Alliance for Wireless Power to pursue new 50W standard The Alliance for Wireless Power has announced that Dell has joined the group, and also outlined a plan to revise its technology so it is capable of delivering 50w of power. That the two nuggets of news were announced in the same canned statement is notable, because the alliance lauds Dell as the “first major PC original …
Seems to be a lot of options for wireless on phones, but I've never seen it in use.
There was a new train carriage on display at the National Rail Museum. It had wireless charging built into the tables - really nice idea, just hope they back the right consortium.
Other problem I've read about was efficiency, but when the device is more or less in contact with the charger, it's supposed to be pretty good.
A toothbrush isn't "wireless power", it's just a transformer with the primary in the "charger" and the secondary in the toothbrush.
I can't help thinking, why bother? (in the case of the toothbrush, the principal reason is to make it all but impossible to create an electrical circuit from mains through a fault and thence through mouth, heart and other hand of an id10t(*) to earth.
(*) or victim. or autodarwinator.
"It seems to have been supported in phones for ages but I have yet to see it in use"
Every phone i have used for the last 2 years - and every phone in my family supports it and we only use wireless charging.
nb - isn't the 'Alliance for Wireless Power' the 'not Qi' standard that no one uses? The DVD+R of wireless charging....
" the devices in Dell's portfolio most likely to benefit from wireless charging are its laptop computers which, like most of their ilk, need rather more wattage than the 20 to which the Alliance's "
So, it was 20 watts and it wasn't enough for much more than a smartphone.
Now it's 50 watts.
What can you buy from Dell that will run on 50 watts, never mind simultaneously run and recharge?
"Ultrabooks, laptops, and mid-powered appliances"
Laptop? Doubt it. Ultrabook? Marginal. Mid powered appliances? Well yeah, so long as it runs and charges on less than 50watt.
Two laptops here, one 65W other 60W.
Tested with a meter and the 65W laptop draws between 20 & 30W in light use. That's a core i3 with 8GB RAM and SSD. Nothing stunning, but for general office work it's more than enough.
The rating on the charge is just the maximum it's going to deliver safely for extended periods without catching fire.
Wireless won't work for everyone, but could be useful to many.
"Perhaps you need to look at the ratings on a typical laptop power brick"
O'rly?
I already looked at the ones I've got (yes, multiple). Nothing under 60W so I thought I'd better look elsewhere before posting. Didn't want to wade through a maze of vendor-specific stuff so looked at generics from Duracell (netbook/ultrabook one at 40W, more generic ones at 65W and up)
http://www.duracellpower.com/adapters/
Also looked at Maplin. Dozens to choose from, all over 60W apart from a couple of Tablet and Ultrabook supplies (45W), and a 30W Dell Mini one.
Other retailers are available, and will likely have similar adapters on offer.
Yes the power consumption in light use is likely to be well under 50W. You want the thing to discharge the battery when it's maxed out doing something? How long does it take for a 50W adapter to charge the battery (while running the laptop) after that's happened?
What's the electric car slogan: "range anxiety?" What would the laptop equivalent be?
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