Real Wireless Charging by Cota

Real wireless charging has been talked about for decades. It has been shown in sci-fi movies such as Starwars, Dredd and more. And in the past years more progress has been made than ever before.

Organizations such as WPC and AirFuel Alliance have been developing the Qi, PMA and Rezence wireless charging standards. But they have still been pretty limited. Yes they do transfer wireless power but not very far.

A company called Ossia has managed to discover a way to transfer wireless power properly like we have always imagined. They have created a wireless charger called Cota that can charge your smartphone in a 10m area. Even while it is still in your pocket. You can read all about how the Cota wireless charger works in an article published on Tenpire.com called the Cota Wireless Charging By End Of 2016. They describe everything you need to know about the technology and how it works.

According to them, Ossia is hoping to start production at the end of 2016. The first generation of Cota should be available for consumers in the beginning of 2017 and will include the charger and a receiver phone case for iPhones and Androids. If everything goes well then by the time next generations are released, our smartphones should already have the receiver chips built inside them.

You should also check out this video that demonstrates how the Cota will work in real life.

As you can see this is exactly what we have always imagined wireless power to be like. Nothing which Qi or PMA will ever be able to deliver!

That is why it will be pretty interesting to see how other companies will now react. Intel has recently been working really hard on developing the Rezence standard which is supposed to be the future. I’m not sure if that is the case anymore as the technology that Cota will bring us makes Rezence look outdated.

WiTricity Charging Laptops

At the moment, 99% of wirelessly charged devices are smartphones. That is all cool and all but isn’t it time to evolve? Luckily we have companies like WiTricity who continue to find ways to push boundaries.

Forget the boring Qi and PMA standards that can only deliver 5W/1A of power. WiTricity has their own wireless charging technology and it can deliver up to 30W! Instead of using the standard inductive charging technology, WiTricity found a way to generate more power with magnetic resonance technology. You see magnetic fields allow to transfer power further and stronger. Inductive charging on the other hand requires very short distances and it can’t penetrate through metal or thick plastic even. But thanks to the magnetic fields, WiTricity is able to transfer power through meta, stone and even your body.

WiTricity demonstrated this technology for the first time the CES 2016. They added their receiver chips to two plain laptops. After that all you had to do was place the laptop onto a charging pad. They allowed me to personally try it as well and it worked perfectly.

As you probably noticed I mentioned that the laptop needs a special receiver chip for it to work. WiTricity hasn’t officially announced yet which laptop companies have jumped on board with them. I personally believe that Dell is one of the companies as the charging pad I used had the Dell logo displayed all over it.

WiTricity added that the magnetic resonance technology has also got other bonuses besides more power and better penetration. They have also got a larger charging zone compared to inductive technology. If you are familiar with the Qi wireless chargers then you probably know the pain of having to move your smartphone all over the charging pad until you finally find the right spot. According to WiTricity there is also no limit to the size of the charging surface.

Basically we can expect the top of our desk to be a massive charging pad. So everything you place on it can be automatically charged. If you wish to learn more about them and what they are doing then click here to visit the WiTricity website.

iPhone 7 Finally Receives Wireless Charging

Before the release of iPhone 6S, there were numerous rumours about Apple giving it wireless charging. It made a lot of sense seeing as that is exactly what Google was doing to Nexus and Samsung to their Galaxy line. Well that didn’t exactly happen so now all eyes are on the iPhone 7.

There are a number of rumours going on about the iPhone 7. One of them being that the new smartphone will be more protected against moisture (perhaps waterproof?). The other, and most interesting rumour to us is that Apple has finally decided to add wireless charging.

Nobody knows yet which wireless standard it will support. Or maybe Apple has even secretly been developing their own? That would make the most sense as they are always trying to grab the majority of the market.

There is a lot of time remaining before we see the iPhone 7 released. So stay tuned as we will keep releasing more information when it should surface!