Apple’s mission to cut the cables out of
your life continues. The tech giant recently filed a patent application that
outlines a wireless hotspot, but not like you know it: instead, any devices in
the area would get charged. Is this tech headed to the iPhone 6?
The application,
entitled ‘wireless power utilisation in a local computing environment’, hints
heavily that the folks at Cupertino are going for wireless charging within a
select zone for the next iPhone.
Wireless charging is a great idea, one
gaining some mainstream acceptance with the Nokia Lumia 920, freeing you from
the jungle of wires that plagues desks, but the current real world options
aren’t all that practical. Most of today’s wireless chargers still have wires,
and use inductive charging, meaning the wireless charger and your phone need to
be close together or touching.
Apple’s patent application uses a
different approach to wireless charging. The scheme uses a near-field magnetic
resonance (NFMR) power supply to charge up nearby devices that also have
a NFMR resonator circuit built in. This, in theory, could power up
and charge multiple devices such as mice, keyboards and multiple phones making
everything wireless, battery-free and eco friendly too – so long as they’re all
nearby. Handy.
But the reliance on magnets also means
that it could mess with things such as flash memory or credit cards if they too
get caught in the vicinity. We’ll still have to wait a few years before this
could become a feasible reality, but at least Apple has got the idea down “just
in case”. Think this is something awesome or something awful? Let us know in
the comments. [TheGadgetShow]
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