalgic for those strange electronic beeps and squeaks that the dial-up modem used to make every time I wanted to ‘log-on’ to the Internet.

On reflection though, using a wireless router that lets me access the Internet from any room of my house, and from multiple devices, more than makes up for it.

DIY tools

Doing DIY is difficult enough; the last thing you need to worry about is finding a power point close enough for you to plug in your power tools. Plus, having wires lying across a hazardous work area is a health and safety accident waiting to happen.

The rechargeable and wireless drill (insert your work tool of choice) solved all such problems at a stroke.

Toys & games

This might seem minor, but the difference between a radio controlled car and one that was connected by a wire (so that you had to run after it, while you ‘drove’ it) is the difference between a good Christmas and a great Christmas.

Mind you, young people have done very well out of these wireless leaps forward. I had to plug a joystick into my computer to play games. It had suction pads (which were useless) to hold itself securely to the table. I could only dream of wireless video game controllers!

Tied by wires

Ethernet cables

Sadly, not everything around us can let go of their wires quite so easily.

Take a look around the back of your TV. If you have a cable box, a Blu-Ray player or a video games console connected to the back to of it, then you’ll probably have a maze of wires just like mine.

The same goes for your computer. How come, despite the advent of wireless keyboards, mice, speakers and even printers, it still takes so many wires to set up a computer?

Taken individually, the computer, TV and so on, these are all magnificent pieces of kit. I wonder how long it will be before they are all able to connect to each other without any wires at all? NFC and DLNA are steps in the right direction.

Let’s go back to where we first started. Nokia’s introduction of wireless charging on the Lumia 920, where it is built into the handset, and the Lumia 820, which will require one of the recharging shells

Don’t they seem to you like a step in the right direction as well?

Image credit: GS+

Comments

  • http://sushubh.net/ chromaniac

    Still trying to understand how using a dock is any different from these wireless charging pads. Dock and the charging station are both connected by wires. And in both the cases, you have to place your phone on the charging station. Phone cannot get charged WIRELESSLY as in no contact. Hilarious actually.

    • boc_ly

      @chromaniac isn’t your cordless telephone a big improvement, even though the base station still needs to be plugged into the phone line? That’s the same progress that’s being made with wireless charging. You don’t need to plug anything into the actual phone to charge it. Advances come in incremental steps.

      • http://sushubh.net/ chromaniac

        I do not have to keep my cordless phone connected to the base station while making a call. Mobile Phones and Satellite Phones are actually innovative. They are actual cordless solutions.

        But in this case, when you are placing the phone over a charging pad, it is not much different than putting your phone on a charging dock. You do not have to connect the phone to any wire. You just place the phone in a plastic holder (or a charging pad). Both are essentially wireless as you are not connecting any wires to your phone. That is the point I am trying to make.

        I am not criticizing Nokia here. Wireless charging has been like this for a couple of years now. Nokia of course is not the first company to offer it. Palm did it a long time ago on their webOS devices. Lots of phones have third party solutions that adds the same functionality. Personally, I do not think bundling the same tech that has existed for years can be called *an innovation* like Nokia seems to be doing here and everywhere. :)

        Just my 2 cents.

        • boc_ly

          Fair enough and we welcome the debate. But this will make a difference because it’s boosting the wireless charging ecosystem (the QI standard) and make it far easier for people to charge their phones when they are out and about. Witness the partnerships with Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and Virgin Atlantic. Remember that this is just the beginning

          • http://sushubh.net/ chromaniac

            Yeah. It is a good update in any case. Nokia has at least started the trend and hopefully competing players would bundle support for wireless charging out of the box at least on their premium devices. And also, good job at picking up an existing standard instead of creating something of your own! Full points for that. :)

        • malerocks

          You do have to keep the cordless phone connected to the base station if the battery is down. Same will apply to these Nokia phones. The battery may not be fully charged, but if its enough to make or receive a call, you can pick up from the plate, finish the call and put the phone back on the plate to resume charging.

          Nobody said you cant pick up the phone from the charging plate before the phone is fully charged.

        • Arag0n

          I think the best benefit of wireless charging and NFC is accessories. If all accessories accept wireless charger and NFC pairing potentially, you could have vendor-agnostic accessories. It may be one of the reasons Apple didn’t want to join the wireless/NFC game, all those docks, speakers and all that now is sold to work with iPhone because the dock may become able to work with any phone manufacturer. Docks can solve the same problem a wireless charger does, but It doesn’t solve the problem that docks are designed to fit a single phone design shape.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Eddie-James/100003088845362 Eddie James

          But you do have to put your cordless phone in the base to charge it. And you must have your base plugged in in order to use your cordless phone.

    • http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

      It might not be THAT much different except you don’t have to have a cable lying there. It will just be a surface and it will look more “tidy” to me. Plus it will cause less wear and tear on the USB female port on the phone. I think it will be a personal preference, but for me, this is a convenience boost. I just hope they make one in a leather or nice finish to leave in the living room.

  • http://www.facebook.com/hawknz Eugene Hawkins

    To be honest I still prefer cable, here’s a scenario…you need to use the phone while its being charged, its going to be very uncomfortable to use the phone lying flat. Wireless is great but cable is still required. :)

    • http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

      I use my earbuds, so I’ll be fine, plus you don’t HAVE to use the wireless when it’s inconvenient.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Eddie-James/100003088845362 Eddie James

      You can use the speakerphone while it’s charging, so that takes care of that problem. Cable-less means you don’t worry about tangled wires, bent connectors our searching for the correct connector. It also means not buying $30 replacement connectors (a la iPhone 5)

    • Billal

      you can have a cable with that one too, or at least earphones .

  • http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

    My biggest fear about these accessories is the price. I’d really like the speaker one for my nightstand and nice looking (leather?) for the living room end table. If they made one that would magnetically hold the phone for the car, I’d love that too!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/unndunn Uchendu Nwachuku

    The big advantage will come when furniture companies, coffee shops, automakers, etc. begin adding Qi charging plates to their tables and cars.